tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64873995645964606612024-03-12T00:53:27.708-04:00Disasterous HistoryRobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-54527326163017629532023-10-13T19:15:00.001-04:002024-03-11T23:47:53.650-04:00TWA Flight 599... The Plane Crash That Killed Knute Rockne<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>TWA Flight 599... The Plane Crash That Killed Knute Rockne</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>March 31, 1931</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The Crash That Killed A Legend and Changed Aviation</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span>Professional baseball may be America's favorite sport, but <i>football</i>...college football </span>in particular...holds second place in America's sports-loving heart, and has for over a century. There are those, in fact, who'll argue that College Football has actually edged baseball out for the title of 'America's Favorite Sport'.</p><p style="text-align: left;">College Football was already well on it's way to becoming a big deal when the turn of the last century rolled around, and continued to grow in popularity as the years beginning with '19' piled on. Fall Saturday afternoons quickly became synonymous with College Football, the first games of legendary rivalries that continue to this very day (Harvard-Yale Anyone?) were played, and alumni, along with their families, began the tradition of supporting their alma maters for decades after they graduated, attending games when they could, reading the Sunday morning sports pages religiously when they couldn't, and proudly wearing clothing emblazoned with their schools' logos and mascots year-round.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span>Fight songs have been around since the mid 1880s, and cheerleaders (The first ones, BTW, were male.) since 1898...both would become iconic fixtures of college football early on. Homecoming weekends got their start in November of 1911, when Missouri had their...and the nation's...very first homecoming game, tying Kansas 3-3 at old Rollins Field.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Speakin' </i>of old Rollins Field...and the hundreds of football 'stadiums' at college campuses nationwide... most colleges didn't really have decent facilities for football at the turn of the last century. This, of course, presented a problem, because if schools were to make money off of football...and football was absolutely recognized as a potentially <i>huge</i> moneymaker early on...they needed somewhere for all of these newly rabid fans to comfortably <i>watch</i> football (And, of course, spend money in the process). To that end, colleges and universities were already building <i>huge</i> stadiums to accommodate those same rabid fans during the Twentieth Century's premiere decade. Harvard Stadium was built in 1903 and is still in use today, and Syracuse's Archbold Stadium was built in 1907 and was in use until it was replaced by the Carrier Dome in 1980.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> This stadium-construction-boom continued into the 1910s, when Georgia Tech's Grant Field (1913), among several others, was first built and <i>really </i>kicked into gear in the 'Roaring (And <i>very</i> sports minded) Twenties', when no fewer than fifty-five schools built <i>big </i>stadiums to host their home football games, several of them legitimately huge, seating as many as 60,000 fans. (Ohio State's iconic Horseshoe Stadium comes immediately to mind). </p><p style="text-align: left;">These schools were not only <i>building</i> these ginormous stadiums, but also filling them with fans on Saturday afternoons. By the 20th Century's second decade, and most definitely by it's third, College football had legitimately become big business. Gate receipts were a big part of many university revenue streams, financing many of their budget items, and for said gate receipts to generate enough revenue to finance those budget items, the football program needed to attract capacity or at least near-capacity crowds to home games. These same fans not only bought tickets, they bought school-logo emblazoned merch and programs and concessions (All, then as now, over-priced, but still popular, and most important, profitable). The merchants in the college's home town benefitted as well...these same fans patronized stores, restaurants and hotels in the town.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> And of course there were the donations by alumni, particularly well-heeled alumni, with some of the more well-to-do among them making donations of thousands, and even tens of thousands of dollars to their beloved alma maters. </p><p style="text-align: left;">College football had become such a big deal that, back in that era, railroads literally ran special trains on certain game weekends (The oldest rivalry in college football, Yale-Princeton, and the classic Yale-Harvard games being two of several that earned that particular perk).</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Of course there was a slight caveat. Fans didn't fill stadiums, spending copious amounts of cash in the process, to see their teams loose, and those huge donations had an unfortunate tendency of suddenly shrinking if not drying up entirely when the number of losses exceeded the number of wins.</p><p style="text-align: left;">For football to be <i>profitable</i> big business, then and now, the teams have to be good enough to, well, win games. Regularly. Preferably <i>all</i> or at least, <i>most</i> of them in any given season<i>. </i>For that to happen, the players have to be pretty outstanding, of course, but arguably just as or even more important is the coaching staff...and the head coach.</p><p style="text-align: left;">College football was already in the process of producing one legendary coach when '1899' clicked over to become '1900', in the person of one Glenn Scobey Warner, better known by one and all as 'Pop' Warner. Pop Warner headed up the football programs of several schools during the first three decades of the 20th Century, amassing a record of 319-106-32 for the regular season and 1-1-2 for bowl games while taking four of his teams...the first three at Pitt and the last at Stanford...to National Championships.</p><p style="text-align: left;">That's a pretty amazing record, averaging out to a phenomenal .733 winning percentage...but it's not the best. That honor belongs to a coach who's arguably also the most beloved coach in the long and storied history of college football.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyseCcpPCRHjvdS4RF86fhevWLol9Cvm6G_OXYDFAYbg2VrizskiPaljf62aTgNoLTBXm34XhuKJKYFWrZ9VnOYiDNzmMvO44gf6ra1itLaLC65ssbUgbUa6Z8tUkMA9yH7Y2XBJy3wq0PGNorqgG-9bPJ8B4tnbtBhvBWtjJCAgr8MOUR7vn4C1FMcBM/s1080/267236774_332052591776354_5699694941069096008_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyseCcpPCRHjvdS4RF86fhevWLol9Cvm6G_OXYDFAYbg2VrizskiPaljf62aTgNoLTBXm34XhuKJKYFWrZ9VnOYiDNzmMvO44gf6ra1itLaLC65ssbUgbUa6Z8tUkMA9yH7Y2XBJy3wq0PGNorqgG-9bPJ8B4tnbtBhvBWtjJCAgr8MOUR7vn4C1FMcBM/w640-h640/267236774_332052591776354_5699694941069096008_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Knute Kenneth Rockne...college Football's winningest and most beloved coach.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;">I'm pretty well convinced that when Knute Rockne entered this world on March 4th, 1888, he did so with a football in his hands, despite the fact that he was actually born in Norway, and American football as we know it, was still very much in an embryotic state.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> His family immigrated to the U.S. in 1893, when he was 5, settling in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. Young Knute learned to play football in the streets and vacant lots of Logan Square, then played football at the now long-gone Northwest Division High School. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9yR115c7k3IwiUaD-9gDW8XK05keFcdFDYKc4fHGKtuy3gnjp305OIz8iZSUvV_NT4qODqA1usHF35tLZmuyHG2iFW0VMjjzfhSofhs-OVwQOhK_ZuBCAC4QReifS451VruxNEOncgsd8pOzHdquQ6EscHpx8VgAms5g1tQJ8-6djPjHdCRfXgaQh6Lc/s813/R%20(4).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="813" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9yR115c7k3IwiUaD-9gDW8XK05keFcdFDYKc4fHGKtuy3gnjp305OIz8iZSUvV_NT4qODqA1usHF35tLZmuyHG2iFW0VMjjzfhSofhs-OVwQOhK_ZuBCAC4QReifS451VruxNEOncgsd8pOzHdquQ6EscHpx8VgAms5g1tQJ8-6djPjHdCRfXgaQh6Lc/w640-h404/R%20(4).jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Chicago's Northwest Division High School, at 1335 N. Claremont Street in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, where Knute Rockne got his first taste of organized football. He left before he graduated, taking a job with the Post Office to earn money to attend Notre Dame.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The school opened in 1888, was renamed Tuley High School in 1908, and was expanded to meet growing enrollment a couple of times before being closed and replaced by Roberto Clemente High School in 1974. The building's still there, now owned by Jose Diego Community Academy.</div><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">After leaving high school...he never graduated... he worked for the Post Office for four years, saving up a majority of his salary for tuition at his school of choice...a small private Catholic university in South Bend, Indiana called Notre Dame. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Rockne had to take and pass an entrance exam to be admitted. He passed with flags flying, and was admitted into the Notre Dame class of 1914, despite the facts that he had no high school diploma, and that he was Protestant...Notre Dame was a Catholic school, and a tiny one at that, with an enrollment of less than 500 students.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">Rockne quickly settled in at The Home Of The Fighting Irish, majoring in Chemistry and Pharmacy studies and, all but inevitably, going out for football. He equally inevitably made the team, and immediately began showing just how the position of 'end' should be played. He did so well, in fact that he was inducted as an All American in 1913...the same year that he and <i>Fighting Irish </i>quarterback Charlie 'Gus' Dorals proved just how effective the Forward Pass was as an offensive tool, kicking a heavily favored Army team's butt in the process...we'll take a better look at this game in 'Notes'.</p><p style="text-align: left;">After graduating in 1914, Knute actually taught chemistry and worked as a lab assistant at Notre Dame, working with famed chemist Julius Arthur Nieuwland, a job he kept for about a year. Before 1914 was over he'd realized that he really didn't like Chemistry or labs, and he would rather play football.</p><p style="text-align: left;">He assisted coaching the <i>Irish</i> for a season, before going Pro for a couple of years, signing on with the Akron Indians, where coach Peggy Parrott had him playing both end and halfback. In 1915, he'd moved to the Massillon Ohio Tigers, along with former Notre Dame teammate Charlie Dorals. The two of them pretty much introduced the forward pass to Pro football, taking the Tigers to the league championship in 1915.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Rockne had a couple of coaching jobs during the next two years (Suffering one of his few big losses when the Toledo <i>Maroons</i> clobbered the South Bend '<i>Jolly Fellows Club</i>' 40-0), then ended up back at his Alma Mater as head coach in 1918, replacing retiring head coach Jess Harper. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Let the magic, as they say, begin.</p><p style="text-align: left;">His premiere season as Head Coach, played as World War I wound down and many of America's college age, football playing youth were still 'Over There' fighting in the trenches, was nothing to write home about. First it was a shortened six game season, and second he only managed a .500 winning percentage, taking the <i>Fighting Irish </i>to three wins, a single loss and a pair of ties.</p><p style="text-align: left;">This would <i>almost </i>be the only thing even vaguely <i>close</i> to a loosing season that the <i>Irish</i> would see for the next twelve years. The <i>Fighting</i> <i>Irish</i> went 9-0 in both 1919 and 1920, and 10-1 in 1921..the years that George Gipp, Notre Dame's first All American, of 'Win one for The Gipper' fame, played for Notre Dame</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then, in 1922, four young men who would come to be known as <i>The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame </i>signed on...they would form the <i>Irish</i> offensive backfield for the next three seasons ('22, '23, '24). The <i>Irish </i>would loose only two games of the thirty played over the course of those three seasons. One each in both 1922 and 1923, both away games at Nebraska. They'd go undefeated for the ten game 1924 season.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame was no longer a 'Little known private catholic college'. And Rockne's legend was steadily growing. Over the course of 1925, '26, and '27, Notre Dame only lost four games, and tied two, racking up records of 7-2-1, 9-1, and 7-1-1 respectively.</p><p style="text-align: left;">1928 must have been a building year, and was the only other season during Rockne' 13 year tenure that he stumbled a little...oh, they <i>still </i>had a winning season in1928, but just barely, ecking out a 5-4 record. While some schools...then and now...would do just about anything to have even that barely-over-.500 season, it was all but the equivalent of tanking for the Rockne era<i> Fighting Irish.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;"> They came back<i> strong </i>for 1929 and 1930, though, going undefeated for both seasons, bringing home a pair of national Championships while they were at it. (And starting the 1930 season in a brand new stadium...we'll take a look at that in Notes).</p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame kind of became America's football team...most especially among Irish Catholics..., the <i>Fighting Irish </i>fight song became an American sports anthem, and Rockne became a living legend as he kept winning games. Rockne became the 20's equivalent of a Rock Star, beloved not only nationally, but internationally His picture appeared regularly in the papers and on magazine covers, and on Saturday afternoons in the Fall, if a Notre Dame game was being broadcast on the radio, people who'd never even <i>been</i> to college rooted for them just as hard as the staunchest <i>Irish</i> alumnus.</p><p style="text-align: left;">If anything, Rockne was an even more popular figure around South Bend, and for good reason. After all, he put the town on the map in a big way. While he was at it, he promoted the team, designed uniforms, was regularly heard on local radio broadcasts, and wrote a weekly news column for the local paper. And it's said that he wasn't an egotistical and cocky celeb either, always having time to talk with his fellow South Bend citizens.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A <i>huge</i> part of his popularity stemmed from his morals and from how he treated his players. Rockne demanded the best from his players, but he also coached them to be good sports on the field, and to practice high morals both on and off the field. Rockne also made himself available as a mentor to his boys, and his players regularly sought him out for advice on how to handle their problems, be they academic, romantic, family, or personal, or if they just needed to talk. And one of the things his players...and the world...admired about him was the fact that he really listened when one of his guys came to him with a problem, listened and offered sincere and well-thought-out advice.</p><p style="text-align: left;">His players, to a man, would say that they thought of their coach as one of their best friends as well as their coach, and this sentiment was echoed by his fellow coaches as well.</p><p style="text-align: left;">He also raised a large and happy family in South Bend. In 1914 he met a lady named Bonnie Gwen Skiles, who he worked with at the time. The two fell in love, married and had four kids...Knute, Jr, William Dorias, Mary Jeanne, and John Vincent. They probably rented a home for the first several years of his coaching career, then bought a house at 1006 East St Vincent Street in 1923...six years later Rockne and his wife would have a custom built Tudor style home built at 1417 Wayne Street. Knute Rockne would only get to enjoy the house for two years or so, but his widow, Bonnie Rockne, finished raising all four kids there, and lived there until her death in June of 1956.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwETok2TAezQxKdyFYyazpYxXvmdeif2K467_ir10MXIm2z1GgLe7kVZoAFOKNNWXNzWWyH62U1dZloNr6YrCiJuUyu2_9ybEyKUw2473eeOvp5V85GsfNS4xq2NU4rdmUnnxH0AI58Ic-ugcOUthYVyuHc4ml48gt3pkcrKHu6ZL_0ecyOCmNAynOb_M/s1920/Screenshot%20(2918).png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwETok2TAezQxKdyFYyazpYxXvmdeif2K467_ir10MXIm2z1GgLe7kVZoAFOKNNWXNzWWyH62U1dZloNr6YrCiJuUyu2_9ybEyKUw2473eeOvp5V85GsfNS4xq2NU4rdmUnnxH0AI58Ic-ugcOUthYVyuHc4ml48gt3pkcrKHu6ZL_0ecyOCmNAynOb_M/w640-h360/Screenshot%20(2918).png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The home custom built for the Rockne's at 1417 Wayne Street in South Bend. Knute Rockne only got to enjoy his new home for two years before his death, but Bonnie Rockne finished raising all four Rockne kids there, and lived in the house until her own death in June of 1956</span><span style="font-size: small;">.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The house was bought by friends of the Rocknes after Bonnie's death, and I believe it is was still owned by that family until going on the market in 2014. The 2014 list price of the 4180 Square foot home, which was built on a double lot, was $500,000...probably around 100 times greater than the 1929 construction cost.</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Coaching football wasn't Rockne's only job as the Roaring Twenties wound down...The Rock, as his friends called him, was a car guy. Specifically, he was a Studebaker man. Studebaker was headquartered in South Bend, and Rockne had developed a close friendship with Studebaker CEO Albert Erskine at the beginning of his coaching career, when he started soliciting funds to expand Cartier Field, Notre Dame's 5,000 seat football stadium. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Their friendship also developed into a professional relationship...Erskine much admired The Rock's coaching skills and wondered if they would translate into encouragement for his dealer network. One of Rockne's former players...Paul Castnor, who'd been an All-American fullback on the 1922 team...was Sales Manager for Studebaker's commercial vehicle division, and in 1928, Castnor approached Erskine and Studebaker V.P., Paul Hoffman to sign Rockne as a motivational speaker at dealer banquets and automotive association events.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It wasn't a hard sell...Studebaker signed Rockne on to be Studebaker's special representative at said events to the tune of $5,000 per year (just over $100,000 in 2023 dollars). Two years later, after two straight undefeated football seasons that also yielded two straight National Championships, and a pair of very successful years working for Studebaker, he signed a new contract with the auto manufacturer...for $10,000 dollars a year (Just north of $200,000 2023 dollars) as the company's manger of sales promotions.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So life was treating Rockne quite well by 1931. Between his paycheck from Notre Dame and his salary at Studebaker, he was doing well enough to have the custom home mentioned above built for his family, and for him to send his two oldest sons off to boarding school, at Pembrooke Country Day School in Kansas City, Kansas. The boys attended Pembrooke at the suggestion of fellow Notre Dame alum, close friend, and at-the-time Kansas City Health Department' Commissioner of Child Health and Communicable Diseases D.M. Doc Nigro.</p><p style="text-align: left;">We'll take a look at both the two eldest Rockne boys and Doc Nigro's part in Knute Rockne's tragic last day and it's aftermath here in a bit. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Knute Rockne's legend was alive and growing. He was loved by fans both in the U.S. and abroad, and most especially by the players he coached. He was so loved, in fact, that he grabbed the interest of <i>another</i> money machine...Hollywood.</p><p>Of course, as the 1930s began, the country had a major problem developing...a little financial snafu that would come to be known as 'The Great Depression'. People needed something positive to distract them from the nation's...and their own...financial issues. One of the least expensive distractions was an afternoon at the movies. A move ticket cost about thirty five cents in 1930...$6.99 in 2023 dollars. (And that's about half of the average ticket price today, so it would be a bargain even now). For that thirty-five cents, you not only got to see the feature film, you got a newsreel and a couple of cartoons or short features before the film started...not a bad way to spend a couple of afternoon or evening hours.</p><p>While the movies themselves have changed immensely over the last ninety or so years, the general method of finding cinema-worthy topics is pretty much the same. Find something that your target demographic was crazy about, make a movie about it, and hope that people actually came to see the thing.</p><p> At the end of the 'Roaring Twenties' and beginning of the 1930s, sports was a hot topic, and Notre Dame's extraordinary football program was a particularly popular subject, so it stood to reason that, ultimately, someone would decide to make a movie about the team...and that's exactly what happened.</p><p>Sometime in 1930, a film writer and/or producer approached the suits at Universal Pictures with an idea for a football movie...specifically a Notre Dame <i>Fighting Irish</i> football movie. The usual deal making and hemming and hawing and such took place, contracts were signed, hands were shaken, and they had themselves a movie in the making, to be entitled 'The Spirit of Notre Dame'.</p><p>All of the pre-filming work began, with an eye on a early 1931 kick-off of filming, and a release date in the fall of the same year. Universal got hold of Knute Rockne sometime before the end of the 1930 football season, and asked him if he'd be willing to act as a technical advisor for the film, a request he agreed to readily and eagerly...I have a feeling his only stipulation was he wouldn't be available until the season was over.</p><p>I know he made one or two trips out to LA in late December of 1930, and may have made a trip or two in January and February '31, and was scheduled to make a trip out to LA on the last day of March of 1931.</p><p>This was a seriously busy week for Rockne. All of the kids were apparently home for Spring Break, and sometime during the last couple of Weeks of March, Rockne, his wife Bonnie and their four kids left South Bend's very likely still cold early spring weather behind for a couple of weeks on Florida's sunny beaches. After getting his family settled in their vacation digs, Rockne caught a train home to South Bend, for the beginning of the <i>Fightinng Irish'</i>s spring training. Once that was well under way, he left for Chicago, where he'd spend a day or so visiting his mom, then fly out to LA for his business there.</p><p>But the plans changed...The two oldest boys were due to return to Kansas City...and school...by train on March 31st. I don't know if Rockne called his good friend Doc Nigro just to catch up, or if Nigro got in touch with Rockne, but at any rate, the two of them ended up touching base by phone while Rockne was in Chicago. Mention was made of the two Rockne boys returning to school in Kansas City on that Tuesday morning, so Doc Nigro convinced Rockne to make the trip into a mini-reunion, talking him into catching a train to Kansas City, having breakfast at K.C.'s train station with he and his sons, and flying out of Kansas City to L.A. .</p><p>So Rockne purchased train tickets as well as going through T.W.A.'s Chicago office to purchase tickets for the flight from K.C. to L.A. Sometime on the early evening of Monday, March 30, Knute Rockne said goodbye to his mom, caught a taxi to Chicago's Dearborn Street terminal, and boarded an overnight train to Kansas City, Ks.</p><p>The train probably pulled into K.C.'s Union Station around 7:00 AM on the cold, dreary, and drizzly morning of March 31st, and as promised, Doc Nigro was there to meet him. The game plan, apparently, was for the boys' train to arrive a few minutes after Rockne's, and for the boys to meet them in Union Station's restaurant, so Rockne collected his bags, and he and Nigro made their way to the restaurant, and ordered, figuring that they'd hear the announcement of the boys' train arriving momentarily.</p><p>Didn't happen, though. Unbeknown to the two men, the boys' train had been delayed by maybe a half hour somewhere on the line, and was running late. The two men ate breakfast and checked their watches. Rockne's plane was to depart Kansas City's Municipal airport, across the Missouri River from the train station around 9:15AM or a bit after, and it was now pushing 8:00 AM. They had a five or so mile ride through what was becoming seriously nasty weather to get to the airport...Rockne reluctantly decided that, if he was going to catch his plane, they needed to go.</p><p>The bill was payed, they made their way out to Nigro's car, and had business through the rainy, possibly slushy streets of Kansas City towards the municipal airport, situated on a peninsula on the other side of the Missouri River, likely using Broadway Boulevard and crossing the Missouri on the Second Hannibal Bridge, rolling into the airport's parking lot with time enough to spare for Rockne to knock out a quick telegram to his wife.</p><p> Rockne and Nigro entered the terminal building, and Rockne first looked around, found the Western Union office, walked in, and sent a telegram to Bonnie Rockne and the two younger kids in Florida. The message was simple...</p><p>LEAVING RIGHT NOW <STOP> WILL BE AT THE BILTMORE <STOP> LOVE AND KISSES</p><p>After sending the telegram, he checked in and checked his baggage...a far, <i>far</i> simpler process than we're subjected to today...then he and Doc Nigro exited the terminal and walked across the apron to the big (For that era, anyway) tri-motored airliner crouched, nose-high, in the dull, rain and mist shrouded morning light of around 9:00 or so AM. As baggage and mail were loaded aboard, he turned and shook hands with Doc Nigro, thanking him for his hospitality, and telling him he'd see him later.</p><p>Nigro replied in like kind, and Rockne climbed the short stairway to board the Transcontinental and Western (TWA) Fokker F-10. Nigro likely retreated into the warmth of the terminal, watching as the Fokker's three engines started up, then as the airliner taxied out, turned into the wind at the end of the active runway, and took off, quickly disappearing into the mist and rain.</p><p>He'd see Rockne again far sooner than he imagined, and sadly, not in circumstances anyone would <i>ever</i> want to see a friend in.</p><p style="text-align: center;">**</p><p>As TWA Flight 599 lifts off of the Kansas City Municipal's active runway on that cold, nasty, long ago Tuesday morning, lets take a quick look at the aircraft itself...it's important, trust me. You'll see why in short order.</p><p>The Fokker F-10 was built and sold by Fokker Aircraft Corp. of America, AKA Atlantic Aircraft Corp. Fokker of America/Atlantic Aircraft Corp was a subsidiary of Fokker Aircraft Company, the very same company that built the nimble and deadly Fokker D-VII fighter used to excellent advantage by the Germans in WW-1, as well as the Red Baron's favorite mount, the equally deadly and even more nimble Fokker Tri-Plane.</p><p>The F-10 was an enlarged and updated variant of the popular eight passenger Fokker F-VIIB/3M, known as the Fokker Trimotor, and first flew in the late '20s. Like the F-VII, the F-10 was a three-engine high-wing monoplane that was very similar in lay-out to the all metal Ford Tri-motor, with an engine beneath each wing, close in to the fuselage, and the third engine in the nose. The F-10, however, had more powerful engines than the F-VII and was larger, able to carry 12 passengers, at a cruise speed about 10 mph faster then it's smaller stablemate.</p><p> The F-10 was 50'8" long with a wingspan of 71'2" and was 12'5" tall over the vertical stabilizer. The aircraft was powered by a trio of 425 HP Pratt & Whitney nine cylinder radial engines that would move it and twelve passengers along at a cruising speed of 120 MPH, 140 MPH flat out. The aircraft was handled by a crew of two...pilot, and copilot.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhoXVGWe1Eit6Gsf9BzdK4guBiTKxY-9JEOhYs6zcpcTwVGV9NCCLcu_UcLgIrRkTZV769J6RDiukhxkRpO9tm8Bni6iQ6JAZm2R05x5HbJGyfNDz24eT2Bro_vtwNiuKrvfZEyoNA9sHQ0IfB94NaEC9PGQBMdan56LKGA9UuIBnVv35kDXyIKO40Bfo/s1500/0314511.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="1500" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhoXVGWe1Eit6Gsf9BzdK4guBiTKxY-9JEOhYs6zcpcTwVGV9NCCLcu_UcLgIrRkTZV769J6RDiukhxkRpO9tm8Bni6iQ6JAZm2R05x5HbJGyfNDz24eT2Bro_vtwNiuKrvfZEyoNA9sHQ0IfB94NaEC9PGQBMdan56LKGA9UuIBnVv35kDXyIKO40Bfo/w640-h438/0314511.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Not only a Fokker F-10, but <i>the </i>Fokker F-10 that was TWA Flight 599 on 3-31-31...NC999E, shown at Burbank's Union Air Terminal. The airport...much enlarged, of course, and now known as Hollywood-Burbank Airport...is still in business today, <br /><br />Note that the aircraft is still painted in Western Air Express livery in this photo, which was taken just before Western Air Express and three other airlines were forcibly merged to form Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA).<br /><br /> TWA had a fleet of the big planes, but unfortunately they had a flaw...their wooden wings were prone to wing flutter if they flew faster then their cruise speed. The wing flutter became more pronounced...and even more dangerous... in rough weather. To make matters worse, water was managing to somehow get inside '99-Echo's right wing, and was slowly dissolving the glue that held the laminated wing spar together. <br /><br />TWA's pilots were actually afraid of the bird, though they kept that fact from the TWA Brass for fear of loosing their jobs. They felt that it was a matter of 'when' rather than 'if' one of the F-10s shed a wing mid-flight...and sadly they were right.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMPBatIUrWwgV2NgZjhSgmFUgeDZeZQCtPx9n-ii8YUNlnlkoB85wO2oQ1oXKnYWD7w-lUWpMpU-bsnPnLPGmMORUpPxi5mBHFzbG1jg9huNUWo2EOfiH_5yQXmPMgRKzwI9zSSpL9_PK5p1T6DBEhu38OyNfLI08QYfdI1YIlMnONR1k_l0CTA5u7Gwk/s1024/10+F10+model10+0033-1920w.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="793" data-original-width="1024" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMPBatIUrWwgV2NgZjhSgmFUgeDZeZQCtPx9n-ii8YUNlnlkoB85wO2oQ1oXKnYWD7w-lUWpMpU-bsnPnLPGmMORUpPxi5mBHFzbG1jg9huNUWo2EOfiH_5yQXmPMgRKzwI9zSSpL9_PK5p1T6DBEhu38OyNfLI08QYfdI1YIlMnONR1k_l0CTA5u7Gwk/w640-h496/10+F10+model10+0033-1920w.webp" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">'Front Office' of a Fokker F-10. Cockpits were hundreds of times less complex ninety or so years ago than they are today. The gauges in the center of the panel were the center (Nose) engine's engine instruments, the engine instruments for the right and left engines were outside the cockpit, mounted on the struts supporting the the engine nacelles</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Also note the single control wheel, probably on a 'throw-over' control yoke that would allow the copilot to swing the control yoke over to his side and take the aircraft...this set up would likely be an absolute</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span> </span><i>pain</i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> in an emergency, though. There's a reason that aircraft, from the smallest Pipers and Cessnas to the Airbus A380, Boeing 747 and Boeing C-17 have had dual controls since the 1920s...only a few aircraft manufacturers have gone with this 'Throw-over' control yoke.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="492" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCc7VQXXCiyW8JyvCGQ6Z5L8jerds7Nk2Ig2zRc2McnhacxhfMnoCq8e8qupkISY9tnLXJdh0DyHej526xHlpOazqA8Ve_o9hO149G-a-WUROx_n53f5af-ohU4ad-JmNToBPLHOHI4kqjs90FRcLs3nhV429NZQAPB74NO6t6grFxYQSjwSYH8VT0lLs/w640-h504/R%20(5).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fokker F-10 passenger cabin. This is actually a Pan-Am plane, but TWA's planes were essentially identical. You're looking forward, the door on the far end of the cabin leads to the cockpit, which is situated several feet higher than the passenger cabin. Note the wicker seats with no seat belts. <br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><p>And now we get to a very important feature of the F-10...it's construction. The fuselage was constructed of fabric over a steel tube frame as were the vertical and horizontal stabilizers. Some all metal construction was utilized for the engine nacelles. The <i>wings, </i>however were of all-wood construction, with the spars and ribs constructed of built-up layers of marine grade plywood, the layers glued together using a massively strong, but water based...and soluble...adhesive. Needless to say, that was to become a huge factor in our story. The wooden wing structure was sheathed in thin veneer of marine-grade plywood, then, like the fuselage, covered with fabric.</p><p>Fokker built sixty-five of the aircraft in total. The most famous was the one utilized by Admiral Richard Byrd in his exploration of the Artic. The most <i>infamous</i> would end up being the TWA bird bearing the registration number NC999E on it's tail and beneath it's right wing...the one that Knute Rockne climbed aboard along with five other passengers on that cold, nasty Tuesday morning a bit before 9:15 AM.</p><p style="text-align: center;">**</p><p>The big Fokker was in the soup almost the instant it started climbing out. The north-eastern quarter or so of Kansas was beneath an early spring reminder that winter was over when Mother Nature <i>said</i> it was over. A cold front sweeping across that end of the state had spawned a truly nasty little weather system bringing fog, rain/freezing rain and a little snow along with <i>low</i> ceilings and winds aloft that would definitely tend to make the ride less than fun.</p><p>If a modern Boeing or Airbus climbed out of Kansas City's new International Airport into such gunk today, the pilot would just announce that it might be a little bumpy until they came out 'On Top', keep the 'Seatbelt' sign lit, and punch through the mess until, five or ten minutes after entering the soup, they broke out of the clouds beneath some of the most beautiful blue skies known to man with a cottony undercast below them. Then, our modern pilot would level out at flight-level three hundred and something, swing westward, and fly non-stop to L.A., arriving around three or four hours after departing Kansas City.</p><p>But back in 1931, TWA pilot Robert Fry and copilot Herman 'Jess' Mathias didn't have the option of doing any of those things. The Fokker F-10's service ceiling of 18,000 feet may have allowed it to ultimately get on top of the storm, but the plane wasn't pressurized (The first pressurized airliner, the Boeing 307 <i>Stratoliner, </i>wouldn't go in service until 1940) so while the <i>plane</i> could make it to 18,000 feet, the passengers and crew, well, <i>couldn't. </i></p><p>A non-stop trip from KC to L.A. wasn't possible either, as the F-10 only had a range of 795 miles, meaning Flight 599 would have to make several refueling stops before touching down at Burbank's Union Air Terminal. The flight had actually originated in Columbus, Ohio, and Kansas City was it's first stop, the next would be at Wichita, Kansas, 173 miles distant, where they were scheduled to take on passengers and top off with fuel. Sadly, they would never make it there.</p><p>Neither of these factors should have been a big deal. Scud-running...the practice of flying just below the weather to keep the ground in sight...was routine practice back in 1931, as was 'Blind Flying ('Instrument' flying and 'Instrument Flight Rules...or IFR...wasn't officially a thing yet ninety-two years ago.) and pilot Robert Fry, who had logged 200 of his total 2500 flying hours in the last month, was known as one of TWA's best 'Blind Flying' pilots, so whether the Fokker was brushing the bottom of the cloud layer or solidly in the soup, Bob Fry would have had it handled.</p><p>And as for the limited range, that was 'business as usual' as well. <i>Every </i>transcontinental flight hedge-hopped between fields, making multiple stops like a local train, to drop off and pick up passengers as well as to top off the tanks. Albuquerque, New Mexico, for example, was almost the 'Atlanta' of 1930s transcontinental air travel, as just about <i>every</i> cross-country flight stopped there for fuel. </p><p>As Knute Rockne and his five fellow passengers settled into their cushioned wicker seats, Bob Fry swung the Fokker to the southwest and climbed to the bottom of the overcast...it was <i>not </i>going to be a pleasant flight. There was some light snow mixed in with the misty rain that was falling in Kansas City, the ceiling was <i>maybe </i>a thousand feet, and visibility was around two miles...these conditions would prevail for maybe the first half or so of the short hop to Wichita before steadily worsening..</p><p>So the ride, while pretty much 'business as usual' in many ways, probably wasn't exactly comfortable. Aircraft of that era didn't have seatbelt signs, of course (And to be frank, I'm not even sure the wicker seats they were equipped with even had seatbelts) but the passenger cabin was small enough and close enough to the pilots that Bob Fry could call back to them (And he would be <i>shouting</i> back...two of those big radials were hard by the cabin, right outside the windows) to hang on, it might get bumpy. I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that Rockne and his five fellow passengers had figured that one out early on, and were clutching the arms of their seats with white-knuckled grips. It was <i>not</i> a pleasant trip.</p><p>To make matters worse, the Fokker's had a serious flaw...wing flutter. If the plane's airspeed crept much above it's 120MPH cruising speed the wingtips would flutter up and down rapidly, as much as six to eight inches...a phenomenon easily felt in the cockpit. Oh...it was exacerbated by rough weather.</p><p>All of the TWA pilots knew about this problem, and frankly, many of them were terrified of flying the Fokkers because of the wing flutter, but they were also terrified of losing their jobs if they complained or (Don't even <i>think</i> it!) refused a flight. So, little or nothing was said...or done...about it.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_YcTZV24XYz1JGVmg1FCx-qXFjYOzgT5qkG6CliheucvbtT9EO5DkR9ihyLDjtiNt4E0ibhP2uHCKbt2H-8xHNefQdfAjIgJrGhsZg-wP7XooPDzyQ5A0hi4luw__zumLAnkptFTe5RfCC0_qR5OZpCaU8mKZAf4PlZePHJYQ12txKjuFcWhPxygi3MQ/s1920/Screenshot%20(2973).png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_YcTZV24XYz1JGVmg1FCx-qXFjYOzgT5qkG6CliheucvbtT9EO5DkR9ihyLDjtiNt4E0ibhP2uHCKbt2H-8xHNefQdfAjIgJrGhsZg-wP7XooPDzyQ5A0hi4luw__zumLAnkptFTe5RfCC0_qR5OZpCaU8mKZAf4PlZePHJYQ12txKjuFcWhPxygi3MQ/w640-h360/Screenshot%20(2973).png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A map of the route between Kansas City and Wichita, showing the approximate flight path that Flight 599 would have taken...solid black line is the approximate flight path the plane actually took, dotted line is the unflown route between the crash site and Wichita.<br /><br />This was a straight, about 175 mile flight, about an hour and a half at the Fokker's cruising speed of 120 MPH...in good weather. The weather system the plane was flying through, however, not only slowed them down a good bit, the rough weather also very likely contributed to the catastrophic failure of the already water damaged wing spar. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHQX2BeXQaEe4Tl6cjkcd3AIaYGAZCnqb5cODCuiqcQ0FmML2Q2ZaSNtFZAdYJ9ARjAM2tXZa4p7jE0Ekm6y9Zgefh3pO63WnKmaf9Pda0sgkD9NlXdc4HgKOj-Oh-WuF9brmnZtYU-fCDJiH9n4CoyJ-_pR9_GqFoVQFLyXaK5uNlTt6UD8RhreQyObo/s1920/Screenshot%20(2969).png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHQX2BeXQaEe4Tl6cjkcd3AIaYGAZCnqb5cODCuiqcQ0FmML2Q2ZaSNtFZAdYJ9ARjAM2tXZa4p7jE0Ekm6y9Zgefh3pO63WnKmaf9Pda0sgkD9NlXdc4HgKOj-Oh-WuF9brmnZtYU-fCDJiH9n4CoyJ-_pR9_GqFoVQFLyXaK5uNlTt6UD8RhreQyObo/w640-h360/Screenshot%20(2969).png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Satellite map of the area around the crash scene, showing the possible flight path taken by Flight 599. At 10:22 AM...a little over an hour after departing Kansas City..., the crew contacted Wichita, advised them they were about 25 miles Northeast of Cassoday, Kansas, which is around 20 miles south of Bazaar, and also advised them that the weather was bad and getting worse, and that they were so low that they were right on the ground.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;">Shortly after they also advised that they were turning back towards Kansas City. Depending on which of several versions you read, they were either still turning or had reversed course, were flying northeast when Wichita advised them that they had clear weather over Wichita's airport. Flight 599 was probably flying northeast, just west of Bazaar as this radio traffic was taking place, as several eyewitnesses reported seeing the plane flying in that direction.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">They then turned <i>back</i> towards Wichita. Several minutes later, copilot Jess Mathias had Wichita confirm the weather there...Wichita asked if they were sure they could make it to Wichita, Mathias answered 'Not sure, just not sure...' This was at about 10:45, so the series of maneuvers and course changes described above took up about 25 minutes...but that last radio traffic was only seconds before the Fokker's right wing failed catastrophically just outboard of the right engine, causing the plane to enter a spin, and dive towards the ground at a steep, 50 degree angle, spinning as it fell.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It hit the ground inverted at around 200 mph, breaking in half, and ejecting five of the passengers...including Knute Rockne...through the floor. The crash site was a bit over a mile off of the road...what's now Kansas State Route 177, but brothers Edward and Arthur Baker, who were moving cattle from one field to the other, heard the crash, and were first on the scene. They notified authorities.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Hopefully this map helps illustrate what may have happened, but it's admittedly limited by my artistic skills (Or lack there-of). There is no way, of course, we'll ever know the exact route that Flight 599 flew before the crash, and the only facts we know for absolute sure is that the big Fokker augered in to that field at around 10:50 AM on that cold, nasty March morning,</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p> By about 10:20 AM, they were about thirty miles northeast of the small town of Cassoday, Kansas, which would have put them ten or twelve miles northeast of the even tinier hamlet of Bazaar...around 100 miles Southeast of Kansas City. The Fokker was actually cruising slower than it's normal 120 MPH cruising speed due to the nasty weather and the specter of wing flutter <i>should</i> have disappeared...but it hadn't. As it would turn out, rough weather could generate wing flutter at <i>any</i> speed, and on top of that, they had a badly weakened wing spar.</p><p>They were also behind schedule. After leaving KC at around 9:15, if the weather had been decent, allowing them to maintain their normal cruising speed, they should have been a bit south of Bazaar by 10:20, but the weather had slowed them significantly. Bob Fry was also flirting with the overcast, flying up inside the clouds as the ceiling lowered...as they neared Bazaar the ceiling had dropped to around 600 feet.</p><p>To make matters even worse, the rough weather probably had the plane bouncing as if it was slamming across a giant speed bump every few seconds. A bumpy flight in an aircraft isn't the same thing as hitting seas aboard ship during rough weather. On board a ship, the pitches and rolls are slower, but more extreme, while the same pitches and rolls aboard a plane in rough weather are quick and sudden...more like hitting a pot-hole, or maybe a sink-hole.</p><p> These sudden jerky changes in both attitude and altitude were what Frye was fighting, handling control yoke, rudder pedals, and trim to try and keep the plane up-right and under control, and doing this while 'flying blind...what modern pilots refer to as 'Flying on instruments'.</p><p> On top of that, the weather was getting steadily worse, with the ride becoming bumpier with every passing minute. Fry dropped the nose, and snuck below the clouds. The ceiling had dropped even more...the ground seemed almost close enough for them to hop out of the craft and land safely on their feet.</p><p>'This crap's getting worse, Jess... Get on the horn, call Wichita, tell 'em we're about twenty-five miles northeast of Cassoday, and we're heading back for K.C...I'm going to go back and wait this mess out...'</p><p>'What if K.C.'s socked in?'</p><p>I'll try to make it to Olpe (A small town about 20 miles east of them that, apparently, had an airfield) If we can't make it to Olpe, I'll set us down in a field and wait it out' (One of the few advantages early airline travel had over modern airliners...the ability to land in a farm field and still have an airworthy aircraft afterward).</p><p>'Jess' Mathias picked up the radio mike, hailed Wichita's tower, and advised them ''Wichita, TWA flight 599, it's getting rough out here...We're about 25 miles northeast of Cassoday, and we're right on the ground...returning to Kansas City to wait out the weather...' Mathias felt the big tri-motor bank into a sweeping turn to the right. The Fokker bounced and pitched even as they reversed course slowly, until they were aimed back towards Kansas City. They were just above the bottom of the cloud layer, and once in a while, Fry and Mathias (Along with their six passengers) got a glimpse of the mowed over wheat fields and cattle ranches only five hundred or so feet below them.</p><p>'TWA, say again, you advise you're on the ground?' Crackled over Matthias headset, partially buried under the roar of the three radial engines.</p><p>'Negative, Wichita,...we're still airborne, flying very low, weather getting worse, and we're heading back to Kansas City...'</p><p>'TWA, if you can make it through, we're in clear weather. Unlimited ceiling, visibility about 7-10, winds light and variable. Heavy clouds well to our northeast..'</p><p>'That would be the clouds we're smack dab in the middle of', Mathias may have thought silently to himself even as another wave of turbulence tossed them around like a feather near a ceiling fan. He looked over at the pilot, who had been listening to the conversation through his own headset..</p><p>'We're way closer to Wichita then we are Kansas City...tell 'em we're going to try to make it, if they're clear there, we should break out of this crap here soon....Advise 'em that if we can't get to them, we may can get to Olpe, and barring that. I can set it down in a field if I have to...' Fry noted as he continued the turn, bringing them around in a full circle and aiming them, once again, towards Wichita. Mathias nodded acknowledgement, and relayed what Fry had just told him to Wichita.</p><p>When Knute Rockne climbed aboard Flight 599, he realized that one of his fellow passengers...John Happer, of Chicago...was a close friend. Happer was enroute to California to oversee the opening of a new Wilson Sporting Goods store, and he and Rockne were close friends. It's a good bet that the two of them grabbed seats on either side of the narrow center aisle, and exchanged 'Lovely today to be flying, huh?' type greetings. Rockne and Happer then likely introduced themselves to their fellow passengers ...the cabins of those early airliners were <i>tight...</i>and the six men very likely soon began an in-depth discussion of College Football. Rockne's picture had been in the newspaper and magazines all but constantly, as well as appearing on the newsreels that preceded movies of the era hundreds of times, and he was instantly recognizable to <i>anyone </i>who was a college football fan, a group that likely included most if not all of Rockne's fellow passengers.</p><p>It's a good bet that Rockne also gave <i>The Spirit of Notre Dame...</i> the movie he was serving as technical advisor for...a bit of free press, but by the time the Fokker banked into that first turn, back towards Kansas City, football and movie talk had been abandoned and the conversation had devolved into infrequent comments about the weather amid glances through the rain-streaked windows. When the plane turned back towards Kansas City, it's a pretty good bet that one or more of the six asked just what was going on, and when it started to turn back towards Wichita, one of them may have noted 'Oh, Jesus, don't <i>tell</i> me this guy's lost...'</p><p>It may have been just about this time that Rockne pulled the rosery our of his coat pocket. Though he was raised as a Lutheran, Rockne converted to Catholicism in 1925, and the rosary was given to him at the end of his confirmation ceremony by Notre Dame's Father Mooney. He held the rosary tightly in his right hand.</p><p>They had more reasons to be worried that they even knew. Every once in a while, they would feel a high-frequency shudder that was out of sync with the weather's jolt's and bumps, like maybe the right prop had a chunk gouged out of it, throwing it out of balance, except this shudder wasn't constant as the vibration from an out-of-balance prop would be.</p><p>The passengers may not have even noticed it, but Fry and Mathias did, and they knew <i>exactly</i> what it was...and it wasn't an out-of-balance prop. They were also dealing with wing flutter, and this time it seemed far more pronounced than usual. They were below the Fokker's cruising speed, but the rough weather was bouncing the wing around a new fulcrum, a few feet outboard of the right engine.....Fry and Matthias were fighting a loosing battle.</p><p>Unbeknown to them, water was getting in to the interior of the right wing. We'll never know where it was getting in, or for how long it had been doing so, but it was. And it wouldn't have been all that hard for it to do do. The skin covering the Fokker's fuselage, empennage, and wings (Along with those of the great majority of aircraft of that era) was doped fabric, which had the approximate consistency of heavy duty poster board. This fabric covered a thin plywood veneer on the wings...an up-tossed pebble hitting the right spot at the right speed could have punched through both with no problem at all, provided the opening.</p><p>This water was attacking the main wing spar. Those laminated layers bonded together by water-soluble glue? They were delaminating. And the weakening spar was allowing the wing to pivot up and down around this new 'joint' in the spar. This, in turn, was rapidly finishing off that failing main spar. So when Bob Fry banked the Fokker back around towards Wichita, they only had minutes left.</p><p>While Wichita may have been experiencing clear weather, the weather just shy of sixty miles northeast of Wichita, near Bazaar, Kansas, was still steadily worsening. Fry gazed through the Fokker's rain-streaked windscreen, then over at the copilot. 'Ask Wichita about their weather again'.</p><p>Jess Mathias keyed up and repeated the same question he'd asked only a few minutes earlier, to get the very same reply. Wichita's tower operator then asked them if they were sure the could make it to Wichita. Matthias looked over at Fry, waiting for a response...as he waited, a repeat of the question crackled over speakers and headphones. Fry just said something like. 'Not sure....'</p><p>Mathias keyed up, telling Wichita... 'Don't know yet, just don't know yet...' </p><p align="LEFT">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;">And
only minutes...possibly only a few seconds...later the starboard
wing's waterlogged main spar gave up the ghost, snapping in two like
a bitten-through popsicle stick...the thin outer sheathing gave way as
the wing instantly folded upwards just outboard of the starboard
engine and broke away from the aircraft. The plane rolled to the
right suddenly and violently, and <i>kept</i> rolling into
a spin, likely tossing all six passengers from their seats even
as the nose dropped until the plane was diving earthward at about a
fifty or so degree angle, constantly rolling towards the missing
wing. </span></span></p><p>You'd think the passengers would be tumbling around like loose change in a clothes dryer, but it's a good bet that, once that initial roll threw them from their seats, the spin's centrifugal force pinned them to the spot where they landed as if they were welded there. Eyes widened in terror, prayers were said, and Knute Rockne squeezed the Rosary given to him at his confirmation as if he was trying to get juice out of it.</p><p> The fatally wounded plane corkscrewed through the bottom of the cloud layer, tossing mail bags and baggage out of the wrenched-open baggage compartment door with each revolution, arrowing earthward like a fast-spinning lawn-dart with all three engines still roaring. The Fokker was plummeting earthward at around 200MPH...far faster than it's normal top speed...and due to the spin and it's angle of descent, it was actually inverted about half of the time, and it was inverted when, at about 10:49am, it slammed into the wheat field about 2.5 miles south and slightly west of Bazaar, Kansas. Just before it hit, either Bob Fry or Jess Mathias did the absolute only thing they could do...one of them yanked all three throttles back to 'IDLE.</p><p align="LEFT"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The
Fokker augered in to the ground with a resounding 'THWOCK!!!, tossing a shower of dirt-clods ahead of it as it slammed into the semi-frozen field right
wing low, burying both the starboard and center engines and crushing
the cockpit almost back to the bulkhead separating it from the
passenger cabin while the tail, along with ten or twelve feet of the aft
fuselage, ripped loose and twisted violently almost a full 90 degrees
to the right</span></span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">before
the shattered fuselage slammed down into the dirt, upside down, the
nearly severed tail jerking sharply upward, </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">then
slamming into the earth just a micro-instant after the rest of the
fuselage did the same. The fuel tanks burst open as the plane slammed into the ground, spraying the wreckage with aviation-grade gasoline, but by some miracle, the fireball that <i>should</i> have erupted, didn't.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT">Five
of the six passengers...including Knute Rockne...were ejected through
the floor of the cabin to end up scattered ahead of the wrecked
plane, their bodies horribly mangled. All were likely already dead
when their bodies ripped through the cabin floor, killed
instantly by the massive G-forces and crushing injuries inflicted by
the impact.</p><p>Seconds after the plane slammed into the ground, the severed right wing came out of the clouds, sort of flutter-falling like a giant red and silver leaf, and smacked the ground about a quarter mile north of the main crash site. And then, for several minutes, there wasn't any sound at all, except maybe the shrill squawks of a couple of startled birds, and the ticking of the three cooling engines.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">*</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgryR3vd3Sl14_4RKMLQ9TSZ-kNwuMXtd2p-MmqN8syNLX_CBs0WIXAoLK1iXSzicRkBMx53wiT0kwkdxXEZe4v9whV3gjHuuNni6YkVlcNHhHHZlqVYesE0JNCt8raNaqb-9xqnGhSUj5cLDH1ZEw41bxkB6HKxjS6-J1Bnn3HCJQqJH6acxOK3XGDO-0/s3056/49920a_lg.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2392" data-original-width="3056" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgryR3vd3Sl14_4RKMLQ9TSZ-kNwuMXtd2p-MmqN8syNLX_CBs0WIXAoLK1iXSzicRkBMx53wiT0kwkdxXEZe4v9whV3gjHuuNni6YkVlcNHhHHZlqVYesE0JNCt8raNaqb-9xqnGhSUj5cLDH1ZEw41bxkB6HKxjS6-J1Bnn3HCJQqJH6acxOK3XGDO-0/w640-h500/49920a_lg.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Aerial view of the main wreckage, after the bodes had been removed, taken at least several hours, and very possibly as much as a day, after the crash. The tail, inverted and twisted so it's perpendicular to the fuselage, is visible lower mid-screen...it's the white triangular piece of wreckage. The plane was in a spin and moving at around 200 MPH when it hit the ground inverted at a 50 degree angle, the impact so great that it twisted the tail around 90 degrees and ejected five of the six passengers...including Rockne...through the bottom of the fuselage.<br /><br />By the time this photo, or any of the ones that follow, were taken, souvenir hunters had stripped the wrecked plane of just about everything that could be removed.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8lhaKdOd9ElTcOxcT0xtbKRkfokKLFyh1K-Jw6nHEcFffm9iVId7a-PshQQ4W2I5M1L-ueM-GdQoOtslXUZ256CQ_1PnDKH0lUnnQuCv5rjIlMs7B6sMC66Bxt4WMEOSPGB_CS51ezaYZGJllorPgT6JodYy-HmnBbB3Ax5QWW1kiDv0AWgatbLSbyY/s600/774845867cf03e820c4755f308a9f186.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="600" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8lhaKdOd9ElTcOxcT0xtbKRkfokKLFyh1K-Jw6nHEcFffm9iVId7a-PshQQ4W2I5M1L-ueM-GdQoOtslXUZ256CQ_1PnDKH0lUnnQuCv5rjIlMs7B6sMC66Bxt4WMEOSPGB_CS51ezaYZGJllorPgT6JodYy-HmnBbB3Ax5QWW1kiDv0AWgatbLSbyY/w640-h336/774845867cf03e820c4755f308a9f186.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Investigators examine the inverted, mangled, and stripped cockpit of the plane. Souvenir hunters had removed just about everything that would have been helpful to the investigation, something that would absolutely <i>not</i> happen today.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip63OjKqeiy2O209i8Ix8-taWyhSAawVbN19KG4odOfzGF1b3jWkjKot9hQOZ1VRm6m3d9xIyPCe7kANKmPhDkAqv4uPRDRvSwCzT1-n-vc89vxywUQBStNpZfFb2PmCFl0-vS_vDVwrn8dMV6qBPjjGCUMtKVBqIAnsp2Kklch5M3zmnV-Z-XhY_3OGY/s1024/6126746109_07c7ebfa62_b.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="843" data-original-width="1024" height="526" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip63OjKqeiy2O209i8Ix8-taWyhSAawVbN19KG4odOfzGF1b3jWkjKot9hQOZ1VRm6m3d9xIyPCe7kANKmPhDkAqv4uPRDRvSwCzT1-n-vc89vxywUQBStNpZfFb2PmCFl0-vS_vDVwrn8dMV6qBPjjGCUMtKVBqIAnsp2Kklch5M3zmnV-Z-XhY_3OGY/w640-h526/6126746109_07c7ebfa62_b.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Close-up of the area shown in the above photo.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_RzaSJE11HCM0KtcPe-roeraW7dQ37bqOP61mwbZsz49MM-ysbub8XvDfcMPI-L7hL9eMPilwPogIgzvqOwqd84gbKY0X3JM4Ia0ihMa_sO6zPNNKFgBpLcr208F5olKjp159YS7x41YtsoelQRASsd4SQ8qdQPc4_XIJCY6vixGNrf7vcAHd-9DzfKY/s880/download.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="880" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_RzaSJE11HCM0KtcPe-roeraW7dQ37bqOP61mwbZsz49MM-ysbub8XvDfcMPI-L7hL9eMPilwPogIgzvqOwqd84gbKY0X3JM4Ia0ihMa_sO6zPNNKFgBpLcr208F5olKjp159YS7x41YtsoelQRASsd4SQ8qdQPc4_XIJCY6vixGNrf7vcAHd-9DzfKY/w640-h394/download.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Another angle of the crashed airliner, surrounded by area residents and investigators. You're looking towards the nose of the aircraft. The inverted tail is visible right mid-frame, between the guy in the light colored jacket, and another guy wearing gray pants, a black jacket, and a 'Newsboy' cap. The triangular structure visible between the two men is the system of struts that supported the vertical and horizontal stabilizers</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijsqkrM_JDrduHDK9D8fmRU-Qc13PMFXEDLKEUCW9TzbbXreOP68Q0Mc5Wb0aOl2m0TwrEUq5lz5Bjz_nqhD10li3D-2vUhkqUoMvkolHuUCRbLQ2SfIGpYlCk0bvdN_4NEqFDXoFDq-ftjPUZu0IDdSi98IuQyufEosxCsfZSjf8ovwjFts02YH3712o/s512/Rockne-Wing.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="512" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijsqkrM_JDrduHDK9D8fmRU-Qc13PMFXEDLKEUCW9TzbbXreOP68Q0Mc5Wb0aOl2m0TwrEUq5lz5Bjz_nqhD10li3D-2vUhkqUoMvkolHuUCRbLQ2SfIGpYlCk0bvdN_4NEqFDXoFDq-ftjPUZu0IDdSi98IuQyufEosxCsfZSjf8ovwjFts02YH3712o/w640-h270/Rockne-Wing.webp" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The detached right wing of the plane, sitting in the field about a quarter mile from the rest of the wreckage. The wing broke off a few feet outboard of the right engine nacelle, and fluttered down like a huge leaf, landing comparatively gently a quarter mile or so from the rest of the wreck. Note the number of of people posing with and even sitting on the wing. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: center;">*</p><p><br /></p><p>The entirety of the State of Kansas, contrary to popular belief, is not an expanse of board-flat farmland. A long, narrow swath of eastern Kansas is known as the Flint hills, named for both the gently rolling countryside, and the flint deposited on and near the surface by centuries of erosion. The area was, and is, however, mainly pasture land, and not all that heavily populated (In fact several of the small towns in that area had larger populations in 1931 than they do now.) The field that Flight 599 was had augered in to was smack dab in the middle of this region.</p><p>For being out in the middle of a sparsely populated, very rural area it's amazing just how many people either saw the plane in flight or witnessed the crash. Brothers Edward and Arthur Baker were moving cattle from one field to the other, crossing the road in front of their house when they heard the plane. The brothers were accompanied by two other young men by the names of Clarence Carpenter, and Clarence McCraken, who were assisting the Bakers by hauling feed, and both of them also heard the plane, first coming from the southwest, then from the northeast, obviously either circling or turning.</p><p>I can almost bet they commented on the pilot's actions, wondering if he was in trouble of some kind, possibly lost. When interviewed by investigators, they reported that the engines' note changed somewhat, possibly backfiring, before going silent just seconds before they heard a loud crash from across the road. They never reported <i>seeing</i> the spinning Fokker, but they definitely heard it hit, and when they heard that deadly thud, both of the Baker brothers spurred their horses into motion, galloping first across the road, then the field, riding hard for a bit over a mile before topping a small hill...on the other side they saw the shattered airliner, upside down and broken in two, one wing flat against the dirt of the field, the other ending just beyond the crushed right engine nacelle. The two boys looked around and one may have pointed to the north, asking the other 'What's that? The asked brother just may have replied 'Looks like the wing...' and sure enough, it <i>did </i>appear to be the missing wing, lying flat against the ground about a quarter mile to the north of the downed airliner</p><p>The two boys looked back around at the main wreckage to see the most gruesome sight of all, in <i>front </i>of the shattered craft...five bodies, thrown twenty or so feet ahead of the plane. All were lying in grotesque poses, something 'just not right' about the angles of heads and limbs. One of the boys possibly noticed the holes in the bottom of the plane, and put two and two together, possibly breathing a prayer when he realized just what <i>had</i> to have happened.</p><p>They trotted their horses closer to the crash, then reined the animals to a stop as the pungent odor of gasoline enveloped them, and both young men wondered why the plane wasn't a ball of fire, having burst into avgas-fueled flames as soon as it impacted the still semi-frozen ground.</p><p>The sudden realization that the aforementioned ball of fire <i>could</i> still occur...and that if it did, they would be smack dab in the middle of it...dawned on all of them all but simultaneously, and they wheeled their horses around, guiding them away from the crash. They also realized that they needed to let the authorities in on what was going on. Arthur told his brother and the other two boys to sit tight, and spurred his horse into a gallop, leaving them to watch the wreck as he rode hard back to their house. He quickly secured the horse, then ran inside, probably announcing that 'A plane just crashed across the road!' to whoever may have been at home before snatching up the phone and calling the Chase County Sheriff to report the crash. The sheriff would also notify the coroner.</p><p>An ambulance also responded (The <i>only</i> emergency vehicle that responded from what I gathered, probably from the county seat, Cottonwood Falls, about 12 miles north) and Arthur waited until he heard the ambulance screaming south on what's now Kansas Route 177, to remount his horse and saunter back across the road, arriving back at the scene about the time that the ambulance, followed closely by the sheriff and coroner's rides, bounced across the field towards the wrecked airliner. Their dad, along with a Deputy Sheriff, was also there, and Medical Examiner, Dr. A. E. Titus, who was a practicing Doctor in Cottonwood Falls, took charge of the scene. His main function was to identify and properly process the fatalities, and he quickly set to that task, detailing the two Baker boys to start looking through the deceased passengers' pockets to see if they could find any identification.</p><p>As Arthur and Edward Baker started the gruesome task of searching the bodies for ID, Dr. Titus, the sheriff, and the elder Baker began examining the wreck. The plane was upside down, with the fuselage broken into at least two pieces. The center engine was buried deep in a self-made crater, with the cockpit crushed almost back to the passenger cabin. Both pilot and copilot could be seen, still strapped into their seats and hanging upside down, trapped between the instrument panel and the rear cockpit bulkhead. They would also discover one of the passengers crushed in the wreckage of the forward end of the passenger cabin. Getting them out would <i>not</i> be fun.</p><p>But that, wasn't of course, the most earthshattering find of the next several minutes...that would come as one of the brothers searched the mangled body of a large, powerfully built man who, they noticed, was clutching a Rosary in his right hand so tightly that the cross was bent, and pulled a wallet out of his coat pocket. When he opened the wallet, and began looking for I.D, his eyes went wide...</p><p>The Baker brothers and their two friends weren't the <i>only</i> people who'd witnessed the airliner spinning in, not by a long shot, and as...or even before...the M.E., ambulance, and the Sheriff arrived on scene, other area residents were arriving. Therefore, there were at least ten or twelve additional people on scene already when one of the Baker brothers looked around, his eyes wide, and exclaimed...</p><p>'That football coach!..Knute Rockne...I think this is him!!' </p><p>Dr. Titus and the Sheriff both walked over to the body and examined the ID...probably a drivers license...that young Baker had found, and made low exclamations of surprise. This crash had just gotten all kind of ways more complicated.</p><p>Making notifications wasn't anywhere near as straight forward in 1931 as it would be even two decades later. <i>Very </i>few emergency vehicles had police radio <i>receivers </i>much less two way radio (And to even have <i>those</i>, the locality had to have a police or fire radio system, something that few if any large <i>cities, </i>much less rural areas and small towns, boasted in 1931). On top of that, having a list of agencies to notify in the event of a plane crash, along with their phone numbers, was not a high priority item for police and sheriff's department dispatchers in the early 1930s</p><p>I have a feeling that Dr. Titus or the sheriff...or at any event, <i>someone...</i>standing in the cold in the middle of that field ascertained who owned the wrecked plane, and then they contacted TWA to inform them that one of their planes was down, and that there were fatalities, including the beloved coach. </p><p>That notification was probably still a bit round-about. They had to find a phone (Most likely the Baker house) and go through the operator to reach the nearest TWA office (Probably Wichita) so it could have been as much as a couple of hours after the crash before the world began learning what had happened. Officially at any rate.</p><p>You have to understand a bit about how small towns work to even begin to understand how fast news travels in a rural community. One of the area residents who was on scene went home...or sent someone home...to make a phone call, and soon an unofficial but very efficient 'Phone Tree' was in action. Hours before TWA got the official notification of the crash, the word that a plane had crashed, and the iconic and beloved coach Knute Rockne had been on board and was now lying dead at the scene, was buzzing across Chase County phone lines. </p><p>And yes, many people didn't have phones. No problem. The news was simply delivered in person. </p><p>It wouldn't surprise me if the tiny hamlet of Bazaar didn't all but empty as people fell upon the scene. They came to pray and pay homage to the nation's fallen idol, right? <i>Right??'</i></p><p>Ahh, no. They came to grab a souvenir of the event. Dr. Titus and the Bakers, along with the sheriff's deputy managed to keep the crowds off of the deceased, even as the M.E. started arranging their transport to Cottonwood Falls, so, unable to get a souvenir off of the bodies, the crowd did the next best thing. They began stripping the wreck.</p><p>Anything that <i>could</i> be removed and carried away <i>was</i> spirited away. The fuselage's steel tube frame was stripped of fabric, wicker airline seats ended up on front porches<u>,</u> six of the nine propeller blades were taken (The crowd had to literally dig several of them out of the ground), spark plugs were removed from the engines...you get the picture. You can also imagine the effect this would have on the investigation. But I'm getting ahead of myself here...</p><p>I find it interesting that the officials in nominal charge of the scene (Dr. Titus, the Sheriff, and his Deputy) apparently allowed the first arriving spectators (Lets call them what they were...lookee-loos) to just remove items at will. It's also interesting that all of these people knew that a celebrity death was involved well before any official notification was made, but not surprising, as I noted a couple of paragraphs above. That rural news network/information distribution system was and is absolutely fierce in it's efficiency!. </p><p>Dr. Titus arranged for transport of the bodies to a funeral home in Cottonwood falls, and those first five bodies were on the way to the temporary morgue with-in a couple of hours of the crash, the bodies of Fry and Matthias, along with that of the one passenger still trapped in the wreckage, shortly thereafter. Of course, before those last three bodies were transported, they had to be removed from the wreckage with the assistance, apparently, of a wrecker and mechanic from Cottonwood Falls (Further damaging the airframe before it could be examined by investigators). These same mechanics were also given the job of keeping the wreckage safe from looters pending the arrival of investigators, but by the time this was done, it was already too late.</p><p>By 1 PM, all of the bodies were on the way to Cottonwood Falls, and the AP had word of the crash...and they had word of (But apparently not official confirmation of) Knute Rockne's death. By 1:30, news commentators were breaking into radio serials with 'Breaking News...Knute Rockne Dead In Plane Crash!!', and presses were rolling, printing 'EXTRA!!' editions of major newspapers, to be hawked by news boys shouting the iconic 'EXTRA!! EXTRA!! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!. By 2:00 or 2:30 PM, the nation was learning, en masse, of the beloved coach's death. </p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOcSXKnUT6Dx7MIvf-SoOnmDQNyPO8SV6kWLcsL5A_lUp835qoz0eQEjPmOskoMBjmEnSRLlvXW14cy3bENhU0CFwzMiv5WF8FJ-lQjqLiO0b4PdQbLaLYLVVHsvZrQq0seJ_mX4Y83TrgmXrfjOpouqo5ydG1T5ztYlD9OzEiflGkbO44ZtkyL_H2-K8/s600/DrawingCrash2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="600" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOcSXKnUT6Dx7MIvf-SoOnmDQNyPO8SV6kWLcsL5A_lUp835qoz0eQEjPmOskoMBjmEnSRLlvXW14cy3bENhU0CFwzMiv5WF8FJ-lQjqLiO0b4PdQbLaLYLVVHsvZrQq0seJ_mX4Y83TrgmXrfjOpouqo5ydG1T5ztYlD9OzEiflGkbO44ZtkyL_H2-K8/w640-h436/DrawingCrash2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A drawing illustrating the crash that appeared in several papers. While not completely accurate by any means, it still does a pretty good job of graphically illustrating just what happened. One huge inaccuracy that stands out instantly, however, is the missing wing...the Fokker lost it's <i>right </i>wing, not it's left. Another is the location of Knute Rockne's body indicated in the drawing...the five victims who were ejected were all found ahead of the crashed airliner. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYuSbzc4cOTWkopfmHfR4Y5Iz7KB6VuC3RoG8z6ALQHLXEoYkzKNIoxuR0E337mt4OsGRQjrDe2V5So3rW4ANYxVBkx2Cvuhhiai49qCs4m58s0ZmFjBEMTXpLaUJBUVzZ0Bg0CsEtXazmkFMxagvPCHCgJ2qgFyUpPAdAzffanQrncVx1Li3cdwgPAXI/s931/167396766_281668086899559_2625253776883362738_n%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="931" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYuSbzc4cOTWkopfmHfR4Y5Iz7KB6VuC3RoG8z6ALQHLXEoYkzKNIoxuR0E337mt4OsGRQjrDe2V5So3rW4ANYxVBkx2Cvuhhiai49qCs4m58s0ZmFjBEMTXpLaUJBUVzZ0Bg0CsEtXazmkFMxagvPCHCgJ2qgFyUpPAdAzffanQrncVx1Li3cdwgPAXI/w640-h426/167396766_281668086899559_2625253776883362738_n%20(1).jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One of the many, <i>many</i> headlines reporting Rockne's death the day after the crash. Bonnie Rockne is pictured on the right.<br />The story was front page news in papers world-wide.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBpzYAlwc1k6XAaO3UT9enhjOe2yUCWFeWrg2bRq7UlvNS7euPQZ7vu_M-ZoKMk4RaAa5xW7KBHhYrhi0fJaTEs9paB-l7TdozdVMB6w8OXah2vOjmKmhyPST3-m2w2HVDRP-TWp5lwboVFwWvJFW9K6Sb4bStRIzuZOjd2HLAonNx-0x_GhmQKe0BRVE/s1080/262183089_915741872412452_4954898996152684768_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBpzYAlwc1k6XAaO3UT9enhjOe2yUCWFeWrg2bRq7UlvNS7euPQZ7vu_M-ZoKMk4RaAa5xW7KBHhYrhi0fJaTEs9paB-l7TdozdVMB6w8OXah2vOjmKmhyPST3-m2w2HVDRP-TWp5lwboVFwWvJFW9K6Sb4bStRIzuZOjd2HLAonNx-0x_GhmQKe0BRVE/w640-h640/262183089_915741872412452_4954898996152684768_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fake News is <i>not</i> a new thing! This was one of the theories about the cause of the crash that the media reported...it was, of course, entirely false. False theories such as this also caused the media and the public to push the Aeronautics Branch to release the findings of their investigation, and give them the official cause of the crash, which, in turn, ultimately led to the findings of all air crash investigations being made public three years later, in 1934.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Sadly, The general and unbreakable modern rule about withholding the names of victims until the next-of-kin are notified hadn't even been thought of yet, so Rockne's mom learned of her son's death within only a couple of hours of the crash by hearing a news bulletin about it on a Chicago radio station. She called the Chicago Tribune incognito to ask if the news was indeed, true, to be told that it was. Two of Rockne's sisters found out in a similar manner.</p><p>It'd be nice to think that Bonnie Rockne and the two youngest Rockne kids learned of their husband and father's death in a more 'gentle' (If notification of the death of a loved one can ever be 'gentle' ) manner, such as a compassionate phone call from Notre Dame's Father Mooney, or maybe a call from her mother-in-law (Though the extremely high cost of long distance phone calls back then makes the latter very unlikely)...but sadly, it's a good bet that Bonnie Rockne learned of her husband's death in the exact same way the majority of the nation learned of it...by hearing a news break about it on the radio. Notre Dame officials may have <i>tried</i> to notify her before she found out about it unofficially, but by the time Father Mooney, or <i>someone</i> from South Bend called her, she already knew.</p><p>Another friend of the Rocknes also tried to soften the blow...New York Newspaper executive Francis Wallace, a long-time friend of the Rocknes, was also vacationing in Miami, close to the Rockne Vacation Digs. He quickly made is way to the Rocknes' (Cottage? Apartment?) to find Bonnie and the kids in tears, and telegrams of condolence already piling up. Even sadder, the telegram that Rockne had sent from K.C.'s airport just before he boarded his flight was on top of the stack.</p><p>These telegrams extending condolence and sympathy were very likely forwarded from South Bend, leading me to believe that Notre Dame officials had indeed tried to head off the brutal unofficial notification that Bonnie Rockne no doubt received. At least they tried.</p><p>The University also likely notified Jess Harper at his Kansas ranch, as he lived fairly close...within a hundred miles or so... to the scene, and asked him to officially identify the body, while Bonnie Rockne undoubtedly called Doc Nigro...who had been a close family friend for years...,told him of her husband's death, and asked him if he'd handle having the body shipped to South Bend, and start the process of funeral arrangements. I feel for all of them, especially Mrs. Rockne, who was having to do this and get her family back to South Bend while heartbroken and in the initial stages of grief and mourning.</p><p>So, by two or so at the latest, Bonnie Rockne was performing the myriad of tasks involved with shutting down the family's spring vacation, getting the two youngest kids packed amid tears and an inevitable barrage of unanswerable questions, and arranging for a long and sad trip north by train while both Jess Harper and Doc Nigro were driving towards Cottonwood Falls, and the nation was just beginning to roll into a week-long period of national mass-mourning the likes of which wouldn't be seen again for a decade and a half, at the death of Franklin D Roosevelt.</p><p>If travel had been as easy in 1931 as it is now, in 2023, the little Kansas towns of Bazaar and Cottonwood Falls, as well as the crash site, would have been absolutely mobbed with representatives of the Fourth Estate by nightfall of March 31st. As it was, a lot of traveling <i>was</i> done on that sad Tuesday. Jess Harper and Doc Nigro were probably both in Cottonwood Falls by suppertime or a bit later, and the official identification of the body...where a representative of the coroner's office asks if these were indeed the remains of Knute Rockne, and a Death Certificate is signed...had been made shortly thereafter.</p><p>While Jess Harper was taking care of that grim task, Doc Nigro was securing release of the body, and on the phone with railroads and funeral directors taking care of getting Knute Rockne home to South Bend, and getting a funeral arranged...and he apparently did an awesome job of it.</p><p>Normally, in cases of accidental deaths of this nature, the body(s) isn't/aren't released until a Coroner's Inquest is held, but the impression I get is an exception was allowed for Knute Rockne, because his body was aboard an Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad train enroute to Chicago by early the next morning...April 1st...at the very latest. It's also very possibly an express train at that, because it was pulling into the Dearborn Street station, in Chicago, by 7:45PM on April 1st.</p><p>This probably means that before Rockne's body headed northeast to Chicago, where it would need to go before going to South Bend, it was transported about 65 miles southwest, to Wichita, where the body was placed aboard the train. Keep in mind that before any of this was done, the body had to be embalmed and otherwise prepared for transport, a casket purchased, and arrangements made with a funeral parlor in South Bend. Also keep in mind travel by road was slower in 1931 by <i>far</i> than it is today. Many roads were still unpaved out in rural areas, and average speeds were on the order of 20-30 mph at the best, so an 100 mile trip was a good four hours by car. That ride from Cottonwood Falls to Wichita likely took a good three hours.</p><p>While the Media may not have been present En Masse in Kansas, they were still managing to follow Rockne's progress northward and report on same, doing so accurately enough that a crowd estimated at around ten thousand people was waiting when the AT&SF train bearing 'Rock's body pulled into Chicago's Dearborn Street station.</p><p>1st Assistant Coach Heartley Anderson (Who would step in as Notre Dame's Head Coach) and assistant coach Jack Chevigny had made the 90 mile drive from South Bend To Chicago, and were awaiting the train's arrival, along with fifteen members of the Notre Dame Society of Chicago. Anderson is the one who slid the door to the baggage car open so the seventeen of them could transfer the casket to a truck.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXywU5CguG7UVhPCLvoIWxS2OlwtwHN-cBkPY7hiKZc_Dmx7c5VhPM1Rn4wNuSmb69GXa2_4r7evNfmeroQARzaqkym94euGnocrBYqUlgiQYAnY85oLMRUehR_q3j_yA4yX4-yrukFvkRg-VTXukL2sgXAa2ecp1xFR1LK6JkRmmR5o5vYkfv_5nwS4/s570/i.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="570" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXywU5CguG7UVhPCLvoIWxS2OlwtwHN-cBkPY7hiKZc_Dmx7c5VhPM1Rn4wNuSmb69GXa2_4r7evNfmeroQARzaqkym94euGnocrBYqUlgiQYAnY85oLMRUehR_q3j_yA4yX4-yrukFvkRg-VTXukL2sgXAa2ecp1xFR1LK6JkRmmR5o5vYkfv_5nwS4/w640-h360/i.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span>A huge crowd surrounds Notre Dame assistant head coach Heartly Anderson, assistant coach Jack Chavigny, and the fifteen members of the Notre Dame Society of Chicago who were transferring Knute Rockne's flower-draped casket from the baggage car of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe passenger train that transported his body from Kansas to a truck for the short ride from Chicago's Dearborn Street Station to the New York Central station on Lasalle Street. Chicago cops had to assist by pushing the crowd back. </span><span style="text-align: center;">A New York Central train would transport his body the just shy of one hundred miles to South Bend.</span></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>A crew of Chicago P.D. officers had to clear a path for them to do so. Sometime during the transfer, a floral blanket was draped over the casket, and as it shed petals during the transfer, members of the crowd would swoop in and scoop them up as keepsakes. Flash powder kept lighting the scene up in lightning-like bursts of light as the Press documented the scene for the next day's paper, and posterity. In several of the pictures, the two oldest Rockne boys...who had just missed getting to say 'good-bye' to their dad in Kansas City...were walking, solemn-faced, behind the casket.</p><p>The casket was loaded aboard the truck, which made a short, four block drive to the New York Central station on LaSalle Street, where it was loaded aboard another baggage car. The NYC train probably pulled out of the LaSalle Street station somewhere between 8:30 and 8:45, and would pull into South Bend's station at 11:08, to be met by another crowd of several thousand...a crowd that would have been bigger had the train been on time rather than nearly 20 minutes early. The crowds in both Chicago and especially South Bend were eerily reminiscent of the crowds awaiting the <i>Irish</i>'s return, victorious, from National Championship games, but the emotions were the exact opposite.</p><p>In South Bend, a McGann Funeral Home hearse was awaiting the body, which was loaded and transported to the funeral home. Knute Rockne beat his wife and two younger children home by twelve hours, give or take an hour or two. Bonnie Rockne and the two younger children were still on a train, somewhere between Miami and South Bend, when her husband's and their dad's body was loaded onto the McGann hearse.</p><p style="text-align: center;">**</p><p style="text-align: left;">Officials...or at least individuals...at the crash scene didn't just stand on their laurels twiddling their thumbs as the deceased were transported to Cottonwood Falls and Knute Rockne made his final trip home.. All nature of activity was happening in that remote farm field. The important stuff just wasn't happening real quick. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Department Of Commerce Aeronautics Board investigators and TWA officials both left Kansas City for Cottonwood Falls at about 2:30PM. It wasn't to be a fast trip. The weather was still nasty in K.C. when they left, so rather than flying, they drove, and that 100 miles and change trip on rural, often unpaved roads took them about four and a half hours, putting them in Cottonwood Falls at around 7PM.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> This was about the same time that Jess Harper and Doc Nigro rolled into town, which may explain the early release of Rockne's body. It was too late for the crew from the Aeronautics Board to do anything at the scene that night, but our investigators did get a few things accomplished...possibly approving the release of Knute Rockne's body, introducing themselves to the local constabulary, and gathering witness statements chief among them. They wouldn't make it out to the scene, however, until early the next morning,</p><p style="text-align: left;">When the Aeronautics Board investigators drove across the field towards the wrecked plane early on Wednesday, April 1st, they were hamstrung from the get-go. By the time they arrived, all of the bodies, of course, had been removed from the scene, and the public had enjoyed several hours of unrestricted access to the wreck, so all that was left was the twisted steel tube frame, the three engines, most of the instruments in the cockpit, and some tattered bits of fabric, along with the broken section of wing.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> On top of having much of their evidence purloined by souvenir seekers, our investigators were two strikes down, authority-to-act wise, with strike three coming in hot over the plate. Even though members of the Aeronautics Board were tasked with determining the causes of early air crashes, they had absolutely no authority to subpoena witnesses, demand that the crash scene be left as undisturbed as possible, or protect the wreckage from looters...in other words, <i>any</i> of the things that were needed to perform a thorough investigation.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Despite these handicaps, they dived right in. The very first thing they very likely did was to take a walking-tour of the crash scene...and one of the first things they noticed was the baggage and mail bags scattered between the broken wing and the rest of the wreck, along with other bits and pieces of wreckage, The mail, baggage, and bits of wreckage formed a long debris field spread and scattered along a curved path about 1900 feet long, connecting the intact (And unmolested) section of the broken right wing, and the rest of the plane. And, seeing all of that spilled baggage and mail, they rubbed their chins and said 'HMMMM...'</p><p style="text-align: left;"> After touring the crash site they needed to determine whether all three engines were, in fact, producing power when the Fokker augered in. This is <i>still</i> one of the very first things NTSB investigators check today when they arrive at a crash scene involving a prop-driven plane, and is one of the easiest determinations to make. If the propeller blades are bent opposite the direction of rotation, parallel with the propeller disk, the prop was turning and under power when it hit the ground. If one or two blades are bent at a 90 degree angle to the prop disc...parallel with the fuselage...and/or the other blades are intact, the prop wasn't turning under power when it hit. Of course, to make that determination, you have to actually have the propeller blades to examine.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Finding the Fokker's propeller blades was even more imperative to our investigators because they had already developed a theory, partially based on finding those mail bags and pieces of luggage between the broken wing section and the main wreckage. They figured that a broken prop blade on the right propeller had thrown the prop out of balance, and the resultant extreme vibration had broken the main wing spar, throwing the baggage compartment door open or even damaging the fuselage, while it was at it.. So finding the propeller from the starboard (right) engine was critical. One problem. They couldn't find <i>any</i> propeller blades. As in <i>none</i> of them. All nine blades from all three propellers were among the missing.</p><p style="text-align: left;">They couldn't even find the <i>hub</i> of the prop from the right engine (Even though the nut that secured the hub to the end of the crankshaft was in place), and this, in their minds, further confirmed the theory...the vibration that destroyed the wing spar and opened the baggage compartment also broke the propeller hub. They just needed to find the blades to prove it.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Going on the theory that the right prop had thrown a blade, a crew was sent out to search along the doomed trimotor's flight path, looking for the theoretically thrown blade (Or even blades). They did a <i>lot</i> of walking, and probably became intimately acquainted with that well known by-product of cattle-raising known as the 'Cow-Pie', but found no propeller blades...</p><p style="text-align: left;">Meanwhile, as our search team trudged through semi-frozen mud and learned to skirt cow-pies, the crew back at the wrecked plane had to return to Cottonwood Falls for the Coroners Inquest, where all eight deaths were determined to be caused by accident (It's likely the actual term used was 'Misadventure'), specifically, trauma inflicted through an air crash. While at the inquest, the broken blade theory was also raised and discussed. I have a feeling our investigators grabbed a quick lunch (And warded off a few dozen questions) while they were in town before returning to the crash site early that afternoon, and immediately engaging in manual labor involving shovels, pry-bars and ultimately even horses.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> They examined the left engine first...it hadn't buried itself as deeply as the other two engines, and it's prop was, theoretically, more accessible, but...and this is a biggie...they couldn't find <i>any</i> of the blades from the left engine. They then dug the deeply buried center and starboard engines out of the ground...using a team of horses to roll the center engine up and out of the crater it had buried itself in.. ..and they could only find one or two of the blades from the center engine's prop.</p><p style="text-align: left;">By then it was getting late. And dark. And cold. They returned to Cottonwood Falls, writing out reports in longhand, grabbing supper, and likely sleeping like logs before returning to the scene on the morning of Thursday, April 2nd. They went right back to work, borrowing the same team of horses to roll the deeply buried right engine up and out of its crater. Digging deeply, they found all three of the blades from that prop, broken from the hub, and bent backwards at that. (But they <i>still</i> didn't find the hub) All three blades were accounted for, and the engine had, in fact, been shut down before it hit the ground (This would be found to be true of all three engines). The wing <i>hadn't </i>been destroyed by a broken propeller blade. They were back, it seems, to Square One</p><p style="text-align: center;">**</p><p style="text-align: left;">While the investigative team searched for answers in Kansas, the nation descended into a period of shared sorrow and mourning the likes of which it hadn't seen, possibly, since the assassination of Abe Lincoln. What made this shared grief even more remarkable was the fact that Rockne wasn't a renowned statesman or political leader, but was 'merely' a football coach. There was also another, equally if not even more important difference...not only was this grief shared, it was shared all but instantaneously, because everyone heard the news of Rockne's death all but simultaneously thanks to radio.</p><p style="text-align: left;">By the time Bonnie Rockne and all four Rockne kids arrived back in South Bend on Thursday, April 2nd, both the nation and the world had learned of her husband's death. Messages of sympathy and condolence were coming in from all sides, with condolences delivered from President Hoover, as well as the Governors of several states, and the municipal governments of most of the nations major cities.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Needless to say. almost <i>all </i>of the nation's major colleges sent heartfelt messages of sympathy...the great majority of their football coaches knew Rockne personally, and felt the loss as the loss of a good friend. Ditto many members of the Media, most especially sports writers and commentators. It wouldn't surprise me if either Notre Dame or McGann Funeral Home delegated someone to handle the task of receiving all of these messages, which arrived from all over the country as well as the world. This would have been an all day job for at least a couple of days, and would have been at least one thing that Bonnie Rockne didn't have to deal with.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Once she got home, Bonnie barely got to sit down and breath for a second, much less process her husband's death, before she was hit from all sides by both well-meaning friends and equally well-meaning officials from Notre Dame, who wanted to delay the funeral until the next week, when students had returned from Spring Break.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Mrs. Rockne was not even vaguely naïve or unintelligent, and she well knew that her husbands funeral could end up being a three ring circus, which was one thing she wanted to avoid at all costs. The sooner they could have the funeral, the less likely it would become a media circus. She succeeded, but barely...the funeral definitely became a media-run event, becoming sort of the prototype of the way the media handles the death of a major public figure right up to the present day...but I'm getting a little ahead of myself here.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Among the first things Bonnie Rockne decided was that the funeral would take place at 3PM on the day before Easter, Saturday the 4th...two days away. She also decided that seating in the church...Notre Dame's Basilica Of The Sacred Heart...would be by invitation only. A list of who to invite was likely provided, and I can only imagine that the task of distributing invitations (Probably by telegram, given the tight time line) was delegated to the funeral home.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Imagine going through both bereavement as well as having to deal with all of the details of a funeral, such as asking friends to act a s pallbearers (Several of whose names would be almost as familiar to college football fans as Rockne himself), arranging for the church (This was eased considerably, as The Basilica Of The Sacred Heart was offered up as the venue for the funeral as soon as word of Rockne's death was received at Notre Dame) along with all of the other myriad 'I's that needed to be dotted and 'T's that needed to be crossed.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Floral arrangements for example. Floral arrangements began arriving at the Rockne home before Bonnie and the kids even returned from Florida, rolling in in such huge numbers that they quickly filled the house, and overflowed into the vacant lot next door. This, too, was likely handled, at least in part, by representatives from McGann Funeral Home.</p><p> Media outlets, meanwhile, set up microphones in the front yard of the Rockne home so their on-air personalities could interview celebs arriving to pay their respects (Some things haven't changed in ninety-two or so years)...they didn't have long to wait, because a mass pilgrimage was in progress, with South Bend as the destination for several notable coaches, mayors, or other important figures of the era, including Norwegian Consul Olaf Berndts, from Chicago, sent by King Haaken VI of Norway as his personal representative.</p><p>Every train that rolled in to the South Bend station on Thursday night, all day Friday, and early Saturday carried at least a couple of well-known sports, entertainment, or political figures, all of whom called on Bonnie at the nearly brand new Rockne home at 1417 E. Wayne Ave., and all of them found a microphone shoved into their face as they walked up the walk towards the front door.. I can't help but wonder how many times a suggestion as to just where said microphones could be placed was made.</p><p>Bonnie Rockne was probably suffering from one of the grandest headaches of all-time as Friday, April 3rd dawned in South Bend, but by then all of her kids and a number of the 1930 <i>Irish</i> were in town, and they ran interference for her, keeping the Media off of her and out of the house, and doing whatever they could to ease her pain as much as possible. She, meanwhile, was having to deal with the mundane details of funeral preparation. As noted above, one of those details was asking her husband's friends if they would act as pallbearers, and also as noted, the names of many of those friends, such as Stanford's Coach 'Pop' Warner, Vanderbilt's Dan McGugin, USC's Howard Jones, and Pitt's Jock Sutherland<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;">....were </span></span>almost as familiar to college football fans as Rockne himself.</p><p>While all of this was going on, McGann Funeral Home representatives (The funeral director was also a close friend of the Rocknes) arrived early Friday morning to set the house up for a wake. The casket arrived at a bit before ten, and would lie in state until 2PM on Saturday...an hour before the funeral. The members of the 1930 team organized themselves into crews of two, who would switch off acting as an honor guard until the funeral.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Meanwhile, upstart new radio network Columbia Broadcast System began promoting a nationwide broadcast of the funeral, advertising the broadcast during commercial breaks in shows on the network. CBS actually had even bigger plans for the funeral broadcast...they intended to broadcast it to Chicago, and from there to both East and West coasts, where it would then be broadcast to Europe and Asia.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A CBS production crew arrived in South Bend late Friday or very early Saturday, with a remote truck and all of the equipment needed for the remote broadcast. The broadcast was to be narrated by well known CBS sports commentator Ted Husing, and had been advertised for the past two days, both in newspaper ads and on the air as 'An eloquent word-picture of the event as it unfolds'. </p><p style="text-align: left;">They set up at the Basilica Of The Sacred Heart Church, on the Notre Dame campus, the morning of the funeral. Columbia didn't own the only microphone there that afternoon...Chicago's WGN had a reporter there, as did a local station, but Columbia (CBS) would be the only network to go live, nationwide and internationally.</p><p style="text-align: left;">At two o'clock on that chilly April afternoon, the pallbearers assembled at the Rockne home and carried the casket out to the hearse as over a hundred cars idled, pumping white clouds of exhaust into the afternoon chill, waiting to be given the 'Go' signal, their occupants talking Knute Rockne memories, and wondering if they'd ever get moving, and telling kids they had <i>better</i> behave themselves...</p><p style="text-align: left;">...And finally whistles tweeted, and cops waved them ahead with the exaggerated arm motions still utilized by traffic officers to this day, and the hearse and limos carrying the family started rolling, followed, one by one, by each and every car, making the slow solemn, three or so mile drive West on East Jefferson Street, then north on S Eddy Street, then a quick westward jog on Howard Street before swinging north on North Notre Dame Ave and finally, Holy Cross Ave's circuitous route around the west side of the Notre Dame campus before arriving at The Basilica Of The Sacred Heart.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The church, which was draped in black and white bunting and filled with even more flowers, seated 1400. and would be packed once all of the invited guests were seated. <i>Everyone </i>inside the church was there by invitation. Speakers had been set up outside the church so that the estimated 5000 mourners waiting outside could hear the service, Our on-air personalities were also waiting, of course, and as the motorcade rolled into sight, a silence enshrouded the scene, broken only by the tolling of the Basilica's bell and the low background rumble of the generators on the remote trucks.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> I can only imagine that the broadcasts started as soon as the hearse rolled up, and maybe even before, and it's a no-brainer that listeners were treated to a blow-by-blow description of the casket being removed from the hearse and carried into the church. At three o'clock on the button, as the funeral started, all the stores in South Bend closed, And the entire nation mourned along with those at the funeral as Ted Husing told a moving and descriptive tale.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The same microphones feeding the speakers outside the church were probably also tied into the national live feed, so that the national and international audience could hear the service itself. The first they heard from inside the church was the beautiful music performed by the Notre Dame Choir, then Notre Dame's President, The Rev. Charles L. O'Donnel's, moving eulogy, followed by the service itself, interspersed with solemn commentary by Ted Husing. It was said to be a heartfelt and moving service, and sadly, no recordings of it are known to survive.</p><p style="text-align: left;">After the service was over, the mourners formed yet another miles-long cortege as they motored out to Highland Cemetery, about five road-miles from the church, across the narrow St Joseph River. The entire route was lined with even more mourners. And, even as Knute Rockne was laid to rest, a somewhat macabre tradition...that of the nation sharing the mourning of a celebrity via electronic media...had begun. The story of the crash, however, had just started.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCFKJsFLpJxCH7HQyU0sN5jCp2ulDZXvqBamZkFdzbdtLyh_gs9YMCdOQJd-iR9eTM9Je8eLKq0rWpRgnQ6vJ1Jxn9DfXtxb-u6AsNpPIIDS_25m0RBLGJWUNi35QornY4v8UANN5UKDS-nGeN8pxzEMPRYUiZRsQUA9FfGy3IiWSYTESXr9TyHhuP7dY/s570/Rockne%20Funeral.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="457" data-original-width="570" height="514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCFKJsFLpJxCH7HQyU0sN5jCp2ulDZXvqBamZkFdzbdtLyh_gs9YMCdOQJd-iR9eTM9Je8eLKq0rWpRgnQ6vJ1Jxn9DfXtxb-u6AsNpPIIDS_25m0RBLGJWUNi35QornY4v8UANN5UKDS-nGeN8pxzEMPRYUiZRsQUA9FfGy3IiWSYTESXr9TyHhuP7dY/w640-h514/Rockne%20Funeral.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The huge crowd of mourners outside Notre Dame's Basilica Of The Sacred Heart. There were 1400 or so inside the church, all there by invitation, and at least 5000 outside. Speakers outside the church allowed those outside to hear the service.<br /><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Then-brand new radio network Columbia Broadcast System... CBS...broadcast Knute Rockne's funeral live both nationally and internationally, one of the very first times this had ever been done...note the remote truck on the far left of the frame.. Those same speakers that allowed mourners outside to hear the service were also probably hooked into the CBS live broadcast so listeners could also hear the service, interspersed by solemn commentary by well known sportscaster Ted Husing.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtRzRpGPVCQsVudJNM6Q8qw90ATV8Zv9UubU_DiLCNPx2XaRGuKZpHWEZ0Jk2GyHS_pIIIe0yO_mI6-N44GRGggAAWXuapxH8PoUHaQs9xvSj7Jw054mNO8P1mgnplV9yaAvSgFMp_ezRfskbucLMChxPQxlzKJZXnlKTJNNTP2PPsTetAozc1GbnOFSk/s920/i%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtRzRpGPVCQsVudJNM6Q8qw90ATV8Zv9UubU_DiLCNPx2XaRGuKZpHWEZ0Jk2GyHS_pIIIe0yO_mI6-N44GRGggAAWXuapxH8PoUHaQs9xvSj7Jw054mNO8P1mgnplV9yaAvSgFMp_ezRfskbucLMChxPQxlzKJZXnlKTJNNTP2PPsTetAozc1GbnOFSk/w640-h360/i%20(1).jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mourners at Highland Cemetery as Knute Rockne is laid to rest.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As
Knute Rockne was mourned and laid to rest, the investigative team was
still confounded by the cause of the crash that had killed him. They
had ruled out the broken propeller as a cause, even, as with the help
of the Chase County Sheriff, they found all of the missing propeller
blades at various homes in the area, one of them mounted over the
couch in the, er, collector's living room. The blades were returned
over the course of two days...April 2nd and 3rd.</div><p style="text-align: left;">By the time these blades were found, of course, a broken prop blade had been ruled out as the cause of the broken wing spar. Witnesses had said that, immediately after the plane crashed, several 'C' shaped chunks of ice were noted near the wings, so the next question was 'Could icing have caused the wing to fail, either directly or indirectly? Several other pilots had reported encountering icing...some of it severe...in the same general area as the crash, reports that strengthened that theory considerably.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Lets take a a quick look at these 'C' shaped chunks of ice. The reason these chunks of ice were 'C' shaped was that the ice had formed around the leading edges of the wings, so the weight of the ice could have snapped the wing spar,...but for that to have happened, it would have had to have been a <i>huge</i> quantity of ice, enough that it would have brought the plane down by degrading the wing's lift-producing capability<i> long</i> before the weight of the ice caused the wing to fail. In other words, long before the wing suffered a structural failure, the ice build-up would've altered the shape of the wing to the point that it stopped producing lift, and the plane, essentially, would've became an anvil and simply fallen from the sky. But had this happened, the wings would have been intact and, well, they weren't. So no, the ice on the wings didn't cause the crash.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Far</i> more likely, in the minds of the investigators, was a sudden extreme maneuver causing the wing loading to exceed the spar's load limits. If the <i>wings</i> had iced up, the pitot tubes that provided vacuum to power the flight instruments could <i>also </i>have iced up. And if <i>that</i> happened, Bob Fry and Jess Mathias would've lost their airspeed indicator, their vertical speed indicator, which told them how fast they were climbing or descending, and their attitude indicator...often called the 'turn and bank' indicator...which told them if they were climbing, flying level, or descending, as well as whether their wings were level, and whether they were turning or not.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Basically, if they lost their flight instruments, they lost their ability to fly blind. They could have been in a fairly steep dive and not realized it until they suddenly broke out of the clouds, seemingly so close to the ground that they could touch it, and one or both of the pilots may have performed an all but intuitive act of preservation...yanked back <i>hard </i>on the control yoke to get the nose up, and most importantly, pointed back towards the sky rather than the ground This sudden maneuver, which the wing structure was <i>not</i> designed for, could have absolutely snapped the wing spar, even if it <i>hadn't</i> been water-damaged. The added weight of ice on the wings would have added even more stress to the over-taxed...and water-damaged...wing spar.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then there was the Fokker F-10's tendency to suffer from wing flutter at higher speeds during rough weather...a tendency that TWA's pilots discussed regularly among themselves, and which scared the hell out of them...but which they were reluctant to discuss with TWA's executive staff for fear of loosing their jobs. TWA's flight crews were actually terrified of the F-10 for that very reason.</p><p style="text-align: left;">In short, there were several theories as to just why the F-10's wing departed the aircraft, and, once the propeller theory was disproved, no one was even <i>vaguely</i> close to figuring out just which possibility was the actual culprit.</p><p style="text-align: left;">While all of this pondering and conjecturing was going on, there was still a lot of physical labor being expended at the crash site. The first thing that happened after the investigative team arrived, toured, and I can only assume photographed the site, or at least made a map of the scene showing the location of the wreckage, was to gather the bags of mail, and send them to the Post Office in Wichita aboard a truck.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Next the broken wing section was dragged closer to the main wreckage...this was done a couple of days after the crash, probably using the same over-worked team of horses that was used to flip the engines out of their self-dug craters. And finally, towards the end of the week, the remains of the plane were loaded aboard a couple of big trucks, covered with tarps, and transported to an hanger at Wichita's airport, where they could be examined in more comfort and security. Thing is, they were well on the way to figuring out the actual cause, they just didn't know it yet.</p><p style="text-align: left;">On April 2nd, before the wreckage was moved to Wichita, Anthony Fokker himself flew out to the scene, landing in the field next to the wreckage. The wing section had been moved closer to the main wreckage by that point, but the first place he went was the original resting place of the wing. He found exactly what he was looking for...part of the front wing spar, and some pieces of wing sheathing, all of which showed evidence of tension fractures.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then he walked back to the wreck, and started examining the broken ends of the main spar...he didn't like what he saw. At All. He had a three foot length of the spar sawed off, so it could be examined more closely...it was after this that the rest of the wreckage was trucked to Wichita.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It was during this phase of the investigation that they discovered that the laminated plywood construction of the main spar had delaminated...the layers separating...which, of course, had weakened it greatly. The wing had been a ticking time bomb for who knows how long before it finally failed. Every passenger who'd survived a flight aboard Fokker F-10 NC999E for weeks prior to March 31, '31; every flight crew who'd shut down and walked into the terminal to finish paperwork and grab coffee, had a guardian angel flying with them.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The broken spar was the primary cause of the wing's failure, with the weather being the primary contributing factor. The spar would have ultimately weakened enough to just let go during a silk-smooth flight in clear, beautiful weather (What pilots call CAVU...Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited...weather), but the severe turbulence during the storm they were flying through, not to mention the wing flutter caused by said turbulence, definitely accelerated the process.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It was equally apparent, after some examination, that the reason the layers were delaminating was water damage,...moisture was getting inside the wing, infiltrating the laminated layers, and dissolving the glue that was holding the layers together. Something that occurred, again, over a period of weeks or even months. They would never know just which maneuver, or series of maneuvers, actually finished the wing off, but it was academic...the wing had failed during maneuvering while flying through the storm. And that maneuver hadn't needed to be, and almost definitely wasn't, as extreme as the pull-out from a sudden dive mentioned above. It could have well been, and likely <i>was</i>, something as simple as one last sudden sharp up-and down jolt of turbulence.</p><p style="text-align: left;">That wing was <i>going</i> to fail, no matter what. It just picked that particular date, time, and place to do so. They had their cause, and could close the boo...</p><p style="text-align: left;">Wait... you guys <i>really</i> don't think that was the end of the story, do ya? Because it wasn't even close. The crash brought about changes in aviation that resonate to this very day.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Among the very first things that happened upon discovery of the wing spar's disturbing habit of collecting moisture and coming apart was the grounding of every Fokker F-10 in the air. On May 4, 1931...just over a month after the crash...the Aeronautics Board of the Department of Commerce mandated that every Fokker F-10 be taken out of service until their main wing spars could be inspected for similar delamination.</p><p style="text-align: left;">This was a huge problem for the infant airline industry, considering that F-10s made up a considerable percentage of the airliners then in service. And these inspections would not be a quick, easy, look-see, either. Unlike today's aircraft...or even slightly more modern aircraft then in service, such as the Ford Trimotor, and much more modern aircraft soon to be in service<i>,</i> such as the DC-3, the Fokker F-10 didn't have removable inspection plates that allowed maintenance personnel to look inside the wings and inspect the structure. Inspecting the spars and struts on the F-10 required very literally taking the wings apart. And if delamination <i>was</i> found, it would require all but completely rebuilding the wing, at considerable expense, not only direct expense of the repair itself, but lost revenue that the aircraft wouldn't be earning while out of service.. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The loss of one of the primary types of airliner in service at that time would take a huge bite out of the revenue streams of American Airways, Universal Airlines, Pan Am, and most particularly, TWA. TWA most particularly because they were getting hit with a <i>double-</i>whammy. TWA, after all, was seen as the airline that killed Knute Rockne. and this was <i>before</i> the public found out the actual cause of the crash. <i>If </i>they found out the cause.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Wait, I hear ya say. What do ya mean '<i>IF'??</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">Quick coin-pocket history lesson. When the Aeronautics Board of the Department Of Commerce was created in 1926, they were tasked with both regulating aviation in order to make it as safe as possible, as well as promoting aviation, in order to make it as profitable as possible for both aircraft manufacturers and airlines. It was all but inevitable that these two tasks would go head to head occasionally.</p><p style="text-align: left;">One of the tasks assigned to the regulatory side of the Branch was the investigation of, and hopefully finding the causes of aircraft accidents so that lessons learned from these accidents could be applied towards preventing future crashes. While they were at it, they were also required to make the causes of these crashes public. </p><p style="text-align: left;">And here we see the afore mentioned 'The Board's Two Legislated Tasks Often Clashed' thing in action.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The airlines all but revolted at the thought of accident causes being made public, saying that if the general public knew why their planes were falling out of the sky, they'd never fly again,. The Aeronautics Branch, also tasked with promoting commercial aviation, agreed with them, even though they were, in fact, mandated by Federal law to release the causes of these same crashes to the public.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Aeronautics Board came up with a slick little work-around, though...They would release statistics showing the various causes of air crashes on a twice-yearly basis, said table of statistics to be published in major news papers and magazines twice annually...probably mid-year and at the end of the year. Lawmakers looked and searched, and head-scratched, and realized that the A.B could do <i>just</i> that and get by with it. This information was passed on to the representatives of The Fourth Estate...and all was <i>not</i> well with their world.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The media dutifully published the tables of statistics, sulking the whole way (And pushing for change while they were at it) while <i>most </i>of the honorable members of Congress pushed for change as well. This clash between regulation and promotion began to come to a head in 1929, when a T.A.T. (Transcontinental Air Transport) Ford Trimotor named <i>City of San Francisco </i>slammed into the side of Mount Taylor, near Grants, New Mexico, in inclement weather, killing eight.</p><p style="text-align: left;">New Mexico's Senator Bratton took particular interest in the crash, and a spirited debate, vis-à-vis making the results of the investigation public, ensued. From what I understand it got <i>real </i>spirited, as well as complicated, as Senator Bratton also wanted to transfer the Branch's investigative function to the Interstate Commerce Commission, directing the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce to investigate <i>all</i> previous fatal air carrier accidents.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Like I noted above, it got <i>real</i> complicated and I'm not even going to pretend to go into all of it. Lets just say that Senator Bratton was facing un uphill battle on an icy road, because everyone else wanted the Aeronautics Branch, and their investigations, to stay where they were. Part of this is understandable, as the ICC wasn't prepared to take over the regulatory functions being handled by the Aeronautics Branch.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The thing is, though, the I.C.C. had been investigating rail accidents since 1912, so they were well versed in accident investigation. Also, while the A.B hadn't been granted the power to issue subpoenas or protect crash sites, among other powers, and their members weren't protected from lawsuits arising from their findings, the members of the I.C.C. <i>had</i> such powers and protections...at least while investigating rail accidents. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The big question everyone was asking, then, was whether or not the I.C.C.'s powers and protections would also cover them in the investigation of air crashes. The I.C.C. actually had absolutely<i> no</i> desire to find out, and, for the time-being, wanted absolutely nothing to do with air crash investigations...train wrecks were keeping them quite busy enough.at any rate, thank you just the same.</p><p style="text-align: left;">While all of that was being hashed out, the Aeronautics Board hung on to their policy of not revealing the causes of crashes publicly. Tightly.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A month or so later, the senate again took up the subject of releasing crash investigation results, when Tennessee Senator Kenneth McKellor proposed a resolution calling for the release of information about a crash in Memphis. Senator Bratton added an amendment calling for release of info concerning the <i>City of San Francisco </i>crash and joined him in battle. This time they got results. Sort of.</p><p style="text-align: left;">About a month or so after the resolution was proposed, the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, after some discussion, agreed to the resolution, and the Aeronautics Board was forced to release information on those two crashes. Senator Braxton proposed legislation that would allow for the subpoenaing of witnesses and the protection of evidence...legislation that was <i>proposed</i> but not yet passed when TWA Flight 599 crashed.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And so the battle to release info on <i>all</i> crashes still quietly raged, with the aviation industry still solidly on the 'Keep The Results Secret' side of things, an opinion noted very strongly in several aviation trade magazines. Meanwhile, the media continued their fight on the other side of the cause, with the <i>Christian Science Monitor </i>publishing a very passionate article for public release in their January 4, 1930 issue. It wasn't a decision that would be made quickly or easily. Or even peacefully.</p><p style="text-align: left;">There were reports of airline personnel threatening photographers while 'confiscating' cameras and removing film at the scene of a crash that was fatal to seven in Alexandria, Va. While they were at it, they removed almost all traces of the crashed and burned airliner with-in well under 24 hours of the crash. This was early in 1930, with-in a couple of weeks of a Maddux Airlines Ford Trimotor crash that killed 16, and interestingly, one Senator Bingham, who had been solidly <i>against</i> releasing crash cause information, was suddenly solidly <i>for</i> it, calling for the release of info about both crashes.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The debate got more heated...and the policy of non-disclosure harder to defend...when it was discovered that the A.B. was releasing the causes of crashes to aircraft manufacturers and airlines, but <i>not</i> to the families of victims. Annnnd...the policy <i>still </i>wasn't amended, and the A.B. still refused to publicly release reports (The City of San Francisco report was released to the members of Congress, but not publicly...) The main sticking point was legalities...the A.B absolutely did <i>not</i> want the reports to be used as evidence in any lawsuits if and when the families of deceased passengers filed suit against the airline and/or the aircraft manufacturer, nor did they themselves want to be the subject of lawsuits filed against them by the airlines due to loss of business caused by public release of accident causes.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> The debate over public release of investigation results is chock full of details and debates and battles that are far <i>far </i>beyond the scope of this blog, however these debates <i>did</i> result in the drafting and passage of Senate Resolution 206, which required the Department of Commerce to release the causes of <i>all</i> aircraft mishaps between May 20, 1926 and May 16 1930.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Again, the requested info was released to <i>Congress, </i>not to the public. There was very little action or debate on the subject between May of 1930, and March of 1931.1930 had been an extraordinarily safe year for commercial aviation, taking the debate out of the public consciousness, if for no other reason, because there were fewer crashes for the Press to report on.</p><p style="text-align: left;">But the Public was <i>still </i>beginning to make a few waves, even as things quieted down on the debate-front. Remember that T.A.T crash in New Mexico a couple of years earlier? It got national attention when it occurred, and the Press kept it in public view for several days...not that doing so got the cause of the crash released publicly (Remember, only Congress got to see those results). But the public...flying and non-flying...remembered it. Eight people dying in an air crash in the late 1920s was the emotional and visceral equivalent of ten times that number dying in a crash occurring in 2023.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then came the Maddux Ford Trimotor crash, which was the deadliest air crash in U.S. history up to that time, and again, only Congress got to see the cause of the crash. despite outcry from the public and the Media alike, The A.B. hung on to their policy of secrecy like a ball-carrier heading for the goal line. Well, that 'Ball Carrier' was about to be tackled. By a Fokker F-10 as it slammed into a Kansas cow pasture. On March 31st, 1931, the props got kicked out from under the A.B.s policy of secrecy in a <i>big </i>way.</p><p style="text-align: left;">As I noted further up, the crash was <i>huge</i> news for nearly a week, with every major paper and many smaller ones carrying stories of the crash as well as Rockne's biography, stories of his coaching prowness, stories of how he was a mentor to his players, tributes from friends and family...and editorials pretty much demanding that the Aeronautics Board release the cause of the crash. Knute Rockne was about as close to royalty as the U.S. could offer in that era, and Rockne's millions of fans wanted answers as to why he died far too soon. And they wanted them <i>now!!'</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">This time the A.B. caved practically without a fight, releasing a press release on April 3rd, naming the broken propeller...that actually <i>didn't</i> happen...as the culprit. </p><p style="text-align: left;">So this brought forth both another problem and another first...the first official press release by the A.B was closely followed by the first retraction. Well known Aviation journalist Wiley Post, who had also widely reported the broken propeller as the cause of the crash, published his own retraction, now known as the 'Eating Crow' story. </p><p style="text-align: left;">A few days later the A.B published what is still the official cause of the crash...a combination of turbulence, icing, and the weakened wing spar, coupled with the F-10's tendency towards wing flutter, brought Flight 599 down. </p><p style="text-align: left;">While the cause of Flight 599's crash was made public, it would be another three years...June 1934...before amendments to the Air Commerce Act of 1926 (The law that created the Aeronautics Board in the first place) gave the board both the powers and protections it had been seeking, transferring air crash investigation to the I.C.C. while they were at it. These same amendments mandated full public disclosure of investigation results, ultimately leading to the full public access to full NTSB accident reports we have today.</p><p style="text-align: center;">**</p><p style="text-align: left;">Of course that wasn't the only...or the biggest...change resulting from the crash. One of the legacies of Knute Rockne's death is the modern airliner. The crash all but ended the Fokker F-10's...And any other wooden-winged airliner's... use by any airline operating in the U.S. While we're at it, bad publicity from the crash also came <i>real</i> close to ending TWA, long before they became 'Trans-World'.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The F-10 didn't go away immediately, but it definitely disappeared from the air for several months after the crash, as airlines went through the rigmarole and expense of having the suspect wing spars inspected. American Airways (American Airlines' predecessor) still had several in service, as did a couple of other airlines, but the public likely didn't trust the airplane. And I can just about bet that TWA never put another passenger on one of the planes.</p><p style="text-align: left;">All of the airlines (And their potential customers) were clamoring for sturdier, and safer, all metal aircraft. The Ford Trimotor, though very slightly slower and less capable, payload-wise, than the F-10, was not only all metal, it was built like a tank and quickly gained a reputation for ruggedness and reliability. TWA already had a fleet of them, and likely bought a few more as their F-10s either languished in the far corners of airfields or were sold off.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="1832" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaShjVRTW3AXN52o_psHJGHHouPNF9kOvJy1gtJMeQbOJZaCjKlpIFS_6BZyM1l3dgSsjxnpNySC0IsKfUiwu2bD6u9nm9qZ52JAuZPTpTb19myihnV2e4KuYpFldrcA1nlXMOzXO4lD8ALSA3OnBbJe3NLEAC6uNgwdFp_sq44e1oIH68r9-H9-L5j4Y/w640-h310/FOrd%20Trimotor.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Restored Ford Trimotor in Transcontinental Air Transport (T.A.T.) livery. The Fokker Tri-Motor predated the Ford by about three years, both aircraft being developed in the mid to late 1920s, and it's pretty well established that Henry Ford based the Ford Trimotor on the Fokker. One <i>big</i> difference, though...the Ford Trimotor was all metal and built like a tank. Several are not only still around, but also still flying, all on the airshow/exhibition circuit. </span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Quite a few of the 199 built were still in the air right on up to the mid 1960s, and during the 1950s quite a few of the rugged craft were used by 'Smoke-Jumpers...airborne forest firefighters who parachuted in to the scene.</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">Ford Motor Company never made a huge profit on the Trimotor, but I have a feeling more than a few of the 199 Ford Trimotors built were purchased during the short span of time between Flight 599's fatal plunge, and the introduction of more modern airliners. FoMoCo even designed and built (But never flew) a prototype for a 4 engine, 32 passenger airliner. It was a beast, and had it had a few more features (Like retractable landing gear and variable pitch propellers, both of which would have given it a faster cruising speed.) it very well <i>could</i> have been successful. As designed, however, it was already outdated before the first rivet was driven. And once the planes I'm about to profile took to the skies, the Ford Trimotor didn't stand a chance.</p><p style="text-align: left;">What the airlines (And the passengers) wanted was not only a safer all-metal airliner, they wanted a more <i>advanced,</i> far faster, far more comfortable, safer all metal airliner. Add to those wants, the airlines' requirement for a safe, fast, technically advanced all metal airliner that could turn a profit on every flight.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Curtiss Aircraft was actually the first to throw a hat into the modern airliner ring...well, sort of...with the Curtis T-32 Condor. The Condor was a trim, twin engine, steel tube frame, fabric covered 15 passenger biplane with a range of 850 miles. Thing is, it was already out-dated before the first one was ever delivered.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Both Eastern and American...the plane's two primary U.S. users...claimed a cruising speed of 167 MPH and a top speed of 190 MPH, but with all those struts and wires connecting and bracing the two wings, the plane, according to one aviation historian, 'had it's own built-in headwind', and the cruising speed was probably more like 120-130 MPH, with a top speed in the 140-150 MPH range...not much faster than either the Fokker F-10 or the Ford Trimotor.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> The Condor <i>was </i>comfortable, though, with a cabin configuration...rows of four seats, with two seats on either side of a center aisle, with rest-room (Far larger than todays inflight restrooms) and stewardess service area at the rear of the cabin....that would be familiar to modern air travelers.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The cabin was also <i>huge</i> in comparison to the Ford Trimotor's cabin, and even better, the seats could be converted to berths for overnight flights. Thanks to that big, comfortable sleeper-cabin, the plane was popular with travelers despite being slower than advertised.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGP-9veOlnrlwzHyXCS_F3ZSFJd2_KahpsDIQq8hT6izy4bzDXcssuJ9Ce-BefMbZ1ZTbJ39I8u71HsbnzB69qfVijEemzpshtAeIvjq4pMMif9owCWHWCtk-bLPpUB03MLkOWyho9rv6QCzQ555wL9pij4xpKEsKVVZTmroiZXuIVvAh3kY-3gIQincs/s800/r4c1_curtiss_condor.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="800" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGP-9veOlnrlwzHyXCS_F3ZSFJd2_KahpsDIQq8hT6izy4bzDXcssuJ9Ce-BefMbZ1ZTbJ39I8u71HsbnzB69qfVijEemzpshtAeIvjq4pMMif9owCWHWCtk-bLPpUB03MLkOWyho9rv6QCzQ555wL9pij4xpKEsKVVZTmroiZXuIVvAh3kY-3gIQincs/w640-h328/r4c1_curtiss_condor.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Curtiss T-32 Condor...Though this is actually one of the two Navy Condors, designated an R4C-1, externally it's essentially identical to the civilian airliners. The plane had steel tube fuselage and wing construction, but was fabric covered. It had an actual cruise speed of around 120 or so MPH, and had a range of 716 miles, but was only in service with the airlines for about three years.</span></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: left;"> Both of the Navy's Condors...including the one pictured...were used by Admiral Byrd's 1933 Antarctic Expedition, and both were abandoned after being used to explore over 450,000 square miles of territory. The remains of both aircraft are, presumably, still down there, somewhere.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">There are no intact Condors in existence.</span> </p></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;">Though not exactly blazing fast, the Condor was, comfortable, safe, and was also, IMHO, a truly good looking bird, especially in the air with it's retractable landing gear tucked up into the wheel wells...I believe the Condor was the <i>first</i> airliner with retractable gear.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> The Condor first flew in January 1933, and Curtis already had several orders in hand before the first bird took to the sky. American Airways snapped up nine of them, as did Eastern, with several other, foreign, carriers also ordering planes. The Condor would only be in service in the U.S. for about three years, and once American and Eastern replaced them with the next two planes I'm going to profile, several foreign airlines bought two or three apiece, so some were still flying on the other side of 'The Pond' for a decade or so after being replaced here in the U.S.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Army and Navy also bought a pair of aircraft apiece, the Army Air Core designating it as the YC-30, and using it as an executive transport, and the Navy designating it the R4C-1, and also using it as a transport for big-wigs. Both of the Navy's were used by Admiral Byrd's 1933 Antarctic Expedition. Both were abandoned in Antarctica after the expedition, and the remains of both, likely buried beneath dozens of yards of snow, are presumably still down there...somewhere.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Several, all exported, were even built as bombers, with internal bomb bays, and machine guns mounted in nose and dorsal turrets. Unknown of any of these ever saw combat.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Curtis ended up building 45 Condors., but those two wings and the fabric covering kind of put it at a disadvantage, as well as marking it as an outdated design. The public and the airlines both wanted something even more modern. And faster. Definitely faster. They didn't have long to wait.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Next into the fray was the Boeing Model 247. The 247 was an all metal, low wing monoplane with retractable landing gear and the capability of carrying 10 passengers. It was <i>far </i>faster than the Condor, with a 189 MPH cruise speed, and a slightly longer, 745 mile range. The first one flew in February of 1933 (The Condor beat it into the air by a month). The Condor, though slow, was actually the more capable aircraft, payload-wise. The 247's cabin only seated 10, with five rows of two seats, each row consisting of one seat on either side of a center aisle. The cabin <i>also</i> had the main wing spar running through it, so a trip to the loo for the passengers in the forward end of the cabin also involved stepping across the wing spar.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiep1quwVICJos0gNEm60n5qTj70G7bHs0VauBFLbyN1tpt-62n_hwlbEWDquQ92SG3Z-jY2zsSrSmelEdrOuWJmYvTD34kuefJ6elMo5OCgZOMA4FvtFRfla6okf8njh3z327F5JRm7X9-5vuZ4S1sYp3kFL1yIoUas9rD0YEYop8ZMw2vy2EsaDrm9a8/s1280/Boeing%20247%202.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="760" data-original-width="1280" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiep1quwVICJos0gNEm60n5qTj70G7bHs0VauBFLbyN1tpt-62n_hwlbEWDquQ92SG3Z-jY2zsSrSmelEdrOuWJmYvTD34kuefJ6elMo5OCgZOMA4FvtFRfla6okf8njh3z327F5JRm7X9-5vuZ4S1sYp3kFL1yIoUas9rD0YEYop8ZMw2vy2EsaDrm9a8/w640-h380/Boeing%20247%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Seattle, Washington 'Museum of Flight's immaculately restored Boeing 247 making it's final landing at Seattle's Boeing Field before being added, permanently, to the museum's static displays. The restored 247 wears period United Airlines livery.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Boeing 247 is widely considered to be the first modern airliner, with all-metal construction, variable-pitch propellers, retractable landing gear, and a cruising speed just shy of 190MPH.</span></div><div style="font-size: small; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The 247 still had a few flaws, though...the main spar passed trough the cabin, forcing passengers to step over it, and the plane only seated ten passengers. It's biggest flaw? It couldn't make a profit just flying passengers...it <i>had</i> to also carry either mail or freight to make money.</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb2vNc0QTcnbqI5va6xz8kJEqfl5Yo8hu1mdMbxmrRw7BoPL6Wux-YhXubK_1cCqPwqXFpuGNXNV9SU3naJlyh443jVGLRimaZSr9qoCVuoN2T8QPAIX4B_Ekc9xCPsMy6bul3dFeSGEPd2GRuLD1fV3C7kGYTijU0yq7rDneYLkavZZyYm3sUUPH0o0o/s950/boeing247d_morrisbiondi.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="950" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb2vNc0QTcnbqI5va6xz8kJEqfl5Yo8hu1mdMbxmrRw7BoPL6Wux-YhXubK_1cCqPwqXFpuGNXNV9SU3naJlyh443jVGLRimaZSr9qoCVuoN2T8QPAIX4B_Ekc9xCPsMy6bul3dFeSGEPd2GRuLD1fV3C7kGYTijU0yq7rDneYLkavZZyYm3sUUPH0o0o/w640-h408/boeing247d_morrisbiondi.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The same bird pictured above, on the ground so it's easier to see the layout of the cabin and cockpit in relation to the wing.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;">As I noted above and in the main body of the post, the main wing spar passes through the cabin, forcing passengers to step across it if they're, say, heading for the toilet in the rear of the cabin. The cockpit sits considerably higher than the passenger cabin.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This 247 has the forward slanted windshield originally installed on the planes, but pilots reported problems with ground lights reflecting off of the windshield, so later variants were equipped with a more conventional back-slanted wind screen.</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Still,
Boeing already had orders for 60 of the birds in hand before the
first piece of sheet metal was bent, but it was an easy sell.
Interesting thing about airlines during that era...several of
the <i>big </i>ones were actually owned by aircraft
manufacturers, and Boeing Air Express...soon to become United
Airlines...was one of them. TWA, desperate for newer and more modern
airliners, put in orders for the 247 as well, but those orders were,
well, delayed, as Boeing advised them that they couldn't fill any
other orders until they built all 60 of B.A.E, soon-to-be United's
planes.. ( Boeing did sell a <i>very</i> few to other
airlines...they only built 75 247s in total.) </div><p style="text-align: left;">I don't know why TWA didn't go with the Condor...it was already developed and abuilding, and Curtis would have likely welcomed the orders, as they weren't beholden at any airline...but, well, they didn't.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> They <i>did</i> however, write their own specs for a new airliner, and farmed them out to five different aircraft manufacturers. TWA's original spec sheet called for an all metal, <i>three</i> engine monoplane with an 800 mile range, 150 MPH cruise speed, and retractable gear. OH...and it had to be able to take off from any airport served by TWA (Albuquerque in particular) with one engine shut down.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The owner of one of the five manufacturers...Donald Douglas of Douglas Aircraft Corp....was reluctant, at first, to bid on the specs because he wasn't sure they could get the one hundred orders necessary to recoup development costs of the yet-undersigned new aircraft. It took a few meetings with his design team and TWA brass before he decided to have a go at it, and on top of that, to meet and exceed the specifications with only <i>two</i> engines.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The designers came up with a low wing, all metal, twin engine monoplane featuring retractable gear, variable pitch propellers, deicer boots for wings and horizontal/vertical stabilizers, and sturdy, robust yet lightweight monocoque construction throughout. The plane could seat 12 passengers in a heated, insulated cabin featuring an onboard toilet and a small galley for the preparation of inflight meals. OH...and the main wing spar passed through the fuselage <i>beneath</i> the cabin floor. It was to be designated the DC-1 for Douglas Commercial Model One</p><p style="text-align: left;">The plane rolled out in July of 1933, and was put through a rigorous five month test period where it exceeded <i>every</i> specification, with a cruise speed of 190MPH, a service ceiling of 23,000 feet, a range of 1000 miles, and the ability to cheerfully climb out of any airport on TWA's routes, fully loaded, with only one fan turning.</p><p style="text-align: left;">TWA accepted the plane in December of 1933, and immediately ordered 30 more, with slight changes...the fuselage was stretched about two feet, more powerful engines were installed, and two more seats were added, allowing the plane to carry fourteen passengers...big enough changes for Douglas to consider it a new airplane, designated the DC-2</p><p style="text-align: left;">TWA took delivery of the first DC-2 in May of 1934, and by the end of the year the type was flying on every TWA route. The DC-2's cruising speed and range were identical to the DC-1's, and it could carry two more passengers, and most importantly, be profitable by simply carrying passengers. Any mail or freight it carried was simply extra profit.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Other airlines took note as well, Eastern and American both ordered ten of them, and Pan-Am bought sixteen. Several foreign carriers also bought DC-2s. A goodly percentage of the 198 aircraft built went to the U.S. Army Air Corps, as the C-33, and the U.S. Navy and Marines as the R2D.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Douglas only built 198 DC-2s (One fewer than the total number of Ford Tri-motors built) but the DC-2 didn't end production because it was unpopular...on the contrary, airlines <i>loved</i> the big bird...they wanted more, so Douglas gave them just that, and birthed an aviation icon while they were at it.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghc-O00s-J4FN1T08GFJe5rKq3s9ipwApsbT-XwlPSgGFcpF8Bp_yaaPRgVuujYs8LUbG7FJOgdGOBAb1h8YIlhTBcizdIU9CCusWJzvqK6wNgor53p7fASGyWrj4cY1qNWyGHF7Pxz3jr32-V3U6CLapWIdSBzQcdw1zNDlYQ1FmMO6cDEyPik-SgPiA/s474/DC2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="474" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghc-O00s-J4FN1T08GFJe5rKq3s9ipwApsbT-XwlPSgGFcpF8Bp_yaaPRgVuujYs8LUbG7FJOgdGOBAb1h8YIlhTBcizdIU9CCusWJzvqK6wNgor53p7fASGyWrj4cY1qNWyGHF7Pxz3jr32-V3U6CLapWIdSBzQcdw1zNDlYQ1FmMO6cDEyPik-SgPiA/w640-h432/DC2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Restored Douglas DC-2, in TWA (Transcontinental and Western Air at the time.) livery. TWA was the DC-2's introductory customer, as well as the line that asked that the new aircraft be developed. Douglas hit it slam out of the park with the new plane. The DC-2 was an all metal monoplane featuring rugged, all metal, monocoque construction, retractable landing hear, variable pitch propellers, and a 14 passenger seating capacity The plane was legitimately fast, with a 190MPH cruise speed, and was comfortable, seating those 14 passengers in a wide, insulated, heated cabin featuring an on-board toilet and a galley for the preparation of in-flight meals. It also had an important safety margin, being able to cheerfully climb out of any airport on TWA's route, fully loaded, on one engine. Most importantly, the plane could make a profit just by carrying passengers...the very first airliner able to do so.<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;">American Airlines' president called Don Douglas, asking about converting the DC-2 to a sleeper aircraft, with seats that could be converted to berths for overnight flights. They wanted the new planes to replace their Curtiss Condors. Douglas was, again, a bit reluctant until American's president guaranteed him 20 orders.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Slide-rule work was carried out, chins were rubbed meaningfully, and the DC-2's fuselage was stretched another three feet and the cabin widened by 29 inches, to 95 inches. The wingspan was increased to 95 feet, larger engines installed, and they, again, had a brand new airplane...the DC-3</p><p style="text-align: left;">The plane would carry 16 passengers as a sleeper, with seats that converted to berths, and 21 as a conventional airliner, with seven rows of three seats...two on the left side and one on the right of a center aisle. It would cruise at 207 MPH, had the same 1000 mile range as the DC-2, and had a service ceiling of 23,000 feet. Like the DC-2, that 1000 mile range gave it the capability of flying cross country with just two refueling stops, and its high cruising speed made that trip an 18 hour journey, even with the gas stops.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The first twenty or so, for American Airlines, were designated as Douglas Sleeper Transports, but pretty much all of the rest of the 607 DC-3s built were the 21 passenger airliners. They <i>quickly</i> gained a reputation for being reliable, rugged, comfortable, and, for that era, <i>fast, </i>and were beloved by crews and passengers...and the airlines...alike.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpC65WvnyYTxPFL9ckslxazQQKaWkZCtvzM0CAq1gPRa3pWP2PfLCf0KRbQvw3oZ7sbH_RkCJFhxJNKujB5koXuVV3tzqZEQHgfpCNGXQGUQg8C1Ll-8bdWWoEl_kQYYYtFebzciF0nJ8aH2GZmeH8rbIzLFaQB3qW3seX6NJ7brTyYW3Io-0diRbcTZw/s1600/passenger-aircraft-Douglas-DC-3-introduction-airline-business-1935.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpC65WvnyYTxPFL9ckslxazQQKaWkZCtvzM0CAq1gPRa3pWP2PfLCf0KRbQvw3oZ7sbH_RkCJFhxJNKujB5koXuVV3tzqZEQHgfpCNGXQGUQg8C1Ll-8bdWWoEl_kQYYYtFebzciF0nJ8aH2GZmeH8rbIzLFaQB3qW3seX6NJ7brTyYW3Io-0diRbcTZw/w640-h428/passenger-aircraft-Douglas-DC-3-introduction-airline-business-1935.webp" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A restored Douglas DC-3 in period United Airlines livery. The DC-3 came into being when American Airlines requested than Douglas develop a sleeper version of the DC-2. So Douglas engineers and designers rubbed chins and manipulated slide rules and realized that the new plane, .with a stretched, widened cabin, longer wing-span, and more powerful engines would be an entirely different aircraft, which they designated the DC-3<br /><br />American Airlines took delivery of 20 of the Skysleepers, which could seat...and sleep...16, but most of the over 600 built were 21 passenger day-liners. The DC-3 not only carried more passengers than it's little sister, it carried them faster, with a cruise speed of 207 MPH, and a range of 1000 miles, which allowed it to fly from LA to New York in 18 hours, with just two refueling stops. The DC-3 was the most popular airliner of the late '30s and the 1940s. <i>Every</i> major airline had a fleet of them, and if you flew anywhere, it would most likely be aboard a DC-3<br /><br />The DC-3 was already fast becoming a legend when the US was plunged into World War II...during the war over 11,000 C-47s...the Army Air Force version of the DC-3...and R4Ds...the Navy variant...rolled off of assembly lines, to fly in every theater of the war, carrying anything that could be loaded into the thirty or so foot long cargo bay into often unimproved landing strips. They also proved themselves able to withstand loads of punishment, often bringing their crews home with horrendous damage.<br /><br />The DC-3 quickly gained the status of an aviation icon, and after the war, with thousands sold as surplus, they were snapped up by smaller airlines, converted to civilian airliners, and continued in revenue service for decades.<br /><br />Just shy of two hundred of the iconic birds are still flying, though none are in scheduled passenger service. It's highly likely, though, that, when 2036 rolls around, there'll be a couple of century old DC-3s still flying.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Pretty much <i>every</i> major airline, including United, had a fleet of them, and the DC-3 was the most popular civil airliner in the air by the end of 1936, and was well on the way to becoming somewhat of a legend...</p><p style="text-align: left;">...And then we had a little dust-up sometimes known as World War II, during which over 11,000 C-47s...the military variant of the DC-3 airframe...were built and utilized as transports, cargo carriers, glider tow planes, jump-planes for paratroopers...pretty much anything that involved carrying people or cargo, often into rough, unimproved landing strips.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> <i>Thousands </i>of them were surplus after World War II, and Douglas Aircraft, as well as a couple of smaller companies, made a mint by converting them to civilian spec...installing airliner-grade interiors, and otherwise upgrading them...and selling them to smaller airlines.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The DC-3 went from legend to icon, becoming the basis for our modern airliners, and is still around <i>today </i>with just shy of two hundred of them<i> </i>still in service, though none are in regular scheduled passenger service. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if when 2036 rolls around, there aren't a couple of century old DC-3s still in the air.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The loss of Knute Rockne was a huge blow to the sports world in 1931, and devastated his team, and of course, his family., and the crash in which he died devastated seven more families, but at the same time the crash started the process that lead to both the present day public transparency in air crash investigation reporting and, even more importantly, the safe and reliable aircraft that we travel on today.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So, as tragic as Knute Rockne's death, and the passing of his fellow passengers and the two pilots was, at least they didn't die in vain.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>A Quick Look At The Movies</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Spirit of Notre Dame</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">If we're going to look at the crash that took Knute Rockne's life, we also need to, briefly, take a look at the movie that 'The Rock' was on the way to L.A. to act as Technical Consultant for.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Spirit of Notre Dame was a fictionalized look at<i> The Fighting Irish </i>of the mid-late 1920s, and they actually did a pretty good job on it, given the technology available to movie-makers of the era. The movie was written by the trio of Walter DeLeon, Robert Keith, and Richard Schayer, with Russel Mack calling the shots from the director's chair.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It starred Lew Ayres as Bucky O'Brien, William Bakewell as Jim Stewart, a very young Andy Devine as Truck McCall, and J. Farrell MacDonald as a very Knute Rockne like head coach, known only as Coach. The plot revolved around a pair of friends who enrolled at Notre Dame, and made the football team...one of them very much a team player, the other the first string quarterback who thought he was the only man on the team.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Andy Devine's character, Truck McCall was based on George Gipp...'The Gipper'...and in fact, Devine as Truck McCall recited a version of Gipp's famed 'Win one for the Gipper' request, nearly a decade before some guy named Ron Reagan did so far more famously in 'Knute Rockne All American'. Devine's character also added a bit of comedy relief throughout the film. Devine was already a veteran of nearly 20 films when he appeared in The Spirit of Notre Dame, and would go on to appear in nearly 200 movies and TV shows before his death, at 71, in 1977</p><p style="text-align: left;">The actual Four Horsemen' appear in the movie as themselves, BTW, along with most of 'The Seven Mules'...both on screen and in stock game footage. They actually did a pretty decent job in the acting department.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Speaking of said stock footage, there is some truly awesome game footage in this movie...it's almost worth the watch for that alone.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The plot's pretty predictable, with conflict and a love triangle thrown in for good measure, and then everyone pulling together to win The Big Game (Notre Dame-Army) at the end. I watched it (Rented on Amazon Prime) and it was actually a very enjoyable way to spend an hour and twenty minutes.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Knute Rockne was killed enroute to L.A. to act as a technical advisor on this film, and the movie is dedicated to him. Not only that, but at the beginning of the movie, before the film's first scene, there is a very moving five or so minute tribute to Knute Rockne.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP5ly7dcbt52ijSePdTsgygqoKSPx_lIWR5uqVBixshrIZ05sJIC7dDm45XOAP8QVbtub3vXK-iXy4qDG64jWSuk_tSV3OlqmpgCtXVmYOYD2mn_dgAh062mn7yzxdaBPks8RDirtF30ErVuvK5SB_8ZSc9KNSg3HWrx8fwy8TNIMtoPxp31K4dxZf5TU/s770/the-spirit-of-notre-dame-movie-poster%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP5ly7dcbt52ijSePdTsgygqoKSPx_lIWR5uqVBixshrIZ05sJIC7dDm45XOAP8QVbtub3vXK-iXy4qDG64jWSuk_tSV3OlqmpgCtXVmYOYD2mn_dgAh062mn7yzxdaBPks8RDirtF30ErVuvK5SB_8ZSc9KNSg3HWrx8fwy8TNIMtoPxp31K4dxZf5TU/w416-h640/the-spirit-of-notre-dame-movie-poster%20(1).jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There were several posters released for The Spirit of Notre Dame, but this is one<br />of the two that were most prominent, with The Four Horsemen pictured prominently<br />beneath the title image, and the dedication to Knute Rockne in the poster's<br />bottom right corner.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXft_QrNdeXQpEWFRgxmCwHAKdVjoGRhapaFZCMMVnv-Yxn1_tEgEMNLMDpSkwqfJkXlSXdz9XlVYbMt2ZboqgrcwEt5ANSmKbs4gqr7BhbWkMJu3bvR6Dm4b3I-SKNpUW14pZkZnwIrbAI8NWK7LGHQfiIPJ27Byf7MHvDYNYJizKSnXI8_30ke7kqSk/s682/the-spirit-of-notre-dame-movie-poster.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXft_QrNdeXQpEWFRgxmCwHAKdVjoGRhapaFZCMMVnv-Yxn1_tEgEMNLMDpSkwqfJkXlSXdz9XlVYbMt2ZboqgrcwEt5ANSmKbs4gqr7BhbWkMJu3bvR6Dm4b3I-SKNpUW14pZkZnwIrbAI8NWK7LGHQfiIPJ27Byf7MHvDYNYJizKSnXI8_30ke7kqSk/w470-h640/the-spirit-of-notre-dame-movie-poster.jpg" width="470" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The second...and IMHO, most attractive...of the two posters for the movie, with Lew Ayres prominently<br /> featured as the title image, and the dedication to Knute Rockne prominently<br /> displayed with the title image, directly below the title itself.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Knute Rockne All American</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">This is the one that <i>everyone</i> knows at least one line from...the famed 'Win one for the Gipper'.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Knute Rockne All American was a direct biographical movie about the coach, released in 1940 and written by Bonnie Rockne and Robert Buckner, with directors Lloyd Bacon and William K. Howard at the helm. The movie starred Pat Obrien as Knute Rockne and future Governor of California and 40th U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, as George 'The Gipper' Gipp. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Bonnie Rockne had a great deal of creative control over casting and script, and heartily approved of both choices, though Pat O'Brien wasn't the first choice to portray her husband. James Cagney was very much in the running to portray Knute Rockne until his anti-Catholic leanings were disclosed. As Notre Dame also had a bit of say in casting choices, Cagney was quickly dropped from the cast, replaced by O'Brien.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Much of the movie was actually filmed on campus at Notre Dame, making it one of only two movies to ever have that distinction, the other being the 1993 release 'Rudy'.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The movie premiered in South Bend on Oct 5, 1940, and opened to generally favorable reviews. It showed up on 'The Late Show' type TV fairly regularly back in the pre-streaming era of television, and is currently streamable on several platforms such as Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJEEM4TCgA8jWef-kCt8iUn9cmzxwaAzjp7rboOdmCz8T9g302of5sHadNvDPlhlEbcjV84x7hLya3Xaa8Iq6hYV_ZJmOgfCmjZo2pHz6iMx2hW8hrPXAyxlVGc8kVNVoBHgdoTgLdO4OagqsAqmdVhwKQ_bBJU2TorQCckdHDy9XR25H8q470iIxlSs/s1600/poster-knute-rockne.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1066" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJEEM4TCgA8jWef-kCt8iUn9cmzxwaAzjp7rboOdmCz8T9g302of5sHadNvDPlhlEbcjV84x7hLya3Xaa8Iq6hYV_ZJmOgfCmjZo2pHz6iMx2hW8hrPXAyxlVGc8kVNVoBHgdoTgLdO4OagqsAqmdVhwKQ_bBJU2TorQCckdHDy9XR25H8q470iIxlSs/w426-h640/poster-knute-rockne.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There were also several posters made for Knute Rockne All American. This one, featuring Ronald Reagan<br />as George Gipp as the title image was one of the two most seen.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQmGEcCsDdrTwTxrhqjsOdqPWhDexnCFadH6iW2160bVRY9PvavbFvE2_Bo-KzKJwHirzT1WDDyi_iAmv_XJ63R6ttMPe8lEmUkBVitD-8YJCrJXBIDRR5Qyuu6R3lo-i1hdiDUYV8YrGY5uyE5rAbaGCcIDTAF94WVR35nyTyQPcktXELRkKw_FW8bs/s791/Knute%20Rockne%20All%20American%20poster%202.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="791" data-original-width="520" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQmGEcCsDdrTwTxrhqjsOdqPWhDexnCFadH6iW2160bVRY9PvavbFvE2_Bo-KzKJwHirzT1WDDyi_iAmv_XJ63R6ttMPe8lEmUkBVitD-8YJCrJXBIDRR5Qyuu6R3lo-i1hdiDUYV8YrGY5uyE5rAbaGCcIDTAF94WVR35nyTyQPcktXELRkKw_FW8bs/w420-h640/Knute%20Rockne%20All%20American%20poster%202.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The other featured a close-up photo of Pat O'Brien as Knute Rockne for the title<br />image. Pat Obrien looked nothing like Rockne and had to spend about three hours <br />in the make-up chair every shooting day to get even a vague resemblance to the coach.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSdSNQwFez7Ots6EFpm92sI-cyvPHZSaYCfgiqNwNcZOJoyqY4kvsDSQ9E8HCh5NvE7_n1_rwGHS9Bc5jSmZt2oahzTl74_nhKGwsiALkg5YKR2-2KJsgBJ6J9Yp55G9GM8x0spC5Kh1ePrULKwnJo9AMMhexvEaNZZJ0OVZVKkllacqrJRQqJLcm7Cko/s400/rocknecolfax.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="400" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSdSNQwFez7Ots6EFpm92sI-cyvPHZSaYCfgiqNwNcZOJoyqY4kvsDSQ9E8HCh5NvE7_n1_rwGHS9Bc5jSmZt2oahzTl74_nhKGwsiALkg5YKR2-2KJsgBJ6J9Yp55G9GM8x0spC5Kh1ePrULKwnJo9AMMhexvEaNZZJ0OVZVKkllacqrJRQqJLcm7Cko/w640-h422/rocknecolfax.webp" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The movie premiered at The Colfax theater, in South Bend, Indiana, on Oct 5, 1940, and as this unfortunately grainy photo shows, the crowds were just as huge as if it had premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. </span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Colfax was huge, seating 2000 patrons, and was listed on the registry of historic places, but was <i>still </i>demolished to make way for an expansion of the South Bend Tribune Building in 1991</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***> Links, Notes, and Stuff <***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p> This one was a piece of cake to research. For the most part. Even though <i>all</i> of my research luck wasn't the good kind. Most of it was, but, not all. ::Sigh:: There was one <i>big</i> disappointment.</p><p> Back in 2009, a fellow named James Stone wrote a very well received, well researched, and from what I can gather, well written book, entitled 'The Plane That Killed Knute Rockne'.</p><p>It was an in-depth look at Knute Rockne's career as well as a look at Anthony Fokker, designer of the Fokker F-10, the two pilots who were flying Flight 599 that fateful morning, and a very in-depth look at both the plane and the crash. It would have been an awesome tool in researching this...er...learned tome, had I been able to get hold of one.</p><p>::Sigh:: And of <i>course</i> it was out of print and had been for about a decade or so by the time I started doing the research for this post.. The only two copies I could find both cost far more than my budget would allow. </p><p>But even without Jim Stone's book, this was one of those times that I almost had <i>too</i> much info to work with...a far <i> far</i> better problem than having too little info, trust me on this. Then again I knew this one was going one of the easier posts to research before I started...I mean, really, type 'Knute Rockne ' or 'Knute Rockne Crash' into the ol' Google Machine or any of it's cousins, and you get literally pages and pages of links, though, as with any internet-sourced info, you do have to filter it a bit. The article that started off by referring to <i>Rockne</i> as 'The Gipper', for example, I tossed out without reading another line. But for every throw-away link I encountered, I found twenty good solid ones. So no, research wasn't a problem on this one.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Content-</i>wise, however, things got just a scosh more complicated, and again, I knew, going in that there was <i>far</i> more to the story of TWA Flight 599's crash than the crash...or even Knute Rockne's death... alone. The crash, in fact, is only a part<i> </i>of the story, and if I had written about <i>just </i>the crash, the post would have felt unfinished in a huge<i> </i>way. I couldn't, for example, talk about Knute Rockne without delving into the history of college football just a bit (And trust me, I barely scratched the surface), and I also had to lead in with why the beloved coach was so beloved. </p><p style="text-align: left;">It was what happened <i>after</i> the crash, though, that both became the crash's legacy, and made this post a bit more complicated that just 'A post about a plane crash'.</p><p style="text-align: left;">This meant that, after I told the story of the crash itself, I had to go into what was, arguably, the most important part of the story...the changes that came about due to the crash, and there were a <i>slew </i>of 'em! When TWA Flight 599 cratered that remote Kansas farm field, the Aeronautics Board was forced by the Press to do away with it's controversial policy of keeping the general public in the dark about the causes of air crashes...the Knute Rockne crash was, as I noted in the body of the post, the first in which the official cause was released to the public.</p><p style="text-align: left;">All those CAA/NTSB accident report PDF files that anyone with an internet connection can download for free are a direct result of Knute Rockne's crash. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Even <i>more</i> importantly, though, the crash began the birthing process of what we now know as modern commercial aviation, as well as all but directly leading to the development of what is, arguably, the most famous breed of airplane that ever took to the sky...the Douglas DC-3. That particular aircraft, BTW, was very much the prototype for the modern airliner. If wooden-winged airliners hadn't been all but outlawed, the development of safe, all-metal airliners would have likely taken <i>far</i> longer than it actually did..</p><p style="text-align: left;">SO, yeah, this one was a cinch...and lots of fun...yet <i>still</i> more than a little complicated...to research and write.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I just hope that, in the process of writing this one, I did 'Rock' Rockne justice, and that I managed to make this an enjoyable and informative read while I was at it.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> As always, any errors are mine and mine alone. Any corrections that need to be made, let me know!</p><p style="text-align: left;">One quick note of apology...at several places in the NOTES, the font size changes to a smaller font...Blogger's software did this all on it's own, for reasons known only to it. I've tried to fix it, and so for, have been unsuccessful. I'll keep trying...sorry for any inconvenience this causes</p><p style="text-align: left;">Now...on to the Notes! </p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">The original spelling of Knute Rockne's last name was actually 'Rokne'. His dad, Lars Rokne, added the 'c' to Americanize their surname after they moved to the U.S. in 1893</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Contrary to popular myth and legend, Knute Rockne did <i>not</i> invent the forward pass, nor were the Notre Dame <i>Fighting Irish</i> the first football team to use it. They <i>may, </i>however, have been the team that popularized it. But they <i>didn't</i> pioneer it.</p><p>First lets take a look at the Notre Dame-Army game that popularized the Forward Pass. The game was played during a period when Notre Dame was looking for quality teams to schedule...their team was scoring run-away victories over less skilled opponents, and many midwestern schools had boycotted them due to both ant-catholic sentiment, and concerns over player eligibility. So Notre Dame looked to the East and West Coasts for opponents.</p><p>Just hired head coach Jess Harper wrote letters to several schools asking to be placed on their schedule, and one of those schools was the U.S. Military Academy, in West Point, N.Y., better known among football fans as simply 'Army'. Michigan had cancelled their game with Army that year, and the Cadets had an open slot...Nov 1, 1913.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> The game was an away game for the <i>Irish, </i>played at West Point on a raw, cold Saturday afternoon, a decade pre-Miche Stadium, on The Plain, in front of 5000 fans sitting on temporary bleachers. Those fans...almost all of them Army fans...were in for a show, as well as a disappointment for the Army faithful.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame quarterback Gus Dorias kept the ball in the air, connecting on 14 of 17 forward passes, several of the completions...one a touchdown pass...to junior end Knute Rockne. The first half was close...the <i>Irish </i> were up 14-13 when the halftime whistle blew, but the <i>second </i>half is when Dorias really pressed the aerial attack. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame pulled steadily away in the second half, scoring three more touchdowns...one of them on a forward pass...while holding Army scoreless, pummeling the Cadets 35-13. The forward pass' praises were sung on the sports pages, and Notre Dame became famous for their aerial game, but it still took a few years for the pass to become canon in football. That 1913 ND-Army game was...and is...<i>still</i> known as the 'First Modern College Game'.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Except, well, it really wasn't.</p><p style="text-align: left;">See, that Notre Dame-Army game was <i>not</i> the first game to be dominated by the Aerial Attack. <i>That </i>happened six years earlier, in 1907, only a year or so after the forward pass was legalized. And it was Knute Rockne's fellow coaching icon, Pop Warner who did it.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Warner was coaching at a small Indian (As in Native American) prep school in Pennsylvania, named Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and he introduced the forward pass to the small school's team as soon as passing the ball became legal.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Lets just say that the Carlisle Eleven took to the forward pass like a fish to water. These kids were small but they were quick, and agile, and quarterback Pete Hauser could drill passes to his receivers as if they were laser-guided. To show off their skills, Carlisle kicked off their season with a 40-0 win over Lebanon Valley, then tallied five <i>more</i> wins...most of them shut-outs...winning their first six games by a total score of 188-11.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Then</i> they decided to take on the Big Boys, traveling to the University of Pennsylvania, where they mopped up Franklin Field with the Quakers, keeping the ball in the air to win 26-6 while gaining 402 yards to Penn's 76. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The next week they went to Harvard, where they won a tight, well played game 23-15. Princeton finally beat them, shutting them out 16-0, but by then little Carlisle had shown just what the forward pass could do for the offensive game. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame, however, got the credit...a mistake that Knute Rockne himself tried to correct without success.</p><p style="text-align: left;">What that long-ago Notre Dame-Army game <i>did</i> do, however, is cement Notre Dame's reputation as a football power house, as well as kicking off a rivalry that's lasted, with a ten year hiatus between 1947 and 1957, for over a century, though the meetings after 1957 haven't been yearly and have had a couple more ten year gaps. The two teams have met 51 times since that first game in 1913. While Army handed Notre Dame two of it's biggest losses...59-0 in 1944, and 48-0 in 1945...Notre Dame leads the series 39-8-4.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The <i>Irish</i> aerial attack <i>still</i> dominates. The Notre Dame-Navy rivalry started in 1927, and continued uninterrupted until 2019 (Covid cancelled the 2020 game, the series resumed in 2021). The Notre Dame-Navy rivalry is the longest uninterrupted rivalry in college football, and it continued, of course, in 2023. The weekend before I started working on these notes...August 26, 2023...both the <i>Irish</i> and Navy's <i>Midshipmen</i> traveled to Dublin, Ireland to show off some American football in front of thousands at Dublin's Aviva Stadium. Notre Dame walked the dog on the <i>Midshipmen, </i>winning 42-3. The aerial attack dominated, with the <i>Irish</i> going 20 for 25 on pass completions, and all but one of their six TDs being pass plays. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Knute Rockne was looking down, grinning from ear to ear.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame leads that series, too, <i>Big</i> Time...81-13-1.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Knute Rockne and Gus Dorias didn't come by their expertise at the pass play out of this air...the two of them had been discussing the aerial game for a while. Knute Rockne and Gus Dorias bonded near instantly over their love of football, and if the two of them had a spare minute so together, that was one of the topics they discussed.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Now, college students, then and now, often grabbed jobs to generate spending money, and sometime during their junior year at Notre Dame, Knute Rockne and Gus Dories applied for...and got...live-in summer jobs at Cedar Point Amusement Park and beach, in Sandusky Ohio, about 200 miles just about due east of South Bend.</p><p style="text-align: left;">They grabbed much desired jobs as life guards at the popular beach, situated on a long, narrow peninsula at the extreme northeast corner of the city of Sandusky, poking out into Lake Erie at the mouth of Sandusky Bay. They spent untold hours protecting bathers and swimmers at the beach, and performing all of the tasks that lifeguards the world over did and still do perform...but what they did while <i>on</i> duty isn't what's germane to our story...it's what they did while <i>off</i> duty that's important.</p><p style="text-align: left;">One of the items they brought with them when they journeyed to Sandusky was a football, or likely several footballs...and wile they were off, at least a couple of hours a day, they were out on the beach, seeing just what they could do with the forward pass, as well as the best ways to pass, receive, and run patterns.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Those untold hours on a Ohio beach, of course, doomed Army on Nov 1, 1913, because by then Gus Dorias had the forward pass down to an art form, and Knute Rockne had receiving them down just about as well. Rockne, of course, made notes and kept the aerial game in his playbook, to be used extensively when he became the winningest head coach on college football history.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Cedar Point Amusement Park...the second oldest amusement park in the U.S., as well as one of the most visited, is still very much in business today, and still includes a mile long bathing beach, the very beach where Knute Rockne and Gus Dorias perfected the forward pass over a century ago.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame Stadium is known as 'The House That Rockne Built', and part of the reason, of course, is the positive effect that Rockne's coaching had on the school's football program, but <i>most </i>of the reason centers on the fact that Rockne was the reason the stadium got built in the first place.</p><p style="text-align: left;">For eleven of the twelve years that Rockne coached the team's home field was the small, outdated Cartier Field, which Rockne had been pushing to have replaced pretty much since he became head coach. Notre Dame's finances were controlled by Holy Cross's Priests, who were infamously conservative when it came to spending money, and equally slow in making decisions. </p><p style="text-align: left;">By the end the 1928 season...at 5-4, Rockne's worst season...his frustration had grown to a tipping point. Even with the less than stellar record that year, gate receipts had totaled around $500,000 (Just shy of 8.4 <i>million</i> in 2023 dollars) and he well knew that, with a larger, more modern facility, they could double or even triple that figure. So, at the end of the '28 season, he turned in his resignation, stating that if he didn't get a new stadium, he'd go elsewhere.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqVdciij9Qwnicf3TPQpd5wvwAPe-RDmdkC-gijZ_7JwSR2zVPZoZjELkrEs7ob-qLi9Gtf8-4g0HUgfC8k-B19Z7COQeZGN0PREVKTiQNGCWIE_jck-lkxSCqRLrqfHBxQBoWnV7JTg-J9UeUDP5Trjvs3ixZu8aujJUdwXp3wq5CHmFmrthgpxb-qno/s966/Cartier_Field_in_1920.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="966" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqVdciij9Qwnicf3TPQpd5wvwAPe-RDmdkC-gijZ_7JwSR2zVPZoZjELkrEs7ob-qLi9Gtf8-4g0HUgfC8k-B19Z7COQeZGN0PREVKTiQNGCWIE_jck-lkxSCqRLrqfHBxQBoWnV7JTg-J9UeUDP5Trjvs3ixZu8aujJUdwXp3wq5CHmFmrthgpxb-qno/w640-h464/Cartier_Field_in_1920.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cartier Field in October 1920, before it was enlarged twice...the stadium seated around 5,000 at this time, far too small for any major schools to play Notre Dame at home. Only other small, midwestern schools played Notre Dame at Cartier Field. When Notre Dame played big schools, such as Penn or Army, at 'Home', they generally played the games at Soldier Field in Chicago. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGz_zDtQuC_NANLQN21H8N5iipjxQ5tXgJ7Qdv8BIC2E39rzAs8IwRVTv9y_K3URLvm9Jpf3xxtnnJbxOJ88xolbqEaq1hr4zeCVzUS3hNIL-HRyeFhOvEgNciYrwF9epzfxbqZ99xFlZfi5I7rVh31VD7bOSNnZEcf9Sei2Gh8wot5AvFfNk7gLNNuvk/s1600/Cartier%20Field.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1150" data-original-width="1600" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGz_zDtQuC_NANLQN21H8N5iipjxQ5tXgJ7Qdv8BIC2E39rzAs8IwRVTv9y_K3URLvm9Jpf3xxtnnJbxOJ88xolbqEaq1hr4zeCVzUS3hNIL-HRyeFhOvEgNciYrwF9epzfxbqZ99xFlZfi5I7rVh31VD7bOSNnZEcf9Sei2Gh8wot5AvFfNk7gLNNuvk/w640-h460/Cartier%20Field.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Aerial view of Cartier Field from about 1926, after the stadium had been enlarged and modernized...it sat around 30,000 at this point, still too small for major Universities to play the <i>Irish</i> on their home turf. Also visible in this shot is the old field house, which is the arch roofed building right mid-frame just above the baseball diamond. Pretty much the entirety of the Notre Dame campus, circa mid-1920s, is also visible...it was far smaller nearly 100 years ago!<br /><br />With-in a couple of years after this pic was taken, Notre Dame Stadium would be built mostly out of frame towards the left bottom corner of the pic, Cartier Field's stands would be torn down at the end of the 1928 season to make way for the new stadium, but the field itself would remain for decades, as the home field for Notre Dame's baseball and track & field teams as well as becoming the <i>Irish </i>practice field. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><br />University President Charles O'Donnell was willing to compromise, but <i>wasn't</i> willing to put the school in debt to build a new stadium. Calculations were made, and it was decided that the next year's gate receipts, plus what was already in the bank, and a new, idea...selling season tickets and box seats...would finance the new venue. <p style="text-align: left;">There would be 240 six-person box seats, bought for ten seasons, at three different price points...$3000 between the 45 yard lines, $2500 between the 35 and 45 yard lines, and $2000 between the 25 and 35 (In 2023 bucks, that would be $53,630, $44,690, and $35,750 respectively.).</p><p style="text-align: left;">Football tickets were around five bucks in 1928, so ten seasons worth of home game tickets would have been, roughly, $1500...<i>far</i> less expensive than the ten year purchase of box seat season tickets. Buying the box seats, though, <i>guaranteed</i> you that prime, mid field seat every season...they sold the box seats out, from what I understand, almost before the first shovel-load of dirt was turned, raising $150,000 (Almost 2.7 Million today) in the process.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The same group of architects who designed Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park were hired to design the stadium, and South Bend's Sollitt Construction Company...still in business today...got the bid for construction, which ended up costing $750,000 ( $13.4 Million today). Knute Rockne was deeply involved in the stadium's design.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Cartier Field's stands were torn down at the end of the 1928 season, after a final game... All of the 1929 season home games would be played at Chicago's Soldier Field, and planning and design began, with ground broken and earth preparation started in the Fall of 1929...and then they had an unusually cold fall and winter, even for that part of the world, and actual construction didn't start until April 2, 1930.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The stadium was built in, literally, six months (Try to get that done <i>today!). </i>When finished, it seated 59,075 fans in 55 rows of seats...if you walked the perimeter of the stadium, you'd cover a half mile. The press box was glass enclosed and towered 60 feet above the field</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrs_RsscpOEmB_jIyqLTl45VR65ZtGZ6kecP8bUU7tQ0F6MSQLtFJ2CJThJ3vmf8wvpHzdKj8Ejur5CI4_jfutgChNV8qQynwTMdwE_nv4UkKKt3IKnx0Y1u7XubHjkk2vbucTvge_DvVjOORNvHpEF76-35KLnuk5seRZLJqQ0g-ZSX7_4QirpQAfJvE/s578/ND%20Stadium%201930.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="578" height="548" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrs_RsscpOEmB_jIyqLTl45VR65ZtGZ6kecP8bUU7tQ0F6MSQLtFJ2CJThJ3vmf8wvpHzdKj8Ejur5CI4_jfutgChNV8qQynwTMdwE_nv4UkKKt3IKnx0Y1u7XubHjkk2vbucTvge_DvVjOORNvHpEF76-35KLnuk5seRZLJqQ0g-ZSX7_4QirpQAfJvE/w640-h548/ND%20Stadium%201930.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo of the interior of Notre Dame Stadium, taken from the south bleachers, very shortly after it was completed. The stadium seated 59,075 fans as originally built. It's still in use, much enlarged and modified, after 93 years.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPG3lRwyjgefirlTi6v0A6lHf6GXAgWdsqMGLtR8pJSz54p4q5bh5Pthg1vX0fdJl_OIxP1VfVnJG1HjUq1t9aOHorkdatsAJ3AfD-uGw8STHdfdylYdnnCn8yhaAT0E2J53fm4k38ffFVelQvk1kIhJuHCwLYFPQfYzD9bJ8EeXvN-K-gv_sEFa7Cs7Y/s1280/The_Stadium,_Notre_Dame,_Indiana_(63329).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="809" data-original-width="1280" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPG3lRwyjgefirlTi6v0A6lHf6GXAgWdsqMGLtR8pJSz54p4q5bh5Pthg1vX0fdJl_OIxP1VfVnJG1HjUq1t9aOHorkdatsAJ3AfD-uGw8STHdfdylYdnnCn8yhaAT0E2J53fm4k38ffFVelQvk1kIhJuHCwLYFPQfYzD9bJ8EeXvN-K-gv_sEFa7Cs7Y/w640-h404/The_Stadium,_Notre_Dame,_Indiana_(63329).jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Aerial postcard pic of Notre Dame Stadium from 1946</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQBcms_ff9qzK686I9Y_JO-Hb3y-U7SGXg8va3R1uZfcdCOLGPx7jts80jtgKBSNUKKxtrmX7aKBAA8fhOFLXRNwNjNjdcFlrdRnfi0gtZuakW4T0yh4QsGSCfoaKsx-ifyX-vt6Y_eM0jFcphT4BeuC3833_V9n8yvejDiFm_KGpewHDmHFLwOe7Pbzg/s1442/notre-dame-stadium%202020.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1442" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQBcms_ff9qzK686I9Y_JO-Hb3y-U7SGXg8va3R1uZfcdCOLGPx7jts80jtgKBSNUKKxtrmX7aKBAA8fhOFLXRNwNjNjdcFlrdRnfi0gtZuakW4T0yh4QsGSCfoaKsx-ifyX-vt6Y_eM0jFcphT4BeuC3833_V9n8yvejDiFm_KGpewHDmHFLwOe7Pbzg/w640-h360/notre-dame-stadium%202020.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Notre Dame Stadium as it appears today, after the 400 million dollar 'Campus Crossroads renovation, which also added a trio of </span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i>huge</i> eight story, multi-function buildings to the stadium...Corbett Family Hall, on the east side of the stadium (On the far side of the stadium), O'Neil Hall, on the south end of the stadium (On the south end zone end, wearing the ginormous Jumbotron) and Duncan Student Center, on the west side of the stadium (In the foreground of the pic), adding over 750,000 square feet of student dining and recreation, teaching, research, and performance spaces, making the stadium useful year round. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">During football season (Or if it's used for a special event, such as a concert) the stadium seats 80,795, including over three thousand premium seats on the stadium side of the three buildings. The stadium sells out regularly.</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i> </i>The first home game in the new venue was on October 4, 1930, with The <i>Fighting Irish </i>defeating SMU 20-14, and to christen the new Stadium properly, the first touchdown was a 98 yard kick-off return by 'Jumping Joe' Savoldi. The next week the new venue was dedicated, and Savoldi scored three touchdowns on the way to a 26-2 pummeling of Navy.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The stadium sold out for the first time for the 1931 Notre Dame-USC game, with 60,731 fans in attendance, and would regularly sell out over the next 93 years. It's also been refurbished and expanded several times, the first time between 1994 and 1997, when the press box was enlarged, a second tier of seats was added, increasing the capacity to 80,000, and permanent lighting was installed.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The next renovation came between 2014 and 2018, when three <i>big </i>new 8 story buildings were added...Duncan Student Center on the west side of the stadium, O'Neil Hall on the south side, and Corbett Family Hall on the east. This renovation reduced the stadium's general admission capacity to 77,622, but at the same time added over 750,000 square feet of student dining and recreation, teaching, research, and performance spaces. While they were at it, over 3000 more premium seats were added (Kicking the stadium's actual capacity up to 80,795 fans) and new electronic scoreboards and a jumbotron were added as well.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The 1930 season, sadly, was the only season that Knute Rockne got to coach in the new stadium, and that brings us to the smallest, but in some ways most important addition to the stadium...a statue honoring the men who put Notre Dame on the map, and, well, 'Built The House'.</p><p style="text-align: left;">In 2009, a life-size bronze statue of Rockne was unveiled outside the stadium's North Gate...now he can watch over 'his boys' for time eternal.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5YdZF4Dzve1nzmFG05k7C_XIsaOTdP1tq5fiEofh5XDlE5JO_mJhmKWTkl2soyEi4MLUNuTvBMCoMGpLUCagcpfJaChkuZc35vP0eS_H0rmwrL-SpsxBmJ3-4yoYCTrZlE2XYuFSrTKwKJQaQEW2CCfnO2QywfM2MItmzxOQTRoAWN6igZ89-v7D2bes/s1350/72880451_196455191376566_4369310971472648448_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5YdZF4Dzve1nzmFG05k7C_XIsaOTdP1tq5fiEofh5XDlE5JO_mJhmKWTkl2soyEi4MLUNuTvBMCoMGpLUCagcpfJaChkuZc35vP0eS_H0rmwrL-SpsxBmJ3-4yoYCTrZlE2XYuFSrTKwKJQaQEW2CCfnO2QywfM2MItmzxOQTRoAWN6igZ89-v7D2bes/w512-h640/72880451_196455191376566_4369310971472648448_n.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Statue of Knute Rockne outside of the North Gate of Notre Dame Stadium, unveiled in 2009</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /><***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">A quick word about the mega-stadiums that popped up like huge concrete mushrooms all over the U.S in the 1910s and most especially, the 1920s. There were many good reasons that universities and colleges wanted big, large-capacity stadiums for their football teams. Gate receipts were a <i>big</i> part of it...the gate receipts were split, with each team getting a percentage, usually half. The larger the stadium, the more tickets sold...the more tickets sold, the larger the visiting team's share of the gate receipts. This is why the size and quality of a school's stadium very much determined which teams they could convince to play them at home. No major university was going to sent their team to an away game...especially one several hundred miles away...to split the gate receipts from a crowd of five or ten thousand. Cartier Field had been expanded to around thirty thousand seats by 1926, and that was <i>still</i> considered small.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Also, not every game's going to be a sell-out. Lets take a look at a split from both Cartier and then-new Notre Dame stadium, with a 75% capacity crowd.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Cartier Stadium, at it's maximum capacity in 1926, seated around 30,000, so 75% of a full house would be 22,500 fans, who payed an average of $5.00 per ticket. 22,500 x5=$112,500(a little over 1.94 million today) NOW...10% or so of that needs to come off the top for operating expenses, so subtract $11,250 from that, giving you $101,250 to split two ways, or $50,625 to each school. ( $874,328 today). Admittedly, not small change...but not enough to convince many schools to play the <i>Irish</i> at home, so major schools playing Notre Dame would play them at a neutral (And much larger) stadium. The gate receipts benefited, but it was a major pain for everyone on the home side, team, staff, and fans alike.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Now, lets take a look at a game at new Notre Dame Stadium at 75% of seats sold.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame stadium, in its first several years seated 59,075 fans, so 75% of seats sold would be 44,206 tickets at five bucks apiece...gate receipts of $221,531 ($3,825,990 today). Take ten percent off the top, and you have $199,378 to split, or $99,689 for each school (That'd be $1,721,696 today).</p><p style="text-align: left;">So both schools would make out like bandits, plus they have modern facilities. And the <i>Irish</i> faithful from South Bend didn't have to take a road trip to go to a 'Home' game.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The gate receipts are still split today, of course, though some conferences (Big Ten, I'm lookin' at <i>you!</i>) use some strange algebraic algorithm to determine the split. The practice of splitting gate receipts, though, got it's start over a century ago, and drove the building of the huge, and beautiful college stadiums we enjoy today.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Of all of the many rivalries that <i>The Irish</i> and their loyal fans have enjoyed over the last century and change, the Notre Dame-Nebraska rivalry is probably the strangest, as well as most unfortunate.</p><p style="text-align: left;">This was an intense rivalry in the mid 1910s and early-mid 1920s, specifically between 1915 and 1925 During that decade, The <i>Irish </i>and the Cornhuskers met eleven times, and split the series five wins apiece, playing to a scoreless tie in 1918. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The majority of this series occurred under Knute Rockne, the last three games of the series played during the reign of Notre Dame's Four Horsemen. Notre Dame only lost two games in the three years that the legendary Four Horsemen made up the <i>Irish </i>backfield, both away games at Nebraska....one a 14-6 loss on Nov 30, 1922 (Which was also the last game played in Nebraska's old Nebraska Field), and another one touchdown loss...14-7 to the Cornhuskers the next year...in front of a crowd of 43,000 in brand new, and still unfinished Memorial Stadium.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame would get their revenge for the twin losses in 1924 by walking the dog on the Cornhuskers, pummeling them 34-6 at Notre Dame.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then, Notre Dame returned to Lincoln in 1925, where the Cornhuskers returned the favor, besting <i>The Fighting Irish</i> by a score of 17-0...and that would be the last game of the series, and the last meeting between the two teams for more than twenty years. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Back in the mid 1920s, Lincoln, Nebraska was a big Klan town, with a reported 5000 or so of the town's 50,000 citizens being KKK members. Among the many ethnic and religious groups that the Klan strongly disliked were, for reasons unknown, Catholics. This resulted in catcalls, profane insults, and the <i>Irish</i> being pelted with various items as they came on and off the field, and <i>this</i> resulted in that shut-out in Nebraska's brand new stadium being the very last contest between the two teams until after World War II. USC would replace Nebraska on the Notre Dame football schedule. The 1926 game...and all others...were cancelled, and Nebraska coach Earnest Bearg blamed the end of the series on 'Disgruntled gamblers in South Bend who were tired of losing their money'</p><p style="text-align: left;">The two teams have squared off a few times since, but the series never even came close to gaining the momentum it had a century or so ago.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame and Nebraska squared off again in 1947 and 1948, both games going to <i>The Irish</i> in a big way...31-0 and 44-13 respectively. The Cornhuskers had to wait until the 1973 Orange Bowl to avenge those double slaughter-fests, handing the <i>Irish </i>a 40-6 beatdown. Then the two teams didn't meet again for another nearly 30 years, playing a two game series, both at Notre Dame Stadium, and both Notre Dame losses...a 27-24 squeaker, won by Nebraska on a overtime touchdown, in 2000, and a 27-0 shutout in '01. They haven't met again since.</p><p style="text-align: left;">For a college football fan, there's little more fun and exciting than watching a game between a pair of long-term rivals, especially if you're an alum of one of the schools, and <i>most</i> especially if you get to watch it in person, yelling your lungs out, rooting for your team from the stands.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Nebraska fans missed out because of the hatred spawned by a small group of people nearly a century ago...and what makes it even sadder, it happened during the reign of a man who was the exact polar opposite of the group that caused the series...and the rivalry...to end<i>.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">One little known fact about Notre Dame's 1929 season...early in the season, a leg injury Rockne had suffered during a vacation developed into phlebitis, taking him off of his feet for most of the season. Assistant Coach Tom Lieb was the defacto head coach on the side-lines, with Rockne coaching from the stands.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">The very last game that Knute Rockne ever coached wasn't a regular season intercollegiate football game, nor did <i>The fighting Irish </i>even line up against another college team...they played the New York Giants, at the Giants home field at the time, the legendary Polo Grounds. Oh, and it wasn't even the 1929-1930 <i>Irish</i> that he coached</p><p style="text-align: left;">'Say <i>what??' </i>You ask. Ahh, read on I say!</p><p style="text-align: left;">This game would also be the last time that 'The Four Horsemen'...Notre Dame's legendary 1922-24 backfield, consisting of QB Harry Stuhldreher, left halfback Jim Crowley, right halfback Don Miller, and fullback Elmer Layden...played together. During their tenure at Notre Dame, the <i>Irish </i>only lost two games, both to Nebraska, as they blasted through holes punched through numerous defensive lines by 'The Seven Mules' as ND's 1922-'24 Offensive Line was known. Oh...most of 'The Mules' would also suit up for the game.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Just what was this game? In the Fall of 1930, New York mayor Jimmy Walker had created the Unemployment Relief Fund, to assist those thrown out of work by the year and change old Great Depression.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Hmmmm...how to make <i>lot's</i> of money for said fund? How 'bout a charity football game between arguably America's favorite college team, and the hometown pro-football heroes, the New York Giants?</p><p style="text-align: left;">And so it was set up...sort of. Notre Dame would line up against the New York Giants on the afternoon of December 14, 1930, at the storied Polo Grounds, which was being provided, rent free, for the game by venue and franchise owner Charles Stoneham. Except it <i>wouldn't </i> be the national champion 1930 <i>Fighting Irish. </i>It <i>would</i>, however, be a quickly cobbled-together alumni team.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Why?</p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame was just coming off of a perfect 10-0 season, walking the dog on everyone except Southern Methodist (SMU) and Army, out-scoring their opponents 256-74, and winning a third national title while they were at it. They had bested Army by one point only a couple of weeks earlier, and had mopped up L. A. Memorial Stadium with the USC Trojans, shutting them out 27-0, only the previous weekend.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The charity game game had been set up a couple of months earlier, and Rockne knew his boys would be coming off of a long train-ride to the West Coast and back that very week. Now, today, in 2023, after the game, the Boys in Blue and Gold would have gathered up their gear, probably crashed at their hotel for the night, headed for LAX the next morning, climbed aboard a big Boeing or Airbus that was very likely chartered for the purpose, and been back in South Bend a bit after lunchtime.</p><p style="text-align: left;">But this wasn't 2023, it was 1930. L.A. was easily two or so days from South Bend by train, then they'd have to turn around the next weekend and take a 15 or so hour train ride to New York. Rockne didn't want to over-extend his players. So he got in touch with several former players, and convinced several of them...including all of the Four Horsemen and most of the Seven Mules...to don the Blue and Gold one more time, </p><p style="text-align: left;">Rockne did manage to convince a few of the then-current <i>Irish</i> standouts...most notably two time All American quarterback Frank Carideo, '31, and one of his favored receivers, Class of '31 classmate Jack Chevigny...to suit up</p><p style="text-align: left;">The <i>Irish</i> had a problem that they didn't realize they had. While the Notre Dame alumni were playing with charity and service to their fellow man in their hearts, the Giants went into the game as if they repelling an invading army. (And in their minds, they kind of were).</p><p style="text-align: left;">The cobbled together Notre Dame team got together the Tuesday before the game and spent four days going over plays that they hadn't run for, in a couple of cases, six or so years. Also, while <i>some</i> of the players had played together...again, some of them half a decade ago...the entire team had never worked together. It would make a difference.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Giants were the fledgling NFL's second place team at the end of the 1930 pro season, and were coming off of a winning 13-4 season. They had regularly drawn between ten and twelve thousand fans to the Polo Grounds for home games, with total attendance for the season at just north of 82 grand...but that was nothing compared to college attendance back then. College games drew <i>far</i> larger crowds every weekend. 110,000 fans had packed Chicago's Soldier Field to watch The <i>Irish</i> squeak past Army 7-6 two weekends before the charity game, and 88,000 had watched Notre Dame's drubbing of USC at L.A. Memorial Stadium...USC's home field...a weekend earlier.</p><p style="text-align: left;">On top of that, there were those who said that any given college team could beat any given pro team. The Giants were on a mission to prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they could <i>indeed</i> beat a college team.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It didn't help the Giants' mood towards their opponents that local advertisements...both print and radio...hyped the game as a chance to see 'The Four Horsemen Ride One More Time'. The game wasn't being hyped as a chance to see the Giants play. It was hyped as a chance to see Notre Dame walk all over the Giants. The New York Eleven weren't about to let that happen.</p><p style="text-align: left;">While, as noted, the Notre Dame alumni, plus a couple of current players, practiced for about four days before boarding a train for New York, the Giants spent the full week or so before the game in full contact drills, and sent scouts to South Bend to see what the <i>Irish</i> had in store for them.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Again, it'd make a difference.</p><p style="text-align: left;">On a clear, cold Sunday afternoon, more than 50,000 fans packed the legendary Polo Grounds to watch the 'Notre Dame All-Stars' take on the N.Y Giants. Notre Dame was fielding a team that was heavy on backs, light on defense, not in the best of shape, and who hadn't played together in ages, or in some cases at all. </p><p style="text-align: left;">They were going up against a team that was bigger, faster, had played together for, in some cases, a couple of years, and who had just come off of a 13-4 season. And, to piss the Giants off a bit more, when the cobbled-together <i>Irish</i> took the field, they were met with a crescendo as if they were conquering heroes, while the Giants, on the other hand, barely got a peep of greeting from the fans when they took the gridiron. It was <i>more </i>than obvious who the crowd had come to see.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Giants illustrated their displeasure with this from the git-go. The Irish won the toss, elected to receive, and caught it in the end zone. Notre Dame ran it out to about the five, where the ball carrier was suddenly buried in blue and white jerseys at, <i>maybe</i> their own five yard line. A couple of plays later and less than a minute into the game, the Giants' six man defensive line punched through Notre Dame's offensive line like a cannonball through cardboard and threw Stuhldreher for a loss, and worse, into the end zone for a safety. Less than a minute in, and Notre Dame was already down 2-0</p><p style="text-align: left;">The whole game went about the same way. The Giants had an effective and impressive aerial game, thanks to Giants Quarterback Benny Friedman, who is considered by many to be the NFL's first great passer, and he basically turned Notre Dame's old trick around and tossed it back at them, keeping the ball in the air.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Notre Dame's Stuhldreher, on the other hand, went 0-9 in the pass department, throwing a pair of interceptions while he was at it. The Giants held Notre Dame's offense to only 34 yards gained for the game, never letting an <i>Irish </i>ball carrier anywhere close to midfield, and trapping them deep in their own territory for the majority of the game.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Giants would score twice more before the whistle blew for halftime, both in the second quarter, and both runs by Friedman...a four yard run at the beginning of the second quarter, and a 22-yard run, through a truck-sized hole created by the Giant's offensive line, as the clock ticked down to the half. As the whistle blew, the Giants were up 15-0</p><p style="text-align: left;">As the teams retired to the locker rooms, Rockne searched out Giants coach Harry March and good-naturedly chided him for running the score up on the hapless <i>Irish</i> alumni. He then reminded March of just why they were actually playing the game in the first place, and asked him to call off the dogs.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And, he did. New York put their reserves in for much of the second half, giving the first string a break. The Giants only scored a single touchdown in the second half...a third quarter touchdown pass from second string QB Hap Moran to Glenn Campbell. Oh the Giants <i>still</i> controlled the ball, but they <i>didn't</i> run up the score. The scoreboard showed the Giants up 22-0 when the finial whistle blew.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Giants won the game, but it seems they just couldn't catch a break in the press. The local papers, as well as sports pages nation-wide, gave huge props to the plucky Notre Dame alumni, who'd come into the game with only four days of practice, after not playing together for half a decade and change (And for some of them, <i>ever). </i>And to give Notre Dame more props, their defense was actually fairly effective, even in the first half...the Giants could have<i> really</i> walked the dog on them had it not been.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Of course, this being a high profile charity event, then as now at such events, celebrities came out of the woodwork, and the various reporters writing about the game gave <i>far</i> more column inches to Who was there with Who, What they were wearing, What they were doing, and again, with Who...you know, the celebrity gossip we're still familiar with today...the names change, the gossip stays pretty much the same.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The big winners, of course, were those who benefitted from the proceeds of the game, The charity game raised more than $115,000...$2,114,250 in 2023 dollars...for the unemployed of NYC. The game was absolutely a success, in on small part thanks the the participation of Knute Rockne's Notre Dame <i>Fighting Irish. </i> Of course the Four Horsemen never donned the Blue and Gold again and would never share a backfield, though several of them did coach at either the collegiate or high school level over the years. </p><p style="text-align: left;">And, sadly, Knute Rockne never coached another game...three months and two weeks after that final whistle blew at The Polo Grounds, Knute Rockne climbed aboard TWA Flight 599...</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Fokker Aircraft Corp was already well known by the time the first Fokker Trimotor took to the air in the mid 1920s...after all, they built over a thousand examples of several types of fighters during World War I, three of them...the Fokker Eindecker, which was the first to utilize an interrupter gear that allowed machine guns to fire through the propeller arc, the Fokker D-VII, the best all-round fighter of the war in many aviation experts' opinion, and the iconic Fokker Triplane, a uber-nimble and deadly little fighter that is also the aircraft most often associated with Manfred Von Richthofen...The Red Baron...even though it's not the aircraft he scored most of his 80 victories in.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Unfortunately, Fokker was also known far and wide, among German aviators and German Air Force brass, for something else...seriously sub-par build quality. On numerous occasions the IdFlieg...the German Army bureau that oversaw military aviation during WW-1...grounded aircraft types and forced Fokker to make repairs and replace parts at their own expense. One of these occasions may have even foreshadowed the crash of TWA Flight 599.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Fokker Triplane was a deadly little aircraft at the hands of a good pilot. Unbelievably nimble, the Triplane (Officially designated the Fokker DR-1) could reputedly turn inside of anything built by either the British or French. It was also...again in the hands of a superior pilot...capable of performing an early version of 'The Cobra'...hanging from it's spinning prop as the pilot kicked in full right or left rudder, and 'switched ends', allowing the pilot to either suddenly attack or dive away in a different direction than that expected by his opponent, leaving said opponent with egg on his face and, often, a bullet-riddled, burning, falling ride. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The Fokker Tri-Plane also had a far more unfortunate trait, however, one that was often deadly to it's own pilot...it had a habit of suddenly shedding it's top wing. A couple of the pilots who experienced this deadly trait managed to make an emergency landing and get their crippled DR-1...and themselves...back on the ground in one piece, likely having to clean out their own pants and the Triplane's pilot seat afterward as a result. Most of the time, however, the triplane would continue to come apart after loosing it's uppermost wing, killing it's pilot in the process.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The IdFlieg, upon being made aware of the problem, <i>immediately</i> grounded <i>all</i> Fokker Triplanes, and started an investigation of just <i>why</i> the aircraft lost their top wings so frequently.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Their finding?</p><p style="text-align: left;">The wings <b>weren't sufficiently waterproofed, allowing water to get inside</b> and delaminate the spars and attach points, allowing the weakened wings to pull away from the plane during certain sudden maneuvers.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Fokker's quality control issues apparently followed it across the pond, to Fokker Aircraft of America, maker of the various Fokker Tri-motors, including the F-10. The F-10 was built at a plant in Glen Dale, West Va.,<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">and
the wing spars </span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">were
assembled by:</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "Playfair Display";"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gluing
and nailing ribs between the flanges at specified intervals…
Graduated thicknesses of plywood were glued on each face of the spar.
They were given final form by planing away the surplus wood with jack
planes. A crew of six to ten did this work, working to plus or minus
one thirty-second inch which is rather exacting when working with
wood. </span></i></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "Playfair Display";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(The
italics are an excerpt from</span></span></span></span> Archive
Wheeling/A Crash of Coincidences<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "Playfair Display";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">)</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The
problem was, the carpenters and woodworkers who were hired to
build the wings, while they may have been masters at, say
furniture building, and home construction, were </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">not</span></i></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> used
to the close and demanding </span></span><span style="color: #333333;">tolerances
they needed to adhere to while building up the wing spars, and as a
result, they were off...by a lot...pretty often.</span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">To
compound this problem, quality control was, at best, hit or miss, and
at worst, nonexistent. It's believed that this lack of
quality control was one of the factors in Flight 599's fatal
plunge.</span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The crash, of course, led to the end of production of the Fokker F-10. The plant, in Glendale, W. Va, closed down in October 1931, about six months after the crash.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">One of the factors concerning the crash that is still unclear is just which direction the plane was flying when it lost it's wing. Many people believe it lost it's right wing after turning back towards Kansas City, but before resuming it's course to Wichita, others believe it had made that second turn back towards Wichita before shedding it's wing, and still other people think the wing may have departed the aircraft in the middle of the second turn, back towards Wichita.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Of course, we'll never know for sure...there were no Flight Data Recorders or Cockpit Voice Recorders in 1931, so all the investigators had to go by were radio traffic log transcripts and eye witness testimony. A couple of eye witnesses stated that they saw the plane, just below the clouds, heading north-east, back towards Kansas City, so we know for sure that they did swing around and head back for KC. I, personally, think they also resumed their course back towards Wichita, and the transcript of the radio traffic, from the log at Wichita, seems to confirm this.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I also think that, as they tried to decide which option they were going to exercise...return to K.C, or resume the flight to Wichita...they actually flew around a giant airborne oval, and were aimed southwest...back towards Wichita...when the wing failed. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Of course more than a few people...among them, Anthony Fokker, founder and owner of Fokker Aircraft Corp...were of the very strong opinion that they shouldn't have had to decide whether or not to return to Kansas City, because that shouldn't have been flying that day in the first place.</p><p style="text-align: left;">These people feel that the flight shouldn't have even left the ground that morning due to the weather. Anthony Fokker noted that the wing wouldn't have failed had they waited for the weather to clear before taking off. And he's right, of course...had the flight been cancelled until the weather moderated, Flight 599's passengers would have most likely stretched their legs in Wichita as the Fokker was topped off with Av-gas, then flown on to their destinations.</p><p style="text-align: left;">But that flight wasn't going to be cancelled, because flights were very seldom cancelled due to weather back then, despite the fact that the tech to safely fly in such weather really didn't exist yet. In those early days of air travel there was tremendous pressure to maintain schedules because airlines needed to prove themselves as viable, reliable alternatives to the railroad, something that was a hard sell in the late 1920s, because back then air travel was the most dangerous way to travel. </p><p style="text-align: left;">It didn't help the reputation of air travel that passenger safety may have occasionally...OK, more than occasionally...taken a back seat to putting the flight at it's destination on time. I think Flight 599 just may have been one of those times.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Of course, had the wing not already been water damaged, they would have probably made it to Wichita safely, despite the storm. A little airsick, perhaps, but otherwise safe.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Which bring to another point, one which I noted in the main body of the article...that wing was going to fail at some point, no matter what the weather was. It could have just as well failed on a perfectly clear, calm day. That early spring cold front over Kansas, though, almost definitely caused the wing to fail sooner rather that later. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Yet another controversy almost arose when Travelers Insurance, which held the policy covering both hull loss and liability on the aircraft, reported the loss of $50,000 in cash, carried by passenger H.J. Christen, of Chicago.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It was very likely assumed that one of our souvenir hunters had found not only a souvenir, but a major windfall...$50,000 1931 dollars equates to just over $1,000,000 today, so it would have been a <i>very</i> nice windfall indeed for anyone who discovered it and spirited it away from the scene. Of course, it would have also been grand theft, which is frowned upon by the State of Kansas (And every other state, too).</p><p style="text-align: left;">While I'm pretty sure a major investigation was kicked off by the missing money, Knute Rockne's death completely overshadowed any news about either the missing money <i>or</i> the investigation. This news black-out, inadvertent though it was, would have been a good thing for the law enforcement agency, or agencies, investigating the apparent theft, because the purported thief, whoever he or she may have been, had no way of keeping up with the investigation.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The thing is, the investigators were chasing a nonexistent bad guy all along...about two weeks or so after the crash, the money was found in a safe deposit box in Chicago. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">One little known fact about Flight 599...it probably <i>wasn't </i>designated as Flight 599, because TWA didn't even<i> use</i> three digit flight numbers back in 1931. On top of that, TWA's transcontinental flights usually used single digit flight numbers. Therefore it's believed that the accrual flight number was 'Flight 5'</p><p style="text-align: left;">A little bit of research actually bore this out...a time-table and flight schedule from that era was located, and the flight covering the route of Knute Rockne's fatal flight was, in fact, numbered 'Flight 5'.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So, just how did it become Flight 599 in just about every article, book, and documentary about the crash for the last half century or so? We'll probably never know for sure.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Maybe someone thought 'Flight 599' sounded more dramatic. Maybe it was the Mother Of All Typos. But for whatever reason, the flight has become known to everyone, including historians as Flight 599, and dozens of authors of everything from magazine articles to books to...well...blog posts has used the wrong flight number, because to use the correct flight number would likely just confuse people. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">It can't be stressed enough just how beloved Knute Rockne had become by the time he climbed aboard TWA Flight 599, but one telegram pretty much sums the nation's sentiment about Rockne up...one of the telegrams received by Bonnie Rockne was from The Office Of The President Of The United States.</p><p style="text-align: left;">President Herbert Hoover sent a telegram to Bonnie Rockne the morning after the crash...now back in the day, U.S. Presidents didn't generally weigh in on the deaths of prominent figures in sports and entertainment, but Hoover was an avid college football fan, had been equipment manager for Stanford's football team while he attended that university, and was likely both a Knute Rockne, and a <i>Fighting Irish </i>fan (As long as they weren't playing Stanford) as well, so when he heard about Rockne's death while doing presidential things in the Oval Office, it struck a personal chord in a big way.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The telegram he sent to Bonnie Rockne read:</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;"><i>"I know that that every American grieves with you. Mr. Rockne so contributed to a cleanness and high purpose and sportsmanship in athletics that his passing is a national loss."</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">While Knute Rockne's death was a great and devastating loss to his family, Notre Dame, College Football, and the nation, we need to remember that he wasn't the only person who died on that cold last day of March in 1931, There were five other passengers and two pilots also aboard the Fokker when it lost a wing and augered in.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Lets take a quick look at Knute Rockne's fellow passengers...the following facts, with my own words added, are another excerpt from Archive Wheeling/A Crash of Coincidences:</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">Spencer Goldthwaite, a young advertising executive from New York, was flying to California to visit his parents in Pasadena.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">Another passenger, wealthy Chicagoan H.J. Christen, had been estranged from his wife, but the two had hashed out their differences, and he was flying to the West Coast for a much-anticipated reconciliation. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"> John Happer, a friend of Rockne's, just happened to be aboard the flight, and was</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">also</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"> going to Southern California, to open a new store in the Wilson Sporting Goods chain.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"> C.A. Robrecht, a produce merchant from Wheeling, W.Va., was on his way to Amarillo, Texas to attend his grand daughter's funeral, and visit his daughter...the child's namesake and aunt...who had also caught the flu and was in critical condition...</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">This was his first plane trip.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;"> Waldo B. Miller, of Los Angeles, an executive of the Aetna Insurance Co. who was going home to his family after a sales meeting back East.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">Then there were the two pilots...</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">Herman "Jess" Mathias and Robert Fry.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">Bob Fry had made the news before, in a far more positive way...he had once made headlines when he crash-landed into a war zone in China and talked his way out. (I looked and couldn't find any further details on this.)</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">May all of them Rest in Peace</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b><***></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">One of the five passengers aboard Flight 599 had a link to Rockne, even though the two men had never met personally before the day of the crash.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">Charles. A. Robrecht, Sr, as I noted above, was flying to Amarillo, Texas in particularly tragic circumstances. His granddaughter, Marguerita, had died of influenza, and his sister...the child's namesake and aunt...had caught it from her and was in critical condition. Mr. Robrecht was on the way to Amarillo to attend little Marguerita's funeral, and to visit his sister. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;">He was actually deathly afraid of flying, but had decided, with some urging by relatives, to fly so he could get out to the Texas city more quickly. This would be his first time flying.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;">Mr. Robrecht was the founder, owner, and president of the </span></span><span style="background-color: #ede4d3; color: #333333; font-family: "Playfair Display"; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Playfair Display";">C.A. Robrecht produce company</span><span style="background-color: #ede4d3; color: #333333; font-family: "Playfair Display"; font-size: 16px;">, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Playfair Display"; font-size: 16px;">one of the </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;">largest wholesale grocers in West Virginia, so he was not entirely unknown, at least in his home state, but he was, of course, nowhere as near as well known as his legendary fellow passenger.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;">So what could the two men have had in common? </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;">First, it was a good bet that Charles </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">Robrecht was a staunch <i>Irish</i> supporter, because his son, Charles</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">Robrecht, Jr.,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"> had once taught Chemistry at Notre Dame, and the younger</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">Robrecht had reportedly become close friends with Knute Rockne during his </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">tenure there</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;">That stop in Kansas City was actually a fueling stop...Flight 599 originated in Columbus, Ohio, which is where Charles </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">Robrecht boarded the flight,</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"> so </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;">Robrecht was already aboard when Knute Rockne boarded the aircraft. I can imagine Rockne, who was said to be one of those men who became friends with everyone he met, introducing himself, then saying something like '</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">Robrecht....you didn't have a son who taught at Notre Dame did you?, and the conversation progressing to the reason for </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">Robrecht's trip, with Rockne providing comfort...which brings us to another, far more tragic similarity.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"> Robrecht, like Rockne, was a devout Catholic. As is well known, when Knute Rockne's body was found he was clutching a Rosary so tightly that the cross was actually bent. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;">Then when all of the bodies were recovered and the area searched, a second rosary was found in the field, near where</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">Robrecht's body had been found....he, like Rockne, had very likely been clutching it, praying, as the Fokker spun in.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"><b><***></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">One of the interesting points about Flight 599's crash and Knute Rockne's death is just how fast the news spread across the nation. The plane crashed just before 11:00 AM, it was likely a bit after 11:30 when the ambulance and Dr. Titus arrived on scene and noon or shortly before before one of the Baker brothers found that Knute Rockne was among the deceased. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">Yet just more than an hour later, the Associated Press had the story, and a half hour after that...around 1:30...news commentators were breaking into in-progress radio broadcasts with 'Breaking News' and presses were pumping out Extra Editions reporting the crash and Knute Rockne's unconfirmed death. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">OK, you guys are yelling 'Rob...<i>Dude!...</i> that's like, three <i>hours!!!' </i>but keep in mind that this was 1931. Many homes did not yet have telephones, and <i>none</i> of the electronics we enjoy today, nor the near instantaneous communications they provide, had even been dreamed of yet. Getting information out at all, much less quickly, involved a lot of actual work.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">A major reason for the story getting out so quickly was twenty or so miles northeast of the crash site, and right at 26 road-miles distant via Kansas Route 117 and U.S. Route 50, in the bustling little city of Emporia, Kansas.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Emporia, with around 14,800 residents in 1931, was the closest city of any real size to the crash scene, and being the area's 'City', the town had what was probably the most prominent local paper, the <i>Emporia Gazette. </i>Even though The <i>Gazette </i>was just a weekly paper back then, it was no mere 'rag' by any means, but was rather an extremely progressive paper with a well respected owner/Editor In Chief.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The paper was owned and published by the father and son team of William Allen White, and William L. White. The elder White was a journalistic powerhouse, a staunch Republican who was well known and well thought of in political as well as journalistic circles, and a good friend of Teddy Roosevelt, who often stayed over at the White home in Emporia on cross country trips. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Even more importantly, White also had what members of The Fourth Estate call a nose for news...the then weekly <i>Gazette </i>covered major national stories with the vigor, verve, and energy of a major 'Big City' daily, and here, all of a sudden, they had a <i>major</i> story right in their back yard, so to speak. I can just about guarantee that someone got the ball rolling by calling The <i>Gazette</i> to inform them of the crash, and that the beloved coach was one of the victims. I can only imagine that several things happened at once.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Associated Press was notified immediately, and even as that long distance phone call was being made, White likely dispatched a news team of reporter and photographer to the scene. This was all done before 1:00 PM, and is why those breaking news stories were hitting the air waves by 1:30.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Three telephone operators were kept busy making and receiving over four hundred long distance phone calls (At $5.50 or so per call. That's $111 and small change per call in today's money.) to and from both coasts, conversing with everyone from other papers and the A.P. to TWA officials and Notre Dame administration to members of the families of the victims, with the total cost of the calls running to the tune of $2000 or so (Around $33,000 today).</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">What was equally impressive was the quality of reporting from the <i>Gazette </i>itself. Many of the stories published over the week or more after the crash were written by the Whites, and the reporting and writing was described as being </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;">profound and eloquent; the reporting, deep and descriptive. I can only imagine that many, if not most, of the Whites' stories went out over the AP wire , to be picked up by other, far larger papers. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Emporia has doubled in size since that March morning in 1931, is now served by a pair of interstates (I-35 and I-335) as well as U.S. 50 and State Route 99, and is thoroughly modern in all respects. And the Gazette? It's still around, too, now a daily paper, and it's <i>still</i> under control of the White family, with Christopher White Walker...William L White's grandson...at the helm.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"><b><***></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The highly publicized, accidental death of famous people always seems to bring conspiracy theorists out of the woodwork, whether it's today, or ninety-three or so years ago.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">That's right...Knute Rockne's death, all but inevitably, spawned a couple of theories about his untimely demise, one of which actually gained a little bit...a <i>very</i> little bit...of traction. Supposedly The Rock, along with the rest of those killed in Flight 599's crash, were the unfortunate victims of an attempted hit ordered by none other than Uber-gangster Al Capone. And the wild thing is, this theory emerged two years <i>after</i> the crash, after the cause had been identified.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;">According<span style="background-color: white;"> to this theory, Notre Dame priest Father John Reynolds had witnessed the gangland killing of Chicago Tribune reporter John Lingle at a Chicago train station, carried out by Capone hitman and enforcer Leo Brothers on June 9, 1930...except Brothers <i>didn't</i> perform the hit. The murder was actually committed by one of Capone's most trusted assassins, a guy named Frankie Foster. Capone had, supposedly, paid Brothers to take the fall for Foster, and Father Reynolds could testify not only that Brothers wasn't the hitman, but that he had seen Foster put a bullet into the back of Lingle's head. Oh...BTW...Lingle had reputedly been earning a bit of extra income by delivering payments to various and sundry Chicago city officials who were being bribed by Capone (I know...corruption...in Chicago?!?!), and had apparently somehow seriously displeased his side-gig employer.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Capone absolutely did <i>not</i> want to loose Foster's services, and took measures to persuade Father Reynolds that he had <i>not</i> seen what he said he saw. Father Reynolds was directly threatened, both in person and via mail, on several occasions, to the point where he was pretty well traumatized.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">On March 27, 1931...four days before Rockne's death...Reynolds took the stand and vaguely testified that Brothers, rather than Foster 'Fit the description' of the assassin.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Supposedly, thinking he was done, Father Reynolds bought a plane ticket, on Flight 599, to fly to L.A. to unwind, but he was then advised that the trial was continuing, and his further testimony would likely be needed.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Then, on the 28th, he ran into Rockne on campus. The two started talking as they walked cross-campus, and Rockne mentioned that he needed to fly to L.A. to meet an obligation in assisting with the filming of 'The Spirit of Notre Dame, but he was having trouble booking a flight.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Father Reynolds immediately offered Rockne his ticket, and Rockne gladly accepted. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Meanwhile, and supposedly, Capone was taking drastic measures to ensure that Father Reynolds <i>didn't</i> testify further. And, if you believe the story, Flight 599 was blown out of the air three days later, because, s</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">upposedly, the plane was brought down by a bomb planted in a suitcase placed aboard in Kansas City...</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;">I can only assume this bomb was alleged to be detonated by a timer of some sort...probably the age-old time-bomb trope, wiring from a battery to the bomb's detonator attached to the hands of a clock in such a way that when those hands reached a certain time, the circuit was completed</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif;">, and the bomb exploded...</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The wild thing is, this theory emerged two <i>years</i> after the crash, and there are people...including Father Reynolds...who believe it. And there was even, looking back, some evidence that supported the story, such as the luggage that was scattered between the severed wing and the main crash, and the fact that the fuselage was broken a few feet forward of the tail.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">But the story has a <i>lot</i> of problems. Knute Rockne's trip out to L.A. was actually planned well in advance, and was originally to be via train, from Chicago to L.A. for the entire trip. He changed plans to flying when Doc Nigro suggested that Rockne and his two oldest sons meet him at Kansas City's train station for breakfast. Knute Rockne actually purchased the ticket himself in Chicago...where, as we recall, he was visiting his mother. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Domine, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">No actual evidence of an explosion was ever found. Nothing. None of the damage to the fuselage seemed to be blast damage, all of it, in fact, appeared to be caused by the impact with the ground at 200 mph. The plane was in a violent spin when it hit, </span></span>there were some <i>serious</i> forces acting on that steel-tube frame when they hit the ground. The forward part of the fuselage stopped spinning a fraction of a second before the tail...in that fraction of a second the tail ripped loose.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The fuselage was intact as the aircraft was falling...a bomb in the baggage compartment would have blown a steel tube, fabric covered airplane in half...and the parts of the fuselage would have been much farther apart when they hit the ground. Likewise, the bodies would have all probably been ejected several hundred feet in the air, and would have equally likely been several hundred feet apart when they hit the ground/.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And there was the severed wing, The investigation uncovered severe water damage to the main spar...Anthony Fokker himself identified it. The believers of the 'Bomb Theory' though, insist that the wing spar had no water damage, but was blown apart by the bomb. This of course, doesn't work, because <i>every</i> Fokker F-10 in service was grounded, and checked for...let's all say it together...wing spars delaminating due to water damage. </p><p style="text-align: left;">It was reported by the theorists that the Bakers heard the plane explode and saw it falling in flames. Several problems with that...the Bakers never saw the plane falling, they heard it...heard the engines wide open, then throttled back, then heard the loud 'THWUNK!!!! of it hitting the ground, and rode to the crash scene, where they found the plane upside down and wrecked, but <i>not</i> on fire, despite the area being soaked with avgas.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Where did this theory come from? It was originally published in the South Bend News-Times (Which went out of business in 1938) on January 7, 1933 and while no other papers published the story, several...including some major papers, such as The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune...took enough interest to make enquiries of The FBI about the purported bomb plot. In reply, The FBI absolutely denied that there was ever any sabotage-related investigation concerning the crash. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Father Reynolds, <i>decades</i> later, and shortly before his death, refuted much of the story, saying he never gave a ticket to Rockne, but that the Mob killed Rockne to punish him (Father Reynolds) for testifying (????). The general thought is that the elderly Priest wanted to keep the story going because, well, it was a good story. And that is just what it was and is...a story.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Flight 599 crashed due to the wing spar failing because of water damage and air turbulence.</p><p style="text-align: left;">To read more about the Bomb Conspiracy Theory, click <a href="https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/mob-bombs-rockne-plane/">HERE</a> and <a href="https://deadspin.com/was-knute-rockne-killed-by-the-mob-tracing-the-origins-5917423">HERE</a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">James Easter Heathman...who went by his middle name...is a name well known and well though of by fans of Knute Rockne and <i>The Irish</i>.</p><p style="text-align: left;">On the last day of March in 1931, one week before he turned 14, Easter Heathman's dad called out to him, asking if he wanted to ride with him to see the plane that had just crashed over on the Baker ranch. Easter, being a typical almost 14 year old boy, was probably in the shotgun seat of his dad's Model T Ford before the elder Heathman finished his question</p><p style="text-align: left;">And so the Heathmans bounced across that field towards the shattered air liner, arriving at the scene shortly after the Bakers, before anything, including the five bodies lying on the ground, had been disturbed. Which means he was there when one of those five bodies was I.D.ed as Knute Rockne.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The experience traumatized young Heathman to some extent, and when a memorial to Knute Rockne and the rest of Flight 599's passengers was erected at the site of the crash four years later, in 1935, Heathman appointed himself both care-taker and tour guide, tasks which he took on with enthusiasm.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Heathman maintained the monument site for several decades, and while he was at it, he was also instrumental in getting two other markers erected...a historical marker placed on U.S. 50, and a memorial display at the Matfield Green Service Area on the Kansas Turnpike (I-35).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The main memorial, at the crash site, was and is on private property, well over a mile off of the road (Kansas Route 177), so he became the go-between who set up permission to access the site for tours, as well as setting up the once-every-five-years memorial service at the site. In an interview shortly before his death, Heathman estimated he had escorted somewhere around 800 people to the memorial site over the years.</div><p style="text-align: left;">Heathman also became a staunch <i>Fighting Irish </i>fan, enthusiastically supporting them. In recognition of his support of the team and the school, as well as his dedication to Rockne's memory, Notre Dame awarded him an honorary monogram at a pep rally in 2006.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Heathman was interviewed in December 2007, just over a month before his death, and remained as low key, and down to earth as he'd been all of his life. When asked how he felt about being somewhat of a a celebrity, he simply stated that he wasn't a celebrity...just an old farmer.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Heathman was 90 years old when he died at of pneumonia in an Emporia, Kansas hospital on January 29th, 2008.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The property where the memorial's located has since changed hands, and the property owners have removed all permissions to access the site unless very special arrangements are made. Those every-five-year memorial services aren't even held there any more, but rather at the Chase County Historical Society Museum in nearby Cottonwood Falls, which hosts an extensive display on Knute Rockne and the crash.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijbQRAiZQsvHZQP8WoGSySjhR9z6Ia3uKMPwe4_bYFWX8-hdP3TzLrh4kijgqHqtbfQIaYFwniIPIKfu1lEkhfA7wB2Xe-q1-4o5w6EtEHEpej3JWcTxhgJKBJq174PAN95FL0YYBSqYkikl16of9scowFMklRBcBwgmxQqTRYG_pVKeG7OfYDLIX7uZU/s1140/032611rockne%20and%20Easter%20Heathman.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="1140" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijbQRAiZQsvHZQP8WoGSySjhR9z6Ia3uKMPwe4_bYFWX8-hdP3TzLrh4kijgqHqtbfQIaYFwniIPIKfu1lEkhfA7wB2Xe-q1-4o5w6EtEHEpej3JWcTxhgJKBJq174PAN95FL0YYBSqYkikl16of9scowFMklRBcBwgmxQqTRYG_pVKeG7OfYDLIX7uZU/w640-h408/032611rockne%20and%20Easter%20Heathman.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Long-time Knute Rockne Memorial caretaker James Easter Heathman standing near the memorial, several years before his death in 2008. Heathman maintained the memorial, kept the grass cut around it, and escorted visitors to the site for more than half a century. While he was at it, he also was instrumental in getting two other memorials...a historic marker on U.S.50, and a display at the Matfield Green Service Area on the Kansas Turnpike put in place.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is actually the backside of the memorial, which was erected in 1935. The memorial was erected on the exact spot where the Fokker's crushed cockpit</span> lay after the crash, the small pile of stones in the foreground is where Knute Rockne's body was found. As the memorial is situated on an active cattle ranch, the rail fence was installed to prevent curious cows from damaging the memorial. It's said that ranch hands still <span style="text-align: center;">occasionally</span> find small parts of the wrecked Fokker F-10 just beneath the ground.</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJrMaj35GP4TTfgHKQ-CoxzhDMGgKFqnrlUw46DJpm9Z6m2dEW1r8ZUj8lCp89D_l9O_NV7WDTsLqMnjYBQRiOHjFpLf0slb29nrbmxaVf3X0jeyBL9rhRfGZDzaJQIgKgMKqpVlp8aeQLn90WsqyoomhV1bSGP0nDoftesFW1-2IBHQiRlLUZoCvs6GM/s2304/Knute%20ROckne%20Memorial%20Crash%20Site.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2304" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJrMaj35GP4TTfgHKQ-CoxzhDMGgKFqnrlUw46DJpm9Z6m2dEW1r8ZUj8lCp89D_l9O_NV7WDTsLqMnjYBQRiOHjFpLf0slb29nrbmxaVf3X0jeyBL9rhRfGZDzaJQIgKgMKqpVlp8aeQLn90WsqyoomhV1bSGP0nDoftesFW1-2IBHQiRlLUZoCvs6GM/w640-h480/Knute%20ROckne%20Memorial%20Crash%20Site.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The front of the memorial, described as a granite obelisk with the names of the crash victims engraved on the front side...a simple, yet powerful and moving memorial to the crash victims. There are also eight crosses in front of the monument itself representing the victims. This pic may have been taken during one of the memorial services, as a floral replica of the Notre Dame monogram is seen in front of the memorial.<br /><br />The land where the monument sits changed hands recently, and the new land owners won't give permission for anyone to visit the memorial unless it's obtained by special arrangement. The memorial services....held annually for years before going to every five years in the mid-90s...are now held at the Chase County Historical Society museum in Cottonwood Falls.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNwutiXV3kV9_eAv6HHJCn2pLXzRcrBDRc0sWfLXuEwHCKrIL1ZmFKk48UktzV2phegZML9qE4X1SiQ8mZqoVFV73VOwOon4O9y5Z6g6l1MNnT5koJEY4y-8nbvbgxzrrqJBAA3PA2L21HtzgPbDjRqGjy0-WtgM2dyo_eni0n8An7az6HO2H6f4IU6gU/s660/0415_Rockne2_5748.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="660" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNwutiXV3kV9_eAv6HHJCn2pLXzRcrBDRc0sWfLXuEwHCKrIL1ZmFKk48UktzV2phegZML9qE4X1SiQ8mZqoVFV73VOwOon4O9y5Z6g6l1MNnT5koJEY4y-8nbvbgxzrrqJBAA3PA2L21HtzgPbDjRqGjy0-WtgM2dyo_eni0n8An7az6HO2H6f4IU6gU/w640-h550/0415_Rockne2_5748.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Close-up of the front face of the monument itself, showing the inscription memorializing the crash victims. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOR9rStJGAvNNjLuCf5FtLxNqSacBitwN7-7Ti2Vi8xmGxxJZWJrDalpSIpxGlaQ_RnHe7gLJ-RNnA7e9ETAeEqCYvfr4IPeq1DFrHoovUsa2uQ47TqIfxBPjwL_FsZjT92UFVjmuLWeKFycY4P_btB7lbXNvJJFtYRC-Fc2XNhWRZw2-xS-RV3xnXoaI/s850/Matfield%20Gren%20Memorial.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="850" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOR9rStJGAvNNjLuCf5FtLxNqSacBitwN7-7Ti2Vi8xmGxxJZWJrDalpSIpxGlaQ_RnHe7gLJ-RNnA7e9ETAeEqCYvfr4IPeq1DFrHoovUsa2uQ47TqIfxBPjwL_FsZjT92UFVjmuLWeKFycY4P_btB7lbXNvJJFtYRC-Fc2XNhWRZw2-xS-RV3xnXoaI/w640-h480/Matfield%20Gren%20Memorial.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bust of Knute Rockne located at the Matfield Green Service Area on the Kansas Turnpike</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">, with a brass plaque telling of both his career and his death, affixed to the pedestal supporting the bust. Easter Heathman was also instrumental in getting this memorial to Rockne put in place.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">While the Knute Rockne memorial at at the crash site is the best known memorial by far, there were several other memorials to the beloved coach, including one in his birth city of Voss, Norway, where both a larger than life size statue of the coach and a commorative plaque memorializing him were put in place.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpxdzQS-aCBepIM1Eg6fCfR9Wf5UceJa4s_zi8Gw_fMIVzBb38sk5igxD33Q7lYOq6IGCb4wjf-hPHDFMp9mur7IqVQA0mCTv4kIiGVkwUfMWGhyphenhyphenfRL4xlFUSTJmp1dAusZepGsQCO4q6kNMsGI2Zy2qmRXDrJFhQ7NYfLzfvqthSVa3vZKOsRINOX9FM/s1080/1000065-Jerry_McKenna_-_%C2%ABRocknesteinen%C2%BB_(Knute_Rockne)_-_minnesmerke.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="624" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpxdzQS-aCBepIM1Eg6fCfR9Wf5UceJa4s_zi8Gw_fMIVzBb38sk5igxD33Q7lYOq6IGCb4wjf-hPHDFMp9mur7IqVQA0mCTv4kIiGVkwUfMWGhyphenhyphenfRL4xlFUSTJmp1dAusZepGsQCO4q6kNMsGI2Zy2qmRXDrJFhQ7NYfLzfvqthSVa3vZKOsRINOX9FM/w370-h640/1000065-Jerry_McKenna_-_%C2%ABRocknesteinen%C2%BB_(Knute_Rockne)_-_minnesmerke.jpg" width="370" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Statue of Knute Rockne in his birthplace of Voss, Norway. His parents </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">moved to Chicago...which Rockne considered his hometown...when he was</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">five years old </span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyIcXPS9sntGJvuhk-vW7DAfAomENiW30VU1yu6g3IPzT3PRYfOyUpB-ZMzFLk0nObN0S_eLfbuM_niSNFTAcxPhD_GzniMSALuZ4fvGaP2C07R2vtM9mdt_h1VoyccnyDGz84WMkJqyRkA9j3FOUMSO6nt0AtwYREtVTeAH2siu7r4E2IUAIy05Lliwk/s800/Knute_Rockne_memorial%20Voss%20Norway.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyIcXPS9sntGJvuhk-vW7DAfAomENiW30VU1yu6g3IPzT3PRYfOyUpB-ZMzFLk0nObN0S_eLfbuM_niSNFTAcxPhD_GzniMSALuZ4fvGaP2C07R2vtM9mdt_h1VoyccnyDGz84WMkJqyRkA9j3FOUMSO6nt0AtwYREtVTeAH2siu7r4E2IUAIy05Lliwk/w640-h480/Knute_Rockne_memorial%20Voss%20Norway.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Commemorative plaque dedicated to Knute Rockne, also located in Voss, Norway</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">There were several other statues, busts, and plaques erected across the country to memorialize him. Studebaker introduced a car named The Rockne in 1932, which was sold for two model years ('32 and '33) before The Great Depression killed it off.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A town in Texas was named after him as well...Rockne, Texas, near Austin, is an unincorporated community of around 400 people. It was renamed at the behest of the town's school children in 1931, shortly after the beloved coach died.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Numerous streets have been named for the Coach...needless to say, there is one in South Bend...a main residential street, running diagonally for about a mile between McKinley Street on it's southwest end and the intersection of Corby Blvd and North Ironwood Drive on it's northeast end.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Chase County Historical Society Museum, at 303 Broadway Street in Cottonwood Falls, has one entire room dedicated to the crash, chock full of items from the crash scene.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***> Links<***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">There were a <i>slew</i> of links for this one, many of them choc full of interesting tidbits and factoids. When I have that many good, solid links, it creates an interesting problem...just which ones do I share.</p><p style="text-align: left;">If I posted every link to every page about Knute Rockne and Notre Dame Football during his tenure as head coach, the list of links would run into multiple pages, so I'm keeping it to links to sites and pages about the crash and Knute Rockne's death with one or two exceptions. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Even with that limit in place, I have over a page of links, so I'm going to post the best dozen, or maybe fifteen, plus a couple of links to specific points of fact. So, without further ado...</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Transcontinental_%26_Western_Air_Fokker_F-10_crash ">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Transcontinental_%26_Western_Air_Fokker_F-10_crash</a> The Obligatory Wiki Page. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knute_Rockne">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knute_Rockne</a> And while we're at it, Knute Rockne's Wiki page.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://kansaspublicradio.org/commentaries-news/2019-03-23/remembering-knute-rockne-and-his-fatal-flight-in-the-flint-hills-88-years-ago">https://kansaspublicradio.org/commentaries-news/2019-03-23/remembering-knute-rockne-and-his-fatal-flight-in-the-flint-hills-88-years-ago</a> Transcript of a Kansas Public Radio podcast about the crash from March 2019...pretty decent read.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/26427913/knute-rockne-funeral-dawn-new-american-experience">https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/26427913/knute-rockne-funeral-dawn-new-american-experience</a> Absolutely awesome article on ESPN's website about the CBS live broadcast of the funeral...but that's not all. The article is absolutely loaded with information about the funeral, the trip itself, and lots more. Very comprehensive, well researched and well written.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://havechanged.blogspot.com/2014/03/twa-flight-599.html">https://havechanged.blogspot.com/2014/03/twa-flight-599.html</a> Very interesting and comprehensive Blog Post about the crash on the 'Things Have Changed' blog. A good summary of Rockne's career that includes a clip of Ronald Reagan as George Gipp in what may be his best known scene as an actor, saying arguably the most famous line from Knute Rockne All American.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> This is also one of those blogs that make it real easy to loose yourself, and a couple of hours, while consuming rainy-day munchies and reading on a rainy afternoon. The blog's owner covers a huge variety of subjects, all very intelligently, comprehensively, and readably....go over to the Blog Archive and list of topics on the left side of the page and I guarantee you'll find something that interests you<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://dodlithr.blogspot.com/2011/11/wooden-wing-failure-in-1931-twa-flight.html">https://dodlithr.blogspot.com/2011/11/wooden-wing-failure-in-1931-twa-flight.html</a> Another short but interesting blog post, from Exo-Cruiser, about the crash. Includes a YouTube clip of a Fokker F-10. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">This blog touches the tech-geek in all of us. The post archive is choc full of posts on aircraft, space craft, vehicles, and electronics. Another 'Loose yourself on a rainy day' pick, big time!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://125.nd.edu/moments/the-last-flight-of-knute-rockne/">https://125.nd.edu/moments/the-last-flight-of-knute-rockne/</a> Post about the crash and Knute Rockne's funeral on the Notre Dame Department of Athletics site. Includes a You Tube clip of Ara Parseghian, ND head coach from 1964-1974, recounting hearing of Knute Rockne's death as a child.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://clickamericana.com/media/newspapers/knute-rocknes-twa-airplane-crashes-1931">https://clickamericana.com/media/newspapers/knute-rocknes-twa-airplane-crashes-1931</a> Interesting site containing the transcripts of several of the literally thousands of newspaper articles about the crash and Knute Rockne's death.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.archivingwheeling.org/blog/a-crash-of-coincidences">https://www.archivingwheeling.org/blog/a-crash-of-coincidences</a> Very comprehensive and interesting article from the Wheeling, West Virginia history website 'Archiving Wheeling', about the death of prominent Wheeling wholesale grocer C.A.Robrecht, who died in the crash. The article notes several parallels with Rockne, as well as a connection that the two men had...a very interesting read.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://ndnation.com/boards/showpost.php?b=football;pid=487977;d=all">https://ndnation.com/boards/showpost.php?b=football;pid=487977;d=all</a> Post on the Notre Dame football forum 'Rock's House' by someone whose grandparents were friends with Knute and Bonnie Rockne. This is a truly cool read, and the replies are just as awesome. Absolutely loaded with interesting facts about the Rockne's, the funeral, and the stadium.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/notre-dame/2020/09/23/knute-rocknes-last-equipment-manager-left-letters-notre-dame-coach/5796320002/">https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/notre-dame/2020/09/23/knute-rocknes-last-equipment-manager-left-letters-notre-dame-coach/5796320002/</a> Yet another extremely interesting article, this one the story of Knute Rockne's last equipment manager and the letters from Rockne that he kept, found by his son after his death.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/90-years-after-his-death-knute-rocknes-life-and-legacy-reverberate-in-a-small-kansas-town/">https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/90-years-after-his-death-knute-rocknes-life-and-legacy-reverberate-in-a-small-kansas-town/</a> Interesting and comprehensive site about the Knute Rockne exhibit in the Chase County Historical Society Museum in Cottonwood Falls, Easter Heathman's daughter, Sue Ann Brown, who took over keeping Rockne's legacy alive after her dad's death in 2008, as well as Rockne's son and grandson. A truly interesting as well as moving read.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://tinyurl.com/5dka32k9">https://tinyurl.com/5dka32k9</a> Short but very interesting article from Notre Dame magazine about Knute Rockne's gravesite</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/the-things-he-carried/">https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/the-things-he-carried/</a> Another Notre Dame Magazine online article about the significance of the rosary, along with other items, that Knute Rockne was carrying when he died</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/887/knute-rockne">https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/887/knute-rockne</a> Knute Rockne's Find-A-Grave page<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.5thdowncfb.com/post/pop-rocks-pop-warner-knute-rockne-threatened-to-quit-to-get-new-stadiums-at-pitt-and-notre-dame">https://www.5thdowncfb.com/post/pop-rocks-pop-warner-knute-rockne-threatened-to-quit-to-get-new-stadiums-at-pitt-and-notre-dame</a> Extremely interesting, informative, and readable article about just how Notre Dame Stadium...The House That Rockne Built...came to be.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/echoes-rockne-and-the-four-horsemens-last-ride/">https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/echoes-rockne-and-the-four-horsemens-last-ride/</a> Yet another extremely interesting article from Notre Dame Magazine, this one about the charity game that was the very last game Knute Rockne ever coached.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/sculpting-rockne/">https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/sculpting-rockne/</a> Awesome Notre Dame magazine article by Jerry McKenna, Notre Dame Class of 1962, and sculptor extraordinaire, about his sculpture of Knute Rockne, which stands outside of the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, as well as a second sculpture that he cast and donated to Knute Rockne's birthplace of Voss, Norway.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Notre_Dame">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Notre_Dame</a> The Spirit Of Notre Dame's Wiki page...</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022422/">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022422/</a> ...And Internet Movie Database page<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-1280042961587409312023-04-02T12:37:00.005-04:002023-10-15T01:09:39.711-04:00The Porter, Indiana Diamond Crossing Collision<p style="text-align: center;"><b> Porter, Indiana Diamond Crossing Collision</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>February 27, 1921</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Last Major Diamond Crossing Wreck</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">By the beginning of the 20th Century's third decade, the railroad had become <i>the </i>way to go if you were planning to travel any distance at all. Long distance travel by car was, at best, an adventure, and at worst, downright dangerous. While roads such as the Lincoln Highway, <i>did</i> exist, they were few, far between, unpaved and generally unimproved for most of their length. Most long distance car travel was on unimproved...and uncharted...paths, and a trip from, say, Long Beach, California to Cincinnati Ohio, could and did take literally<i> weeks.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">Traveling by train, meanwhile, was fast, comfortable, and convenient. By 1921, railroads boasted 253,000 miles of track connecting almost every city and town in the Continental U.S., and when you traveled by train, you traveled in well appointed, comfortable coaches equipped with steam heat, slept in comfortable beds in luxurious Pullman sleeping cars, and ate full course meals that wouldn't have been at all out of place in a five-star-restaurant, served in dedicated, well-appointed dining cars.</p><p style="text-align: left;">OF course, with just more than a quarter million miles of track stuffed into the 48 Continental States, it stands to reason that rail lines would cross each other pretty regularly, especially near population centers. The great majority of these crossings were 'Grade Separated'...a fancy, technical term for 'Using Bridges'...but there were <i>still</i> a slew of places where rail lines crossed each other at grade, using 'Diamond Crossings', so named because the rails in such a crossing formed a 'diamond' when viewed from above.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBu_RIr-LkDN66QXfQTOx5mSGPDiRRc7_oG472IljE0_UIngpMfAnzGhrLsM0heQBeqB6KP0mjovMYiqpLeT2y2SyaTitKW4qprLtPnkJhByahMz78de8PBi30YbvRutA7QP1GGYuQ0zATSjOIYxH-zYvYGfHaiH_Xmk94ZfAsmFpp6Nn-LD0XQ5F7/s640/263930828_593591235196919_8406017646678371114_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBu_RIr-LkDN66QXfQTOx5mSGPDiRRc7_oG472IljE0_UIngpMfAnzGhrLsM0heQBeqB6KP0mjovMYiqpLeT2y2SyaTitKW4qprLtPnkJhByahMz78de8PBi30YbvRutA7QP1GGYuQ0zATSjOIYxH-zYvYGfHaiH_Xmk94ZfAsmFpp6Nn-LD0XQ5F7/w640-h480/263930828_593591235196919_8406017646678371114_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A diamond crossing, where two rail lines cross each other at grade. While these two rail lines cross at right angles, the tracks at the Porter, Indiana diamond crossing, where the wreck featured in this post occurred, crossed at about a forty-five degree angle.</span><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The major problem with diamond crossings was, of course, the possibility of two trains arriving at the crossing at the exact same time. Good traffic control procedures and strict adherence to safety regulations were an absolute must to prevent that from happening.. And when those procedures and regulations were ignored, collisions inevitably occurred, and some of those collisions...such as the one I'm covering in this post...were catastrophic.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><p>And I'm not talking just spur lines and/or interurban lines crossing each other or even spur lines and Interurban tracks crossing major railroad main lines, though there were probably hundreds of such crossings in the country. I'm talking two major railroads crossing each other at grade. And yes, this was absolutely as dangerous as it seems. The very first major loss-of-life train wreck in the country was at such a crossing when<a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2022/01/grand-crossing-train-collision-april.html"> a Michigan Southern passenger train broadsided a Michigan Central immigrant train</a> just south of Chicago at a diamond crossing back in 1853...keep those two railroads in mind, BTW. They figure prominently in <i>this</i> story as well.</p></div><p style="text-align: left;">Of course, in the nearly seventy years separating that very first major rail disaster and the wreck featured in this post, railroad technology had advanced in leaps and bounds, especially safety technology. In 1853, only strict adherence to time tables and railroad policy and procedure kept trains from plowing into each other...which they did anyway, regularly....and on top of that, trains were only equipped with hand-operated brakes that had to be applied separately on each car, making stopping quickly in an emergency impossible.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> By February, 1921...when this post's accident occurred...all major railroads utilized automatic block signaling, while our diamond crossings were protected and controlled by interlocking towers, automatic train detection circuits, block signals, and derailers. Brake technology had advanced exponentially as well...by 1921, trains were equipped with air brakes that made instantly locking up every brake on a long train as easy as yanking a brake valve handle back into emergency ('Big-holing' it in railroad-speak).</p><p style="text-align: left;">Sadly, all of the safety tech in the world won't prevent a wreck if old man Murphy, of Murphy's Law fame, frowns down upon you and something goes wrong. Diamond crossings were already pretty well protected back in 1896, when forty people died in<a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-atlantic-city-diamond-crossing.html"> a diamond crossing collision just west of Atlantic City</a> despite the crossing being protected by an interlocking tower and block signals.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> A quarter century later, the diamond crossing in Porter, Indiana, where this post's wreck occurred, was <i>very</i> well protected with <i>all</i> of the safety devices mentioned above, yet all of that tech didn't even come close to preventing the deaths of 37 people when a Michigan Central passenger train ran a red signal and got T-boned by a New York Central passenger train at a crossing just inside that small city.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> BTW...does one of those railroads sound familiar? Keep reading.</p><div><p>So, obviously, we're heading for the far northwestern corner of Indiana, to Porter County (Which, despite it's name, the <i>City</i> of Porter is <i>not</i> the county seat of) and when I say the far northwestern corner of Indiana, I absolutely mean it. Porter County is in Indiana's northernmost row of counties, only one county away from Illinois to the west, while it's northern boundary is a little body of water known as Lake Michigan (And if you dive in and start swimming, depending on whether you swim far enough northwest or northeast, you'll be swimming in either Illinois' or Michigan's piece of the lake.)</p></div><p style="text-align: left;">The City of Porter itself is tucked up into a small chunk of north central Porter County, about eleven miles east of Gary, Indiana and around thirty or so miles southeast of Chicago's storied 'Loop'. Porter was conceived, founded and built as a railroad town, and was the terminal for the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad, which was one of three lines that merged to form the Pierre Marquette Railroad in 1899.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Several other railroads either had facilities in Porter, or passed through the city, and I have a feeling that the little city was a division point for several of those lines. Two of the lines that passed through Porter...the Michigan Central and the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana, usually referred to as simply the Michigan Southern...crossed at a diamond crossing that was tucked into an out-jutting toe of the small city, just 300 feet north and 500 feet west of the city line and a scosh under 300 feet west of the city's Wagner Road. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Yep...that's right. The two railroads involved in the nation's very first major loss-of-life train wreck, which was a diamond crossing collision, <i>also</i> crossed at another diamond crossing in Porter. A diamond crossing that was the scene of <i>another</i> major diamond crossing collision, involving essentially those same two railroads, just shy of sixty-eight years later. The Michigan Southern survived a couple of organizational and ownership changes over the years before becoming part of the ginormous New York Central system in 1919, but it was still the old Michigan Southern right-of-way. The plot, as they say, thickens.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Rail traffic was heavy, particularly near major population centers, and most particularly near major railroad towns, such as Chicago and, well, Porter Indiana. Some of these waypoints saw upwards of and even more than a hundred trains a day, and one of these uber-busy waypoints was the New York Central/Michigan Central diamond crossing in Porter. Traffic control to keep trains from simultaneously occupying the same point in both space and time was absolutely essential. </p><p style="text-align: left;"> The Wagner Road Diamond Crossing had been there for decades and, in a perfect world, of course, the crossing would have been 'Grade Separated (Again, a fancy way of saying 'One line crossing the other on a bridge). But, of course, the two lines crossed at grade and, on top of that, the Michigan Central, which ran from northwest to southeast, crossed the New York Central, which ran just about due east west, at about a 45 degree angle. This wasn't optimal by any means, as this was a <i>seriously</i> busy pair of rail lines, but despite this fact, there hadn't been a single major wreck, or even minor accident there since the crossing was installed. I can't help but think that, especially back in the 'time table 'era of rail traffic control, luck had a lot to do with this run of good fortune.</p><p style="text-align: left;">As railroad safety technology improved, traffic control at the diamond became more sophisticated. A interlocking tower was built hard by the Michigan Southern/New York Central tracks in the crossing's northwest quadrant, and several levels of mechanical interlocks, and visual signals were installed to protect the crossing...by early 1921 the level of sophistication displayed in the crossing's safety devices was impressive even by today's standards.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Lets take a look at these safety controls.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Porter interlocking tower was a two story, wooden structure, probably about twenty or so feet by ten feet, that housed the manual interlocking levers that controlled the block signals and derailers protecting the crossing, and the operators tasked with actually, well, operating said controls. The upper part of the second floor was almost all windows, giving the tower operators a good 360 degree view of the tracks approaching the crossing and allowing them to see any trains that might be getting ready to enter the diamond.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpM9Gfok695B7YK5LYK1k4bhazUAh1A0t6nDi8GgDhm_c2sDYjfb51LwPYsG1Is90U4PyJlbnyNGvreUHs5Tz7lLUOV8hzNdyhLZDkgpB0fy4PkJPvLh7XaKV6kTgjqpMr97zSB1w0xoZcI-9AEy3x6k3DTb37s9prgd6Lg14HsX1a_lpHru2M6XL6/s1591/SwitchTower-April25-1981-DennisSchmidt.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1029" data-original-width="1591" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpM9Gfok695B7YK5LYK1k4bhazUAh1A0t6nDi8GgDhm_c2sDYjfb51LwPYsG1Is90U4PyJlbnyNGvreUHs5Tz7lLUOV8hzNdyhLZDkgpB0fy4PkJPvLh7XaKV6kTgjqpMr97zSB1w0xoZcI-9AEy3x6k3DTb37s9prgd6Lg14HsX1a_lpHru2M6XL6/w640-h414/SwitchTower-April25-1981-DennisSchmidt.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The Porter, Indiana interlocking tower as it appeared in April 1981. It didn't look all that much different than it did sixty years earlier, in February of 1921. The diamond crossing that the tower had been built to control had been eliminated years before the tower posed for this portrait, and the tower itself would be torn down shortly after the picture was taken.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzXHbt-pyPhpkx_HYNv8lg8Sb0_feY0njd4crdJO70j-1XgNUeIGmbzTsvbjGUz-SQX5jpG578WiQ0XnKlge0h_jDtTJUW2Gp9NavxJoZ--px2V5GH9FFMljqoKzxGNkonChNGBIutVl8Xfb21JV-J_4xAibpf-edVUEpSB9jlTzp8C9064M2PMix/s640/R%20(4).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="640" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzXHbt-pyPhpkx_HYNv8lg8Sb0_feY0njd4crdJO70j-1XgNUeIGmbzTsvbjGUz-SQX5jpG578WiQ0XnKlge0h_jDtTJUW2Gp9NavxJoZ--px2V5GH9FFMljqoKzxGNkonChNGBIutVl8Xfb21JV-J_4xAibpf-edVUEpSB9jlTzp8C9064M2PMix/w640-h478/R%20(4).jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Interior of an interlocking tower, showing the levers that controlled signals and turnouts. These levers manipulated metal rods, connected by a cam and lever mechanism, to control the signals/turnouts, and the rods, encased in metal tubes for protection, could run for as much as a mile. It took a bit of muscle and stamina to move the things.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">One problem...both the New York Central and Michigan Central were double-tracked at the Porter diamond crossing back in 1921, which meant that the tower operator had to watch for trains coming from <i>four...</i>count 'em...<i>four </i>different directions<i>.</i> Generally, there was only one tower operator, and one 'leverman' on duty, so keeping an eye on four tracks using only the Mark 1 Eyeball wasn't exactly an easy task. On top of that, the Michigan Central tracks curved about 600 feet or so southwest of the crossing, which meant the tower operators couldn't see any eastbound Michigan Central trains until they came around that curve. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Thankfully, our tower operator didn't have to rely on visually spotting an approaching train. An annunciator circuit was installed on the approach side of all four tracks, with the contacts for the annunciators just under 2 miles from the tower on the NYC tracks, and a little over 9,000 feet out on the Michigan Central. This circuity operated in much the same manner as automatic highway grade crossing signals...when a locomotive rolled across the contact, tripping the circuit, it activated a light in the tower as well as a buzzer for trains on the NYC tracks, and a bell for trains on the Michigan Central tracks.</p><p style="text-align: left;">My bet is these lights were on a schematic diagram of the crossing, drawn on a board mounted on the tower wall, possibly in one of the corners so it was easily visible from anywhere in the room. This allowed the operator to glance up at the board and instantly see on which line and from which direction a train was approaching when the buzzer or bell activated,.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The operator would look at the board, ascertain which of the tracks the train was on, then set the block signals to favor that train, and stop trains on the other line. So, if the buzzer hits, and our operator glances at the board and sees the light for, say, the westbound New York Central track glowing at him, he immediately sets the block signals to allow that train to pass, and stop trains on the Michigan Central tracks.</p><p style="text-align: left;">These block signals would have been semaphore signals back during that era, and were manually operated, using four foot high levers to move metal rods that passed through mile-long pipes to connect to the signal mechanism... manipulating the things was <i>not</i> a task for the faint of heart or muscle.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOl_NvDF2HtVCgwPDC8ikmAKIgpTrIVcEqQv-NSNnanuenWsAfZNyHF2Abyynlkm8hKWeZILsK-zsibUdSyLult3CJsAwAuxN-ScRid7wN_ZGnNWRzjalQJFJR6412VRs19kE0GmMX31rYme5pGZCQBvrlVosKabrhb80Da47uy9ykhBf7qV114oES/s1866/R.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1866" data-original-width="967" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOl_NvDF2HtVCgwPDC8ikmAKIgpTrIVcEqQv-NSNnanuenWsAfZNyHF2Abyynlkm8hKWeZILsK-zsibUdSyLult3CJsAwAuxN-ScRid7wN_ZGnNWRzjalQJFJR6412VRs19kE0GmMX31rYme5pGZCQBvrlVosKabrhb80Da47uy9ykhBf7qV114oES/w332-h640/R.jpg" width="332" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A semaphore signal similar to the ones controlling the diamond crossing in this post. Signals protecting diamonds crossings were arranged in pairs, with a 'Distant' signal a mile or so out, and a 'Home' signal a few hundred feet before the crossing. Like a traffic light's indications, the ''Distant' signal gave prior warning if the 'Home' signal was set to 'Stop'.<br /><br />Let's assume the signal shown is a 'Distant' signal. This particular signal is indicating a clear track ahead, and would mean that the Home signal was also showing a clear track, and that the crossing was safe to enter. If the semaphore's arm was down at a 45 degree angle, it would indicate that the next signal...the 'Home' signal....was set to 'STOP', and that the engineer should start slowing in preparation to stop prior to reaching the crossing. If the arm was all the way down, at a right angle to the mast, this would indicate 'STOP'<br /><br />The signals also had lights, so they would be visible at night. A red light, of course, indicated 'STOP', yellow indicated that the engineer should be ready to stop at the next signal, and green indicated a clear track ahead.<br /><br />There were still a few...and I mean a <i>very</i> few...of this type signal in service on the BNSF's Glorieta and Raton subdivisions, in New Mexico, as of 2021, but the majority of the nations semaphores have been replaced with more modern signals.</span><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">There were four sets of two signals...a 'distant' signal and a 'home' signal for the approach, or inbound, side of each track. We're only worried about two of those approaches...The westbound approach for the NYC, and the eastbound (even though the tracks run southwest-northeast) approach for Michigan Central. There was a distant signal just shy of a mile from the tower on the Michigan Central, another 4,500 feet out on the NYC; and a 'home' signal, around 500 feet from the diamond on the New York Central tracks, and about 370 feet out on the Michigan Central. If the 'home' signal's showing red, with the semaphore arm horizontal, the 'Distant' signal will be at 'caution ' (Yellow), with the semaphore set at a 45 degree angle, to warn the engineer of the approaching train to slow to around 30-35MPH, and prepare to stop at the 'home' signal. These are interlocked signals, so setting one track to 'clear track (Green) automatically set the other track to stop (Red)...in this example both NYC signals would show green while the signals on both the eastbound and westbound Michigan Central tracks would show caution on the distant signal and stop on the home signal. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The signals also had a 'neutral' position, for want of a better term, and when the levers controlling the signals were set to this neutral position, all of the Distant signals were set to 'Caution, and all of the Home signals signals were set to 'STOP...this would prevent two trains from entering the crossing at the same time if the annunciator failed, or the tower operator, for some reason, missed a buzzer. </p><p style="text-align: left;">This was a 'first come, first served' system, so if two trains...one NYC, the other Michigan Central...hit the buzzer with-in a minute or so of each other, the first train to hit the buzzer gets the green. Also, there was a 'Time Lock' so to speak on the system...once the signal was set, it couldn't be changed for about three or four minutes.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So lets assume that the signals are set to that neutral position when the buzzer hits...our operator instantly glances at the board to see the 'westbound NYC' light glowing at him. He's already moving towards the four foot tall interlocking levers, grabs the proper one, and pulls it back, changing the signals to 'green' for the NYC, and caution/stop for <i>both</i> Michigan Central approaches to cover any Michigan Central train approaching the crossing from either direction. This is why the annunciator circuit is a good bit further out than the distant signal, so our operator can change the distant signal signal from the neutral 'Yellow-caution' to Green-clear track' before the train that 'hit the buzzer' reaches it.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So...now our signals are set to allow the NYC train to take the crossing, and the crew of any Michigan Central trains approaching will (Or at least <i>should)</i> see the yellow 'Distant' signal, and start slowing so they can stop prior to reaching the red 'Home' signal...and the crossing...allowing the NYC train to safely pass. But...what if for some reason the crew of the Michigan Central train misses both their caution and stop signals?</p><p style="text-align: left;">There was still one more level of protection, this one an absolute last resort. When the block signals went to 'stop' for one of the lines, a 'half switch'...called a split-rail derailer and located about 100 yards before the crossing...is set to derail any train that passes the 'Stop' signal on the other line before it can reach and foul the crossing.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsIyCmMACXA1HFl8cL7XrZIx-EH8ON-jwinZ1HyiI6OU9IQEUIjxI-3B0z75ODf-V7G5GdpFLb64mLwX9E6KJDkU7gY68tFYU9V6a-Fv7Lmxwt3Amp5Y702Qorm2zT5Kfu90AFgbOvQQbB6-gRcUOQRdxtRGxwghLPknqkV9pEd4AvYoZQVi-mRWUP/s1024/Split%20rail%20derailer.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsIyCmMACXA1HFl8cL7XrZIx-EH8ON-jwinZ1HyiI6OU9IQEUIjxI-3B0z75ODf-V7G5GdpFLb64mLwX9E6KJDkU7gY68tFYU9V6a-Fv7Lmxwt3Amp5Y702Qorm2zT5Kfu90AFgbOvQQbB6-gRcUOQRdxtRGxwghLPknqkV9pEd4AvYoZQVi-mRWUP/w640-h480/Split%20rail%20derailer.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A split rail derailer. Though this one is used to prevent a runaway rail car on a siding from reaching the main rail line, it's identical in both appearance and operation to the derailer that kicked <i>the Canadian's</i> locomotive and first few cars off of the track in Porter. <br /><br />This particular derailer is set to derail any railcar approaching the derailer from behind the photographer and moving towards the turnout...look at the left-hand rail and you can see the path the wheels would take. When the rolling rail car reached the derailer, it's wheels would be forced to the left, off of the rails, where they would bump along the ties and dig into the ballast, stopping the car well before it reached the turnout and entered the main line.<br /><br />The derailer in Porter, of course, worked the exact same way, except it had to stop an entire train that was moving under power. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Had </span><i style="font-size: x-small;">The Canadian </i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">been moving slowly enough, the derailer in Porter would have stopped it before it reached the diamond crossing, but, unfortunately, the train was moving too fast to stop before fouling the crossing, even though it was derailed.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">If the annunciator failed, or an engineer missed all of the signals, or if a train was approaching the crossing too fast to stop for any reason, its locomotive would hit this derailer, the wheels would be shunted off of the rails, and the now derailed locomotive would bump along on the ties, hopefully stopping short of the diamond. I have a feeling, though, that any engineer whose locomotive had to be stopped by that derailer...on either line...would've had some serious explaining to do.</p><p style="text-align: left;">That's the way it was <i>supposed </i>to happen, and the system functioned perfectly...until it didn't. And that brings us to February 27, 1921.</p><p style="text-align: center;">**</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilPCSYVWX29j8WXmpkmNeSRmdfymVogsXr6FJARtsfs28QkasDe6JD5H-7x88gPA007ywKZdVwJebeOMxmjeeYfYCJKvQmsVGbO5gdOU5yDNJf_sctT2SujffOxzhqEdwyoBCHXkCSBozkYKCzg493CPCgkKqEPymsQVvIbYCgyToJTvdk30lcDOv7/s1920/Screenshot%20(2870).png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilPCSYVWX29j8WXmpkmNeSRmdfymVogsXr6FJARtsfs28QkasDe6JD5H-7x88gPA007ywKZdVwJebeOMxmjeeYfYCJKvQmsVGbO5gdOU5yDNJf_sctT2SujffOxzhqEdwyoBCHXkCSBozkYKCzg493CPCgkKqEPymsQVvIbYCgyToJTvdk30lcDOv7/w640-h360/Screenshot%20(2870).png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A modern-day satellite image of the Porter, Indiana area with Porter's boundary outlined in red, and the area around the crossing outlined in white. The crossing was just about dead-center of the white outlined area, Immediately west of the tiny eastward-pointing 'toe' of the Porter city line. This area's shown in grater detail in both of the following images.<br /><br />The town of Chesterton is immediately to the southeast of Porter, and the body of water visible in the upper left of the frame is Lake Michigan. I don't believe the Porter city line extended all of the way to the lake back in 1921, that, rather, is the result of annexations occurring over the last century and small change.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYBoesYqxLtzud7E6wZ3cjVZvwncrn7HsSowDA3o2l6VxVDQGeYZF2z8aZls_AfUdYfCLqLA3A7i6ot0zdBoi9IQgudx3Kn8DQK1FqCw3vr2epps9ZX6mca2xQnBTSIojEiQrf-7pzxe9Km25OOtJiQMyDG1WqXQQ_9Nx3vh1NtTiavMW7ctP9aS3f/s1920/Screenshot%20(2871).png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYBoesYqxLtzud7E6wZ3cjVZvwncrn7HsSowDA3o2l6VxVDQGeYZF2z8aZls_AfUdYfCLqLA3A7i6ot0zdBoi9IQgudx3Kn8DQK1FqCw3vr2epps9ZX6mca2xQnBTSIojEiQrf-7pzxe9Km25OOtJiQMyDG1WqXQQ_9Nx3vh1NtTiavMW7ctP9aS3f/w640-h360/Screenshot%20(2871).png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Detail view of the area designated by the white square in the above image...the white square on <i>this </i>image is the area immediately surrounding the crossing, and is shown in greater detail in the image below. As in the above image, the Porter city line is shown in red. Porter's to the west of the line, Chesterton to the east.<br /><br /> Both the crossing and the tower were removed decades ago, but the general layout of the area remains very recognizable, The building that housed Porter City Hall and the PVFD's station in 1921, located at 303 Franklin Street and indicated upper mid-frame, was well less than a mile from the accident scene. PVFD was on scene minutes after the wreck happened, and knocked down a fire that got going in the wreckage of the destroyed coach before it got much past the incipient stage. This building also served another, more macabre function after the wreck when it was used as the temporary morgue. The Fire Department moved out of the building long ago, and now has it's own station on West Beam Street, in the extreme upper left of the frame. The building itself was torn down and replaced with a larger, more modern building in 2003.<br /><br />Also shown is the location of the old post office...immediately to the north of and only about three hundred feet from the scene. This building, also much modified, also still stands. The building was one of two locations where injured passengers were taken for treatment, the other being the Porter train station, which is long gone. <br /><br />The rail lines are still in place, though the crossing has been gone since at least the mid or late 1970s. The former New York Central, still double tracked with passing sidings, runs East-West, midframe while the now single tracked former Michigan Central tracks run diagonally from upper right to lower left (Northeast to Southwest). The former Michigan Central tracks still connect to the old NYC lines through turnouts, with the northern section connecting to the west bound track and the southern section to the eastbound track, but there is no longer a diamond crossing there. All of the lines are now part of CSX, I believe. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhmsRFiUzzb4QzlUjSXXUf1-tVRDT8VbE1DcAtfpMm4ThfxP1Zn2S9b5-yy6TKHMsRBxIkGgcoXPDhjmrKLGdzgKgaJx9nFtCb6ZcIXeEjgnhSdDul7NmlpypWn29mxU04dQcyumziUMbF1V56MWX81Ot29ePkIqvq8CNdQNmFIjsInxcmchCr9Uj/s1522/Schematic.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="1522" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhmsRFiUzzb4QzlUjSXXUf1-tVRDT8VbE1DcAtfpMm4ThfxP1Zn2S9b5-yy6TKHMsRBxIkGgcoXPDhjmrKLGdzgKgaJx9nFtCb6ZcIXeEjgnhSdDul7NmlpypWn29mxU04dQcyumziUMbF1V56MWX81Ot29ePkIqvq8CNdQNmFIjsInxcmchCr9Uj/w640-h310/Schematic.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Immediate area around the wreck site, with graphics showing the direction of travel of both trains. The NYC's <i>Interstate Express, </i>shown in blue, and the Michigan Central's <i>Canadian</i>, shown in yellow, with the former site of the tower indicated with a green square. The <i>Canadian's</i> engineer and fireman both missed the home signal, which was set at stop, and ran the crossing in front of the <i>Interstate Express, </i>despite hitting the derailer first. The <i>Canadian</i> hit the derailer at around 55 MPH, too fast for it to stop before reaching the crossing even though the locomotive and four of the cars were off of the rails and bumping along the ties.<br /><br />The locomotive (Michigan Central #8306) rerailed when it hit the crossing, but the tender and cars did not. Locomotive 8306, it's tender, and two of the cars made it through the crossing before stopping. The third car behind the tender, which was a wooden daycoach, came to a stop blocking the crossing, directly in front of the NYC locomotive (#4828). 4828, then slammed into and through the wooden coach at about 50 mph, completely demolishing it and killing 35 passengers. Locomotive 4828 also hurtled off of the rails, it's front end digging into the ground and causing the locomotive to whip around 180 degrees and slam over onto it's left side, killing both the engineer and fireman. <br /><i><br />Credit to the original creator of this image, and to the blog '</i>Porter County's Past: An Amateur Historian's Perspective', <i>also on Blogger. </i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">**</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p align="LEFT">Porter was busy enough to have both a tower
operator/telegraph operator, who was also the shift supervisor, and a
'leverman', who was tasked with actually operating the interlocking
levers to change the signal indications. (Yeah, I know...I left him
out in my explanation above...I did so to simplify my explanation of
the system's operation.).</p></div></div><p style="text-align: left;">There was inevitably a clock on the wall of the interlocking tower, probably one of those big, round, white faced clocks that have graced the walls of schools and offices and factories in one form or the other for well over a century, and as it's minute hand crept ever closer to marking 6:20 PM on that cold late February Sunday evening 102 years ago, there were two trains bearing down on the diamond almost simultaneously...The New York Central's westbound Train #151, The <i>Interstate Express, </i>and the Michigan Central's eastbound Train #20, <i>The</i> <i>Canadian.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">A passing siding ran on the south side of the Michigan Central tracks, starting just northeast of the distant signal and ending hard by the tower, just short of the diamond. A third train...a slower moving eastbound Michigan Central freight...had taken the siding several minutes earlier to allow <i>The Canadian</i> to pass. It had hit the buzzer, of course, and the signals had been set to favor it, but Tower operator Charlie Whitehead knew the freight was due, and that it would take the siding rather than passing through the crossing.</p><p style="text-align: left;">When they saw the freight locomotive's headlight as it eased down the siding, Leverman Joe Cook switched the interlocking lever back to the 'Neutral' position, returning all of the signals to stop. Cook wasn't the regular leverman on this shift, and wasn't familiar with the train schedules, but that wasn't a problem because Whitehead had been working the tower for a good while and <i>was </i>familiar with the train schedule.<i> </i>All of the regular tower operators knew the regularly scheduled trains almost as well as they knew their kids' birthdays, and Whitehead knew that the <i>Interstate Express</i> and <i>The Canadian </i>should hit the buzzer with-in minutes of each other. The only question was, which one would hit first?</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The Canadian </i>was due in Porter at 6:15, so it<i> should</i> have hit the buzzer a good five minutes before the <i>Interstate Express</i>, but that night, the Michigan Central train was running about seven minutes late. <i>The Canadian </i>had pulled out of Chicago at 5:05 PM, but had a couple of stops between Chicago and Porter, and apparently spent a bit longer at one of them than normal. Because of this delay it was nearing 6:20 as <i>The Canadian</i> charged towards the diamond, pretty much neck and neck with the westbound <i>Interstate Express, </i>so it was anyone's guess which train would hit the buzzer first. Leverman Cook actually asked Whitehead which line to give the clear signal...he was told (With Whitehead very likely at least mentally sighing and rolling his eyes, as that was a <i>very </i>basic question) to 'Give it to whichever train hits the buzzer first'.</p><p style="text-align: left;">That train ended up being the <i>Interstate Express</i>, with seven cars, headed by NYC locomotive # 4828, with Engineer Claus Johnston at the throttle, and Fireman George Deland stoking. The first car behind the tender was an Arms Palace Co. Horse Transport car, designed and intended to transport high value race horses. The other six, in order, were a combination baggage/passenger car, a pair of coaches, a dining car, and a pair of parlor cars.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrqYWkWcgJR_ZgpP5oAvkUCZtik_CQaDVD-uT0D-e2TBQ72KdytS05r3L76yycue8LVnhYUmy9cqs05QIo7G_tbfkzJV-4noX2HYHrAF9nscreXQS6bYV87S5iYbHPfP01lu89XwyUv9fYQsbkHR4gNHSMfGwjqI3JzSRyZ-PVqPVwpA9qfkGLFTg/s1024/63d152aed2cc6959bf06337e930fba52.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="1024" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrqYWkWcgJR_ZgpP5oAvkUCZtik_CQaDVD-uT0D-e2TBQ72KdytS05r3L76yycue8LVnhYUmy9cqs05QIo7G_tbfkzJV-4noX2HYHrAF9nscreXQS6bYV87S5iYbHPfP01lu89XwyUv9fYQsbkHR4gNHSMfGwjqI3JzSRyZ-PVqPVwpA9qfkGLFTg/w640-h370/63d152aed2cc6959bf06337e930fba52.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A New York Central 4-6-2 'Pacific' class passenger locomotive similar to Locomotive 4828, which was heading up</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><i style="font-size: x-small;">The Interstate Express</i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> the night of the wreck. The NYC had dozens of these big 4-6-2's in service, in both passenger and freight service. 4828 was very likely scrapped after the wreck</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">I scoured the internet, looking for some information on what class of locomotive Michigan Central #8306 was, but found nothing. While it's a good bet that 8306 was another 'Pacific' class, the M.C. ran several classes of passenger locomotives...they also had a slew of 2-8-0s and 4-6-0s, so 8306 could well have been one of those.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQploodxPBitxuTIq-QL97KP4JmcvHyKcl4JQ2D8wWqeMVZHmKCP7RKHKMNP1IN5MQIPooKIj5onycNLAI_P_5MezcJn_3DDtjwMJ33wvRi4nygjidTtRSEILzsa5eIG9EsKuO9CwhxCPtvKuUkqfa-RPvxGpAJMzFfovD-OmOopJBLC63E07RkUK/s1574/Ro080062.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="1574" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQploodxPBitxuTIq-QL97KP4JmcvHyKcl4JQ2D8wWqeMVZHmKCP7RKHKMNP1IN5MQIPooKIj5onycNLAI_P_5MezcJn_3DDtjwMJ33wvRi4nygjidTtRSEILzsa5eIG9EsKuO9CwhxCPtvKuUkqfa-RPvxGpAJMzFfovD-OmOopJBLC63E07RkUK/w640-h248/Ro080062.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">An Arms Palace horse car similar to the one that was the first car in the<i> Interstate Express' </i>consist the night of the wreck in Porter. These cars were designed to transport high-value race horses and were usually included in passenger train consists rather than freights for a variety of reasons.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">While the horse car being hauled by 4828 had no real bearing on the outcome of the wreck, I included a picture and description of one because of the relative rarity of these cars. No mention of the fate of any horse that might have been aboard the car was made in any article I read about the wreck, so I'm going on the assumption that the car was being hauled 'Dead-head'...empty.</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">Whitehead told Cook to give the <i>Interstate Express</i> a clear track, Cook moved to the row of shoulder-tall levers, grabbed one of them, and pulled it towards him. On the board, the signal indicators changed to green for the NYC and red for the Michigan Central as, almost a mile away, the Michigan Central Distant signal's blade dropped down to a 45 degree angle, it's light showing yellow while the home signal, just over 350 feet from the tower, dropped to horizontal, its light glowing red.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Joe Cook had hardly pulled the lever back good when the bell for the Michigan Central track sounded, and he and Whitehead both looked at the board to see the annunciator light for the eastbound M.C. tracks glowing at them. <i>The Canadian. </i>The train was about two miles out, and in about a minute or so it's engineer or fireman should spot the distant signal's blade canted up at an angle with a yellow light showing. When they did so, they would...or at least <i>should...</i>start slowing and preparing to come to a full stop.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The Canadian </i>was an interesting train. Though it was listed as eastbound as it approached Porter, the train was actually headed north. <i>The Canadian </i>was a joint venture between the Michigan Central and the Canadian Pacific railroads. The train's final U.S. stop would be Detroit, then after pulling out of Detroit's Union Station, it would cross the Detroit river into Windsor, Ontario, Canada. There <i>The Canadian</i> would become a Canadian Pacific train, and a crew from that line would take it to Toronto and Montreal.</p><p style="text-align: left;">As the train approached the distant signal in Porter, it was headed up by Michigan Central locomotive #8306, with Engineer W.S. Long driving, and Fireman George F. Block stoking. Nine cars followed the locomotive...a baggage car, a smoking car, a day coach, a pair of sleepers, then a pair of parlor cars with a dining car between them, and finally another coach, with all but the two sleepers and the diner being Canadian Pacific rolling stock. The Diner was a M.C. car, while the two sleepers were owned by Pullman and leased to the Michigan Central. Several of the cars, most particularly that first day coach, were constructed primarily of wood with steel undercarriages and trucks. That wooden construction's going to play a <i>huge</i> part in what's to come.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p align="LEFT">The signal masts were probably located on the left
sides of the tracks (Or, possibly, on both sides of the track), because the firemen 'called the signal' for
their engineers, and at just a minute or so after 6:20 PM, George
Block was leaning out of 8306's left side picture window, peering
down the track, looking for the Porter Crossing distant signal. Like
Charlie Whitehead in the interlocking tower, train crews knew their
own schedules, and knew what other scheduled trains might create a
conflict. Thanks to train orders, they also knew about the freight that was waiting in the passing
siding...that train wasn't going to be a problem. Block and
Long, however, both knew that, because they were running a few
minutes late, they'd hit the crossing at about the same time as the
NYC's <i>Interstate Express, </i>which potentially <i>could</i> be
a problem, so it was absolutely imperative that George Block spotted
and called the signal,.</p></div><p style="text-align: left;">They were probably running about fifty, so a cold headwind was watering his eyes as they approached that long, sweeping curve to the left just south of the crossing and interlocking tower. They were probably still a thousand feet out when Block spotted the distant signal's tiny but bright yellow light-dot, seemingly hanging in space. He looked over towards Long and called 'Yellow board! across the cab. </p><p style="text-align: left;">If the distant signal showed 'Caution', that meant the home signal, near the crossing, was showing red for 'Stop'. What Long was supposed to do...and indeed, <i>said</i> he <i>did </i>do...was shove the overhead throttle forward, closing it, while also pulling the brake handle back towards him, making a service application of the brakes, and slowing them by about 10 to 15 mph, to around 35MPH, so he could ease to a slow, gentle stop at the 'Home' signal. (They were actually supposed to slow to 40, anyway. The Michigan Central restricted passenger trains to 40MPH when they were crossing a diamond crossing)</p><p style="text-align: left;">With the signal masts being on the left...the inside of the curve...the home signal was apparently visible from the middle of the curve, about a half mile from the signal, and George Block would state that he saw the home signal, showing <i>green </i>when it came into view. He called 'All the way!!', and Long came off of the brakes, and reached up for the throttle, pulling it back towards him, opening the steam valve in the steam dome atop the boiler wide open. <i>The Canadian</i> accelerated, regaining the speed that the brake application had bled off, until it was hurtling towards the diamond at around fifty and still accelerating...</p><p style="text-align: left;">....But as the train hurtled towards the crossing, it's crew didn't realize that they'd made a <i>huge</i> error...fatally huge. The home signal wasn't the <i>only </i>Michigan Central signal signal near the tower. A train order signal...which <i>also </i>displayed either green or red...was hard by the tower. This signal...which indicated to approaching train crews whether or not they needed to stop and pick up new train orders....was showing green. On top of that, smoke and steam from the stopped freight's locomotive was blowing across and often obscuring the home signal.</p><p style="text-align: left;">If George Block <i>did </i>see a green signal glowing at him, it was the <i>train order</i> signal...the home signal was still red. What was <i>supposed </i> to happen if there was a signal conflict of this nature...a green home signal when it was supposed to be red...the engineer of the approaching train was to maintain the reduced speed, and be prepared to stop, until they could confirm that the home signal was, in fact green (Or determine that it was actually red). At any rate, W.S. Long <i>should</i> have continued towards the crossing at 35 MPH until he and/or George Block could see what color the Home signal was actually showing...this way they could bring the train to a stop, if need be, before reaching the crossing. But they <i>didn't</i> do that, instead accelerating to around 60 or so Miles Per hour... twenty miles per hour faster than the Michigan Central's 40MPH speed limit for passenger trains on diamond crossings. And the fates of 37 people were sealed.</p><p style="text-align: left;">In the cab of NYC Locomotive 4828, Fireman George Deland had no problem at all spotting the NYC Distant and Home signals. The NYC line approaching Porter was arrow-straight for literally <i>miles </i>on either side of the crossing<i>, </i>so they were probably a good half mile from the distant signal when Fireman George Deland spotted the tiny but bright pin-prick of green glowing at them and called 'Green Board' across the big 4-6-2 <i>Pacific's</i> cab. Engineer Claus Johnston acknowledged even as he made a gentle brake application...NYC regs. required them to slow to 50MPH when crossing a diamond crossing. </p><p style="text-align: left;">A half mile or so beyond the distant signal, a 'Whistle Post'...a white square sign with a black upper-case 'W' painted on it...appeared in the glow of the locomotive's headlight, to the right of the track. Johnston reached up and yanked the whistle lanyard in the long-long-short-long crossing signal, blowing for the Francis Street crossing, about 1200 feet east of the crossing. There would be another whistle post just beyond the Francis Street crossing, for the Wagner Road crossing, just east of the diamond...But they weren't the <i>only</i> train blowing for a crossing of that same road, also right on top of the diamond.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The freight train had actually taken the siding for <i>two</i> reasons...to clear the line for <i>The Canadian,</i> and to take on water, Michigan Central Engineer Curtis had expertly stopped with the tender's water fill opening nearly beneath the big 'U' shaped standpipe. Fireman Arthur climbed up on top of the tender, opened the fill opening's cover, and swiveled the standpipe so it would dump into the tender's water tank, and with the pull of a chain, water was roaring into the tank, sounding like a dozen filling bathtubs on steroids.</p><p style="text-align: left;">As the tank filled, he looked ahead of the locomotive, towards the tower, and saw the home signal's semaphore blade swing down until it was horizontal, with the light glowing red...no big surprise, because they could also see 4828's headlight, far down the long straight stretch, as the <i>Interstate Express </i>roared towards the crossing, coming <i>fast. </i>So, it was a <i>huge</i> surprise when he heard a train blowing for a crossing <i>behind </i>them...the fireman turned to see a headlight sweeping around the curve, also moving <i>fast.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">The freight's two brakemen, two men by the names of Wise and Kubbernuss, had walked to the head end of the freight, and were standing next to the cab when they, too, heard <i>The Canadian</i> blowing for the Wagner Road crossing...they then looked towards the tower and also saw the Home signal set to 'Stop'...then, to their horror, they saw 8306's headlight, sweeping out of the long curve, flat out <i>strolling. </i>To the east, they could hear<i> The Interstate Express </i>also<i> </i>blowing for Wagner Road. </p><p style="text-align: left;">"He ain't even slacking up!!!" One of the brakemen shouted...both men were carrying white lanterns, as much to see by as anything, and both started swinging the lanterns in a ''Ease Up' signal...in seeming answer, <i>The Canadian </i>blew for the crossing again. 'SHIT!!!' one of the brakemen shouted, and dived across the track, standing on the engineers side of the eastbound track, swinging his lantern frantically. The other brakeman did the same on the fireman's side of the track, swinging the lanterns from side to side manically, with absolutely no reply of any kind from the train crew.. All they could do was watch helplessly as the train bore down on them, diving sideways and out of the way as the locomotive blew past them in a bedlam of sound and steam and hot-metal-smell...and then came the 'BAM! of the locomotive hitting the derailer...</p><p style="text-align: left;">...In the tower, Whitehead and Cook could see the bright sun of 4828's headlight, twin spears of reflected brightness racing along the rails ahead of it, as <i>The Interstate Express </i>bore down on the crossing. Then they heard a train blowing for Wagner Road...but the whistle they heard was coming from the <i>south</i>. Both of them knew that <i>The Canadian's</i> engineer was blowing for the Michigan Central's crossing, also of Wagner Road, just north of the tower and well past the diamond, which could only mean...</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Both men spun around to look south, down the Michigan Central tracks, and both of them went cold with dread as they saw <i>The Canadian's</i> headlight sweeping into view from around the curve, still running a good fifty or sixty. Then, as if answering <i>The Canadian's</i> crossing signal, they heard <i>The I</i><i>nterstate Express</i> blowing for the NYC's Wagner Road crossing, and both of them jerked their heads around and stared at 4828's fast approaching headlight, watched as those light-spears racing along the rails ahead of the locomotive grew shorter and shorter as the train drew closer...</p><p style="text-align: left;">Whitehead turned his head to stare at the fast-approaching C<i>anadian, </i>even as it blew for the Michigan Central's Wagner road crossing a second time... He was also watching the <i>exact</i> same type of twin light-spears racing along the rails in front of 8306, shortening as the train bore down on the crossing.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> 'Joe, he's not gonna stop!!! Whitehead called across the tower.</p><p style="text-align: left;">They could now hear the disjointed, out-of-sync <i>'CHF-CHF-CHF-CHF'</i> of the two big steamers' huffing exhaust. For an instant Whitehead thought about slamming the levers back to the neutral position, making both home signals red...neither train had room to stop, but both would be derailed before they could collide. He rejected that plan in the same instant...he didn't have enough time, and on top of that, the time lock wouldn't let him. On top of that, neither train would have had a hope of stopping, or even <i>slowing</i> but so much...the only question would have been which train would hit a derailer first, and just how bad the resultant wreck would be.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Even though it probably took both trains both a good fifteen seconds or so to eat up the fifteen hundred feet between the whistle posts and the tower, less than an instant seemingly passed before <i>both</i> trains were right on top of the crossing with <i>The Canadian </i>in the lead by a few seconds. The tower was just <i>barely </i>west of the diamond, so when <i>The Canadian</i> roared through the crossing, it would be between it and the on-rushing <i>Interstate Express, </i>putting the tower right in the kill-zone created by any flying debris....but the two men didn't move...yet...</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The Canadian's</i> headlight was washing the interior of the tower with light, then the locomotive...very likely another 4-6-2...suddenly jerked to the left, away from the tower, as the locomotive hit the derailer, and the headlight started vibrating, jittering up and down as the locomotive slammed across the ties, splintering them, making a horrible racket backdropped by the 'BAM! BAM! BAM! of the tender, then the cars hitting the derailer and slamming off of the track.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Engineer Long and Fireman Block, in the cab of <i>The Canadian's</i> locomotive 8306, didn't suspect that <i>anything</i> was wrong as they approached the tower, and the crossing. The freight train's cars were to their left, seemingly passing them backwards at about sixty, ahead of them steam and smoke from the freight locomotive was still sweeping across the two-track main line, still obscuring the home signal. Somehow they missed the two brakemen frantically swinging lanterns ahead of them, as well as ghostly red glow of the Home signal shining through the steam-cloud. </p><p style="text-align: left;">As far as they were concerned, Block had called the signal as clear...they should have a clear track...The tower was spotlighted by their headlight... they were maybe 400 feet...BAM!!!</p><p style="text-align: left;">Both Long and Block were jerked to the right as 8306 hit the derailer, slamming to the left, off of the track and onto the ties, still moving at sixty or so. The locomotive's pilot and right side wheels ripped through the seven by nine inch ties like they were toothpicks, splintering them, while the left side wheels dug through the gravel ballast, throwing it aside like a snow plow.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Inside the cab, Long and Block hung on for dear life as the derailed locomotive slid, jittering up and down like an out-of-balance clothes dryer. Long had the presence of mind to shove the throttle closed, and may have even pulled the brakes back into emergency, not that either made much difference by then. The two of them <i>had</i> to have known what had just happened,, and they <i>had </i>to have known that hitting the derailer meant that the Home signal was at Stop.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Behind them the tender, then the cars and coaches hit the derailer just as suddenly, and also started slamming across the ties as 8306 dragged them forward...the train was slowing, but nowhere <i>near</i> quickly enough. Everything remained coupled together...at first, anyway...then something strange happened.</p><p style="text-align: left;">8306 ripped across the turn-out for the passing siding, tearing it up, then, a hundred or so feet and a couple of seconds later, slammed through the diamond. In the cab, the manic jittering suddenly smoothed out as the diamond's 'frogs' grabbed the locomotive's wheels and yanked them back onto the rails...I can't help but wonder if either Block or Long glanced out of the cab's right side window to see the NYC locomotive's headlight bearing down on them as they hurtled through the crossing. With the throttle closed, 8306 was just coasting, still moving at around 30 miles per hour, after the diamond rerailed it, slowing as it's momentum petered out, finally rolling to a stop about 400 feet beyond the diamond.. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The tender, baggage car, smoking car and first coach all slammed through the derailer and bounced along the ties, uncoupling from each other and moving at their own speed as they did so. The baggage car bounced across the ties for a shade over 300 feet, shuddering to a stop 75 feet behind the locomotive while the smoking car derailed, jolting over both rails and loosing it's forward truck as the car angled across both Michigan Central tracks, stopping almost 200 feet behind the baggage car and only 35 feet beyond the crossing. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The passengers aboard <i>The Canadian's</i> first day coach knew something was <i>bad</i> wrong when they were suddenly thrown forward, into the seat ahead of them as the car lurched across the derailer and shuddered across the ties, turning their fast, smooth trip rough and noisy. Ahead of them, the tender, baggage car, and smoking car derailed, separated, and stopped beyond the diamond. The first coach shuddered to a stop just behind and maybe even resting against the smoking car, derailed and sitting on the diamond, dead across the New York Central tracks. The interior of the coach was washed with light, and the passengers turned, wide-eyed and horrified to stare at 4828's oncoming headlight. They only had a second or so to contemplate their fate...</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5DXw2deemDE7UBnz3s89C4E9yAnbq0Inz8BX-kI3RXrCCJ9r4in73oy7H6YjuUON7VbDzK954MZi65CqzS-8ZXk005qhL90N-6p0K2RHImU5dHJ35mMPJpayZ4oV2aRr6UbSCUXzGDt_4QqsCgkPVN1nnNc8Q8ro-YHUnMR0nF8KbsW6T9x1hzii/s2032/layout3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1428" data-original-width="2032" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5DXw2deemDE7UBnz3s89C4E9yAnbq0Inz8BX-kI3RXrCCJ9r4in73oy7H6YjuUON7VbDzK954MZi65CqzS-8ZXk005qhL90N-6p0K2RHImU5dHJ35mMPJpayZ4oV2aRr6UbSCUXzGDt_4QqsCgkPVN1nnNc8Q8ro-YHUnMR0nF8KbsW6T9x1hzii/w640-h450/layout3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">T</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">his
photo's looking west, up the New York Central tracks toward the
Porter interlocking tower, and the diamond crossing, with the
Michigan Central tracks passing left to right mid-screen. The blue
arrow shows the direction of travel of </span></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><i>The
Interstate Express, </i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">as
well as the track it was on, while the yellow arrow shows the
direction of travel of the Michigan Central's </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><i>The
Canadian. </i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Wagner
Road crosses the NYC tracks in the immediate foreground, it also
crossed the Michigan Central tracks out of frame to the right (North)
Both trains were blowing for the Wagner Road crossings as they
approached the diamond, which is what very likely alerted both
Whitehead and Cook, in the tower, and the crew of the freight train
that was sitting on the Michigan Central passing siding of the
impending disaster.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: black; font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The
Michigan Central crossed the NYC at about a 45 degree angle, which is
why the tower sits at an angle. The Michigan Central Horne Signal,
which </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><i>The
Canadian's </i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">crew
disregarded and ran, would be off frame to the left, but if you look
at the left side of the tower, and look at the left side of the roof,
just to the left of that multi-line utility pole, you'll see a
semaphore signal, set to stop. That is the train order signal that
George Block says he probably mistook for the Home signal...the night
of the wreck, this signal was green. The ICC stated that it
absolutely </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><i>was</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">possible
to mistake the Train Order signal for the Home signal, but that
wasn't as good of an excuse as you might think...I go into why
towards the end of the post.</span></span></div></span><p></p></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;">The crossing and interlocking tower were spotlighted in
4828's headlight beam as the big <i>Pacific</i>
class blew past the green NYC home signal, then roared across
the Wagner Road crossing. Just about the time they crossed Wagner
Road, less than 300 feet from the diamond, both Johnston and Deland went pale, their eyes snapping wide open in shock, as
Michigan Central locomotive 8306 suddenly hurtled into view,
spotlighted as if on stage, bouncing as it shuddered across the ties.
8306 jolted as it rerailed on the diamond, then swept off of the crossing and out of view, dragging it's tender and the baggage car
behind it, with the smoking car and first coach following. </p><p align="LEFT">Johnston grabbed for the brake handle...ahead of them,
time seemed to suddenly downshift and move in slow motion...he
slammed the brake handle back into 'EMERGENCY', at the same time shoving the throttle closed. As he shoved the throttle forward, closing it, and reached desperately for the Johnson bar to reverse the locomotive, he and George Deland watched the baggage car detach from the tender, then
the smoking car behind it uncouple and heave sideways, both cars
throwing gravel aside as they plowed ahead, jolting across the diamond. On board <i>The Interstate Express, </i>the brakes grabbed and steel
wheels started screaming against steel rails.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The Canadian's</i> first coach lumbered awkwardly onto the crossing, smacked the smoking car, and shuddered to a stop, <i>maybe</i> a hundred feet directly ahead of them. They didn't have a chance in hell of even getting slowed down, much less getting stopped.</p><p style="text-align: left;">In the tower, Whitehead and Cook scrambled between the work desk and the row of levers, trying desperately to make it to and out of the door and down the outside steps before the collision pounded debris through the tower windows. The was a concert of horror outside as steel wheels screamed against rails, and <i>The Canadian's </i>wheels pounded across ties, with the manic chuffing of the two big locomotives merging to provide accompaniment. One of the men may have glanced back just in time to see the horrible image of 4828's headlight shining <i>through</i> the C.P. day coach's windows as the coach shudder-stopped on the crossing, dead-in-front of the onrushing locomotive. They weren't going to make it to the door.</p><p style="text-align: left;">'<i>Hit the floor!!!' </i>The two men dived to the floor, hugging the floorboards at the same instant a crunching shuddering crash assaulted their ears, followed all but instantly by shattering glass and a cacophony of ricocheting wood as several windows on the south side of the tower exploded inward.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> If you took a ceramic coffee mug, tossed it in the air, and smacked it with a hard-swung baseball bat, you'd get a pretty good approximation of what happened to the central 30 feet or so of the coach when it grenaded violently as 4828 slammed into it, turning into pieces of wooden shrapnel that bombarded the south wall of the tower, shattering the windows and sending jagged glass projectiles across the room as wooden pieces of coach ricocheted off the walls and bounced across the floor.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Those wooden Canadian Pacific 1500 series day coaches were seventy-two feet long with a capacity of seventy-two passengers, and CP coach #1560's seats were filled to a bit over-capacity, with possibly as many as 80 people aboard when 4828 slammed into and through it just about dead center. The coach came apart explosively as 4828 slammed it off of the track, the steel underframe bending almost double before snapping like a twig, the big six wheeled trucks tumbling across the ground like a pair of boulders tossed by a giant, turning the wheel sets into huge and deadly flying dumbbells. The front third or so of the coach tumbled and rolled for well over a hundred feet, shedding parts and passengers...both dead, injured and even uninjured...as it did so, finally stopping, in pieces, nearly two hundred feet beyond the crossing. The middle third or so just suddenly and violently ceased to exist, while the back third spun away from the collision, shedding shattered sections of sidewall and roof, ending up in a heap at the base of the tower.</p><p> Over thirty people were violently ejected, with over half of them carried along by 4828 as it tore through the coach...at least twenty of them ended up either in front of the locomotive or under it, and died instantly and almost as many were horribly injured and wouldn't survive the night.</p><p> The collision kicked the locomotive hard to the right, off of the track, and that one hundred plus tons of steel actually caught a tiny bit of air as it pounded sideways across the rails and tilted downward <i>hard</i> off of the track. The locomotive's pilot threw a bow wave of dirt aside as it slammed into the ground next to the track, digging <i>deeply</i> into the earth and gouging out a ten foot deep, twenty or so foot long crater as the <i>front</i> end of the locomotive stopped almost instantly.</p><p> The <i>back </i>end and tender, however, were still moving at 50 miles per hour or more, and momentum wanted them to continue to do so. The locomotive whipped around 180 degrees in less than an eye-blink, bending steel rails into pretzel shapes, turning ties into projectiles, and sending a deadly hail storm of ballast stones flying, before slamming over on it's left side. </p><p>In 4828's cab, all Claus Johnston and George Deland could do was hang on for the ride, and sadly, it wouldn't be a ride that they would survive. I don't know of they ended up under the overturned locomotive or if they were ejected and hit the ground with fatal force, but both men died in the wreck. </p><p> The tender was yanked around like the end kid in an extreme game of snap-the-whip, and for just an instant the rest of the train was yanked along as well, until the coupling between tender and horse car snapped like a rotten twig an instant before the connections and coupling between tender and locomotive ripped loose, and the tender was thrown, almost like a 60 ton shot-putt, beyond the locomotive as it slammed around, ending up turned 90 degrees, just beyond the overturned locomotive. The horse car bounced along the ties for another hundred and fifty feet or so before slamming off of the track and across the east-bound NYC track as well as the NYC passing siding, while the three cars behind it, derailed and uncoupled, shuddered to a stop, tilted and zig-zagged, but intact. The rest of the train stayed on the rails.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">**</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjprKhc8cn3V-8rsOPDKIJribxBTX0xdW6xSfRmrBcgpS_iiR6MtT2JHhjvK5_QOXBCuZ6JUKLrudOK4x-2zA-gEHptaNDhiNfGA1ZcxX5wNgSm2Cb_h_QX1XIeTmfAfaYiaEsQAry853q2D0L5YVzRepLcClNL0mBKgZ21ZOHvuDrzNyEACRn50E-8/s1600/NYC-Engine-Tracks.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="1600" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjprKhc8cn3V-8rsOPDKIJribxBTX0xdW6xSfRmrBcgpS_iiR6MtT2JHhjvK5_QOXBCuZ6JUKLrudOK4x-2zA-gEHptaNDhiNfGA1ZcxX5wNgSm2Cb_h_QX1XIeTmfAfaYiaEsQAry853q2D0L5YVzRepLcClNL0mBKgZ21ZOHvuDrzNyEACRn50E-8/w640-h388/NYC-Engine-Tracks.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">NYC Locomotive 4828, overturned and pointing back in the direction from which it came the morning after the wreck. You're looking east, up the NYC main line, with the Porter Interlocking Tower visible on the left side of the frame. When the locomotive whipped around after derailing and digging into the ground, it tore the tracks up as well, tearing out a good hundred feet or so of track, and carrying it along for the ride...some of that track is also visible in the foreground of this shot. At the same time it was ripping up the NYC main line, the out-of-control locomotive also damaged a wye track connecting the Michigan Central and NYC main lines.<br /><br />Sadly, and as of yet unbeknown to the recovery crews when this pic was taken, the bodies of several passengers as well as Engineer Claus Johnston, and Fireman George Deland were underneath the wrecked locomotive.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlN4MX97X_FckOJ6Txi7-_YJPlb_vXPbYj7Unn1HdUPmb-4y-hXi2NItM3TOEtBt7PE2_VGiBhJw88uAyNe2i7PQv6Sx8b6Hx44oZ1e7dZ2_G_4qnvWXU8POeCBVZh12TyEi0YnyT3ypWmbxZD-KUF9fJRIPpZ_Sjg5ckSDQ-WIrEoSUitkHBMj7aP/s523/wrk_nyc4828a.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="523" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlN4MX97X_FckOJ6Txi7-_YJPlb_vXPbYj7Unn1HdUPmb-4y-hXi2NItM3TOEtBt7PE2_VGiBhJw88uAyNe2i7PQv6Sx8b6Hx44oZ1e7dZ2_G_4qnvWXU8POeCBVZh12TyEi0YnyT3ypWmbxZD-KUF9fJRIPpZ_Sjg5ckSDQ-WIrEoSUitkHBMj7aP/w640-h474/wrk_nyc4828a.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Another shot of 4828, taken from about the same angle as the first pic, but from a bit further back. with the tower in the background, and 4828's derailed tender right mid-frame. The tender probably weighed in at least forty or fifty tons, yet it got dragged around, then tossed beyond the locomotive as if it was made of balsawood and cardboard.<br /><br /> One of the big wrecking cranes is partially visible at the extreme right, and it looks as if it's crew's getting ready to hook up to the tender and remove it. Look closely between the tender and crane and you can barely see one of <i>The Interstate Express' </i>derailed coaches, while one of <i>The Canadian's</i> coaches is visible at the extreme left, beyond the tower. <br /><br />The wreckage visible in the foreground is part of the front third or so of Canadian Pacific coach 1560, which 4828 destroyed when it tore through it. The body of the coach was reduced to splinters and fragments, and the steel frame was bent double and snapped in two, with part of it tossed nearly 200 feet...you can see part of the frame in the extreme foreground of this shot.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZ2HxMO84oambo5a4pZnduUzJ93R_OqsAaQjO50s7oRhM7V8y2P9t0NPE89A2jwa7B_7weG_zdqWQGw__g5QWxlKQt3sTAbSbIqB3dwBcDW8jEz1TVZqmlzL-spSUp5HjFMD3l7u617_fqwQIfGvtgTMe23kJcvEM2cQsyUxrWtrmC3HlbTwTlCjF/s518/wrk_nyc4828b.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="518" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZ2HxMO84oambo5a4pZnduUzJ93R_OqsAaQjO50s7oRhM7V8y2P9t0NPE89A2jwa7B_7weG_zdqWQGw__g5QWxlKQt3sTAbSbIqB3dwBcDW8jEz1TVZqmlzL-spSUp5HjFMD3l7u617_fqwQIfGvtgTMe23kJcvEM2cQsyUxrWtrmC3HlbTwTlCjF/w640-h484/wrk_nyc4828b.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">I really wish this pic was better quality than it is, because there's a lot going on here. This pic was taken well into the incident, and was very likely taken from the second floor of the tower. The overturned Locomotive 4828 is visible center-left in the frame, with the tender just beyond it, turned 90 degrees, and one of the NYC's ginormous wrecking cranes working on removing the tender. Righting and rerailing the wrecked locomotive would likely be the last task for the wreckers, and it very likely...I'll go as far as saying definitely...took two of them to handle the job.<br /><br />Note the huge amount of wreckage between the locomotive and the left edge of the frame...<i>ALL</i> of that's from the destroyed daycoach, which pretty much disintegrated when 4828 slammed into and through it...the central thirty feet or so of the coach was reduced to splinters. One end of the coach was thrown nearly two hundred feet beyond the crossing, you can just barely make out that wreckage right mid-frame, to the right of the crane and left of the first utility pole.<br /><br />Also note the destroyed track. That's a wye track that connected the NYC and Michigan Central. The NYC and Michigan Central main lines were also torn up, the Michigan Central worse than the NYC because of the Michigan Central locomotive and two of it's cars running on the ties for nearly six hundred feet. The NYC main line was torn up in the vicinity of the crossing, damaged by locomotive 4828's spin and roll.<br /><br />Track repair crews would be waiting for the wreckers to finish removing cars and wreckage so they could get to work repairing the two main lines...note the work train that the wrecking cranes coupled to the end of. These guys hustled, <i>big</i> time. A Michigan Central passenger train was the first train to pass through the repaired crossing, twenty-three hours after the wreck.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeI7V1oruv0o2jKgBPuceNmC7glUAzOD397RZ8d_mVQfYCksWhsX2WoyWxhFIHG6ygKz7T974qv4gM_SqaA59gfxQJq8vyZzSvy1acAml8CCERGC-5f1cVuSQIU88deKMQVZuV-MnzC3QETzgnwPCjMU3NK4turVw6jYoatZ9bsYGP7RNUNc2fXnH1/s1600/WreckScene.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="992" data-original-width="1600" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeI7V1oruv0o2jKgBPuceNmC7glUAzOD397RZ8d_mVQfYCksWhsX2WoyWxhFIHG6ygKz7T974qv4gM_SqaA59gfxQJq8vyZzSvy1acAml8CCERGC-5f1cVuSQIU88deKMQVZuV-MnzC3QETzgnwPCjMU3NK4turVw6jYoatZ9bsYGP7RNUNc2fXnH1/w640-h396/WreckScene.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Another general shot of the scene, with 4828 right mid-frame. This one was probably taken form fairly close to the tower. The windowless car visible midframe, just beyond the overturned locomotive, is probably the train's baggage car...the Arms Palace Horse Car, which was the train's first car, is hidden by both the locomotive, and the work train just beyond it, derailed and slanted across all three NYC tracks (West and eastbound main lines, and passing siding).... The next car visible was one of the NYC coaches.<br /><br />Note the huge amount of wreckage on the ground...<i>all</i> of it' from the destroyed Canadian Pacific coach, which was reduced to splinters and fragments in the collision. Two of the coach's wheelsets are visible left mid-frame, and note that the one closest to the camera's sitting tilted at an angle...that's because it's sitting in the crater that the locomotive gouged out of the ground as it hurtled off of the track and spun around.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpv7isza7VdnPQQESzlyN61E0z2HxqCcU3qRlkREN2wYNZX2-dgW8hgpb-zbSDb0rOvARiuK8hzSIp7U0MR9fIHY760TCXF1OG04R2MOHL0F3kDbuoMztD9qW3f4PKVPM2BWxiSCEVvFN16h_YNhQOvnuqRsipKafd2f4Jy0XyGy0uOgmINeUP9pnC/s1590/NYC-MC-PorterINCrash1921-5.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1590" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpv7isza7VdnPQQESzlyN61E0z2HxqCcU3qRlkREN2wYNZX2-dgW8hgpb-zbSDb0rOvARiuK8hzSIp7U0MR9fIHY760TCXF1OG04R2MOHL0F3kDbuoMztD9qW3f4PKVPM2BWxiSCEVvFN16h_YNhQOvnuqRsipKafd2f4Jy0XyGy0uOgmINeUP9pnC/w640-h402/NYC-MC-PorterINCrash1921-5.webp" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">This one's at the crossing, looking west up the NYC main line. The wreckage in the immediate foreground is from the destroyed Canadian Pacific Coach #1560, with a fragment of sidewall and part of the car's roof on the right (Just above where 'Pan Drugstore's printed) and two wheelsets to the left. This car was absolutely devastated, and all but two of the fatalities were passengers from this car. Unbelievably and verging on miraculously, though, a few of the car's passengers escaped injury. The derailed car partially visible at extreme right center of the frame is a smoking car, which the destroyed coach very likely hit as it lumbered through the crossing, while the intact car left center is a sleeping car. The car visible end-on is probably the fourth NYC car, which was a coach.<br /><br />You can see how close the crossing was to the tower here...the crossing itself is actually about mid-frame, and the photographer was standing about forty or fifty feet from it, the two cars to the sides of the frame are roughly in line with the Michigan Central track, and to the left and right of the crossing. When the wooden daycoach grenaded as 4828 slammed through it, it threw wooden shrapnel ahead and to the sides for a hundred feet or more. Every window on this side of the tower's first floor as well as several on the second floor were broken, and a couple of holes were even punched in the siding. Of course, it could have been even wore...4828 made it past the tower before hurtling of the track, to the right, and whipping around. Had it gone off the track at the instant it hit the coach, it would have slammed through the tower, destroying it, and probably adding Whitehead and Cook...the two men working the tower,,,to the list of fatalities</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXXaDzFEwSKAtGQEOGb_Vas8UEZTCSVsOK-kGjpxWYLQclXJwqNvTfMRIBJomYm2jNZFplUIRvAiXg_h9rJxYj2VfmkfTTKqbudkhtxe-R0ogD115z7nKXguYncDEsNwPMSiPDD4AY3unOKSk20vk_JqV8jzBVE2sry0t0kjWhNNIHx0e7IJCIKx3/s1600/PassengerCars-Uprighted.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="976" data-original-width="1600" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXXaDzFEwSKAtGQEOGb_Vas8UEZTCSVsOK-kGjpxWYLQclXJwqNvTfMRIBJomYm2jNZFplUIRvAiXg_h9rJxYj2VfmkfTTKqbudkhtxe-R0ogD115z7nKXguYncDEsNwPMSiPDD4AY3unOKSk20vk_JqV8jzBVE2sry0t0kjWhNNIHx0e7IJCIKx3/w640-h390/PassengerCars-Uprighted.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">This one was taken well into the recovery process, apparently, and to be honest I don't have a clue exactly where on the scene it was taken from. If I had to make a guess, I'd say it's looking south, down the Michigan Central tracks, towards the crossing, and that's the end of the derailed smoking car. angled across both Michigan Central mainline tracks, you're looking at. The tower would be in the right, center background, hidden behind the smoking car. The derailed, tilted car to the right is probably the sleeping car that was also visible to the right of the frame in the photo above this one. The coach visible to the left would be one of he NYC coaches, and it appears one of the big wrecking cranes is working to rerail it.<br /><br />One thing that's notable in <i>all</i> of these pics is the number of spectators who were right on top of the action, something that just absolutely wouldn't happen today...if you aren't Fire, Law Enforcement, railroad personnel, or one of the Federal 'alphabet' response agencies (EPA, NTSB, etc), you won't get with-in a quarter mile or so of a similar scene today. Back then, though, it was not only allowed, it was all but expected. A train wreck in town was actually considered entertainment and I can guarantee that, as those big cranes worked, there were dozens of wide-eyed young boys watching in wonderment. And yes, playing hookie from school may have been involved for that to happen.<br /><br /><i>Credit for all of the above images to the the blog '</i>Porter County's Past: An Amateur Historian's Perspective', <i>also on Blogger. </i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: center;">**</p><p><br /></p><p>Often the seconds immediately following a major disaster are described as 'Several seconds of eerie silence', but that definitely wasn't the case in Porter that evening. Steam was roaring from the split seams on 4828's boiler, then M.C. locomotive 8306's safety valve let go, adding to the din. In 8306's cab, W.S. Long and George Block had a busy several minutes, closing the throttle and banking the fire, but the <i>main</i> thing I have a feeling they were doing was getting their story straight...they had just caused a major accident, and they <i>knew </i>it.</p><p>By some absolute miracle, both locomotive and tender missed the tower as they whipped and spun off of the tracks, leaving it shrapnel-damaged but intact, and it's two occupants shaken but uninjured. In the tower, Whitehead and Cook raised themselves off of the floor, then stood and looked out of the shattered windows...they had a birds-eye view of the wreckage, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if one or both voiced a horrified 'Holy Mother of God' or similar prayer as they gazed over the shattered wreckage and scattered coaches, half hidden by steam and smoke. Small flickering's were lighting up the steam and smoke clouds as small fires...likely started by burning coal from 4828's fire box, and thankfully not spreading quickly...erupted in the wreckage of the day coach.</p><p>The two of them were also likely amazed that they were still alive and that the tower was still standing... 4828 had <i>just</i> missed the tower as it derailed and whipped around. Had it hit the structure, the tower would have been instantly reduced to a pile of kindling, with them somewhere in the middle of the wreckage. They didn't ponder on this miracle for more than a second or two, though. Cook, who's primary role was telegraph operator, headed for the telegraph key, while Whitehead picked up the phone...by another miracle, both phone and telegraph lines escaped damage. Both men started pounding out messages or dialing, reporting the wreck and requesting help.</p><p>As our two towermen started getting the cavalry en-route, the brakemen aboard <i>The Canadian </i>and <i>The Interstate Express, </i>probably assisted by the crew of the freight, grabbed lanterns and flares and trotted up the tracks to stop any trains approaching the scene before an even more horrible disaster could occur. In the tower, Whitehead and Cook may have tried to set the signals to neutral...stop on all tracks...but couldn't. The wreck had also destroyed the pipes, rods and levers controlling the signals. </p><p>They were able to get the aforementioned phone calls and telegraph messages out, though, and stations up and down both the NYC and MC main lines were setting signals to stop to keep other trains from running into the wreckage, probably almost before our brakemen could get into position. Hard on the heels of the order to stop all trains were requests for both medical help and heavy equipment, likely both from the tower, and the near-by Porter railroad station. </p><p>Even as Cook was pounding out the telegraph messages, Whiteheads first phone calls, as he watched flames beginning to take hold in the wreckage, very likely went to Porter's and Chesterton's volunteer fire companies. Mere minutes after the crash Porter's house siren, in a cupola on the roof of the town hall/fire station less than a mile away on Franklin Street, wound up the scale and screamed into the cold evening air. Then, as if in answer, Chesterton's house siren, on that small town's town hall a a mile to the south and east, also started wailing. With-in minutes, more sirens were screaming the arrival of both towns' rigs.</p><p>Porter's crew caught a hydrant in front of the post office on Lincoln street, less than 300 feet from the scene, stretched lines, and quickly had the fires under control as Chesterton's crew rolled in to assist. Uninjured passengers from both trains climbed out of the coaches, with many of them trying to help the injured who lay moaning on the debris-covered ground.</p><p>Townspeople were also showing up, both 'Lookie-Loos' and people looking to help, and a semi organized effort to locate the injured and dead immediately got underway. Lanterns were secured, from the trains, railroad depot and the fire rigs, and volunteer firefighters, railroad employees, and townspeople grouped up, and quickly devised, implemented and executed a plan to search the area.</p><p>Meanwhile, in the cities of LaPorte, Michigan City, Gary, and Chicago, people were scrambling, as trains between those cities and Porter, stopped due to the wreck, were quickly shunted onto passing sidings. A relief train from Michigan City, 13 miles east of Porter on The Michigan Central, carrying doctors, nurses, medical supplies, light rescue tools, and possibly even a generator and lights, was the first to roll, and the first to arrive. At a shade after 7 PM, people on the scene heard the train blowing for crossings east of Porter, and the headlight could be seen approaching down the long straight-a-way east of the scene. At 7:10 PM, the relief train eased to a stop just east of the wreck, airbrakes hissing, and a group of doctors and nurses quickly disembarked, grabbing equipment and medical bags while other crewman unloaded stretchers from a baggage car.</p><p>I have a sneakin' suspicion one of the relief train's cars was a flat car with a big generator permanently mounted along with cable reels and big lights...by 1921 portable generators (Well, engine-powered generators small enough to be mounted on a flat car) were in existence, and my bet is the train had barely stopped before the Ford Model T engine that all but inevitably powered the generator popped into life, and men were pulling cable off of the reels hand over hand and dragging the ends across the debris-filled landscape, then plugging them into big kettle-lights. Less than ten minutes after the train hissed to a stop, the scene was lit up like daylight, and doctor/nurse teams were kneeling next to injured passengers.</p><p>It didn't take more than another five or so minutes for them to figure out that (1) they had a <i>lot</i> of patients, (2) Many of them had suffered grievous injuries, and (3) treating them in the field just wasn't going to work. A quick pow-wow was held between the just arrived medical team and town officials, and it was decided to transport the injured to either the Post Office, or the train station, while the fire station/town hall was likely designated as a temporary morgue. Wagons or trucks were procured, the patients loaded on board, and the short journeys to either location made, with the makeshift ambulances making multiple trips...and the folding canvas stretchers likely getting used multiple times...until all of the injured were transported.</p><p>I don't know what criteria was used to decide what patients went where, but I <i>do</i> know that the patients were triaged at the scene, with the worst injured going to one place (Probably the Post Office, as it was the closest), and the lesser injured going to the train station...being close to the tracks, they had best access to the railroad, and transportation into Chicago to a hospital.</p><p> There were around eighty passengers aboard the destroyed day coach, and twenty were killed instantly, leaving sixty potential patients, and I have a feeling the great majority of them suffered <i>some</i> kind of injury, though two or three, miraculously, escaped unscathed. Fifteen of the injured were grievously injured, and wouldn't survive until morning, and may not even have survived transport to one of the facilities pressed into service in Porter, much less a trip into Chicago. </p><p>The rest of the passengers aboard the destroyed coach suffered injuries from cuts and bruised to compound fractures...rolling up on a scene with sixty plus injured patients, with injuries ranging form moderate to serious to critical, would be a daunting task <i>today</i>, it was all but overwhelming that night in Porter. The doctors and nurses on scene (Who were <i>not</i> used to working major, or even minor, accident scenes) had to figure out who could be treated in Porter, and who needed to go to a hospital, and even decide which patients wouldn't survive transport to a hospital.</p><p>I have a feeling that the majority of the moderate and serious injuries were transported into Chicago and whether some of the coaches from the relief train were utilized, using another locomotive, or just how that task was accomplished wasn't made clear, but if the rest of the operation that night was any indication, it was handled efficiently and competently...railroads, sadly, had <i>lots</i> of experience handling major wrecks by 1921.</p><p>As for the dead, bodies were already being found, all of them terribly mangled and many of them beheaded. They were likely wrapped in shrouds, also loaded onto wagons, and transported to the temporary morgue at the fire station.</p><p>Mention was also made of some patients being transported to an undertaker's facility for further treatment...I can see that, the room where bodies were embalmed could double as an operating room in an emergency. This is very likely where the worst injured were ultimately taken. These patients wouldn't have survived transport into Chicago, and sadly, didn't survive the night, making the choice of a funeral home as a makeshift hospital unintentionally and eerily on-point.</p><p>Wrecking trains from both railroads started rolling in a couple of hours after the wreck, and crews started sizing up just what they'd have to do to get the lines cleared and trains rolling. Spoiler alert...they had a long, long day and night ahead of them, and they apparently hustled <i>big </i>time, because the first train to pass through the newly repaired crossing...a Michigan Central passenger train...rolled through sometime around 5:30 PM on February 28th...23 hours after the wreck.</p><p>Preliminary work was started soon after the crews arrived, and ultimately they had at least two, and possibly three of the huge, steam powered wrecking cranes in operation, punching smoke columns skyward as they righted and retracked the cars...the biggest jobs, righting locomotive 4828, and retracking the derailed passenger cars, was likely scheduled for the morning, when they'd have daylight on their side, and could see what they were doing.</p><p>When 4828 was righted...a job that likely required two of the big wrecking cranes to accomplish...they made a truly macabre discovery. At least ten, and possibly more bodies were found <i>beneath</i> the overturned locomotive, all of them badly mutilated. I'm making an assumption here, that this was also when the bodies of engineer Claus Johnston and fireman George Deland were found.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NaBGLVI7YdbtFVfHd4S71avhlJYhqFSE2_g_yvvNC4xjIJreDETk2hHu9MOCrJuMOYPHavAWE93jtaDjYkIc0ECCbzP6WrzmHkSDPtM7Os-sHdCji0HOQgksKIq_08pkYjO_yoRsnX_O_qtx8DcPFd3K0XRbacTGox_RnwNIIpL_Puiuiwkm9oil/s1591/NYC-Engine-Righted.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="1591" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NaBGLVI7YdbtFVfHd4S71avhlJYhqFSE2_g_yvvNC4xjIJreDETk2hHu9MOCrJuMOYPHavAWE93jtaDjYkIc0ECCbzP6WrzmHkSDPtM7Os-sHdCji0HOQgksKIq_08pkYjO_yoRsnX_O_qtx8DcPFd3K0XRbacTGox_RnwNIIpL_Puiuiwkm9oil/w640-h390/NYC-Engine-Righted.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">New York Central Locomotive 4828 after being righted the day after the wreck. The front of the locomotive is towards the right side of the frame, the rear...cab...end to the left. The locomotive was a 4-6-2 Pacific, with a four wheeled bogie truck beneath the front steam cylinders, and a two wheeled truck beneath the cab, it lost both the front and rear bogies in the collision and subsequent spin and roll-over, while the cab was likely torn away when the wrecking cranes righted the locomotive.<br /><br />The locomotive was kicked to the right, off of the track, as it tore through the wooden passenger coach, and the pilot...called the 'cowcatcher' by kids of yore...dug <i>hard</i> into the ground next to the track. The front of the locomotive dug a ten foot deep, twenty or so foot long crater in the ground before coming to a quick stop, the <i>back</i> end kept moving at about 35 miles per hour, whipping around 180 degrees to the left...clockwise...in an eyeblink before slamming over on it's left side. As it spun, the locomotive tore up tracks, turned railroad ties and ballast stones into projectiles, and tossed the tender like a shotput...all but literally.<br /><br />The tender ripped loose from the rest of the train, but stayed with the locomotive for part of the spin before tearing loose. After breaking away from the locomotive, the tender was 'shot-putted' ahead of the dying behemoth, turning 90 degrees as it was tossed a good thirty or forty feet to end up beyond the overturned locomotive, turned at a near right angle to the track <br /><br /> Engineer Claus Johnston and Fireman George Deland were both either ejected as the locomotive whipped around, or trapped beneath it as it slammed over onto it's side, and both, sadly, died in the wreck. Even worse, the bodies of several of the passengers from the destroyed passenger coach were carried along by the locomotive as it tore through the coach and hurtled off of the track, and their badly mangled bodies were found beneath the locomotive when it was righted.<br /><br />As for the fate of 4828, I couldn't find anything, but I have a feeling it was scrapped.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Once the locomotive was out of the hole, and rerailed, where it couldn't endanger the crews recovering the bodies, work had to stop while the bodies were recovered and removed to the temporary morgue. The likely long, drawn out, and difficult effort to identify bodies began then, and it absolutely couldn't have been easy. These bodies were badly mangled, many of them beheaded, and few could be identified by looking at the bodies alone. The men had wallets, but you have to remember that drivers licenses weren't that common in 1921. Few states actually required them (Only 39 by 1935, a decade and a half later), and none of the states that did require licenses issued photo-IDs. </p><p>Personal effects were used for most of the IDs...I found little to no info on the process, or the process of notifying relatives, and releasing bodies of the deceased to loved ones, but it's safe to say it was a particularly heart-wrenching affair that likely took the better part of a week or more.</p><p>Once the derailed cars and wrecked locomotive were back on the rails, they were probably moved to one of the passing sidings so the work of repairing the track could begin in earnest. There were several hundred feet of track, along with the signaling rods, that had to be completely rebuilt. Crews had to remove the twisted rails and shattered ties, lay new ballast, then lay new track, which had to be properly aligned, both vertically and horizontally, with the existing track. This was hard, back-breaking labor that also required no small amount of skill, and again, these guys were flat out hustling to get the crossing open again in just under 24 hours. </p><p>Of course, our relief and wrecking crews weren't the <i>only</i> ones notified and dispatched to the scene. Brass from both railroads as well as an investigative team from the Interstate Commerce Commission (Forerunner to today's NTSB) were notified early in the ballgame, and headed for Porter, most of them coming from Chicago, only forty or so miles away, and arriving close behind the wrecking trains. </p><p>Here, of course, is one (Of many) way things have changed drastically in the last century and small change...today, wreckage stays in place until the NTSB examines it, with rescue of victims and fire-fighting/hazard mitigation being the only reasons <i>anything</i> can be disturbed. In Porter on that evening in 1921, however, wreckage clearing and track repairs kicked off as soon as crews rolled onto the scene. I can't help but wonder if this interfered with the investigation to some extent.</p><p>The next day, February 28th, the County Coroner convened a coroners jury. Unfortunately, very little information was available concerning this jury, it's make-up, or the testimony they heard. We do know that they recorded an official death toll of thirty-seven, meaning that 4828 had been righted and the bodies beneath the locomotive, along with the remains of Claus Johnston and George Deland, had been recovered by the time the jury convened. The final, official death toll being recorded by the Coroner's Jury also meant, of course, that several of the injured passengers passed away over-night. We also know that all thirty-seven deaths were found to be caused by the collision of Locomotive 4828 with the passenger coach, and that the collision was likely caused by the Michigan Central crew running a red signal. </p><p>It wasn't even close to over when the Coroner's Jury adjourned...as that group was hearing testimony, officials from the Interstate Commerce Commission and both railroads were all figuratively licking their chops, waiting to got hold of 8306's crew, along with everyone else with any information about the wreck. My bet is it was a long<i> long</i> couple of days.</p><p>We can pretty much bet that everyone gave the same basic testimony in all four hearings...the Coroners Jury, both railroads, and the I.C.C....so to avoid both duplication of effort and boring you guys silly, I'll only go over it once...the testimony given to the ICC Investigators. </p><p>I'm thinking the ICC crew also came from Chicago, as they got there early in the ball-game as well, and they immediately began gathering evidence, taking measurements, and getting statements, but they also began interviewing anyone and everyone who had any connection to the wreck. The tower crew, 8306's crew, the crew of the freight train, the conductors of both trains...</p><p>Almost everyone testified that the home signal was red, and that the Michigan Central train blew through it at somewhere north of 50 MPH without even slacking up, not stopping until it hit the derailer and slid through the diamond, putting the day coach in front of the on-rushing NYC train. Note I said <i>almost</i> everyone. I think we can all figure out whose story was different.</p><p>Both Engineer W.S. Long and Fireman George Block swore that the Home signal was green...or at least that they saw a green light where the home signal should have been. Block also testified that, as they got closer to the crossing, he lost sight of the signal due to the smoke and steam from the freight locomotive, and assumed that the same indications still stood as they approached the crossing. </p><p>Speaking of the freight train, and specifically of it's crew, what of the two brakemen who were frantically signaling the oncoming <i>Canadian, </i>and had to dive clear as it blew by them? Neither Long or Block ever saw them, according to their testimony. Block, in fact, stated that he was busily stoking the firebox as they approached the crossing, leaving Long to watch for the signals on his own, and the engineer testified that he never saw even a glimpse of the freight train crew, or their wildly swinging lanterns.</p><p>One of the many sad things about the wreck is the fact that Engineer Long <i>started</i> to do the right thing...when his fireman called the Distant signal as being set to caution, Long throttled back and applied the brakes, bleeding off around 15 MPH, slowing them to somewhere between 30 and 40 MPH. But then, when Block mistakenly called the home signal as green, he opened the throttle back up and gained those 15 Miles Per back, plus some. <i>The Canadian</i> was flat out <i>strolling </i>when it when it blew through the Home signal. It was <i>definitely</i> going faster than 50. </p><p>How do I know this? Lets take a look.</p><p align="LEFT">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;">First
a few known and established facts of the time, speed, and distance
variety. The NYC's speed limit for passenger trains passing through a
diamond crossing was 50 mph. Next...the annunciator circuits
that sound the buzzer or bell in the tower to announce that a train
is approaching the crossing are <i>not</i> equidistant from
the tower. Both circuits are around two miles from the tower, with the NYC circuit about 1000 feet further from the tower than the
Michigan Central circuit, so if the two trains were just about
equidistant from the crossing as they approached, the NYC train
would, hit the buzzer first, followed several seconds
later by the Michigan Central train, just as it, in fact, did.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">'If you play the old 'If Train A was going fifty miles per hour...' word problem game, you realize that <i>The</i> <i>Canadian </i>was probably slightly
closer to the tower than <i>The Interstate Express</i> when The New York Central train hit the
buzzer. They had to have been. Otherwise, when Long slowed to 35 MPH, the <i>Interstate Express</i> would have pulled ahead of <i>The Canadian, </i>so to speak, and reached the crossing first. <i>The Canadian</i> wouldn't have been able to close that distance...When Long opened the throttle up, and regained his speed, the <i>Interstate Express </i>would have been too far ahead, and the difference in speeds too little for <i>The Canadian </i> to catch back up.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> Remember, the annunciator circuit on the NYC track was 1000 feet
further from the tower than the one on the Michigan Central track,
meaning it was 1000 feet <i>closer</i> to the NYC train
than the one on the Michigan central tracks was to <i>The
Canadian </i>as they approached the crossing<i>,</i> so if both trains were moving at about the same
speed...even if <i>The Canadian</i> was slightly ahead
of <i>The Interstate Express...</i>the <i>Express</i> would hit
it's buzzer first and the signals would be set to give it the
right of way.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT">And this is exactly what happened, and had all been well with the world, George Block would've called the Distant signal at caution, W. S. Long would have slowed by fifteen mph, then Block would have confirmed that the Home signal was red, and Long would have slowed further, ready to stop if <i>The Interstate Express</i> was still rolling through the crossing as they eased up to it.</p><p>But, of course, all wasn't well with the world that day. Somewhere during the quarter to a half minute and 1000 feet or so of travel after <i>The Canadian </i>hit<i> </i>it's buzzer, Block called the caution signal, they slowed by fifteen Miles per, allowing <i>The Interstate Express </i>to close the difference in distance between the two trains and the crossing, then Block saw and called what he thought was the Home signal as green, and Long sped back up,. Therefore, when Engineer Long dragged the throttle open and sped back up, the two trains <i>were</i> almost exactly equidistant from the crossing. Then <i>The Canadian </i>pulled ahead again and was the first train to reach the crossing, by several seconds.</p><p>Which meant that, if <i>The Interstate Express</i> was running at the NYC's 50 MPH speed limit for diamond crossings as it approached the crossing, <i>The Canadian</i> was probably making at least 55-60 mph...or better...when it hit the derailer and slid through the diamond several seconds before the NYC train reached the crossing, with violent and tragic results.</p><p>The cause of the wreck, in I.C.C. speak, was pretty obvious and straight-forward...the engineer and fireman of Michigan Central Locomotive 8306, heading up that railroad's Train # 20, <i>The Canadian, </i>missed...or ignored...the red home signal, blew past it, and fouled the crossing. And NYC Locomotive 4828, heading up NYC Train # 151, <i>The Interstate Express, </i>entered the crossing on the green, and broadsided them...specifically slamming into Canadian Pacific Daycoach 1560, resulting in the complete disintegration of that coach and the deaths of 35 passengers, as well as 4828's engineer and fireman.</p><p>The ICC had a report ready within two months (Try and get a full NTSB report of a major incident in less than a <i>year </i>today) and they stated pretty specifically nearly exactly what I typed above, with fewer adjectives and adverbs, and less...well, <i>verby</i>...verbs. Long ran the red and put his train smack dab in front of <i>The Interstate Express. </i>What we don't know...and may never know...is <i>why.</i></p><p>We don't know <i>why, </i>but we <i>do</i> know that W.S Long had <i>not </i>been a particularly good boy. He had amassed seven write-ups and suspensions in his thirty year career, all of them with-in last two decades before the wreck:</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.05in;">
<span style="color: #fffbe7;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><i>Long
entered service with the Michigan Central as a fireman in 1890,
was promoted to yard engineman later that year. He was later promoted
to road engineman in 1901. The following entries are included in
Long's service record with the Michigan Central Railroad:</i></span></span></span></span></p><ul>
<li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>October,
1901, suspended 10 days for running off interlocking signals against
him.</i></span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>September, 1907,
suspended 10 days for failure to stop for telegraph signal not
burning.</i></span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>December,
1907, suspended 10 days for failure to stop for block signal
not burning.</i></span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>February,
1909, taken out of service on account of defective vision.</i></span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>June,
1909, restored to service on account of improved vision.</i></span></span></p>
</li></ul><p>
</p><ul>
<li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>April
1, 1914, observed surprise test; light out on telegraph signal.</i></span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>April
28, 1918, record suspension 30 days; collided with caboose car, flag
out.</i></span></span></p></li></ul><p>George Block, who had worked for the Michigan Central for six years, only had a single suspension, but it was a biggie when you put it into the context of the Porter collision....just shy of two years earlier, in April of 1919, he had been suspended for 30 days, later amended to a reprimand without loss of time, for disregarding a stop signal.</p><p> Yep, you read that right. He missed a stop signal. So there was a bit of history of carelessness, recklessness, or just plain long laziness shared between them.</p><p>That tendency apparently reared it's ugly head on the night of the wreck...Both of them had...and missed...a slew of chances to <i>not </i>run the Home signal in Porter that night.</p><p>The Distant signal was at caution...if the Distant signal was indicating 'Caution', that would mean the Home signal was at red...STOP. That's the way the things worked. He would have had to slow to 35 or so and maintain that speed if the Home signal actually <i>had</i> been green when George Block called it, and that wasn't impossible...had <i>The Interstate Express </i>been moving a little faster, and had <i>The Canadian</i> been a couple of minutes later, the <i>Express</i> could well have been in the crossing when <i>The Canadian </i>passed the Distant signal, and cleared it by the time they were with-in sight of the Home signal.. Had that happened, and the Home signal been green, Long <i>still</i> would have had to maintain a reduced speed until he could confirm that the Home signal was green, because the Distant signal was yellow when they passed it.</p><p> The night of the wreck, after his fireman called the home signal as green, Long absolutely should have maintained a reduced speed until he could <i>confirm</i> that the Home signal was green, or see that it was actually red and stop.</p><p> If, when W.S. Long backed off to 35 or so MPH at the yellow Distant signal, he had maintained that speed...which is what they were <i>supposed</i> to have done...they would have very likely seen <i>The Interstate Express </i>crossing the diamond as they approached, and had plenty of time to stop. In fact, it's quite possible that the NYC train would have cleared the crossing as they were approaching it, and they would have watched the Home signal go from 'Stop' to 'Clear Track (Red to green). But of course, <i>The Canadian </i>didn't maintain a reduced speed, instead speeding back up...</p><p>And finally, the freight train crew tried everything within their power, actually putting their own lives at risk, to try and signal <i>The Canadian's</i> crew to stop, only to be ignored. Both Long <i>and </i>Block stated that they never<i> </i>even <i>saw</i> the two brakemen.</p><p>So just why did both W S Long and George Block miss all these chances <i>not</i> to cause a catastrophic train wreck. The I.C.C. tackled this very question.</p><p>The Home signal was on a twenty or so foot mast, or very possibly a pair of masts, with one on each side of the track. This mast (Or masts) was/were located 366 feet west of the crossing. Train Order signals, which were also mast-mounted semaphore signals that looked very similar to the Home and Distant signals, were used to inform engineers that they needed to stop to get new train orders, so they would have been close to...often right next to...either the tower or depot. The train order signal in Porter was located hard by southwest corner of the tower...nearly four hundred feet from the Home signal.</p><p>The go-to explanation provided by George Block was that he mistook the train-order signal for the Home signal, adding that the Home signal was also obscured by steam and smoke drifting over from the freight locomotive on the passing siding. Interestingly enough, the investigation <i>didn't</i> disprove the fireman's excuse...but that still didn't let either he or W.S. Long off of the hook. </p><p>The I.C.C. investigators decided to test Block's excuse. They made arrangements to procure a similar locomotive to Michigan Central 8306, and ran it towards the diamond from the same direction, at the same time of evening, as <i>The Canadian </i>approached from on the night of the accident, with one of their own in the cab observing the signals, which were set exactly as they had been the night of the wreck. </p><p> Our cab-riding I.C.C. investigator found, and the I.C.C. report noted, that it <i>was</i> possible for the train order signal at Porter to be confused with the home signal at night, especially if the Home signal was obscured by steam or smoke...a condition that wasn't all that uncommon due to the location of the watering standpipe on the Michigan Central passing siding, On top of that, they concluded that the Home signal very possibly <i>was </i>obscured on the night of the wreck. </p><p>If you're thinking this cleared the Michigan Central engineer and fireman, you'd be wrong. This wasn't as good of an excuse as you might think, and it certainly didn't pull Long's proverbial fat out of the equally proverbial fire...we'll get into why in a bit.</p><p>During the <i>day, </i>the I.C.C. report noted, it would have been all but impossible to confuse the two, because the crew in the cab of a locomotive approaching the crossing would be able to see which mast the signal they were observing was mounted on, so if the Home signal was obscured during the day, while the Train Order signal was visible...well that's just it. Our engineer would be able to see that the Home signal was obscured and the train order signal wasn't, and would be required, by regulation, to slow or even stop until he could ascertain the Home signal's indication,..</p><p> At <i>night, </i>however, especially when viewed from a distance, it could possibly be a different story. It wouldn't be at all implausible for our engineer and/or fireman to peer ahead of the locomotive from a half mile or so out, see a green light, and assume (Despite that age old saying about what Assuming does to You and Me) that it was the home signal that he was seeing, and that it was showing a clear track. But that's <i>still</i> no excuse.</p><p>If the Distant Signal was at caution, the Home signal was assumed to be at Stop. Michigan Central Railroad Policy stated that, that upon passing the Distant signal set to Caution, the engineer <i>must</i> slow to a speed that allowed him to safety stop prior to the diamond. Pretty simple and straight-forward. If the Distant signal said 'Caution, the Home signal said 'stop'. You slowed to a speed that allowed you to stop before reaching the diamond, and when you reached that red home signal, you stopped.</p><p>What, however, if if our locomotive crew saw the distant signal at caution, <i>then</i> saw a <i>green</i> light that they thought was the home signal? The rules, regulations, and S.O.P.s had that covered, too. If there was <i>any</i> question what-so-ever as to the Home signals indication, the engineer was, again, required to slow to a speed that allowed him to safety stop prior to the diamond and maintain that speed, or indeed, stop if need be, until he could confirm that the home signal was green. (Or, of course, <i>stay</i> stopped if it was red.)</p><p>Seeing a <i>green</i> light near the diamond when the distant signal was glowing yellow at them absolutely <i>should</i> have raised a question or two, just as knowing that there was a train order signal near the tower as well as the Home signal almost four hundred feet closer to them should have raised their caution level. What they actually <i>should</i> have been seeing was <i>two</i> lights, one ahead of the other, and on the night of the wreck, as <i>The Canadian</i> approached the diamond, the signals <i>should</i> have been showing red (Home Signal), then green (Train Order signal). But George Block only saw <i>one </i>light, and he never questioned what he saw, simply telling Long that he had a clear track. </p><p>And the sad thing is, Long <i>did</i> slow down initially...but instead of maintaining 30-35 mph and easing up to a point where they could confirm the Home Signal's indication (Or, indeed, see <i>The Interstate Express </i>crossing in front of them, as it would have reached the crossing first had Long<i> </i>not sped back up<i>) </i>Long accepted the signal indication George Block called to him, and resumed <i>The Canadian's</i> 60mph or so cruising speed. And neither of them, apparently questioned the home signal's actual indication, much less took any steps to confirm it. They were running between 55 and 60 and still accelerating when they blew by the red Home signal with out even glancing at it. </p><p>As to why they didn't see the brakemen from the freight trying desperately to flag them down...that one just defies explanation. George Block stated that he was busy stoking the firebox, but I have a sneaking suspicion that New York Central locomotives were equipped with mechanical stokers by 1921. Block would have still had to have monitored the stoker's operation, but he would have also been free to look outside of the cab to look for hazards, signals...and people frantically waving lanterns trying to get them to stop.</p><p>Long apparently never looked outside 8306's cab at all, even though he was also responsible for monitoring the signals. The engineer wasn't supposed to rely solely on the Fireman calling the signals for him, and in fact, the fireman calling the signals was actually a back-up. Long missing both the signals <i>and</i> the frantic lantern-waving from the freight train brakeman is absolutely inexcusable.</p><p>And finally, we have what I, as well, probably, as the I.C.C., New York Central, and Michigan Central investigators, consider 'The Biggie'. W.S. Long and George Block <i>knew</i> that <i>The Interstate Express </i>was due to hit the crossing at about the same time that they were, so it should have come as absolutely no surprise that the Distant signal was set at 'Caution'. That being the case, they knew that home signal <i>had </i>to have been red, and W.S. Long absolutely <i>should</i> have followed policy and procedure, and slowed/stopped to allow <i>The Interstate Express</i> to pass. </p><p>Had W.S. Long slowed to 30 or 35 MPH and rolled towards the crossing at that reduced speed, the wreck would never have happened. <i>The Interstate Express </i>would have cleared the crossing before they reached it, and been well on it's way to it's final destination of Chicago, the Home signal probably <i>would</i> have been green when they got to it, and they would have passed through the crossing safely and been enroute to Detroit. </p><p>The Michigan Central's investigation was just as intense as...and may have even been done in conjunction with...the I.C.C. investigation, and both came to the same conclusion. While it <i>was</i> possible to confuse the Home signal with the train order signal, Michigan Central rules and regulations covered <i>just</i> such an eventuality...seeing the Distant signal set to caution, then having the Home signal called as green, W.S. Long should have slowed or even stopped until he could absolutely ascertain the Home signal's actual indication.</p><p>It was also pretty obvious that Long hadn't been checking the signal himself, but had been counting on George Block calling the signals for him, so instead of the 'checks and balances' that would be provided by both of them checking, Long accepted the signals that his fireman called as 'gospel'. Unfortunately, when George Block made a mistake, Long accepted <i>that</i> as gospel as well. With tragic results.</p><p>On top of that, further proving that Long's eyes never strayed outside of 8306's cab, he and Block had <i>both</i> missed the two brakemen desperately trying to signal them to stop...That one I (And, likely and more importantly by far, the ICC investigators as well) <i>really </i>have trouble getting my mind around<i>.</i></p><p>The Michigan Central accepted full responsibility for the wreck and fired both George Long and W. S. Block very shortly after the investigation's conclusion. Interestingly, though, both the public and the press were kinder to them. No charges were pressed against the two men, and the press noted that this was a dangerous crossing to begin with, and that, despite all of the safety tech supposedly protecting it, a major wreck there was all but inevitable. And, lets be honest here, the facts pretty much proved them right. Of course, that logic becomes circular, because it was, after all, Long's and Block's error...ignoring the signals designed to prevent just such a wreck... that <i>caused</i> the wreck.</p><p>The I.C.C. investigation pretty much nailed the 'How' of the wreck, but they still never really touched the 'Why'...and I doubt we'll ever know. I have my theories about what happened, though. I don't know if the two of them worked together regularly, or if this was the first time they worked together, but I have a feeling that Long...who had already shown a tendency towards carelessness over his thirty year career...was also just a bit lazy, and had no problem allowing his fireman to do most, or even all of the 'looking outside the cab' type work. </p><p>And I think he'd been extraordinarily lucky...he hadn't been involved in a major wreck because of these tendencies, at least until that cold Indiana Sunday night. George Block had only been with the railroad for six years, but he'd already logged a suspension for missing a 'Stop' signal. I have a feeling putting the two of them in the same cab that night was a Perfect Storm of sorts. And because of that Perfect Storm, simple carelessness and laziness had claimed 37 more lives.</p><p>Both W.S. Long and George Block are long-dead, and any untold truths about the wreck's cause died with them. They actually got off easy, IMHO. Had a similar wreck, with loss of almost forty lives, occurred today, and had it been proven that the engineer had disregarded multiple 'Stop' signals to cause it, that engineer would have very likely found himself charged with, and very likely convicted of, multiple counts of Manslaughter.</p><p>The wreck caused a push for automatic train control technology (Something I didn't realize was developed that far back to be honest),and in-cab signaling (Ditto) to be installed in locomotive cabs...unfortunately, this didn't happen quickly. In-cab signaling and Automatic Train Control didn't come into wide-spread use until the Mid-Fifties.</p><p>Let's not forget the saddest part of this wreck (And, indeed, <i>any</i> multiple fatality accident)...the victims. Identifying the victims of the wreck was likely a nightmare for both officials and loved ones, as all of the bodies were badly mutilated, and many of them were decapitated. Many of the bodies had to be identified by clothing and jewelry, along with wallets carried by the men, and identification likely began with a process of elimination...literally checking the train's manifest and checking off the names of people who <i>had</i> survived.</p><p>While officials were struggling to identify the victims, relatives of those on board the train were calling the railroad, the cops, and anyone else who could give them information about their loved ones, while many of the uninjured (Who, after all, made up the majority of the train's surviving passengers) were tying up phone circuits to notify their own families that they were OK.</p><p>A train wreck isn't like a local disaster, with all the victims from a small, defined area. The victims hailed from fifteen cities in seven states and three Canadian provinces, and officials had to search out contact details for the relatives, then get hold of them so that proper notification could be made. Then the relatives had to arrange rail transportation to Porter, identify their loved one, or loved ones, when they arrived, then arrange transportation back home for the body. I can only hope the railroad helped with some of this burden.</p><p> Once the bodies were claimed and transported, no memorial was erected to them, and now, really, nothing's left in Porter to remember them by. Even the crossing itself is gone, as is the tower.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***> The Thirty-Seven Victims <***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><div style="text-align: center;">The victims hailed from fifteen cities in seven states and three Canadian provinces, the furthest away being El Paso, Texas, and included seven married couples, at least one of whom left an orphaned child behind to be raised by an aunt. The youngest victim was two, the oldest sixty-nine. Three children...nine year old Pearl Cavanaugh, three year old Richard Schwier, and two year old Arthur Ekman...were among the fatalities. The little Schwier boy's mom was also killed, and, tragically, there was one other mother-child pair among the dead...Augusta Langin (No age given) and her newlywed, eighteen year old daughter Dorothy. Also, Pearl Cavanaugh's aunt, Florence See, who she was traveling with, also died in the wreck, </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">In a touch of irony that was both sad, and a bit macabre, one of the married couples...The Mullers...were on the way to Michigan to arrange for transport of Friedarika Muller's brother's body back to Illinois for burial.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">I've included a list of the fatalities below...note that some of the names are also hyperlinks. These link to that person's 'Find-A-Grave' page, which goes into further detail about each victim.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The victims' home towns, where they were buried, are widely scattered, and no memorial of any kind was erected in Porter, leaving their 'Find-A-Grave' pages, and the list of victims, with the links to those pages, as the only centralized memorial of any kind dedicated to them.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Hopefully, my adding the same list and links to my blog will help memorialize them as well.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: center;"><b>New York Central Locomotive Crew</b></p><ul><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">DELAND, George - Elkhart, Indiana (fireman on New York Central train)</span></span></p></li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"></span></span></p><ul><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">JOHNSTON, Claus - Elkhart, Indiana (age 48, engineer on New York Central train) </span></span></p></li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 22.4px; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Passengers</b></span></span></p></li></ul></li><li></li></ul><p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=107510342" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">ARNEY,
Howard</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Cleveland, Ohio (age 35)</span></span></p><ul>
<li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=107509589" target="_blank">ARNEY</a><a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=107509589" target="_blank">,
Mrs. Katherine</a></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Cleveland, Ohio (age 35)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/192639750" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">BAEHR,
Lillian </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Anderson</i></span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> - Michigan
City, Indiana (age 28)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=26226213" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">BAKER,
Joseph L.</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
El Paso, Texas (age 23)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=41890419" target="_blank">BEVIER,</a><a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=41890419" target="_blank"> Mrs.
Emma</a></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Augusta, Michigan</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=41890417" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">BEVIER,
C. A.</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Augusta, Michigan</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=33451657" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">BALLOU,
Fannie L.</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> - Wheatfield,
Illinois (age 34)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=150959266" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">CAIN,
Peter Richard</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada (age 34)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">CAMPBELL,
Eva June - Jackson, Michigan</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/190859239" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">CAMPBELL,
William Gordon</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada (age 18)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://geneofun.on.ca/names/photo/1868588" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">COLLINS,
Justin</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
London, Ontario, Canada</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://geneofun.on.ca/names/photo/1868582" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">COLLINS,
Alexis</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
London, Ontario, Canada</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=105412979" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">CAVANAUGH,
Pearl</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Michigan City, Indiana (age 9, niece of Mrs. Ralph See)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/192024345" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">EKMAN,
Arthur Elmer</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
no hometown listed (age 2)</span></span></p></li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">ENGLER,
W. G. - Detroit, Michigan (age 30)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">FLEMMING,
Florence <i>Philo</i> - Kalamazoo, Michigan</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51237937" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">GOLDSTEIN,
Phillip H.</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Detroit, Michigan (age 29)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51237853" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">GOLDSTEIN,
Martha</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Detroit, Michigan(age 28)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=75684457" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">GREENWOOD,
Dr. Ray E.</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Kankakee, Illinois (age 28)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=145118712" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">HECK,
Louis A.</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Jackson, Michigan</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">HOSKINS, Theodosia
J. <i>Mason</i> - Chicago, Illinois</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18550091" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">KRAMER,
Rose </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Henoch</i></span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> - Michigan
City, Indiana (age 58)</span></span></p></li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">LANGIN,
Augusta B. <i>Zimmerman</i> - Cleveland, Ohio</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">LANGIN,
Mrs. Dorothy H. - Cleveland, Ohio (age 18)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">LIVINGSTON,
Samuel - Chicago, Illinois (age 38)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">MOSS,
Mrs. Sarah - Montreal, Québec, Canada</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=30556549" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">MULLER,
John L.</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Crescent City, Illinois (age 62)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=30556575" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">MULLER,
Friedareka </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Kohlmetz</i></span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Crescent City, Illinois (age 48)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=105392581" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SCHWEIR,
Frances </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Retseck</i></span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Michigan City, Indiana (age 31)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=105392481" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">SCHWEIR,
Richard</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Michigan City, Indiana (age 3, son of Mrs. Fred Schweir)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=146426480" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEE,
Florence A. </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Leffel</i></span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Michigan City, Indiana (age 38)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=105413896" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">VAN
RIPER, Alvin H.</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Michigan City, Indiana (age 69)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=105414396" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">VAN
RIPER, Aminta May </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Dahlson</i></span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Michigan City, Indiana (age 55)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=15329947" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">WAGGONER,
Lillian </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Johnson</i></span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
no hometown listed</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18035054" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">WAYNE,
Frank</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> -
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (age 49)</span></span></p>
</li><li><p style="border: none; line-height: 140%; padding: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: x-small; text-align: left;">Victim List courtesy of the blog '</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: x-small; text-align: left;">Porter County's Past: An Amateur Historian's Perspective', </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: x-small; text-align: left;">also on Blogger. </i></span></span></p></li></ul><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Emergency Response Then and Now</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>A Quick Take</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Emergency response to major train wrecks during the first several decades of the Twentieth Century was often well organized and well orchestrated, and it <i>wasn't</i> the local fire departments and law enforcement agencies handling those responses. It was the railroads themselves. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Train wrecks, as I have noted, were <i>not</i> uncommon in the first decades of the Twentieth Century, and by 1921, railroads had emergency response to train wrecks almost down to an art form...sadly they'd had a good bit of practice. All of the major railroads owned several heavy duty steam powered wrecking cranes by then, and every major rail yard probably had a wreck-train already made up, sitting on a siding, ready to roll. These trains not only had the crane and the car(s) carrying that rig's support equipment, they had tool cars, and possibly a dorm car among their consist. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Often a <i>second</i> train was also made up, and this train was 'First Out' on wrecks involving passenger trains. That train would be a relief train, and the consist would include several coaches, a box car or, more than likely, an older baggage car loaded with stretchers, medical supplies (Such as they were in that era), and light duty rescue tools, and very possibly a flatcar with a big permanently mounted generator and lights. Local doctors and nurses were asked to be on-call to be notified of major wrecks, and a phone tree was likely used to notify them when a wreck occurred.</p><p style="text-align: left;">When this phone tree was activated, and our early first responders were notified of a wreck, they likely gathered at a train station, while the relief train's on-call crew responded to the yard, and a locomotive was backed in and coupled to the already made up train. The train would pull out, stop at the station, pick up our doctors and nurses, and highball towards the scene while all signals were set to give them the right-of-way and every train between the scene and the yard was shunted into a passing siding.</p><p style="text-align: left;">When they got on the scene, the MD's start triaging and treating the patients, just as they did in Porter, but we <i>still</i> have to keep something in mind here. Even though they did have doctors treating the patients on scene, it <i>still</i> wasn't definitive pre-hospital care such as we know it today. First, it would take a while to get the relief train rolling and to the scene. The relief train from Michigan City...only about fifteen miles from the scene...got to Porter in between thirty and forty minutes, and that was an <i>awesome</i> response time. Then, when they got there, the treatment the injured could receive was pretty limited<span style="text-align: center;">. IV's </span><i style="text-align: center;">in</i><span style="text-align: center;"> hospital, for example, were exceedingly rare back then, they plain long didn't happen in the field. At. All.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Generally, the patients who could be moved would be loaded onto one or more of the passenger cars on the relief train, and transported to the nearest city with a major hospital where more definitive care...again, such as it was in 1921....could be rendered, with a couple of our MDs and nurses riding along to continue monitoring the patients. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">As happened in Porter, some patients were too grievously injured to survive transport to a hospital, and a 'temporary hospital' of sorts would be set up for them somewhere near the scene. These patients would be made as comfortable as possible (And as the treatment options of the era allowed) and, sadly, more often than not died before they could be transported to another facility.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Fire departments had become part of the response to major train wrecks by the early 1920s as well, and some major cities had specially equipped rescue companies in service to handle major accidents, but I don't think little Porter, Indiana was one of them in 1921. Porter was a <i>tiny</i> town in 1921, boasting only around seven hundred or so citizens. I couldn't find much about the fire company's early years and what kind of rigs they ran back then, but in all likelihood, they had one or two engines, very likely built on a mid-teens or so Ford or Chevy truck...or even heavy touring car...chassis. They responded, along with Chesterton's similarly equipped fire company, for the very reason they were originally organized for in the first place...putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Crews from the two fire companies quickly controlled the incipient blazes in the wreckage of the coach, and other fire department personnel assisted in the search for victims, but the fire department response was a far, <i>far</i> cry from what it would be even a few decades in the future, much less today.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">**</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Now lets jump ahead a century plus two years to the present day. Today, Porter County's 175,000 or so people are protected by fifteen volunteer fire companies. Porter and Chesterton's fire companies are both still in service and still very active. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Both fire companies moved out of their respective towns' city halls many decades ago. The Porter volunteer Fire Department's station's been on West Beam Street...still less than a mile from the former site of the crossing...since 1991, and the company now runs as Porter County Company 9. Porter now has, at last count, 5234 citizens, nineteen of whom are PVFD members. They </span><span style="text-align: center;">ran just shy of 900 calls in 2022 and</span><span style="text-align: center;"> man a pair of engines, a brush truck, a light duty rescue truck, and a dive rescue rig. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Chesterton's also grown exponentially over the last century, with around 14,500 people living within it's boundaries. Chesterton's fire company is a combination station, with fifteen salaried firefighters on three shifts, backed up by sixteen volunteers, manning a pair of engines, a tanker, a tower ladder, a squad. and a brush truck.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">While a diamond crossing collision, thankfully isn't even possible in Porter today, the rail lines in Porter are still busy, with dozens of trains rolling through town daily, so a train wreck is absolutely a possibility. And yes, two trains <i>can</i> still collide in Porter, though modern technology has made it far <i> far</i> less likely than it was a century and change ago. You could even still have a broadside collision, if a train was transitioning from, say, the southbound track to the eastbound track, and a second train missed a signal at the same instant that all of the automatic train control equipment took a powder. Unlikely, but it <i>could</i> happen.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">If the unthinkable <i>did</i> happen, and say, a freight train slammed into the side of an Amtrak passenger train at one of the wyes at the former crossing site, Porter County would respond <i>big. </i>Companies 9 and 5...Porter and Chesterton...would definitely be on the initial alarm, and, knowing what they were responding to, the soon-to-be incident commander would be on the radio, calling for additional resources, almost before the rigs cleared the station's apron.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">It being a major incident, once the first in company rolled in, a command post would be set up hard by the scene, and various sectors (Rescue, fire suppression, medical, etc) would be set up, with an officer (Captain or above, likely) assigned to command each.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">All of the resources that weren't available at the Diamond Crossing Collision would be at our fictional crash today, in copious quantity, while the construction of modern passenger cars would create a problem that didn't exist in 1921...rather than the cars coming apart, and the passengers being ejected, the cars would 'crush' in such a collision, and passengers would be more likely to become trapped in damaged cars.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Hydraulic rescue tools (The Jaws of Life and it's several clones) would be deployed from multiple rescue trucks and truck companies (Ladder trucks), while the engine company crews would stretch lines to knock down any fires, protect trapped passengers, and mitigate hazards while hazmat crews would handle any diesel fuel leaks (Or other chemical leaks from the freight train).</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">It being a passenger train, out first in fire officer would have likely called for additional ambulances. and those crews, assisted by fire department personnel, would be treating and stabilizing patients as they were found, and proving the definitive pre-hospital care that didn't exist a hundred years ago. Ambulances would be queued up at a staging area, awaiting patients.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Hospitals would be implementing their disaster plans, personnel would be called in from days off, and the ERs and surgical suites would be fully staffed and at the ready.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">OH...and those crowds that were standing around the wreck at the diamond crossing collision? Wouldn't even come <i>close</i> to happening today. The local and State Police would have a perimeter set up at least a quarter mile or so around the scene, and if you weren't either an authorized First Responder (Spell that Fire, EMS, or Law Enforcement personnel, Railroad personnel, or Authorized State or Federal Government personnel such as NTSB ), you wouldn't get anywhere even <i>close</i> to the scene.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"> The only sort-of exception would be residents of the immediate area, and if there wasn't a public safety hazard, they would be allowed to stay in their homes, but wouldn't be allowed to approach the scene. If there <i>was</i> a hazard, such as a chemical release or major uncontrolled fire, of course, they would be evacuated.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">So emergency response today would be almost...not quite, but almost...180 degrees away from the response to the Diamond Crossing Disaster. While the response to the Diamond Crossing disaster was actually well organized and well executed, they just didn't have the resources that are available today.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">As for the guys at Porter County Companies 9 and 5...Porter and Chesterton...the rigs they'd be responding with today are so far removed from what they had 102 years ago that there's no real comparison...the only similarities are that both the 1921 rigs and the modern rigs had petroleum fueled internal combustion engines, and pumped water.. Of course the basic job...putting water on the fire to extinguish it...is the same, but the tools the guys use to do that job are so much more advanced.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">Also, the job is not only more advanced, but greatly expanded. Porter and Chesterton's guys would be handling the tasks taken on by the railroad, and the doctors and nurse on the relief train a century ago. Porter County EMS is handled by a third agency, but all of the county's firefighters are trained to at least the EMT level, and all of the county's fire companies run EMS first response rigs, and assist the EMS agency on a regular basis. The fire department would also handle rescue...as in the actual accessing and disentangling victims of the crash...and Hazmat. They've probably drilled on the very scenario I used as an example, likely as a Disaster Drill...And, like firefighters and EMS personnel the world over, they hope those drills are the <i>only</i> time they have to prove how ready they are to handle such an incident. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***> Notes, Links, And Stuff<***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Doing the research is half or more of the fun of writing this blog, but it's even more fun, and far less frustrating, when you don't run up on a bunch of dead ends and dead links.</p><p style="text-align: left;">With that thought in mind, even though the usually all but inevitable Wikipedia page was among the missing, and there weren't but three links leading to info about the wreck, this one ended up being about as simple and straightforward to knock out as you can get. Thanks to an amateur historian who has a serious jones for the history of his home turf, and an awesome railroad history site, the info that was available on two of those sites was good, solid info, but... </p><p style="text-align: left;">...Most helpful of all was the the third link, to the ICC report, which was available in full from the D.O.T. archive site. Having the ICC report (Or, after April 1st, 1967, the NTSB report) makes a world of difference when researching one of these posts, trust me on this. You get an accurate telling of the facts, figures, and <i>how</i> of the incident you're researching, and occasionally you even get an unusually juicy tidbit of info, though the Porter collision wasn't one of those times (Unless you count the multiple violations committed by the Michigan Central crew in the years before the wreck). Oh...there's a little caveat to using these old reports...you've got to keep your eyes open, especially on the older ICC reports. I found a map of a scene mirror-reversed one time...an error probably committed when the report was archived rather than in the original. But even having to watch for such archiving errors, being able to access an ICC or NTSB report simply and absolutely <i>rocks</i> if you're a history blogger!</p><p style="text-align: left;">This brings us to Caveat Numero Dos...you're not going to be able to find every report you want, and the further back you go, the more likely you'll come up empty. Train wrecks earlier than 1912 and plane crashes earlier than 1932 or so just ain't happening, and finding reports for incidents occurring after those dates can tend to be hit or miss. So far, I've been batting about .450 or so as to whether I could find an ICC/CAB/ NTSB report or not on these older incidents.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Anyway, thanks to those three sites, I had plenty of info, details, pictures, maps and diagrams...and even had some of my work done for me. Generally I always use a satellite image to knock out a diagram of the scene with graphics illustrating what happened, and, lo and behold, what should I run up on but just that! And this particular diagram was far better than mine unusually turn out. I found it on the same blog where I found the victim's list and a slew of scene photos. Credit, of course, was given to both the creator of the image, and the awesome blog from which it came.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Only thing I would have liked a bit more of was some more detail on the two locomotives, and some personal history of at least a few of the victims. But, as we all know, ya can't have everything. I didn't have a whole lot of information about the victims of the wreck this time, so I decided to forgo the usual speculation about their lives and their actions during/after the incident that I usually include. I did, however, include a list of the victims, several of which had hyper-links to their Find-A-Grave pages. Hopefully this will help memorialize the victims, and keep their memories alive.</p><p style="text-align: left;">As is true with all of my posts, I did a bit of speculating as to who said and did what, and when they said and did it...As I've noted before, I try to keep my posts from being dry recitations of fact and figures, and I strive to make them interesting and readable. I hope I succeeded here. </p><p style="text-align: left;">As always, any errors are mine and mine alone, and anyone who has better info, please feel free to comment. All of my posts are eternally works in progress, and I have absolutely no problem with going in to make corrections.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And with that...On to the notes!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">What are the chances that the two railroads involved in the very first major loss of life train wreck...which was a diamond crossing collision...would, nearly seventy years later, also be involved in the very last major loss-of-life diamond crossing collision, only forty or so miles from the site of that first major wreck.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Pretty good, apparently, because, well, it happened! </p><p style="text-align: left;">OK, so one of the two railroads (The Michigan Southern) had been folded into a much larger railroad (The New York Central) by the time the Porter collision happened, but it's still a pretty amazing coincidence!</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><div>The Porter, Indiana diamond crossing, along with the same tower that controlled it back in 1921, was in active use right on up to the late 70s or early '80s before the crossing was removed, the track layout completely reconfigured, and the tower finally torn down. But just because <i>that</i> crossing was eliminated doesn't mean <i>all</i> of them were by a long shot. There was even one still being controlled by manual semaphore signals...just as the Porter crossing was the night of the wreck...up until 2007. And <i>that</i> crossing wasn't out in the middle of no-where on a desolate wind-swept prairie...far from it. That crossing was...and still is...smack dab in the middle of Chicago.</div><div><br /></div><div>The crossing's in Chicago's <a href="https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2015/01/brighton-park-crossing.html">Brighton Park</a> and had the distinction of being one of the last such diamond crossings in the U.S. controlled by manual semaphore signals. The manual signals, controlled by big levers in a wooden watchman's shack, were in operation until 2007, and harked back to the steam era. </div><div><br /></div><div>The crossing, with Canadian National (Formally Illinois Central) tracks crossing the Norfolk Southern, is still active, and features ten separate diamond crossings. It's located near South Archer Ave and South Western Ave. The semaphores and the signalman's shack are now long gone...the crossing's now controlled by automatic interlocking and more modern signaling. The semaphores were removed and sent to a museum, and the shack was also supposed to go to a museum, but burned before it could be moved.</div><div><br /></div><div>The crossing is due to be replaced by a bridge, with the Canadian National crossing the Norfolk Southern/CSX tracks, but so far those plans are in the 'Being Talked About, But Unfunded' stage. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvZAola6XPfmIpbL2Yy4sDjaNcNLKmnG_sj0Xq8Khj0Uh0eSbnC65qVCvO4GGx-hDv5H2Yi4QJXUmr699BCmZz_5lAn5KOX-LCcOdSbS2feH_MjjCb5WEolx4D55Grx-czUPA51ap2VxGBeEtk9U9KQ-sm53nZQw_C9LHp6nT-TCfIid7Txp-iIng9=s1000" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="1000" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvZAola6XPfmIpbL2Yy4sDjaNcNLKmnG_sj0Xq8Khj0Uh0eSbnC65qVCvO4GGx-hDv5H2Yi4QJXUmr699BCmZz_5lAn5KOX-LCcOdSbS2feH_MjjCb5WEolx4D55Grx-czUPA51ap2VxGBeEtk9U9KQ-sm53nZQw_C9LHp6nT-TCfIid7Txp-iIng9=w640-h456" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Illinois Central #6050 pulls a freight across the CSX and Norfolk Southern tracks at Brighton Park Crossing during the Summer of 1996. This was the last manually controlled diamond crossing in the U.S., and remained so until 2007. The manually controlled semaphore signals were operated from the small frame cabin on the left side of the frame. BIG manual levers inside the cabin pushed/pulled rods that ran through pipes to the semaphore masts. From what I read, it took a bit of muscle to operate them.</span></div><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">All trains were required to stop before preceding, and occasionally at night, a train crew would have to make the trek over to the cabin to wake the operator up so he could clear them to precede through the crossing. This all came to an end in July 2007, when new automated signals were installed, and the crossings themselves were rebuilt. Ultimately, the crossing is going to be replaced with a bridge (Canadian National, crossing the CSX/NS tracks) but that project is in the talking but unfunded stage as I type this. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><p><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> Both the number of fatal diamond crossing crashes that have occurred over the years and the number of diamond crossings still in service today sort of surprised me as I was researching the diamond crossing wrecks I've covered so far.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> I actually ran up on at least four such collisions (Including this one) with either major loss of life (Less than 25) or catastrophic loss of life (25 or more) while I was researching this wreck, as well as two or three with little or no information available about them. Interestingly, none of the four major wrecks are among the better-known rail crashes despite this type of crash being both unique and unusual. Though I haven't found any information other than the location of three more such crashes, I'm assuming, until I discover more info, that loss of life was minimal or, better yet, no deaths occurred at all. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>These major diamond crossing collisions are also pretty much confined to the latter half of the 19th Century, and the first quarter of the 20th Century...The Porter Indiana collision was, in fact, the very last major loss of life diamond crossing wreck. Traffic control, safety technology, and likely more than a little luck have prevented major loss of life at subsequent diamond crossing crashes, though it hasn't completely prevented the crashes themselve</span>s.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I was also surprised at the number of Diamond Crossings still in service on major railroads. Not only are there several such crossings where, say, an east-west division of a railroad crosses a north-south division of the same road, there are also quite a few diamond crossings where two major railroads cross. A few of them (Hopefully a <i>very</i> few) don't have <i>any</i> form of positive train control protecting them.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And trust me, collisions at diamond crossings have <i>not</i> been completely eliminated...there was one, for example, in 2015 between two Union Pacific freights at a non-Positive-Train-Control diamond that was caused by crew fatigue...both the engineer and fireman of the striking train were asleep. Thankfully all of the injuries were minor, but that <i>had</i> to be one of the rudest awakenings on record!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***> Links <***></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">My multi-post run of good luck, links-wise, continues. Despite the fact that this incident isn't all that well known outside of Porter County (And truth be known, likely <i>inside</i> of Porter County either), I still managed to run up on three good, solid links, one of which was the ICC report, as well as a short but very interesting video.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">For the third or forth post in a row, I'm including <i>all</i> of the links I found (I mean really...there weren't but four of 'em!)</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">On to the Links!!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://planeandtrainwrecks.com/Document?db=DOT-RAILROAD&query=(select%20803)">https://planeandtrainwrecks.com/Document?db=DOT-RAILROAD&query=(select%20803)</a> The full text from the wreck's ICC report...always a an awesome resource to have available, especially if you want a accurate recounting of facts, figures, and just what happened. This site has been updated and upgraded extensively, and probably around 70-80% of the reports generated over the last century and change are available. When the report comes up, it's sharp, very readable text with the option to download the original report as a PDF file. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Nice as the site is...and it is low-key awesome...it <i>still</i> has an aggravating little glitch. When you click on the provided link, you may get a blank page initially, but there's an easy work-around. Go up to the gray-shaded toolbar along the top of the page. Click 'Previous Document', which will bring up the text of the previous document in the archive. Then click 'Next Document'...and the text of the Porter collision appears.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.porterhistory.org/2016/02/invitation-to-disaster-1921-porter.html ">http://www.porterhistory.org/2016/02/invitation-to-disaster-1921-porter.html</a> A very comprehensive, informative, and readable post about the Porter collision, on Porter County native Steve Shrooks excellent history blog, which is dedicated to the history of Porter County and environs there-of. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="michiganrailroads.com - Disaster at Porter, Indiana - 1921 ">michiganrailroads.com - Disaster at Porter, Indiana - 1921</a> Very comprehensive and informative article about the wreck from Michigan Railroads.com, which, I might add, is a site that every railfan and railroad history buff should have in his bookmarks. You can get pleasantly lost on this site for hours!<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cApoTjFpek&ab_channel=MatthewCipolla ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cApoTjFpek&ab_channel=MatthewCipolla</a> Short, but <i>very</i> interesting little video about the wreck. The video consists of a bit under two minutes of vintage footage shot at the scene of the wreck, all of it impressively high quality.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="font-size: small; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="font-size: small; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="font-size: small; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-55352282213571481562022-12-23T14:34:00.003-05:002023-10-15T01:33:43.114-04:00The Deadly Mays Landing Rear End Collision. August 11, 1880<p> </p><p style="orphans: 2; text-align: center; widows: 2;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The Deadly Mays
Landing Rear End Collision</b></span></p>
<p align="CENTER"><b>August 11, 1880</b></p>
<p align="CENTER"><b>The Train Wreck That New Jersey Ignored</b></p>
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<p align="LEFT">While the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6487399564596460661/5535228221357148156#">Atlantic
City Diamond Crossing Collision </a>and <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6487399564596460661/5535228221357148156#">The
Atlantic City Drawbridge Disaster </a>are the two best known
Atlantic City area train wrecks, they weren't the first fatal train
wrecks to strike the A.C. area by an means. The State of New Jersey
would have liked you to <i>think</i> they were, though.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Say What??</p>
<p align="LEFT">Yep...you read that right.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Back in August of 1880, thirty people died in Mays
Landing, New Jersey, about seventeen miles west of Atlantic City,
when the locomotive heading up the second section of a homeward-bound
excursion train slammed into the rear coach of the train's first
section, telescoping it. Not the type of event that would go unnoticed or be easily forgotten, and the very type of event that would generate literal reams of reports and records.</p><p align="LEFT">Only one problem...if you dig through the
official archives of The Great State of New Jersey, you won't find
any mention of the wreck. None. Nada. Zilch. It's as if the Garden State's powers-that-be just decided to banish any and all mention
of the wreck.</p>
<p align="LEFT"> So, why exactly would a state pretty much all but
deny that thirty people lost their lives in a train wreck by,
seemingly, all but denying that the train wreck in question even
happened in the first place?</p>
<p align="LEFT">To try and answer that question, we're taking a fatal
ride on an excursion train rolling along on a brand-spankin'-new railroad connecting Camden and Atlantic City...the West Jersey & Atlantic. That train ride will take us about seventeen or so
miles west of Atlantic City, to the then tiny mill town of Mays
Landing, where the wreck occurred. The Crown Jewel of the Jersey
Shore is even involved with the wreck, if only peripherally. The
excursionists had just spent the day at the fabled Jersey Shore
resort, and two trains involved in the collision had pulled out of
Atlantic City less than an hour before the collision.</p><p align="LEFT">But before we take that fatal train ride, we have to go
to Philadelphia...and before we do <i>that,</i> we need to
take a real quick history lesson RE: Atlantic City and the railroads
that both birthed it, and became it's lifeblood.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Dr. Johnathon Pitney and his band of developers knocked
it slam outa the park when they developed Atlantic City as a railroad
resort. In 1853, Absecon Island was a beautiful, but barely
inhabited, near inaccessible eight mile long sand-spit just off of
the New Jersey coast. Then John Pitney and his crew built
themselves a railroad from Camden, New Jersey...just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia...to the soon-to-be-city, which
they surveyed, laid out, graded, and built even as the new rail line, to be called the Camden & Atlantic, was abuilding. Once the new resort was ready to go, John Pitney and
company promoted it <i>heavily.</i></p>
<p align="LEFT"> In July, 1854 the first train-load of tourists
rolled across the Camden & Atlantic drawbridge over the narrow channel separating Absecon Island from the mainland, called The
Thoroughfare, and made their way to one of the two hotels in Atlantic
City at the time...either the Beloe House or the United States Hotel
(The latter, for many years, the largest in the country)...and things
kept going, and the resort kept growing...</p>
<p align="LEFT">Now jump forward a quarter century or so. By 1880,
Atlantic City had not only come into it's own, it had become a
tourism powerhouse, in an era when tourism, as such, was still a
fairly new concept. Huge and lavish hotels sat cheek to jowl along
the ocean front, the storied boardwalk had been
around for about a decade, an open spot large enough to lay a beach
blanket on the sand was hard to find during the summer, the beach was
lined with attractions and restaurants and spas; amusement piers
jutted nearly a thousand feet into the Atlantic, and well over half a
million visitors were rolling into the city to enjoy all of these
attractions every summer, with the total number of visitors
increasing exponentially every year.</p>
<p align="LEFT"> The very great majority of those visitors arrived
by train, and the Camden & Atlantic Railroad...the original line
into Atlantic City...couldn't keep up with traffic, and, in fact, had
been joined by at least one other line by 1877. By the latter half of
1880, the C & A would be joined by a third line.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Enter a gent by the name of Richard D Wood V, a well
connected and wealthy member of an old and respected New Jersey
Quaker family that had it's fingers in multiple N.J. business pies.
Mining, manufacturing, power generation (that would have been water
power back in the day, BTW) and transportation all figured in the
family businesses, and Richard the Fifth ended up, along with several
business partners, being in on the ground floor when
an...er...<i>obscure</i> little railroad called the Pennsylvania
Railroad got it's start back in 1846.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The many, many business successes of Clan Wood and The
Pennsylvania Railroad would fill several books, but we're interested
in one singular little business enterprise...a brand spanking new
railroad. The new line would yield multiple benefits to the
region. Not only did it add a third rail connection between Camden
and Atlantic City, it would also provide freight service for the Woods'
various mills and for the farmers in the region while also giving the mill workers what amounted to a commuter rail line to get them back and forth to work. This new rail line could well prove to be a profitable venture, indeed.</p><p align="LEFT">The line, to be called the West Jersey & Atlantic, would actually be a spur
line, branching off of the original West Jersey railroad from Camden
to Cape May, which opened in 1863. The West Jersey & Atlantic would
branch off of the West Jersey at Newfield to head east into Atlantic
City, and I believe the section of the road between Newfield and
Camden also became part of the West Jersey & Atlantic when the WJ&A
opened for business.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The WJ&A would pass through the tiny village of
Mays Landing...also the site of one of the Woods' mills...on the way
east, crossing the Greater Egg Harbor River on a trestle while it was at it.
Keep that trestle in mind...it's going to play a <i>huge</i> part
in what's to come.</p>
<p align="LEFT">I'm leaving out a bit...OK, a lot...of detail RE: the
development and early history of the WJ&A, but permissions were
granted, right of way purchased, labor hired, and construction
started. Construction kicked off in November, 1879, and by June,
1880, the line...all single track...was completed.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Of course, to run a railroad, they needed rolling
stock. The WJ&A brass purchased six big American Class 4-4-0
locomotives to the tune of $7,500 apiece (Just shy of $218,000 each
in 2022 dollars) and forty first class passenger cars at $2000 per
copy ($59,000 apiece in today's money). </p>
<p align="LEFT">Lets take a quick look at the WJ&A's new rides. All six of
the locomotives were the classic American Class locomotives that
headed up well over 90% of the trains running in the U.S during the
latter half of the 19th century. The 4-4-0 designated the wheel
arrangement. Four smaller bogey wheels beneath the steam cylinders
and front end of the boiler at the front of the locomotive, and
four big drive wheels amidships and aft, beneath the boiler and cab, with no
bogeys at the rear end of the locomotive. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Two of the locomotives were the largest American class
locos in service, noted for their speed, and would be used
exclusively in passenger service. One was a class D2, which burned
soft coal and the other was a more efficient D4 class, with a longer
firebox, designed to burn slower burning anthracite coal. Both were
fast, powerful, efficient, and featured every safety device
available. Both would figure in our story.</p><p align="LEFT">The passenger coaches were 50 feet long with a capacity of 48 passengers, and were probably beautifully appointed, and comfortable. They were also equipped with air brakes and the new, much safer, knuckle-style automatic couplers, <i>but </i>all of them were also constructed of wood, giving them the approximate crashworthyness of a cardboard box. Even worse, all were heated by coal-burning stoves in each car, making then uncrashworthy fire traps in the event of a winter-time wreck....fire, thankfully, wouldn't be an issue in the Mays Landing wreck as it occurred in August.</p><div><br /></div>
<p style="text-align: center;">**</p><p align="LEFT"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCI8d8HdmO_CHhQ9xX9YIKAkSHogn5cOCD5bbP1ERDVOW4CEFt-wtI5zlY26EsetDgFaVIP65eEvJBb77n3upIJjHG9WEWC3aj9le2H-buLxCPqkoHJi6DBtCKqx7m25NXC13FDruQgqUtxmSVdi2BGq79Mk15c7-_xySse3yZU0pDkbcarA9YPa6i/s702/PRR_D2a_138.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="702" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCI8d8HdmO_CHhQ9xX9YIKAkSHogn5cOCD5bbP1ERDVOW4CEFt-wtI5zlY26EsetDgFaVIP65eEvJBb77n3upIJjHG9WEWC3aj9le2H-buLxCPqkoHJi6DBtCKqx7m25NXC13FDruQgqUtxmSVdi2BGq79Mk15c7-_xySse3yZU0pDkbcarA9YPa6i/w640-h308/PRR_D2a_138.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A Class D2 4-4-0 locomotive of the type that was at the head end of the excursion train's first section. The Second section was pulled by a slightly larger Class D4, detailed in the next picture. As both locomotives were originally designed for the Pennsylvania Railroad, built in that road's legendary Altoona. Pa shops, and the West Jersey and Atlantic was a subsidiary of the P.R.R, it wouldn't surprise me at all if both locomotives were actually former P.R.R. passenger locomotives that were passed on to the WJ&A.<br /><br />While not as legitimately huge as the road engines developed and built a couple decades later, and definitely smaller then the gargantuan steam locomotives of the early-mid 20th century, these were not small locomotives by any means...note the relative size of the guys standing next to the locomotive in the photo. They were also powerful, and more than capable of pulling a long passenger train at speed. The relevant specs are noted below:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Length: 54' 5.4" Including tender</div><div style="text-align: left;">Width: 9'</div><div style="text-align: left;">Height:14'8":</div><div style="text-align: left;">Weight:59.8 tons, including the tender</div><div style="text-align: left;">Driver Diameter: 62"</div><div style="text-align: left;">Tractive Effort: 52,500 lbs</div><div style="text-align: left;">Number Built: 20, only one of which...#262...went to the WJ&A</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcFT87QEKx_5crOmVbPTixnzq3-9NjRvXuaGbM0KqUY5F5fkcaVof47daPyUrbrB6DZtsbBPA5Ftd-TIE7ARhGS4ZUTC-6MNYNehFsjP9UUdAw6c0-HtLfmhnLDwhhbgEAkkaE-Vlxy0OPXl7_7ZU-YxStw0fv6rKk7TjXHZJjz20DxdWLckWXtWxO/s752/Class%20D4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="752" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcFT87QEKx_5crOmVbPTixnzq3-9NjRvXuaGbM0KqUY5F5fkcaVof47daPyUrbrB6DZtsbBPA5Ftd-TIE7ARhGS4ZUTC-6MNYNehFsjP9UUdAw6c0-HtLfmhnLDwhhbgEAkkaE-Vlxy0OPXl7_7ZU-YxStw0fv6rKk7TjXHZJjz20DxdWLckWXtWxO/w640-h188/Class%20D4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A class D4 4-4-0 locomotive of the type that was heading up the excursion's second section, and therefore rear-ended the first section's last coach. The D4's were slightly larger and heavier than the D2s, with longer fireboxes that allowed them to burn hotter but slower burning anthracite coal, making then more efficient than the D2s as well (Yes, fuel economy was important even back then.).<br /><br />It's interesting that the WJ&A got a D4, because these locomotives were actually built for the P.R.R.'s more mountainous regions, and the coastal region of New Jersey is just about as flat as a board. At full throttle, with a light train, this locomotive could probably flat-out stroll!<br /><br />As noted, the D4s were larger and heavier than the D2s...the relevant specs are noted below:<br /><br />Length: 56' 4.9"<br />Width: 9'<br />Height: 14'6"<br />Weight:60.4 tons, including tender<br />Driver Diameter: 62"<br />Tractive effort: 56,200lbs<br />Number Built: 37, only one pf which...#627...went to the WJ&A<br /><br />Note that the headlights of both locomotives are still equipped with chimneys. Electric headlights were still decades away, and even acetylene-lit headlights were a decade or so in the future...these headlights were probably kerosene fired, with a big reflector and a multi-faceted Fresnel-type lens to focus the light, making them, essentially, big kerosene lanterns. <br /><br />When Locomotive 627 struck the first section's last coach, it 'telescoped' it, actually forcing about ten or twelve feet of the locomotive inside the car, crushing the rear quarter or so of the coach while also ripping the roof off. This also sheared the locomotive's headlight and smoke stack off, but the worst and most devastating damage occurred when the front ends of both steam cylinders were punctured, sending a pair of high pressure jets of super-heated steam blasting through the length of the car, killing or injuring everyone inside.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje-ai0mupaaFlMvXm2QTqy9sFdVv4tb7fCbaQDqUNyR-f9T4di38XLBeojmt8mxzhyr4UAToQOfxMKm82eaMB1jJJeQ3bT46DPohxPHnY_--P_-8DTedb7GCMlpxpsxAz3IDAgFjt83LjsfJgzgGA7fRw4WS2FEvljOMfn68yf1Cx7VMVv6xjqd1q3/s800/drgw20coach20284.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="800" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje-ai0mupaaFlMvXm2QTqy9sFdVv4tb7fCbaQDqUNyR-f9T4di38XLBeojmt8mxzhyr4UAToQOfxMKm82eaMB1jJJeQ3bT46DPohxPHnY_--P_-8DTedb7GCMlpxpsxAz3IDAgFjt83LjsfJgzgGA7fRw4WS2FEvljOMfn68yf1Cx7VMVv6xjqd1q3/w640-h328/drgw20coach20284.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A passenger coach from the same era as the coaches on the excursion train (I tried to find a pic of a Pennsylvania RR passenger car from this era, but, sadly, there were none to be found.) These coaches were 50 feet long and seated 48 passengers.<br /><br />While they were all equipped with both air brakes and newer knuckle-style automatic couplers, they also featured all-wood construction and coal stoves in each car for heat (Note the chimney for the stove on the far end of the pictured coach), not only making them about as crashworthy as a cardboard box, but also turning them into uncrashworthy fire-traps in a wintertime wreck. At least the excursionists in that last coach didn't have to worry about fire, as the wreck occurred in August. What <i>did</i> happen to them, however, was almost as bad<br /><br />When Locomotive 627 hit the coach, it forced it's way about ten or twelve feet into the coach...call it to about the third window. In the process it completely smashed that end of the coach while tearing the roof free...the roof ended up perched on the top front of 627's boiler, tilted upward sharply. Anyone unlucky enough to be in these last three or so rows of seats was likely killed, but the very first known fatality was 20 year old James Sweeney, who was standing on the car's rear platform when the locomotive hit it. 627's pilot...what kids used to call the 'cowcatcher'...probably under-rode the rear platform, ripping it free and tilting it sharply upward an instant before the locomotive tore though the end wall of the coach, crushing Sweeney between the front of the locomotive and the wreckage of the coach.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: center;">**</p><p align="LEFT">By June of 1880, the new rail line was ready for
traffic, a point proven on June 16th when both a select group of
stockholders and members of The Press were invited on an excursion
from Camden to Atlantic City. The excursionists filled four of the
new passenger coaches, and the run from Camden to the end of New York
Ave in Atlantic City was flawless.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The excursionists were met with great fanfare, loads of
food and drink, speeches, celebration, and partying. The press, greatly impressed with both the trip and the festivities, wrote
dozens of laudatory paragraphs, praising the new line, and the public
took note.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Within a couple of weeks, several trains a day were
rolling in to Atlantic City on the WJ & A, giving the Camden &
Atlantic and the Reading railroads both a bit of competition and a
bit of relief. Trust me, this relief was greatly needed. By the
summer of 1880, people were flocking to the city from as far north as
New York and Boston, and as far south as Washington, DC. And just
about <i>all </i>of them arrived by train, and had to
transfer to an Atlantic City-bound train on one the three lines that
served the resort in Camden. Camden's railroad station was probably
every bit as much of a mad-house on a mid-summers day in 1880 as Atlanta's airport is on<i> </i>any given day in 2022.</p>
<p align="LEFT">OK, as I noted above, before we start our ill-fated
train ride to Mays Landing, we've got to go to Philadelphia. While
the ever-expanding national rail network made Atlantic City
accessible to to the entire Northeast Corridor, originally Atlantic
City was developed almost specifically as a vacation destination for
the residents of Philadelphia and environs there-of, and a quarter
century after the resort was founded Philly area residents (Along
with residents of the rest of eastern Pennsylvania and all of New
Jersey) still made up a <i>huge</i> percentage of Atlantic
City's visitors.</p>
<p align="LEFT">By 1880, catching the train into Atlantic City after a
ferry ride across the Delaware River from Philly had become
almost...<i>almost</i>...as commonplace for more affluent
Victorian Era Metro Philadelphia residents as loading up the Family
Truckster and heading for the beach is for modern families today. In
fact, it wasn't at all unusual for wealthier citizens of The City Of
Brotherly Love and it's suburbs to make that trip two or three times
per summer (Or, alternately, rent a suite of rooms in one of A.C.s
many huge hotels for a month or so)...but what of the middle class?
There were no paid vacations back in 1880, and the 40 hour work-week
was just a fantasy that, sadly, no one of working age in 1880 would
live to see or enjoy. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Even if they <i>could</i> get the time off, a
trip into Atlantic City for even a day-trip was a bit beyond the
means of many people. A trip to the beach took an even larger
percentage of the average family's disposable income 140 years ago
than it does now...<i>far</i> larger, in fact.</p>
<p align="LEFT">In 1880 a train ticket to Atlantic City on any of the
three lines then serving the city would have set you back around
$3.00 ($90.00 in today's money), and the average <i>monthly</i> wage
ranged between $20-$90 ($580-$2600 today) Add to that three dollar
train ticket food, amusements, the inevitable souvenirs and toys for
the kids (And families tended to be <i>big</i> in that era)
and all the other expenses such a trip...even a day trip...inevitably
generated, and you see a pretty good chunk taken out of that monthly
wage. Families whose incomes were on the lower end of the scale
either saved up all year for a single day at the beach or, even more likely, they didn't go at all.</p>
<p align="LEFT">There <i>was</i> a way that our Victorian age
working man and his family (Or, often, <i>just</i> his
family as he probably couldn't get the day off ) <i>could</i> afford
a day trip to the beach, however. Group rates were not only a 'thing'
in the mid-late 19th Century, that was the era when they really
became popular, through railroad excursions. Way more than a few
civic, social, and religious organizations took advantage of these
reduced fares by chartering an entire train for an excursion to the
beach. </p>
<p align="LEFT">The railroad on which the excursion was being run would
sell tickets to the group organizing the trip at deeply discounted
rates, then the tickets would be offered to group members and often
members of other organizations, at that same rate. Making a profit
was seldom the goal for these groups. Giving their members to
opportunity to get out of the city for a day was. And trust me, these
special group rates were a deal...take a look below.</p>
<p align="CENTER">***</p>
<p align="CENTER"><b>Excursion ticket prices for Atlantic City Day
Excursions.</b></p>
<p align="CENTER">Adult Tickets, Round Trip: $1.00 ($29.05 in
today's money)</p>
<p align="CENTER"> Child's Ticket Round Trip: $.50
($14.09 in today's money)</p>
<p align="CENTER">And for really large groups:</p>
<p align="CENTER">Groups of 1000 or more: $.60 Round Trip
for all ages ($17.43 in today's money)</p>
<p align="CENTER">***</p>
<p align="LEFT"><br />The Camden & Atlantic and Reading Railroads
probably hosted such excursions regularly, but the WJ&A, even
though it began passenger service in June of 1880, didn't run one of
these cut rate excursions until August of that same year. But they
made up for it with the excursion's size.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Warm weather and frolicking in the surf were distant
fantasies when planning for the WJ&A's first excursion kicked
off. The WJ&A itself, in fact, was still a-building when,
sometime around the beginning of February, the Reverend Thomas
Kieran, of St Anne's Catholic Church, began meeting with that
church's Literary Society to begin planning an excursion to Atlantic
City. The good Reverend and the Literary Society members likely had to
trudge their way through slush, snow, and that bone-deep cold that
the Northeast does so well to attend the meeting, which likely made
the meeting's subject both ironic and welcome.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Here's where things began to get interesting...When I started working on this post, I assumed that the Excursion Committee approached all of the railroads offering service to Atlantic City and solicited bids for the excursion...but then I found out something <i>real</i> interesting.</p><p align="LEFT">The Roman Catholic Church can rival many small <i>countries</i> when it comes to politics, and the leadership of The Catholic Diocese in any large city...then and now...wields a <i>huge</i> amount of power, both over the local government, and the parishes under their command. With that being said, it seems that the Bishop of the Catholic Church in Philly was <i>also</i> the uncle of one Richard Wood V, Majority Stockholder of the WJ&A, which leads me to believe that the choice of railroad for the excursion just <i>may</i> have been made very early in the ballgame, and that the St Anne's Literary Society had little or no say in said decision.</p><p align="LEFT">Most likely, they were presented with a single choice from on high. As in 'Ya want to have an excursion, you're gonna use the WJ&A'. This wouldn't be the <i>last</i> time that a connection with the Wood family would possibly play a part in how the excursion, and most particularly, teh investigation, news and documentation of the wreck, was handled, nor would it be the last time that the Bishop's connection to the Wood family would pop up...but I'm getting ahead of myself here.</p>
<p align="LEFT">This decision from on high did simplify the planning process for the excursion, and even with the limited choice of railroads that the St Anne's Literary Committee was given to work with, they still negotiated an excellent deal on ticket prices, with that bargain-basement ticket price if they could get more than 1000 people to sign up for the excursion being the best part of the deal by far.</p><p align="LEFT"> A date was chosen...the second Wednesday in August, the
eleventh...and more detailed planning commenced, with maximizing the number of people signed up for the excursion probably being a <i>huge</i> part of said planning. To get as many people signed up as possible, the Literary Society sent out invites to several neighboring
Philadelphia parishes as well as to the Third Street Methodist
Episcopal Church across the river in Camden. The organizers/promoters of the excursion
emphasized that 'The More the Merrier' also meant 'The More the
Cheaper'...If they could bust that 'One Thousand' barrier each
ticket would only cost $.60...the equivalent of $17.43 per ticket in
2022 money.</p>
<p align="LEFT"> I can imagine that the pastors of all of the
invited congregations hawked tickets at Sunday worship
service <i>every</i> Sunday right on up to the weekend
before the trip, likely repeating the 'The More The Cheaper' theme...They wanted everyone to have an amazing trip, and have memories to last a lifetime, and all of those other familiar beach-trip tropes, but most importantly, they wanted to bust that '1000 ticket' barrier to get that killer ticket-price discount</p><p align="LEFT">Their tactic worked...bigtime! For many the thought of getting out of the hot, humid
hell that was Philadelphia in mid-August and spending a full day in
Atlantic City, enjoying the sea breeze blowing in off of the Atlantic
Ocean, for well less than a dollar per head was too good a deal to
even think about passing up. People signed up in droves, with upwards
of 1,300 tickets, well more than the one thousand needed for that
$.60 per ticket group rate, sold.</p>
<p align="LEFT">This <i>may</i> have taken the WJ&A by
surprise, and a group of that size definitely meant that the
line had to do some major rolling stock shifting. They first assigned
a block of twenty-four passenger cars...over half of their passenger
rolling stock...to the excursion. While they were at it, despite the obvious safety concerns of doing so, they decided
to run the excursion in two sections...one sixteen car train, and a
second, shorter, eight car train a few miles behind the first train... rather than a single twenty-four
car train. OH...they <i>didn't</i> tell the excursion's
organizers about that little detail.</p>
<p align="LEFT">They had the cars assigned, now they needed motive
power. The line's dispatchers assigned Locomotive #262, which was a
class D2 locomotive, to head up the longer of the two trains, while,
locomotive #627, the road's single Class D4 locomotive, was assigned
to the head end of the shorter, eight car train.</p>
<p align="LEFT">For the crews, Engineer Danial Cassidy was assigned to
drive #262, with Elmer Mayhew in charge as conductor of the longer
train, while Edward Aitkin was at the throttle of #627, heading up
the shorter of the two trains. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Of course, our excursionists had to get across the
river to Camden...there wouldn't be a road bridge connecting Philly
and Camden until 1926, when the Ben Franklin Bridge opened...so the
committee also chartered at least one ferry boat specifically to get
the group across the river.</p>
<p align="LEFT">An early (<i>Very </i>early) departure time was
slotted for both ferry and train, and they had themselves an
excursion.</p>
<p align="CENTER">**</p>
<p align="LEFT">I can just about bet that time all but slowed to a
crawl for a few hundred kids...and more than a few older teens and
adults...that summer of 1880 as they waited for August 11th to
arrive. But when the sun finally peeked above the horizon on that
long-awaited morning...well, that's just it, it <i>didn't</i>.
The weather was <i>not</i> looking too good as parents
dragged themselves out of bed to find that their kids, giddy with
excitement, were already up. (I have a feeling that motivating the
teens in the group at that early hour...teens being teens no matter
what era they lived in...was just a scosh more difficult.). </p>
<p align="LEFT">Parents looked out of windows, sighed at length when
they saw the sky loaded down with grey, scudding clouds, and set
about to getting their broods up and moving. Breakfast was quickly
fixed and inhaled, baths were taken, kids were dressed, and
boxed lunches were prepared and packed along with other
necessities, Dads who had to work said good-bye, hugged their wives
and children, and sighed meaningfully and more than a little
enviously as their families headed for the Camden waterfront...and
more than one, glancing at the less-than-inviting weather, likely
admonished his wife and kids to 'Stay dry...' as they walked down the
front steps. (And more than one child likely replied 'Dad...we're
going to the <i>shore!!!</i> )</p>
<p align="LEFT">The departure time for the chartered ferry was 6:15 AM,
so the group likely began arriving at the West Jersey Ferry Terminal
in Philadelphia at 5:40 or so, walking through the terminal and
out onto the covered ferry slip in near full dark or, at best, that
shadowy, eerie, overcast-generated early morning half-light that's
the first indication of a less-than-stellar weather day to come...the
weather being the day's <i>first</i> unexpected twist.</p>
<p align="LEFT">A good, brisk little breeze accompanied the clouds,
snatching spray off of the river and sending it across the piers and
the open decks of the ferries like a fine, misty...and warm...rain as
the excursionists walked up the ramp and onto the big double-ended
ferry. It was August, remember, so just because it was cloudy and
breezy didn't mean it was chilly. Far from it, in fact. That breeze
was so dense with humidity that it was likely akin to warm soup, and
the heavy clothing of the era likely made the adults feel like they
were wearing blankets.</p><p align="LEFT"><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuaTQfcd7EMOymOoKRAvVoaVzcbLzphJE4qMFz0x4Z2PQbrF2PY9SIXvyNAgn4XwJHQ6_NyrEsmISbiDILj1YwApjSQ055wkHn48L3-0iW5pta06I9Ihou2dpRg2kr0qNVSGd2fWC5i6RrT_Q27yD8fsTKQXJTScFF_TORxMkJBxrvaO5UcINE8HG/s1432/MktSt_1885_Libco.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1145" data-original-width="1432" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuaTQfcd7EMOymOoKRAvVoaVzcbLzphJE4qMFz0x4Z2PQbrF2PY9SIXvyNAgn4XwJHQ6_NyrEsmISbiDILj1YwApjSQ055wkHn48L3-0iW5pta06I9Ihou2dpRg2kr0qNVSGd2fWC5i6RrT_Q27yD8fsTKQXJTScFF_TORxMkJBxrvaO5UcINE8HG/w640-h512/MktSt_1885_Libco.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The double ended steam ferry Columbia, built in 1876, could very well have been one of the ferries that our excursionists boarded to cross the Delaware River to Camden, enroute to the WJ&A train station...it could have also been one of the ferries that transported the ambulances carrying the injured, as well as the uninjured excursionists on the way home, back across to Philadelphia well after midnight the next morning..</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7J_2RB3qIIlEapLm-6-N80kYB1BLfcVinedZtKRNuZB1f-7RrSATBiduFB-vFN1oAo9Sb4j_MaK4NBOIq9KOUs8j8ZEDYioi90JC_Q_7VWp73YC5UoRqmH_xoH8ZXo6XCuqCAjvyaZDeEukOjhlIzZ3FWquaX4JFeNL6zRmRsoWOHLGkvj1qIhWbV/s1110/MktStr_1890s_Libco.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="1110" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7J_2RB3qIIlEapLm-6-N80kYB1BLfcVinedZtKRNuZB1f-7RrSATBiduFB-vFN1oAo9Sb4j_MaK4NBOIq9KOUs8j8ZEDYioi90JC_Q_7VWp73YC5UoRqmH_xoH8ZXo6XCuqCAjvyaZDeEukOjhlIzZ3FWquaX4JFeNL6zRmRsoWOHLGkvj1qIhWbV/w640-h416/MktStr_1890s_Libco.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Looking down Market Street towards Philadelphia's West Jersey Ferry Terminal. Even though this pic was taken a good decade or so after the wreck, it still gives you a good idea of the view our 1300 excursionists would have had as they prepared to cross the Delaware River to Camden</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><p align="LEFT"><br /></p><p align="LEFT">Of course the kids, being kids, didn't care...all they
knew was they were heading for an adventure that started with, first,
a trip across the river on one of the big West Jersey ferries, them
a <i>train</i> ride! That, in and of itself, made this the
second best day of the year, second only to Christmas. The younger
kids were all but bouncing with energy as the ferry eased out of the
slip and started across the river, and soon they were standing at the
rail, gleefully pointing out steamers and tugs on the river and
waving at the ferries crossing from Camden back to Philly as they
passed, while the parents and older kids were a bit more reserved,
but still enjoyed the sights and sounds of the waterfront as the
breeze generated by the ferry's forward motion, added to the already
brisk natural breeze, ruffled their hair during the ten or so minute
crossing. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Soon the ferry was gently nudging piling clusters as
she nosed into the slip at the P.R.R. ferry terminal at the foot of
Market Street in Camden. The mooring lines were made fast, ramps were
lowered, the safety chains were dropped, and the group poured down
the ramp almost like a single huge organism and made their way to the
near-by WJ&A train station. There they were met with the
day's <i>second </i>unexpected twist when they
found <i>two</i> trains next to the platform, smoke
drifting from the locomotives' stacks, waiting for them to board.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The original game plan had been for them to travel on
board a single long train, so being told that the group was to be
divided and placed on a pair of trains came as a bit of a surprise,
one that the good Reverend Kieran and the rest of the group's
organizers weren't entirely on board with. Some 'spirited discussion'
ensued, with the group ultimately being informed 'That's the way
we're doing it', with 'Take it or leave it' possibly also thrown in. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Obviously they chose 'Take It', and the thirteen
hundred excursionists started boarding the two trains' twenty-four
coaches...but of course it wasn't quite <i>that</i> simple.
The group had to be split into <i>two</i> groups, which
meant someone had to decide who was boarding which train. Parents had
to get giddy groups of kids aimed in the right direction, Best
Friends bemoaned being separated for the trip, and the operation generally involved a good bit of good natured temporary chaos, but
ultimately the twenty-four passenger cars were loaded by the
scheduled 7:15 AM departure time and the two conductors called out
their iconic 'ALL ABOARD!!, then signaled to the engineers that they
were ready to roll.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Dan Cassidy gave two blasts on #262's whistle, then
eased the throttle open, the big American Class locomotive spitting
puffballs of smoke skyward with the distinctive 'CHUFF!-CHUFF!-CHUFF!
of a locomotive getting a heavy train moving while couplings
'clanked' as the slack came out of them, and the cars gave gentle
jerks as they were yanked into motion. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Ed Aitkin glanced at his pocket watch, noted the time,
and leaned out the picture window of 627's cab, watching the rear
platform of the longer train recede in the distance. There was a set
interval required between train sections...ten minutes I believe it
was...and Ed waited it out before parroting that twin whistle blast,
and pulling his own throttle open, the shorter train jerking into
motion amid the same familiar and distinctive exhaust notes.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Aboard both trains, that subtle, almost gentle jerk as
the trains started moving sent the excursionists... especially the
younger ones...into giddiness overload as the trains rolled through
Camden, then out of the city into the heavily wooded countryside. New
Jersey's storied Pine Barrens rolled past the windows, giving the
excursionists a view of the dense pine forest and an occasional quick
glimpse of a deer startled into sudden flight by the passing beast.</p>
<p align="LEFT">About an hour or so into the trip they rolled into
Franklin Township (Now Newfield)...thirty or so miles south of
Camden, and forty or so miles north of Atlantic City...where both
trains had to negotiate a turnout...what non-railroad types call a
'switch'...to turn onto the spur line to Atlantic City, a maneuver
that went flawlessly, so that by somewhere between 8:15 and 8:30 both
trains were arrowing southeast towards the ocean at around 25 MPH. </p>
<p align="LEFT">While the kids really didn't care about the weather,
the parents were still watching the sky. Some blue was <i>trying </i>to
peak through the clouds, and it was most definitely warming up, but
it <i>still </i>wasn't exactly a perfect weather day. Some
of them were probably discussing those semi-threatening skies as they
rolled through a small town...<i>tiny</i> really...and one of
the kids exclaimed 'Hey...<i>cool</i> bridge! (Or whatever the
1880 version of 'cool' may have been) as they rolled across a
trestle.</p>
<p align="LEFT">They were crossing the Greater Egg Harbor River, in the
tiny village of Mays Landing, seventeen miles and about a half hour
away from Atlantic City, and not only was the trestle literally right
in the middle of the tiny town, it's layout was kind of unusual as
well. A pair of earthen causeways, the westernmost one far longer
than the eastern one, carried the line out from the banks of the 800
or so foot wide river, with the 140 foot long trestle connecting the
two causeways mid-stream.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The trains rolled across the bridge, then out of the
village, back into dense pine forest, and maybe twenty minutes later,
through the then small town of Pleasantville...and just east of
Pleasantville, they plunged into 'The Meadows', as the expansive
marsh that closely hugs the Jersey shore near Atlantic City's known,
giving the excursionists a whiff of swamp-rot before they could
finally breath that glorious 'Almost At The Beach' scent of salt air.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Dan Cassidy started easing back on the throttle, at the
same time making gentle stabs at the airbrakes to slow the train as
the excursion's first section rolled across a drawbridge spanning
'The Thoroughfare, the narrow channel that separates Absecon
Island...the island on which Atlantic City's built...from the
mainland. It was just about 9 AM. when the train eased to a stop next
to the platform at the station, located at New York Ave and Atlantic
Ave. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Excursionists all but exploded from the cars, some of
them waiting for the train's second section to roll into the station,
others heading for the sound of breakers hitting the sand just east
of the station. Then the second section rolled into the station, the
locomotive's bell tolling as it eased to a stop and disgorged it's
passengers...and then the excursionists all met up, then 'Divided and
conquered' Atlantic City.</p>
<p align="LEFT">They toured the city, many of them making their way to
Absecon Lighthouse, at the city's northernmost tip (We'll take a look
at Absecon Light in 'Notes'). Children frolicked and teen boys dived
into the surf to show off for the inevitable pairs and groups of teen
girls watching from the beach. Some of the more daring young (And
even not-so-young) ladies rented 'Bathing Attire', along with the
portable bath houses that went with the rental, and dived into the
surf right along with the boys.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The boardwalk was explored from one end to the other,
expansive and lavish hotel lobbies and restaurants were visited (And
when prices were seen, these explorers became very glad they'd
brought boxed lunches), picnics were had, shells were collected, at
least one new twelve year old puppy-love couple was minted while a
couple of soon to be married couples a bit older than twelve enjoyed
their first trip to the beach as couples. Another young lady of
eleven helped her sister by keeping tabs on her young cousins, a job
she thoroughly enjoyed.</p>
<p align="LEFT">While all of this was going on, a couple of dads
who <i>had</i> managed to get the day off were keeping an
eye on the time, and far, <i>far</i> sooner than anyone
wanted, word was sent out that it was time to head for the station
for the 6:00 PM departure...of course, the group just <i>may </i>have
been chased back towards the station even earlier than that.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Some sources say that the rain started in earnest
around 3 PM, and the bottom had definitely fallen out before 6PM,
because the excursionists made their way to the station at a dead run
in the midst of one of those summer gully-washers that hit the ground
so hard they create a knee-high mist of rebounding ran-drops.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The two locomotives had been serviced with coal and
water, and the trains had been run out to a turning wye and turned so
they were aimed west, and as the now-soaked group bore down on them,
the conductors were hustling through the coaches, closing windows to
keep the rain outside, where it belonged. The trains were next to a
covered platform, which kept at least one side of the coaches
temporarily dry, and more importantly, protected the now soaked
passengers as they climbed back aboard.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The group was amazingly chipper and happy for a crowd
that was soaking wet. Lets just take a look at a few of the occupants
of one coach...the sixteenth and last coach on the excursion train's
first section. Our new young couple...both bookworms already at
12...grabbed seats in that last coach and began perusing a couple of
popular novels (What would be called 'Young Adult Novels' today),
while our soon to be married couples slid into adjacent seats
and began critiquing the days activities...these discussions would,
soon enough, change over to the inevitable talk about wedding plans.
Our little 11 year old babysitter gathered her two young and adoring
charges and sat, likely in a pair of seats, with her sister. One
group of young men in their early twenties grouped up, and started a
game of checkers, with friendly wagers made on said game's result.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Another young, newly formed couple solidified a
invitation to the guy's tavern for dinner that very evening. And all
throughout the coach (And the train) groups of teen girls gathered to
twitter and giggle as only teen girls can do, while teen boys
gathered to talk about those same teen girls (Who were very likely,
talking about them when not commenting laughingly on each others new,
rain-assisted hair-dos.)</p>
<p align="LEFT">All in all it was a very up-beat and happy, if slightly
tired and very wet group in that 16th coach, mirroring the attitudes
of the great majority of their fellow excursionists as the first
section jerked gently into motion to head back towards Camden. In the
cab of Locomotive 627, Ed Aitkin watched the first section's last
coach disappear into the driving rain, then checked his watch.</p>
<p align="LEFT">He was <i>supposed</i> to wait at least ten
minutes before pulling out of the station, but when he yanked the
whistle lanyard twice, then opened the air valve that started ringing
the locomotive bell and eased the throttle open, prodding the train
into motion, only five minutes had passed</p>
<p align="LEFT">The two trains chugged and puffed west across The
Meadows, then plunged back into the Pine Barrens, both of them
rolling along at around 25 MPH. The rain not only hadn't slacked up,
it had intensified a bit, clattering against the wooden roofs of the
coaches and finding cracks and vents to force it's way inside,
forming puddles on the floor that shivered and jumped as the wheels
clicked over rail joints. </p>
<p align="LEFT">A little more than a half hour into the home-bound trip
the train's first section was approaching Mays Landing. Dan Cassidy
applied the service brakes briefly, to ensure they'd work as they
approached the village limits, then applied them in earnest, slowing
the train to just more then walking speed as they rolled onto the
trestle, slowing further as they crossed until the train eased to a
stop with about half of the cars still either on the trestle, or the
earthen causeway leading to it.</p>
<p align="LEFT"> The reason they were stopped was both benign and
routine...there was a passing siding at Mays Landing, just west of
the trestle and hard by the train station, which was a couple of
hundred yards beyond the bridge. The excursion train was scheduled to
take the passing siding to allow a scheduled eastbound express train to
pass. The siding itself was about 2600 feet long, plenty
of room for both sections of the excursion train.</p>
<p align="LEFT">This wasn't a a difficult maneuver at all though it
wouldn't be particularly pleasant for the two trains' brakemen, who
had to throw the switch in order for the trains to move onto the
siding, then realign it for through traffic as soon as the second
section cleared the main line. The same would have to be done, of
course, on the other end of the siding, for the excursion train to
move back onto the main line after the express train passed...but
they wouldn't get that far. The second section's brakeman wouldn't
even get to do <i>anything</i>...at least concerning the passing
siding...</p>
<p align="LEFT">The excursionists may have acted almost as if they
weren't still soaking wet and it wasn't also beginning to
rain <i>inside</i> the cars, but they <i>did</i> notice
as the train began to slow down, then stop a little more than a half
hour into the home bound trip. A couple of them looked out of the
rain smeared windows and noticed they were stopped on the same
trestle several of the kids had remarked about that morning, in the
little village of Mays Landing. Conductor Mayhew moved through the
cars, telling the excursionists what was going on to ease their minds
as a whistle signal, accompanied by the clatter of rain on wooden
roofs, sound-tracked their thoughts. Then, after sitting on the
bridge for a minute or so, the train jerked back into motion, moving
forward slowly as it eased onto the siding, pulling that last coach
onto the trestle itself while it was at it..</p>
<p align="LEFT">Several minutes before the train rolled to a stop, two
of our checker players abandoned the game, sauntered out onto
the car's rear platform, and rode into the village enjoying the breeze
and fresh air. Enjoying that fresh, rain-washed outside air just may
have been their motive for abandoning the checker game all
along...with all of the windows closed up, and numerous smokers in
the car, it was probably smoky, hot, and stuffy inside the car. The
damp breeze whipping around the rear of the car probably felt
like a little bit of paradise.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Conductor Mayhew had been making his way through the
car, punching tickets, when he saw them walk out onto the rear
platform. The conductor followed them out...sticking his head out of
the door and possibly saying something to the effect of '<i>Man</i>,
it's still coming <i>down</i> out here'...before asking for
the two mens' tickets. One of the two men...a fellow by the name of
James Sweeney...commented that he guessed this ended the Conductor's
day, and Mayhew replied that it, indeed, did before pleasantly
excusing himself and walking back into the coach. </p>
<p align="LEFT">The train was slowing, airbrakes hissing, as the
conductor walked back into the coach. The train eased to a stop, and
Sweeney stuck his head out into the rain just long enough to peer
down the side of the train before quickly retreating to the shelter
of the rear platform, water streaming down his face from his now
soaked hair. 'Looks like we're pulling into a siding', he told the
platform's other occupant, George Russel, who was leaning back
against the car's rear wall, next to the door.</p>
<p align="LEFT">'Probably waiting for another train to pass us'. Russel possibly replied, then cocked his head, obviously listening...over the rattle
of rain hitting the river, he could hear the faint, but distinct
chuffing of steam exhaust. '...In fact, I think I can hear it now...'</p>
<p align="LEFT">'That's the other half of <i>our</i> train
you're hearing'. James may have told him, stifling a chuckle and bracing
himself as the train jerked back into motion.</p>
<p align="CENTER">*</p>
<p align="LEFT">Forty-five minutes or so into the trip the rain had
slacked up enough that it wasn't the slashing downpour that it had
been when they pulled out of Atlantic city, but it was still coming
down hard enough to rattle and rumble against 627's cab roof, and
sting Ed Aitkin's eyes if he stuck his head out of the cab's picture
window to peer ahead of the locomotive.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The terrain only seventeen miles from the Atlantic was
almost as flat as a board and, according to the maps I saw, the
tracks were straight as a tight-stretched string between the village
limits and the trestle. So, had it not been raining when and if
Aitkin looked out of that cab window as they rolled into the village,
he would have probably been able to see the last car of the first
section slowly creeping forward ahead of them. He may, in
fact, have been able to see it despite the rain. But,
actually, it really didn't matter when or even <i>if</i> he
saw the first section up ahead of him, creeping slowly forward across
the trestle as the first section pulled into the passing siding.</p>
<p align="LEFT">That's because Aitkin was fully aware that the
excursion's second section also had to take the passing siding at
Mays Landing to allow the eastbound evening express train to pass, so
he <i>should</i> have been backing off of the throttle and
making gentle brake applications as he neared the village no matter
whether he could see the other train or not. But he also <i>should </i>have
been about twice as far behind the first section than he actually
was. And, well, he wasn't. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Aitkin had finally started slowing about the time he
entered the village, easing the brake handle back a bit a couple of
times, feeling the train slow...but, as it would turn out,
nowhere <i>near </i>enough. He <i>should</i> have
been rolling along at just a scosh above walking speed as he
approached the 450 foot long earthen causeway on the east side of the
river and the trestle just beyond, but instead, he was still moving
at somewhere between fifteen and twenty miles per hour as he neared
the causeway, and watched in horror as the last car of the first
section, still on the trestle itself, emerged from the rain's silvery
curtain about two football fields ahead of him.</p>
<p align="LEFT">He yanked the brake handle all the way back into
'Emergency'. Eighteen sets of wheels...seventy two separates sets of
brakes...locked up tight, wheels screaming against steel rails
as the train slid, and if it hadn't been raining they <i>still</i> may
have gotten stopped. But, of course, it <i>had</i> been
raining, hard, for a couple of hours, and the rails were wet and
slick, killing the brakes' effectiveness,</p>
<p align="LEFT">Now, steam locomotives had sand boxes mounted atop
their boilers, their purpose being to dump sand onto the rails in
front of the driving wheels to increase traction in slippery
conditions, but this sand can <i>also </i>be used to
increase braking efficiency. But to do so it has to actually be <i>used</i>.
Aitkin never touched the sand valve, so the train slid... He <i>did</i>,
however, reach above him and yank the whistle lanyard four times,
sending the whistle's shrill shriek into the rain-filled air, the
whistle's warning mixing with the screeching wheels.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Ahead of them the excursion's first section
was <i>also </i>moving, but just barely, slower than a man
could walk as Dan Cassidy eased the train into the passing siding,
and Ed Aitkin and his fireman watched with increasing dread as the
train's rear platform...with a couple of young men standing on
it...got bigger by the second.</p>
<p align="LEFT">It was an impending disaster in slow motion. The second
section's speed dropped s-l-o-w-l-y, fifteen MPH, then 12, then 10 or
so...and it didn't seem to want to slow any more. Aitkin slammed the
throttle closed, grabbed the 'Johnson Bar', as the reversing lever's
termed, and jammed it into reverse, then yanked the overhead-mounted
throttle open, feeling the locomotive vibrate as the drive wheels
pounded against the rails in reverse even as the train's momentum
shoved it forward...they were on the trestle itself now, no more than
fifty feet from the rear platform of the car ahead of them, and still
sliding at about the speed of a man jogging...</p>
<p align="LEFT">"For Gods sake, Sam,, jump for it!!!" Aitkin
yelled across the cab to his fireman, Sam Flower, before both men
leapt into the rain from opposite sides of the cab, cratering the
river's rain-hazed surface a second before locomotive 627 tore into
that last coach...</p>
<p align="CENTER">**</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiruhTlEy3kVcnr2xrKgnS_LSPLIk-QYIjqzuh3KzMiBk_ByqG93n-ikDUk9XXNQD_ZnM-7NoxOblr6PxiYSo5-jjhUjEn6rOfHYWbeWrrILZM3H4WGVcYsWRb6sC0YNxUii1LntxMSH0KhLBWmMZyLifNzJhgizsNVbEjnhNjO4gUQGrvYenHQuaCb/s1920/Screenshot%20(2828).png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1059" data-original-width="1920" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiruhTlEy3kVcnr2xrKgnS_LSPLIk-QYIjqzuh3KzMiBk_ByqG93n-ikDUk9XXNQD_ZnM-7NoxOblr6PxiYSo5-jjhUjEn6rOfHYWbeWrrILZM3H4WGVcYsWRb6sC0YNxUii1LntxMSH0KhLBWmMZyLifNzJhgizsNVbEjnhNjO4gUQGrvYenHQuaCb/w640-h354/Screenshot%20(2828).png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A satellite view of present day Mays Landing, with the crash scene and area surrounding the trestle, shown in greater detail and explained in detail below, outlined in white. The trestle...the remains of which still exist...is in the right center of the outlined area. Even though the old WJ&A tracks were pulled up nearly sixty years ago, you can still see traces of the road bed, much of which seems to have been repurposed as power line right-of-way, if you look closely enough.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6487399564596460661/5535228221357148156#" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" height="360" name="graphics7" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRwzcwljaCDpSgeqhZtNsFzobDZNAK4f5oxLJFkRFp8GsmWYMkZS9IGJi3B8VbCEelaZ5asXVf3G_wmT8WZLZ0q4yIupnHXF990QjmJCA4SXkv30F0I7xOhn1Lux4IRedOouZ_86u-QNYC23HfM1tm_OXGXB5xSW42WnXrbE0yM-JM1M3aA-R-4uqJ/w640-h360/MAys%20Landing%20Collision%20schematic.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Detail view of the area outlined in the first satellite image. The excursion train was to take the passing siding in May's Landing to allow a n eastbound express train to pass. This normally would have been a routine train movement. The passing siding was 2600 feet...just shy of a half mile...long, long enough for both sections of the excursion train to fit with a bit over 1000 feet to spare. The problem was, Ed Aitkin, the engineer of Locomotive 627, at the head end of the second section, was following the first section too closely, and possibly wasn't paying as much attention as he should have been. <br /><br />The first section stopped at the siding's eastern turn-out, the brakeman threw the switch to allow them to enter the siding, and first section engineer started easing the 16 car train into the passing siding. When they started easing onto the siding, the last several cars of the first section were on the trestle and the causeway on the west end of the trestle, but the train slowly eased into the siding until the last...16th...car was creeping across the trestle. <br /><br />This is about the time that the second section...still moving at a good 20-25mph...suddenly hove into view out of the still-pouring rain, maybe 900-1000 feet from the first section. When he saw the slowly moving coach ahead of him, Aitkin immediately threw the brakes into emergency, but he'd compounded his recklessness and inattention by possibly not setting the brake valves up correctly, and the brakes were not operating at full efficiency. (Though, all of the train's wheels <i>did</i> lock up and slide) This was compounded by the wet rails, and the train slid, slowing down far far too slowly. Aitkin reversed 627 at the last second, then he and his foreman both jumped for it, both surviving with minimal injuries.<br /><br />The last coach of the first section was still on the trestle when the now unmanned locomotive 627, still sliding at about 8mph, slow-mo slammed into the coach. The front end of the locomotive telescoped the coach by ten or twelve feet, crushing the last ten feet of the coach and ripping the roof free while sheering it's headlight and smokestack off in the process. Worse by far, when the front of the locomotive penetrated the coach, both steam cylinders were punctured, releasing high pressure jets of superheated steam into the wrecked coach. The effect on the passengers in the coach was beyond devastating.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />
</p>
<p align="CENTER">**</p>
<p align="LEFT">James Sweeney and George Russel weren't worried at
first when locomotive 627 emerged from the rain like a wraith, a few
dozen yards beyond the east end of the trestle. Likely assuming that
the train was slowing to a stop, they probably didn't even take
much notice at all until the whistle's warning split the rainy
evening air, then <i>both </i>of them snapped their heads
around to stare at the oncoming locomotive, even as the scream of
wheels sliding on rails assaulted their ears.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Russel shouted 'He's not stopping, Jim!' even as he
yanked the door open and disappeared into the coach, running hard
towards the other end of the car. Sweeney tried to follow, and we
don't know if he stumbled, or was on the wrong side of the door, of
if he just plain long ran out of time, but he was still on the rear
platform when locomotive 627, still sliding at around 8MPH, crunched
into the rear of the coach.</p>
<p align="LEFT"> The locomotive's pilot under rode the rear
platform, ripping it upwards an instant before the locomotive's full
weight splintered it...James Sweeney was still on the rear platform
when the locomotive crunched into it, he was slammed through the rear
wall when the locomotive forced itself about ten feet into the
coach, crushing and splintering it
as it went. The impact also tore the coach's roof free of the body
and #627 under-rode it, ripping it's headlight and smokestack away
and dropping the roof onto the top front of it's boiler, where it
sat, angled upwards.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The coach bunted forward as it was hit, probably
ripping the coupling between it and the next coach free, and the two
coaches very likely bumped platforms, then bounced apart. When
Sweeney's companion ran forward through the coach, he shouted a
warning, but it wasn't enough....everyone in the coach bounced back,
then lunged forward when the locomotive slammed through the coach,
with a few people who were standing pinballing off of seats and each
other before ending up in a heap on the floor. Anyone sitting in the
last three or so rows of seats, at the point of impact, was horribly
injured and possibly killed as those seats were ripped loose and
shoved together, but many of the coach's occupants came through with
just bumps and bruises...after all it wasn't a violent impact, at
least as train wrecks go.</p>
<p align="LEFT"> Unless you were sitting in those last three or so
rows of seats it was more of a slow, rough shove rather than a
crushing impact, and it's even possible that many of the passengers
in those doomed rows of seats managed to jump up and move forward,
away from the 'kill zone', before the crash. So the crash itself,
while it did cause a couple of fatalities and a serious injury or
two, wasn't the worst part of the wreck by far. It was the
immediate aftermath of the collision that turned the interior of the
coach into high-test nightmare fuel.</p>
<p align="LEFT">I don't know if it happened in the initial collision or
when the coach jolted forward then bounced back, but somehow the
front ends of <i>both</i> steam cylinders were punctured,
and both let go simultaneously with a roar that overshadowed the
drumming of the rain, sending twin high-pressure jets of superheated
steam through the length of the coach, flaying the skin off of
passengers and blowing the door on the far end of the coach open.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Agonized screams erupted from the coach as the steam
all but instantly condensed, filling the coach floor to ceiling and
wall to wall with a dense white cloud that blinded all of the
occupants even as they searched desperately for a way out of their
sudden nightmare. </p>
<p align="LEFT">A dozen or more passengers managed to find a window,
and either shove it open and pull themselves out of the coach or just
smash through the window itself and jump...already suffering horrible
burns, they probably also slashed their arms and hands severely as
they did so. The coach was still on the trestle when Locomotive 627
ripped into it, so when those passengers dived through the windows,
they dropped into the murky waters of the river below. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Several fathers of young children and infants tossed
their kids out of a window, then dived in after them, but sadly, only
one of theses children...an 18 month old baby girl...survived their
ordeal. There were several children in the coach, and sadly, most of
them, including our little 11 year old babysitter, her young charges
as well as their mom, and both halves of our 12 year old puppy-love
couple would succumb to their injuries.</p>
<p align="LEFT">All of the other passengers on both trains
knew <i>something</i> had happened...cars in the first
section jolted forward domino fashion, whipping the passengers'
heads back as each coach jumped ahead, while the excursionists
aboard the train's second section lunged forward into the seats ahead
of them as the train came to a sudden stop, injuring a few of the
second section's passengers as well, though none severely. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Occupants of the first section coaches not on the
trestle climbed down into the rain to see what had happened, many of
them making their way to the bridge by walking along the causeway
that extended out from the west bank of the river. The second section
passengers, however, were pretty much stuck.</p>
<p align="LEFT"> Keep in mind that the collision occurred on the
trestle itself, which meant that to get to the devastated coach,
those on the first section likely had to climb <i>back</i> aboard
the train and make their way through the last couple of coaches to
reach the wrecked last coach. Those aboard the second section, of
course, could walk along the causeway on <i>their</i> side
of the river to reach the trestle, but they, seemingly, really had no
good way to get to the wrecked coach or the other side of the river
because the two trains had the trestle blocked.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Most of the 1300 excursionists were milling around in
absolute confusion, many of them still aboard the trains where, at
least, it wasn't raining, but not everyone was in a state of panic or
confusion. Engineer Ed Aitkin climbed back onto the bridge, then into
627's cab, where he banked the fire and (Supposedly) closed the
throttle to reduce the pressure of the steam roaring into the coach.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Mays Landing's station master was instantly aware that
something horrible had happened, as was Dan Cassidy, in Locomotive
262's cab, along with the rest of the first section crew. One of the
first section brakemen was sent off into the rain to flag down the
east bound express before it caused an even worse disaster by plowing
into the wrecked trains, while the stationmaster was very likely
pounding out telegraph messages requesting assistance.</p>
<p align="LEFT">But the most amazing response came from the citizens of
Mays Landing itself. One of the Woods family's huge mills was located
in Mays Landing, and had just released it's work force for the day
about a half hour before the wreck. Many of the workers were just
sitting down to supper when the wreck occurred, and whether they
learned about it from hearing the crunching impact itself, or the
roar of the steam cylinders letting go, or from word of mouth as the
shouted message 'Train wreck on the bridge!!! spread through-out the
town, the men jumped up from dinner tables, and ran for the scene,
where they found a huge cloud of steam rising from the wrecked coach
and locomotive, screams emanating from the coach, and more than a
dozen people floundering around in the river.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Boats were quickly launched in the still-pounding rain
and rowed to the scene, where those in the water were pulled aboard
and brought ashore, but the injured in the wrecked coach would be a
more difficult problem. When Ed Aitkin closed 627's throttle, that
cut the steam supply to the steam cylinders, and shut down the
scalding jets blasting through the coach, but the rescuers still had
to wait until all of the steam pressure dumped to ensure that they
themselves didn't end up among the injured.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Then they had to get the injured excursionists, all of
whom were in horrible pain, out of the wreck. The wrecked coach was
still on the trestle, where the collision occurred, but at least it
was still partially intact and still on the rails, and, with the
exception of James Sweeney, none of the injured were actually
physically trapped (From what I gathered, anyway). Our early first
responders <i>still</i> had to get to them, though...and
then had to get them out of the wrecked coach and off of the train.</p>
<p>Among the very first rescuers to to make it to the wrecked coach
was Father Francis Quinn, who had been in the last car of the second
section, and who had worked his way through the train's eight cars,
trying to reassure the passengers, even as he tried to figure out
what had happened. Once he finally made it to and out of the first car, he
somehow also made his way to the wrecked coach (I have a sneaking
suspicion he hailed one of the rescue boats, climbed down into the
boat, then had it's crew row him to the trestle just below the intact
end of the car, where he climbed, or was assisted, up and in.) </p>
<p>One of the first victims he ran up on was James Sweeney, trapped
between locomotive 627's front plate and the wreckage at the rear
of the coach...all he could do was give the injured man final
absolution. James Sweeney's younger brother, who had been aboard
another first section coach, also made his way to the wrecked coach,
and found his brother at about the time Father Quinn began
praying for him...all the younger Sweeney could do was pray with him
as his heart was being ripped out.</p>
<p>Most of our make-do first responders probably had a
marginally...<i>very</i> marginally...easier time accessing the
wrecked coach. They probably used the causeway on the west side of
the river, and the first section's coaches, to access the scene,
walking down the causeway until they got to the last coach before the
trestle, climbed aboard, and made their way through the train to the
wrecked coach. Once they were finally inside the shattered coach,
they had to disentangle the injured passengers from the wreckage, and
once that was accomplished the most difficult part of the rescue
started. The injured <i>still</i> had to be carried
through the other coaches until they were off of the bridge (The
lesser injured/uninjured occupants, if there were any, also had to walk through the
intact coaches to get off of the bridge, of course). Getting the
injured excursionists off of the train <i>had</i> to have
been a long, laborious process that took at the least a couple of
hours, and their problems weren't even <i>close</i> to over
yet. </p>
<p align="LEFT">As the citizens of Mays Landing carried out this
rescue, soaking wet, rain roaring down on them, and daylight fading
fast, they realized they had yet <i>another</i> problem.
There were more people on the two trains than there were citizens of
Mays Landing. Or actually, <i>three</i> trains...a few
minutes after the collision, the eastbound express eased to a stop at
the station, bell clanging and airbrakes hissing like angry snakes.
This added several hundred <i>more</i> people to the
ongoing nightmare, but at least none of them were injured.</p>
<p align="LEFT"> What were they going to <i>do</i> with
all these people?</p>
<p align="LEFT">The railroad depot became the command post as well as a
triage center of sorts, with Father Quinn acting as the Incident
Scene Commander. He first sent groups of able-bodied
passengers, who had been milling around and adding to the confusion,
out into the village to both request more manpower and a laundry-list
of supplies, such as flour (Used on burns back in that era) bandages
and lanterns. He then had the injured, after being removed from the
wrecked coach, brought to the station, where they were made as
comfortable as possible as the townspeople began formulating a plan
to care for them. There were a couple of taverns/inns in town whose
owners quickly agreed to take some of the injured, but to show the
true nature of the town's citizens, almost every family in town also
agreed to house several of the injured excursionists.</p>
<p align="LEFT">While this was going on Quinn had the stationmaster
pound out messages to the WJ&A offices in Camden, the Mayor's
office in Philadelphia, and St. Anne's, both to advise them of the
wreck, and request assistance. He requested transportation to Philly
for the injured, calling for at least 30 ambulances, 35 stretchers,
and police assistance at the station in Camden, as well, I'm sure, as
asking that a ferry be held, with steam up, to get them across to
Philadelphia.</p>
<p align="LEFT">An emergency request for doctors and all other
assistance that could be rounded up, was also sent to Atlantic City,
advising them of the wreck as well as the number and nature of
injuries. Atlantic City was only 17 miles away...they should have had some medical personnel there within an hour or
so. <i>Should </i>have<i>. </i>Unfortunately it didn't happen that
way. </p>
<p align="LEFT">And they absolutely needed some more help. Out of the
thirteen hundred excursionists, there was only one doctor...Dr.
Edward Reichart, from Philadelphia...on board. He started doing what
he could for the injured, and was quickly joined by local doctors
Denman Ingersoll and Charles Gill, but the three of them were all but
instantly overwhelmed both by the number of injured patients, and the
severity of the injuries they were facing. These
were <i>horrible</i> injuries. Full thickness third degree
burns covering well over fifty percent of the patients' bodies along
with severe respiratory tract burns from inhaling superheated steam. Many of these injuries wouldn't have been survivable <i>today</i> much
less 140 years ago.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The patients were made as comfortable as possible as
telegraph keys were pounded, messages flying across the wires,
devising a plan to get the worst injured patients to Pennsylvania
Hospital in Philadelphia as quickly as possible, our make-shift first responders all the while
listening, and casting glances eastward, looking and waiting in vain for help
from Atlantic City. A rescue train wouldn't arrive from Atlantic
City for nearly three hours. Ultimately, it would be revealed that
the powers that be in Atlantic City hadn't taken the request
seriously until literally <i>hours</i> after it was made,
probably after they received more detailed news of the wreck.</p>
<p>At least, by the time the plan to transport the patients was set
in motion the rain had finally slacked up a bit, though I don't think
it had quite stopped. The game plan was pretty straight forward, but
was going to take some shuffling. First, thirty or so of the very
worst injured patients were loaded on the last three cars of the
express train. As they were being loaded, Locomotive 262 was cut
loose from the excursion train, and Dan Cassidy eased the throttle
open, rolling towards the far end of the passing siding, where a
brakeman set the turnout to let him enter the main line. Once the
locomotive was out on the main line, the turnout was reset and
Cassidy backed down to the express train, coupling 262 to the express train's last car, which would now become
the 'hospital train's' first coach. Then the three makeshift hospital
cars were cut from the express train, and Cassidy reversed the
process, pulling those cars down the main line, then backing into and
down the passing siding until he coupled those three cars to the
first coach of the excursion train's first section.</p>
<p align="LEFT">While all of this train shifting was going on the
lesser injured and uninjured excursionists...or at least as many of
them as possible...made their way to the first section's fifteen
intact cars and climbed back aboard. The way I understand it, most of
the first section's passengers, and a fair number of the stranded
second section passengers...at least the ones who, somehow, found a
way to get across the river...squeezed aboard the train. That
homebound trip would be one crowded, uncomfortable, and grim hour and
a quarter or so train ride.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The last person to pull himself aboard one of the three
makeshift hospital cars was Father Quinn, who would accompany the
thirty critically injured patients to Camden. He moved from car to
car, comforting the patients as best as he could...</p>
<p align="LEFT">...And you'd think that Dan Cassidy would have given
two blasts on the whistle, and pulled out, and they would've been on
their way to Camden...but no. Someone had to try to throw a wrench
into the gears. Mill manager George Oatley suddenly appeared on the
scene, and informed everyone that the train could <i>not</i> leave
yet because all of the requirements of the laws of New Jersey and
Pennsylvania RE: Records of death: had not been complied with. </p>
<p align="LEFT">It wasn't made clear just whose attention Oatley
brought this to, or just exactly how he thought he was going to
single handedly stop a train short of either standing in the middle
of the track (Where he could easily be removed) or padlocking the
throw for the turnout (That's what bolt cutters are for...and yes,
bolt cutters existed back then) or even just how long of a delay he
caused, but I also have a feeling that he was, not at all politely,
told to get the hell outa the way. At around 11:30 on that wet,
tragic evening, Dan Cassidy gave 262's whistle those two delayed
blasts and pulled off, easing back out onto the main line. His
brakeman threw the turnout as the last car click-clacked onto the
main line, then, in a maneuver that was so practiced it was all but
natural, pulled himself onto the last car's rear platform, then
leaned around the side of the coach and waved a lantern to give Dan
Cassidy the highball sign, letting him know he could open up the
throttle and roll. </p>
<p align="LEFT">The collision's worst injured victims
were...finally...on the way home.</p>
<p align="LEFT">That had to have been one long, <i>long</i> hour
and fifteen minute or so ride. Father Quinn and very likely Dr.
Reichart did what they could for the patients, but they just didn't
have the resources available to treat such horrific burn injuries
back then. All they could do was provide as much comfort as possible,
while listening to the wails and moans of pain, overlaid by the
clicking of wheels across rail joints. Again, it was a <i>long</i> ride
home.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The train pulled into Camden sometime between 12:30 and
12:45AM, and Camden's Chief of Police had taken all of the
precautions requested by Father Quin to heart, plus a couple he added
on his own. Horse drawn ambulances were queued up to receive
patients, and dozens of police officers were guarding the platform to
prevent anyone from interfering with the transfer of patients. </p>
<p align="LEFT">At the nearby ferry terminal, at least two and possibly
three boats had been dedicated to the task of transporting the
injured and the rest of the excursionists across to Philadelphia. The
way this process was handled was exactly backwards from what you'd
think, BTW...first the hundreds of lesser injured and uninjured
excursionists were escorted to one of the boats, where they walked
aboard, crowding the vehicle deck and lining the rails as the
paddlewheels began thrashing the water and the boat pulled out of the
slip.</p>
<p align="LEFT">As the uninjured were making their way aboard their
ferry, stretcher-bearers entered the three hospital cars, which had
their shades drawn to prevent curious gawkers from staring in at the
patients, gingerly loaded the patients onto the folding canvas
stretchers of the era, and equally gently transferred them to the
ambulances, whose drivers reined their horses into action for the two
hundred or so yard trip to the ferry landing. The ambulances were
then loaded onto their own ferry (Or maybe a couple of ferries) for
the ten minute trip across the Delaware River. Once they were in
Philly, the patients were transported to Pennsylvania Hospital, on
Pine Street near 8th Street, all of the ambulances, rolling along in
convoy, arriving at the hospital within minutes of each other. </p>
<p align="LEFT">Keep in mind here that this was <i>long</i> before
actual 'Emergency Rooms', emergency medicine, and definitive trauma
care were even thought of...Pennsylvania Hospital wouldn't
even <i>have</i> an E.R. until 1942...and on top on that
many of the 'pre-hospital' and in-house treatments for severe burns
actually made the problem worse (We'll take a look at this in
'Notes'). Sadly most of these patients would pass away with-in a
couple of days.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Also at the Philadelphia ferry terminal on Market
Street, hundreds of worried relatives and friends of the
excursionists were waiting for the ferries to dock. They hadn't
received news of the wreck until midnight, or possibly shortly
before, but they knew <i>something</i> was
wrong..<i>.bad</i> wrong... because the train was
hours overdue. The trip from Atlantic City to Camden shouldn't
have taken longer than two hours, at the most, then another thirty
minutes or so to get everyone on a ferry or two and across the
Delaware. Everyone should have been home, recounting the days
adventures, by 9PM.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Then a group had possibly gone to the ferry terminal
(Or maybe even crossed to Camden, and gone to the train station) and
found out about the wreck, learning only that there had been
injuries,. The news was brought back to the neighborhood, and spread
like wildfire.</p>
<p align="LEFT">A contingent of Philadelphia cops had barred them from
crossing to Camden, to keep the train from being mobbed by
well-meaning relatives, but now these same frantic relatives probably
mobbed the first ferry when it docked, making unloading even more
difficult as people searched for loved ones and held them in tight
embraces if they found them...or keened in grief and worry if they
didn't.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Meanwhile the ferry with the ambulances aboard docked
and the horse drawn ambos rolled off, guarded by even more cops, and
rolled in convoy the mile or so to Pennsylvania Hospital...ultimately
the crowds at the hospital would grow so large that the police would
have to post guards there as well. In scenes repeated after accidents
to this very day, relatives of the injured kept a vigil at the
hospital, waiting for word of their loved ones condition, and
hopefully, improvement. Sadly, as I noted above, most of the burn
patients would die within a day or so.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Back in Mays Landing, the investigation was already in
progress (As was the WJ&A's effort to get the track back open.).
By 7AM the morning after the wreck...Thursday the 12th... a crew and
locomotive or two were on hand to tow both the damaged coach, and
Locomotive 627 back to the road's shops in Camden. This same eastbound work train very likely transported Father Quinn, along with a pair of
doctors and six nurses, back to Mays Landing to see to the transport
of several more severely burned patients, but when they got back to
the scene, they were met with the sad news that all of these
patients...most of them kids...had passed away over night. With his
heart feeling like it was made of solid lead, Father Quinn started
arranging for both the transport of the bodies, and the transport of
those excursionists who hadn't been able to find room on the first
section the night before. </p>
<p align="LEFT">I have a sneaking suspicion that getting the uninjured
but stranded excursionists home wasn't really a problem. Once the
wrecked coach and damaged Locomotive 627 were towed out of the way,
another locomotive probably coupled to the second section's eight
coaches and pulled them to the station platform, where the stranded
excursionists boarded and finally continued their trip home. </p>
<p align="LEFT">The deceased victims' trip home, however, would be
delayed.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The reason for the delay was the coroner's inquest.
Local physician Dr Theopolis H Boylsen kicked the process of
convening the inquest into gear. The bodies of the deceased were
moved to a local funeral home, where they were laid out on ice
blocks...except for one. The badly mangled body of James Sweeney was
laid out on the floor of a room in Atlantic County's
courthouse...Mays Landing was, and still is, the seat of Atlantic
County. Ten local citizens were seated on the jury, and the
inquest...the first of three...was to be convened at the courthouse
at 1PM.</p>
<p align="LEFT">While this macabre and morbid display was being set up,
warrants were drawn up accusing both second section engineer Ed
Aitkin and conductor Hoagland with 'Carelessness Resulting In Murder'
(What would be known today as manslaughter). Constables were
sent to the scene, warrants in hand for both men,. The warrants
were served to them, and both of them were taken into custody to be
held on a $1000 bond ($30,000 in 2022 dollars). </p>
<p align="LEFT">The rain had, finally, stopped sometime over-night and,
as the appointed hour approached, jurors and accused alike made their
way through the inevitable humidity of a mid August Jersey Shore
morning and gathered, not at at the Atlantic County courthouse as you
might think, but at the home and law office of prominent attorney
J.E.P. Abbot, who was defending Aitkin and Hoagland</p>
<p align="LEFT"> Testimony was heard concerning the weather and
it's effects (Rain, poor visibility, and wet, slippery rails), the
lay of the track approaching the scene (Flat and straight as a string
all the way in from the village limits), just how fast the train's
second section was running (<i>Too</i> fast) and how long Aitkin
had waited after the first section departed Atlantic City before
pulling out himself (Anywhere from thirty seconds to, according to
Aitkin, the mandated ten minutes...both highly improbable) and,
possibly most importantly, Aitkin's actions immediately prior to the
collision, and the performance of the train's airbrakes.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Aitkin became very emotional in his testimony, breaking
into tears and testifying that he had done everything in his power to
prevent the crash (Except maybe follow railroad rules and
policies...). Then, at around 2PM, the jurors made a tour of the
funeral home and the courthouse to view the deceased. After this
macabre tour, they returned to Abbot's house and began deliberations,
which would continue until the following afternoon, which would, somewhat ironically, be Friday the 13th.</p>
<p align="LEFT"> Several of the jurors felt that criminal charges
weren't warranted, and they convinced their fellow jurors to return a
verdict of Death By Accident, and all criminal charges were dropped.
(There's a plot twist coming here, BTW...). </p>
<p align="LEFT">The inquest was adjourned at around 4:45 on that Friday
afternoon, and by 5:20, Aitkin and Hoagland were celebrating their
acquittal over dinner in the dining room of the Union Hotel...where
three of the injured passengers were resting in agony. (They,
thankfully, would survive)</p>
<p align="LEFT">The bodies of the five deceased were released to their
families and were loaded onto a baggage car and transported back to
Camden on the 5:20 train, which pulled out of the station even as
Aitkin and Hoagland celebrated their acquittal. The two of them
likely caught a later train back home.</p>
<p align="LEFT">Thing is, it wasn't over yet.</p>
<p align="LEFT">On August 21st, ten days after the wreck, a second
inquest was held in Camden that went into a bit more detail about the
airbrakes and their function, as well as Aitkin's actions. Several
people, from Aitkin himself and his fireman Sam Flowers to the
train's brakemen, testified that the brakes had been tested and found
to be working properly and had been applied in full emergency just
before they hit, and the locomotive had been reversed to try and get
them stopped as well. It was also stated that if they had had another
hundred or so feet they <i>may </i>have gotten stopped, or
at least slowed to the point that the impact would have been
inconsequential.</p>
<p align="LEFT">It was also during the second inquest that
Aitkin...just as emotional and remorseful as he'd been during his
testimony at the first inquest...dropped a bombshell. He admitted
that he may have mishandled the brakes. From what I could gather,
Locomotive 627 had a newer version of Westinghouse's airbrake system
that he wasn't familiar with. And apparently Aitkin either hadn't
allowed it to build up sufficient working pressure, or hadn't opened
one of the air cocks all the way, but at any rate, the brakes may not
have been getting full pressure. Then again, the wheels were locked
and the train was sliding...</p>
<p align="LEFT">One of the WJ&A officials surmised that the brakes
had been tampered with, but could give no further evidence that any tampering had actually happened, or just exactly how or why such
sabotage could have occurred, and besides, Aitkin's testimony was
more plausible. Only problem was, Aitkin's testimony also opened the
WJ&A up to some pretty serious liability. This testimony also
devastated Ed Aitkin...he was so emotional at the conclusion of his
testimony that he had to be helped from the room.</p>
<p align="LEFT">The jury convened and pondered over the evidence that
they had heard, and returned a verdict, again, of death by accident,
noting the weather, Aitkin's lack of experience with the newer
Westinghouse Automatic brake, and the very probable insufficient
distance between the two sections when the reached Mays Landing as
probable contributing factors. Aitkin, once again, somehow dodged a
bullet.</p>
<p align="LEFT">While the jury apparently <i>did</i> find
that the accident was caused by a certain level of negligence with
some mitigating factors, they also found that this negligence didn't
reach the level of <i>criminal</i> negligence, and once
again, Aitkin was judged to be innocent...criminally at any rate. And
he <i>still</i> wasn't off the hook. (...And that plot
twist continues to develop...)</p>
<p align="LEFT">A <i>third</i> inquest was held in
Philadelphia, though no date was given for inquest #3. These jurors
also journeyed to Jersey City, where the wrecked coach and the
damaged Locomotive 627 had both been taken, to give both a thorough
inspection, and to allow witnesses for both sides to better
illustrate certain points.</p>
<p align="LEFT">One of these points was 627's throttle. During
testimony, the WJ&A's chief mechanic noted that the locomotive's
throttle was still wide open when the wrecked locomotive was pulled
to the shop (Despite the fact that Aitkin supposedly closed it after
climbing back aboard at the scene). He noted that, if Ed Aitken had
slammed the throttle closed before he jumped, there would have been
no long, devastating blast of high pressure, super-heated steam.
Instead, if the throttle had been closed when the steam cylinders were ruptured there would have been one very
quick burst of steam, then nothing, which would have prevented most,
if not all, of the horrendous burn injures from happening. But,
with the throttle open, all of the steam in the boiler was allowed to
blast out of the ruptured cylinders, and rip through the wrecked
coach, with the devastating results that did occur.</p>
<p>Even with this additional information, the jurors reached the same
conclusion that had been drawn in the two previous inquests...the
deaths were the result of an unfortunate accident, and Aitkin and
Hoagland bore none of the blame...or at least not enough to be
criminally charged. All charges were dropped against the two men, and
they were free to go.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The WJ&A's assistant trainmaster probably helped their case immensely when he testified that
the airbrakes absolutely <i>had</i> to have been tampered
with, though no physical evidence of tampering was found. In fact,
there was all but conclusive evidence that the brakes <i>hadn't</i> been
tampered with...though it wasn't stated specifically anywhere, when
the coaches of the second section were removed from the scene,
probably with the stranded excursionists aboard...well that's just
it. They were removed, very likely to the line's HQ in Camden,
without incident and with those same allegedly tampered with
airbrakes apparently working perfectly.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Me thinks that the rail line's
honchos were desperately trying to divert the three juries...and the
public's...attention from the fact that Aitkin was likely both going
too fast and following the first section too closely. And they were
apparently able to do <i>just</i> that. More on just <i>how </i>they managed this a little further down.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Meanwhile, as the inquests and hearings
dragged on, St Anne's and the rest of the churches whose parishioners
had been aboard the ill-fated coach buried their dead. There were
thirty fatalities, the majority of whom died at Pennsylvania Hospital
over the two or three days immediately following the wreck. Sadly,
the majority of these deaths were young people, several of them
children.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The first of the thirty funerals was
that of four year old Freddy Carr, whose parents were still patients
at Pennsylvania Hospital...funeral arrangements were made by a
neighbor.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The funerals were held over the course
of several days, and several of them were double funerals...Husband
and wife or mother and child. Making it worse for several of the
families, some of the deceased had been too badly injured to
transport, and had died in Mays Landing, meaning that they had to
first arrange (And pay for) transport of the body to Philadelphia
before a proper wake and burial could take place.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Keep in mind that almost <i>all </i>of
the deceased were of Irish descent, and interment of their loved ones
involved very elaborate traditions, and this extra delay weighed
heavily on the survivors. (We'll take a look at this in 'Notes').</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Many of the funerals were particularly
elaborate affairs that were attended by huge crowds, especially the
funerals of the children who died in the crash. Nearly two dozen
funerals took place over the weekend after the crash, with several
more the following week, burials taking place in several different
cemeteries in both Philadelphia and Camden.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Sadly, their headstones are their only
memorial...while the deaths and funerals were covered pretty well by
the local press, once the inquests were over with and the mourners
had left the cemeteries, the state of New Jersey washed their hands
of the wreck, and tossed the towels in the trash. There isn't even a
memorial at St Anne's, which is still an active church and parish in
Philadelphia. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Generally in such a tragic accident,
especially when children are the victims, the local papers cover the
funerals extensively, and while there were obituary's of the deceased
and some decent coverage of the funerals in the Philly papers, for the most part
coverage of both the wreck and the funerals by newspapers in New
Jersey was all but nonexistent.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This lack of reporting of the wreck was
pretty much a New Jersey <i>only</i> phenomenon, BTW.
Thanks to the telegraph and wire services, news of the wreck spread
quickly, and widely, with front page articles about the wreck
appearing in hundreds of papers nationwide a day or so after it
occurred. A few...<i>very </i>few...New Jersey
papers carried the story, while papers as far away as San Francisco
not only reported the crash, but did so in great detail.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">One thing that the Wood family had
going strongly in their favor was their uber-strong ties with the N.J. business
community. They handily controlled the release of information about
the wreck, as well as rushing the news cycle so the few stories that
were published about the crash disappeared from the papers quickly.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This allowed them to all but quash
coverage of the wreck with-in The Garden State. Their hope, of
course, was that the story would drop out of the public's view in a
day or so, a tactic that apparently worked.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And it gets better...remember that
whole 'The deaths were due to unfortunate accident' deal, with no
fault being found? It turns out that all of the members of that first jury were connected with the cotton mill in Mays Landing, which was
owned by Richard Wood, who also had controlling interest in the WJ&A,
a railroad whose head honchos were pretty sure that their guy had
screwed up royally, and were trying desperately to avoid multiple
lawsuits.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The WJ&A was actually
fairly...though not completely... successful in avoiding litigation,
and me thinks that this near direct connection from major railroad
stockholder to jurors who also happened to be employees of the mill
he also owned just might have had something to do with it. We'll take
a look at how the road fared a few paragraphs down, but, spoiler
alert, it could have been far worse than it was.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">These weren't the only shenanigans that
the WJ&A brass pulled to divert blame, BTW. On top of somehow cajoling what were
essentially three 'Not Guilty' verdicts from the juries in the three inquests, the
WJ&A brass had also managed to hide a good little bit of inflammatory
information from both the juries and the officials conducting the inquests. These are a few of the key points that, somehow, failed to
come to the attention of the Coroners Juries:</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">*In the weeks before the wreck, two WJ&A
trains had derailed due to faulty track alignment. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">*There were too few coaches for
the number of passengers on the excursion, meaning that that fatal
last coach, which had somewhere around 70 passengers stuffed inside,
was grossly over crowded. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">*The Pennsylvania Railroad, who
oversaw WJ&A operations, decided to run the train in two
sections, despite the fact that two trains running fairly close to
each other could potentially result in, well, exactly what happened.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">None of these items were known to any
of the three coroners juries. It probably wouldn't have mattered to
the first one anyway, but what of the other two? I couldn't
find out a whole lot about the make-up of those two groups, but I
have a sneaking suspicion that, if you could go back in time and be a
fly on the wall as the jurors were selected, you'd find that several
of them had some connection with either the railroad itself, or the
Wood family. Barring that...and this is just a suspicion, and one
that really wasn't directly covered in any of my sources...a few
palms very well may have been greased (With said expense, no doubt,
written off as a 'Operating Expense' in the company ledgers.).</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">All of this in hopes of reducing, or
even eliminating the amount awarded to the plaintiffs in any
lawsuits. And they were almost...<i>almost</i>...successful.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Oh, the road settled with the families
of the victims...by the time the third inquest, in Philadelphia, was
called to order, sixteen families had retained lawyers and filed
suit. But, with the road being found blameless not once,
but <i>three </i>times, those same lawyers didn't have a
whole lot of ammo to fire back with.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The settlements amounted to $500 per
claim, or just shy of $14,500 in todays money, for a total settlement
of around $8,000, or about $230,000 in 2022 dollars, total. There
were several other suits over the next couple of months, and all
claims were settled by the end of February of 1881, for a total of
$82,500 or $2,400,000 in 2022 dollars. <i>Far</i> less,
even in that more conservative litigative era, than they would have
paid out had the WJ&A been found to be at fault. Had the line
been found to be at fault (As, less face it, it
absolutely <i>should</i> have been) that total payment
could well have been the settlement <i>per person</i>, which
would have bankrupted the railroad.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Needless to say, the lawsuits weren't
covered by the papers, and with the lawsuits settled, the wrecked
coach scrapped, and the damaged locomotive 627 repaired and put back
in service, the WJ&A brass achieved their goal...the wreck faded
away into the mists of memory, all but ignored by the New Jersey news
media.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The lack of in-state coverage of the
wreck continued long after the last of theses lawsuits were settled,
and extended to official documentation. Each year during that era,
the State of New Jersey published an extensive and exhaustive report
on rail and canal activities occurring during the previous year, to
include major accidents. Wanna guess which accident doesn't appear in
the report covering 1880?</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">That lack of documentation continues to
this very day...there is no official mention, or, indeed, <i>any</i> mention
of the wreck in <i>any</i> state document covering rail
accidents. Anywhere.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">St Anne's, in Philadelphia, still exists, both as a parish and a church, and was the home church for most if not all of the victims of the wreck, so you'd think there would be some kind of remembrance or memorial to them. Sadly, though, there is no mention what so ever of the victims of the wreck, anywhere. No memorial plaque, no memorial remembrance on or near the anniversary of the wreck, not even a quick mention in the church bulletin on the Sunday Morning of the wreck's anniversary week.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I can't help but think that the Bishop...uncle of Richard Wood...kicked this lack of remembrance off 140 years ago at the behest of his nephew by insisting that no permanent memorial of any kind, nor any mention of the wreck or victims be made. Can't have anyone be reminded of the wreck, can we? </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The private sector even got involved...Railroad historical groups are generally
the Go-To place for <i>any</i> old-railroad documents and
lore, but you won't find <i>any</i> written documentation
on the wreck preserved by any of the New Jersey chapters of the
various groups dedicated to preserving railroad history, to include:</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The National Railroad Historical
Society, in Moorestown, N.J.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The West Jersey Chapter of the NHRS, in
Palmyra, N.J.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Even the Railroad Museum of
Pennsylvania, in Strasburg fails to mention the wreck.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Somehow, the State of New Jersey
almost...<i>almost</i>...managed to wipe any memory of the wreck out
of existence. The one thing they <i>couldn't</i> get
rid of is the relatives of the dead and injured, who well remembered
the wreck, and even after the last of them passed away, records of
those who were patients at Pennsylvania Hospital still exist.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The building that these patients were
transported to, in fact, still exists, and is an integral part of the now huge teaching hospital's campus at 800 Spruce Street, in Philadelphia. The original hospital building is now registered as a historic
landmark, and is partially preserved as a museum, and patient records
dating even earlier than 1880 are available for study. The records for the thirty patients who were transported from the ferry landing to the hospital at nearly 1AM that long ago morning are, indeed, still extant and available for study.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Railroading buffs...known as
railfans...are an ardent fanbase, with many of their number being
legitimately expert historians, and while their organizations may not
have preserved any records of the wreck, the railfans themselves have
helped keep memory of the wreck alive.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We can also thank such organizations as
the Hamilton Historical Society for preserving the memory of the
wreck, as well as Author Mari D'Albora Dattolo, whose awesome book
about the wreck provided the bulk of my research for this post.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But the biggest physical reminder of
the wreck is the trestle...it's still there, or at least it's remains
are. The WJ&A became part of the West Jersey and Seashore
in 1896 (Like the WJ&A, a division of the Pennsylvania Railroad)
and most of that line ceased operations in 1930. I believe the old
WJ&A tracks became a spur of the Pennsylvania Railroad and
remained in operation when the rest of the West Jersey line shut
down. Thanks to this, trains rumbled through Mays Landing for another
thirty-six years... eighty-six years after the wreck...before the spur
from Camden to Atlantic City shut down for good in 1966. It was one
of the last remnants of the old West Jersey to cease operations.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The tracks were pulled up shortly
after, but the trestle remained, slowly deteriorating, still
connecting the two now trackless causeways. The causeways are now
narrow, forested peninsulas, with well-maintained paths leading out
to the remains of the trestle. You can get to it off of Reliance Ave
on the river's west side...a block or so from Mays' Landing's fire
station, which sits astride the former track bed and
footprint of the old train station...and off of the end of Taylor Ave
on the east end, hard by Mays Landing's long dormant 'New' train
station.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Now citizens of the village, and
visitors alike can make their way up the paths to the old trestle,
and likely often do. Seems like it would be
an awesome place to go to enjoy fall leaves or a warm spring
afternoon, a perfect twilight rendezvous point for teen or young
adult sweethearts, and a peaceful venue for a picnic or to just sit
and read, or reflect.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Far different from the scene on that
old trestle on a rainy August night 140 years ago.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6487399564596460661/5535228221357148156#" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" height="426" name="graphics8" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyKxpV2fz7CfrDuhEM-R3tlpeSgN5CbmWMBEB2g_Oa5G5-yrcdjTMH2tV58stukDZMXxKGUddoxBpSWtjhBpAk_5HgjBNrQR2UGIEhmTRcrB9TcWlj1T5-wBRu54IwSQSrtI8-om27g2Lo7JwNZ4yT9q0tOiFuL6p8hPqH93pj6txgkpgMibWloihV/w640-h426/2010020308454027046.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The former West Jersey & Atlantic/PRR railroad trestle over the Greater Egg Harbor River in Mays Landing, still standing after 140 years</span></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">**</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The Victims Of The
Wreck</b></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Henry Bender (23)
Freddy Carr (4)
Sarah Collins (23)</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">John Develin (25)
Charles Frost (28)
William Frost( UNK)</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Mary Gallagher (24)
Will Gallagher (25) Annie Gillespie
(12) </p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Elizabeth Grace
(UNK) Lavina Grace (16) Lillie Grace
(19)</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Mary Green (17)
Mary Henratty (22)
Patrick McBride (24) </p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Margarette.
McCrystal (27) Margaret. McCrystal (20 mos.) Catherine
McCrystal (4 mos.) </p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Henry McCain
(26) Joseph McGovern (12)
Thomas McGrath (40)</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Kate Murphy (22)
Rose Murphy (19) Mary McDonald (UNK) </p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Ellen
Shields (24) James Sweeney (20) <span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Katie
Walsh (11)
Owen Walsh (18)</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Emma Wright (35)
Sarah Wright (19)</p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Katie Walsh was Margarette
McCrystal's niece, and was helping her by babysitting the two
McCrystal children, Catherine and Margaret. </p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Margarette McCrystal was
the McCrystal childrens' mom.</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Annie Gillespie and Joseph
McGovern were our little puppy-love couple.</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Emma Wright and Sarah
Wright were mother and daughter, as were Elizabeth and Lavina Grace.</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Rose and Kate Murphy were
sisters.</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Will and Mary Gallagher
had just been married.</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><***></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><***> Notes, Links, and
Stuff <***></b></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Every once in a while, when I start working on a post just <i>knowing</i> that the research is going to drive me straight up the wall, it'll turn around and surprise me. Make that <i>pleasantly</i> surprise me<i>. </i>This ended up being one of those posts.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Even so, there were a whole <i>slew</i> of reasons why I initially though this one was going to be an absolute <i>beast </i>to
research...three biggies in particular. Let's call 'em Strikes 1, 2,
and 3.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> The lack of a Wiki
page was my very first clue that there might not be much info about
the wreck on the inter-webs. Normally, if you plug something into the
ol' Google machine, that topic's Wikipedia page is not only on the
first page of search results, it'll usually be among the very first
two or three search results that appear on that first page. Lack of
said Wiki page is, generally, <i>not</i> a good sign. This
was Strike 1.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Then there was the fact that
the wreck happened 142 years ago. Unless one of these long-ago
incidents is particularly famous or even infamous, occurring nearly a
century and a half in the past is often Strike 2 in the research ball
game. Everyone with first and even second hand knowledge about the incident passed
away long ago, the incident isn't at all well known...or, sometimes,
even known of at all...to the current generation, the incident's
on-line presence is as barren as the middle of a desert, and any
ancient archived type-written or even hand-written hard-copy records
and reports are very likely <i>long</i> gone, having
probably been disposed of to make room for newer records long
before we were even born. Meaning that, sadly, those records had been
gone for literally decades by the time a modern researcher went
looking for them, and searching for them...or, indeed, <i>any </i>info about the incident...on-line won't yield anything
but eye-strain. Again...Strike 2.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Then we have what should
have been Strike 3, at least for this particular post...the cover-up.
Not only was information about the wreck suppressed in the New Jersey
papers by the railroad's owners, the State of New Jersey also
suppressed info by not recording anything about the wreck
in <i>any</i> official records or documents (A dearth of
official documentation about the wreck that continues to this very
day). Which could have very well meant that any recorded information
about the wreck, well, wasn't. Recorded that is. Meaning that it may
have never existed in the first place. Copies of the State Canal and
Railroad record for 1880 still exist, and researchers with far better
resources that I have searched through those ancient records at
length. Trust me, and more importantly, <i>them</i>, there is no
record of the wreck there. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So, by all rights, this
really <i>should</i> have been one of the posts that, at
best, I had very few actual facts to work with, leading
to <i>lots</i> of guessing and speculating, and at
worse, one of the ones I ended up abandoning entirely for lack of
usable information. There have been a couple of those...incidents
that would have made for excellent Blog material...interesting and
unusual if tragic....except for the fact that the only information I
could find about them was that they happened. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The Mays Landing wreck was
beginning to show all of the earmarks of being one of those posts
that's either almost all speculation, backed up by precious few facts
(I <i>hate</i> writing one of those) or, even worse, the
next possible blog post that I had to abandon, and
probably <i>would</i> have been one or the other had it not
been for a bit of extremely good luck early in the ball-game.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> We're talking, to
continue my baseball analogy,
A-Pair-Of-Home-Runs-With-The-Bases-Loaded level good luck. And that
good luck came in the form of a couple of links on that first page of
search results, right where the link for the missing Wiki page
usually resides.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">These links led to a
couple of online articles posted by the Hamilton Historical Society
(Mays Landing is actually part of the larger Hamilton Township).
These articles were chock full of useful and interesting facts and
info about the wreck, and would have gotten me off to a good start on
this post all by themselves...But then I noticed that one of the
links was, apparently, an excerpt from a book. Hmmm..</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Hamilton Township boasts a
very active Historical Society whose members are confirmed history
nuts in the best possible way, and better yet, are passionate about
the history of their own community. And one of their members is an
author,. A very <i>very</i> talented author, who is
apparently also a very <i>very</i> meticulous researcher.
And she wrote a book. About the wreck. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Could I have actually
been <i>that</i> lucky? A comprehensive book about the
wreck? That I found <i>before</i> I actually started
writing the post??</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Yes...Yes I could!
That book is <i>'Between The Shore and The City-Tragedy At Mays
Landing</i>, and the very <i>very </i>talented author-lady
who researched and wrote it is one Mari D'Albora Dattolo.
Her excellent book covered not only the wreck itself, but the
investigation, the cover-up, and the aftermath. And it was (And still
is) available, for not a lot of money, on Amazon.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Needless to say, I clicked
'Buy Now' in something under two seconds flat. Ms Dattolo's extremely
well researched and well written book ended up providing the bulk of
my own research material.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Ms. Dattolo also included a
fictionalized account of how several of the tragic occupants of the
wrecked coach spent the last hours of their life...and here I had to
be careful because I absolutely could not use any of that part of the
book. I know how I'd feel if parts of one of my own posts turned up
on another blog post, and the author of that post claimed <i>my</i> words
as his own. 'Incensed' would be a mild term for it. <i>Any </i>author,
from Steven King to a middle-schooler whose A+ earning book report's
turned in by another student, would feel that way. So I <i>really</i> try
to avoid committing plagiarism, meaning I could use
absolutely <i>none </i>of that portion of the book, and had
to be careful even referencing it. So I very <i>very</i> carefully
sort of stepped around it...</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What I <i>did</i> do
is what I <i>usually </i>do...write it as I thought it may
have happened. Of course, this means I had to do my usual good
bit of speculating, but Ms. Datollo's book aimed that speculation in the right direction, so I at least I wasn't 'flying blind'. As I've noted before, trying to put myself on
scene, visualizing just who and what did what when makes these posts
more fun to write, and hopefully, more fun and interesting to read.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...I don't <i>ever</i> want
any of my posts to be just dry. history-class-like recitals of facts
and figures.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There are still unanswered questions about this one, of course...the wreck not only happened over 140 years ago, information was actively
suppressed, so some of those questions will likely go unanswered. Thanks to Ms. Dattolo's
book, however, there are a lot of now-<i>answered</i> questions about the
wreck. I'm really glad she wrote it, and not just because
it made researching this blog post a breeze. It also helped preserve
the history of this tragic, interesting, and unusual wreck and
memorialized the victims of the tragedy.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Hopefully this post will
also go at least a little ways in helping help keep the wreck, and
the names of the victims, from being forgotten.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">On to the Notes...and
Links...And stuff!</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><***></b></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Back in about 1967, when we still lived in Boykins, Va, a family friend from Glens Falls,
NY and his own family spent a week in Nags Head, N.C with us...a trip
that would go on to become a yearly ritual for at least half a decade
or so. I remember, as we were loading up the cars and getting ready
to go, asking his daughter Pammy, who was a couple of years younger
than my worldly and knowledgeable 10 years of age, why she said that
we were going to 'The Shore' , because, well, we <i>weren't</i>,
at least as far as I was concerned. To me 'The Shore' meant The
Eastern Shore of Virginia, home to my Dad's side of the family. We'd
be heading in the exact opposite direction to go to Nags
Head...to 'The Beach!'.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So I corrected Pammy,
telling her we were <i>not</i> going to the Eastern Shore,
we were going to Nags Head. Pammy then brought this to her dad's
attention. Her dad, Phil, then explained to me that up in their part of
the world, when they went to the beach, it was usually to The Jersey
Shore, shortened to the iconic 'The Shore', and therefore, any time
they went to 'The Beach', wherever that beach might be, it was 'The
Shore' to them.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> I remember thinking
this must just be one of those peculiarities of those unfortunate
individuals who lived north of the Mason-Dixon line...Hey, I was
ten...but Phil, of course, was absolutely right.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So, lets get this straight
and clear...If you are in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or New York, and
you are bound for one of those sandy resort places where the ocean
meets dry land, you are, indeed, bound for 'The Shore'...whether it's
the authentic Jersey variety or not!</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="text-align: left;"><***></b></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="text-align: left;"><br /></b></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Our excursionists got to
spend about eight or so hours in Atlantic City, enjoying the The
Shore, and Atlantic City's other attractions before tragedy struck.
One of those attractions was not only built the same year Atlantic
City was founded, its still around and open to the public today. That attraction is Absecon Light.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Absecon Light, on the
extreme northern tip of Absecon Island was, and still is, New
Jersey's tallest...and the nation's third tallest...light house. The
171 foot brick lighthouse, located at Vermont and Pacific avenues on
the city's extreme north end, utilized a first order Fresnel lens to
show a fixed white light. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Construction of Absecon
Light was started in June of 1855, and it's oil lamp was first lit to
shine through it's Fresnel Lens on January 15, 1857...the light was
probably visible to ships 12-15 miles off of the coast, but more
importantly it was also visible in inclement weather, and served to
warn mariners off of the shoal water near the island, when poor
visibility might have them running hard aground after venturing
closer to the island that their captain intended.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">With Atlantic City being a
resort town, the lighthouse also became a tourist destination, with
people visiting it daily (And nightly, to see the beam reaching out
from that huge Fresnel lens). Tours were given, with over 10,000
people a year signing the guest-book and climbing the lighthouse to
get an eye-full of the awesome and beautiful view from 170 feet above
the oceanfront.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">All lighthouses are identifiable during daylight hours by their <i>'</i>daymark', which is the unique color scheme assigned to a particular lighthouse. Absecon light's daymark, however, changed almost as frequently as we change shirts. Originally, the top and bottom thirds of it's tower were painted white, while the central third of the tower was painted red. In 1898, this was changed to orange-black-orange, then changed <i>again, </i>in 1907 to yellow-black-yellow, which was the color scheme it was wearing in 1933, when it was abandoned.</p><div><br /></div><div>The lighthouse was abandoned when a far more efficient but, sadly, far less romantic
unmanned light was erected on a steel tower at New Hampshire Ave and
The Boardwalk. The old light house slowly deteriorated, with the
keeper's and assistant keeper's houses torn down in the 40s, and the
lighthouse itself only being saved from demolition because the city's
citizens raised a <i>serious</i> ruckus...editorially at
any rate...in it's defense. The city took over management of the
lighthouse in 1946, then sold it to the State of New Jersey in 1966,
and the light was lit on a few special occasions, but it wasn't
restored and opened to the public until 1997. And, paint-color-wise
it's, again been a chameleon, going from blue and white (Atlantic
City High's colors) to white-red-white, and finally, back to yellow-black-yellow, the color it was painted when abandoned, and
which it wears today. And once again, thousands of visitors a year
climb to the top, admire that huge lens, and gaze in awe at the view
they get of the Atlantic.</div>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Oh...and they still light it
up every night, even though it's not an official navigation aid. They
just do it because it's cool.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><***></b></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><br /></b></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">While the great majority of
Mays Landing's residents were all about helping the victims of the
wreck, one select group decided they were going to enact their own
version of Justice for them. With the second
section's locomotive embedded itself in the last coach of the first, it didn't take a
genius to figure out the gist of what happened, and it also didn't
require major intellectual gymnastics to figure out that 'Someone
screwed up'. And that whoever <i>did</i> screw up caused one
hell of a lot of suffering and agony.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">You'd think they'd go after
Ed Aitkin, as he was the engineer who drove his train into that last
coach, but no...they wanted the conductor. The conductor of a train,
like the captain of a ship, is considered to be in charge, and
ultimately responsible for whatever happens to it, so our justice
seekers went conductor-hunting, and apparently grabbed the first
person wearing a conductor's uniform who they encountered. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">One problem. The conductor
they grabbed was Joseph Bartlett, who was apparently conductor of the
just-stopped express train, and who had come to the scene to assist
in any way he could. Our vigilantes, however, decided he was, in
fact, Elmer Hoagland, and no amount of protesting by Bartlett could
convince the enraged group otherwise. They dragged Bartlett to a
telegraph pole near the west end of the trestle, one of the group
produced some rope, and they preceded to tie him to the pole. Once he
was secured, the group began serious discussion on just what methods
they were going to use to convince Bartlett of his wrongs. Several
suggestions were made, none of them particularly pleasant. Ultimately
they decided on a good old fashioned lynching, and members of the
group likely began scoping out trees to find one suitable for the
task at hand.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Bartlett was saved when
someone who knew him, and most importantly knew he hadn't even been
on either train, intervened and convinced the group to let him go.
The group released Bartlett, and he likely fled the scene, and I
wouldn't blame him if he'd made a vow to himself to not <i>ever </i>offer
his assistance to strangers again.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Speaking of fleeing the
scene, Conductor Hoagland had seen what was going on, quickly
realized that the guy they were planning to hang was supposed to be
him and that Ed Aitkin was probably in danger as well. So Hoagland
found Aitkin, let him in in on what was going on, and the two of them
preceded to depart the scene.. They crawled beneath the train, slid
down the causeway's embankment, and hotfooted it into the woods. By
the time the lynch-mob realized their error and went in pursuit of
Hoagland and Aitkin, they were long-gone. But it doesn't quite end
there.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">After hiding in the woods
for hours, the two men doubled back. They had been gone long enough
for some out-of-town media to arrive, apparently, and they ran into a
New York Herald reporter who listened to their story, then helped
them into one of the trains' baggage cars, where they hunkered down
until time for the first Coroner's Jury the next day.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Interestingly, after being
found to be blameless by the Coroners Jury, they celebrated by eating
supper in one of Mays Landing's premiere inns...unmolested by the mob
from the previous night.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><***></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">While the citizens of Mays
Landing and the surviving uninjured excursionists used the resources
they had at hand to deal with the the disaster the best way they
could, everyone was cocking an ear eastward, listening for the shrill
whistle and high-speed steam exhaust that should have been a rescue
train in-bound, bringing the closest help available to them.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">When the Mays Landing
station agent pounded out that first group of pleas for help shortly
after the wreck occurred, one of them went to Atlantic City, only 17
miles away. Even with the low tech communications of that era, and
the necessity of assigning rolling stock, gathering supplies, and
getting a crew together, even with the inclement weather, a train
should have been steaming westward, throttle wide open, in less than
an hour, and should have been hissing to a stop behind the excursion
train's second section well less than two hours after that request
for help was made. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Sadly, it didn't happen that
way, and maddeningly, there has never been a really good excuse
offered. It's been stated that the powers that
be <i>badly</i> under-estimated the wrecks severity, and
therefore didn't make getting help on the way to them a top priority,
but I somehow can't believe that one. Think about it...'We had a
locomotive telescope the last car of an excursion train and shower
said car's seventy or so occupants with live steam'
just <i>doesn't</i> sound like a minor problem.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I have a feeling that
getting a rescue train rolling west from Atlantic City somehow
ended up being a major cluster, and no one was going to admit to it.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A rescue train from Atlantic
City <i>did</i> finally arrive at the scene, and did have
medical help and supplies on board, but they arrived almost four
hours after they were requested. By the time they rolled in, the
worst injured patients were on the way to Camden, and all of the
other patients had been taken in by Mays Landings' good citizens. The
crew from Atlantic City didn't have a whole lot to do.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As to why their response was
so delayed, that'll probably remain a mystery. It never was explained
well at all, but I have a feeling that my 'Major Cluster' theory
is at least leaning in the right direction. Whatever the reason, the
WJ&A, and the Pennsylvania Railroad buried it deeply and
quickly...no way they wanted either the media or the public examining
that fiasco with-in a disaster very closely!.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><***></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Severe burns are absolutely
devastating injuries that require specialized treatment and therapy,
and while advances were being made in burn treatment by the early
20th Century, truly effective burn treatment didn't come on the scene
until World War II. And it definitely didn't exist in 1880. In fact,
most of the treatments used for burns back in the day potentially
caused more harm than good, and a couple of them were down right
scary.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I'm just going to take a
brief look at one of them here...flour. Good old baking flour..</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The victims of the wreck
probably looked like ghosts when they were loaded onto those horse
drawn ambulances in Philly, because they had all been burned over a
devastatingly huge percentage of their bodies, and those burns had
been coated with flour. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">One of the standard
treatments for severe burns a century and a half or so ago was to
liberally coat the burned area with flour. It's purpose was two-fold...the flour helped create a hard crust...a scab...over the burn
to reduce fluid loss, and was thought to provide some pain relief by
blocking air from the burn. The only problem is, flour also
exponentially increases the possibility of infection, which is
already one of the biggest threats that victims of severe burns face. Burns damage
the skin, which is the body's primary barrier against infection...so
if you coat this now damaged anti-infection-fence with flour
(Or <i>any </i>non-sterile, non-medically-approved
substance, for that matter) you've just introduced a foreign
substance to the burn. And made it not a case of <i>if</i> the
burn will become infected, but <i>when.</i></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Flour on a burn also made
treatment of the burn in the hospital even more difficult for both
doctor and patient, because it would ultimately have to be cleaned
off of the burn (Cleaned off, I might add, so that, our 1880s
physicians could add <i>more</i> topical treatments that
probably increased the threat of infection).</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I don't even want to think
of what having flour scrubbed off of a raw burn was like. Trust me on
this, it <i>didn't</i> reduce pain.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The use of flour on burns
was occasionally a problem well into the 20th century, even as
effective burn therapy was developed. (The use of grease or butter on
burns continued even longer...early in my career as an EMT, we ran a
couple of calls where the patient, usually a kid whose elderly
grandmother had slathered a kid's burned hand or arm with either
butter or bacon grease, had a burn covered with grease. The ER
physician generally wasn't amused when we brought the patient in, the
poor patient even less so when his burn had to be cleaned. This was
only forty or so years ago, in the 1980s).</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The use of flour on burns
had pretty much disappeared by the mid or late 1910s, and you very
seldom if ever see grease or butter applied to burns anymore...those
kids whose grandmothers slathered their burns with grease 40 years
ago are themselves very possibly grandparents today. People of all
ages, unfortunately, still get themselves into situations where they
are severely burned, but thanks to the lessons learned over the
decades, their treatment is far more sophisticated and absolutely
sterile, if, unfortunately, still painful</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><***></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The great majority of the
excursionists were first and second generation Irish immigrants, all
of whom still followed the traditions of their Irish culture closely,
including the very intricate traditions of the Irish funeral wake.
and the Time of Mourning. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Lets take a look at the
Irish Wake first...Wakes are rituals that are said to assist the soul
of the deceased in transitioning from the world of the living to the
world of the dead, and are seen in a number of cultures . A
traditional Irish Wake, especially during the Victorian era, was a
very colorful, very social function, involving the family and friends
of the deceased, and traditionally took place in the home of the
deceased, and started two days before the funeral.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The friends of the deceased
attended to pay respect to the departed, while the family provided
hospitality, in the form of food, drink, and entertainment. There was
often song and dance at Irish wakes...unless the death was
particularly tragic, or was that of a child, in which case, the wake
was far more restrained.. As all thirty of the fatalities from the
wreck fell into at least one, and, sadly, often both of these
categories, all of the wakes were very likely of the more restrained
variety, though food and drink were still provided by the deceased's
family.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The body of the deceased
would be prepared at a funeral home, where it would be draped in
white linen with black ribbons, then placed in the casket and brought
to their home. Before the body's arrival, all mirrors in the home
would be either covered, or turned facing the wall, said to aid the
soul in entering heaven. Also, all of the clocks in the house would
be stopped at the time of the deceased's passing. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Once the body arrived at the
home, the casket would be set up in the home's parlor, and lit
candles would be placed at the head and foot of the casket. If the
deceased was male, a pipe...of the tobacco-filled variety...would be
placed on his chest, while other pipes would be placed through-out
the home. Male guests would be encouraged to take a puff or two from
the pipes, a tradition said to discourage 'Evil Spirits' from
interfering, as said spirits supposedly did not like smoke. If
the deceased was female, or a child, the pipe-smoking tradition was,
I'm assuming, not included. I couldn't find any info on how our Evil
Spirits were dealt with in such cases.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The body was never left
alone during the wake's two day duration. Usually one of the women
would sit with the body, often crying and wailing in a particular
rhythmic manner known as 'keening'. Keening, interestingly enough,
was actually an organized activity. It's actually a poetic lament,
sung to the deceased by a group of women. A 'Lead Keener', so to
speak, would begin the lament, in a high, wailing voice, then the
other women in the group would join in and repeat the lament while
swaying back and forth rhythmically. Believe it or not, there were
actually professional keeners who would be hired to perform at
wakes. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Another truly morbid
tradition, this one not restricted to Irish Wakes, would also take
place in the Victorian Era...The deceased would get a portrait done
by a professional photographer, often with family included in the
shot.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Then there were the very
detailed and strict rules concerning mourning. Men wore black suits
while women were required to wear long black mourning dresses with a
heavy crepe bonnet and black veil.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A widow was expected to
mourn her husband for two years, while the loss of a child or parent
was mourned for one year. A grandparent or sibling was mourned for
six months. The color of the mourning clothes would lighten over the
mourning period, going through various shades of grey to white.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A widower would mourn his
wife for a year. During the mourning period, the mourners, be they
women or men, did not go out into society, and would not receive
visitors. Keep in mind that <i>all</i> of the victims of
the wreck were from the same community, and <i>all</i> were
Irish. The community would be pretty much dominated by these mourning
rituals for months.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><***></b></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Cover-ups still occur to this very day,
but the type of cover-up seen in this post...where an entire state is
cut-off from media coverage of an event...would be virtually
impossible to pull off today, Such a 'Full-State-Black-Out' has
actually been all but impossible since the mid 1920s, and the
difference is, of course, communications technology.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In 1880, the only way people could read
the news of the day....well, that's just it, they read it. As in a
newspaper, and it was far too easy for the owners of said newspaper
to control exactly what was released. In the case of The Mays Landing
Collision, it wasn't the owners themselves who initiated the
cover-up, but rather Richard Wood V, who 'persuaded' the owners and
publishers of papers to withhold news of the wreck with-in New
Jersey. (Though it wasn't stated, I have a feeling that 'Persuasion'
came in the form of green-tinted portraits of dead presidents). It
was, basically, the Good Ol' Boy' network in action.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Of course, he didn't have that same
level of control over the news media in other states, so we had the
unique situation where the wreck was covered, extensively, in other
states and territories, but not covered at home. Wood hedged his
bets, figuring correctly that people in, say, far-southern New
Jersey, wouldn't read The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, or San
Francisco Chronicle.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Controlling just what news got out, and
where it was reported was possible (Though thankfully not that
common, at least on the scale seen with the Mays Landing wreck),
right on up through the first two decades of the 20th Century. Then,
on November 2, 1921, KDKA in Philadelphia went on the air as the
first commercial radio station, and with-in four years, there were
600 radio stations in the U.S., and the number kept growing. News
could now be breaking, instant, and you didn't have to leave your
home to get it. And, most importantly, if the station was powerful
enough, you could sit in, say, Camden New Jersey and pick up a
newscast on WRVA (The 50,000 Watt Voice Of Virginia) in Richmond Va. Similar scenarios played out nationwide...it was no longer possible
to create a 'news black out' for an entire region.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It was <i>still </i>possible, however, to with-hold information, of course. All the subject of a newscast
had to do was control just what was released. But at least John and
Jane Q Public would know about an incident, no matter where they
lived.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And
then came television (Much earlier than most people realize...the
first commercial television station, W3XK, went on the air in 1928,
in the Washington DC suburbs. It used electromechanical technology
that wouldn't last, programming was intermittent, the screen was
about the size of a flip-phone screen, the picture grainy and the
experiment ended in 1932, but it was indeed, television, commercials
and all).</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Television
as we know it came along in the late 30s, with regularly scheduled TV
broadcasts starting around 1938...generally sporting events, plays,
and, of course, news. There were fewer than 5,000 television sets,
but there were newscasts, and even remote news-casts.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The
number of sets increased <i>quickly</i>
after World War II, with the quality of TV programming improving just
as rapidly</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">By the
mid-fifties, of course, we had live coverage of news events, and in
1962, the world had the unforgettably sad experience of both watching
a U.S. president assassinated on Live TV, and seeing the assassin
shot live a day later.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It had
became a bit more difficult for facts to be covered up...I mean, the
viewer was actually and literally seeing what was going on. But it
wasn't entirely impossible. The images couldn't be covered up, but
the facts behind those images could be either hidden or altered for
public consumption.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">News
became more immediate, cameras became smaller and easier to lug
around...and then we got the Internet, and smart phones, and now news
is not only immediate, but constant. Thanks to this 24 hour news
cycle, coupled with literally<i> everyone</i>
having a high quality video camera on them, stories that,
twenty-five or thirty years ago would have been local stories seen on
news broadcasts maybe 50-75 miles from the scene, are now national
news.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It has now become literally impossible to hide an incident from the public.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But a
bit of caution here...it's still<i> </i>possible
for the facts behind the image to be altered.</p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="text-align: left;"><br /></b></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="text-align: left;"><***></b></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">While no memorial, or even a
historical maker, has ever been erected to the wreck's victims, the
Hamilton Historical Society sponsored a Memorial Walk on August 11,
2022, the 142nd anniversary of the wreck.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The group made the walk down
the eastern causeway to the remains of the trestle, where a brief
telling of the story of the wreck was read, then the name of each
victims was read as a bell tolling once and a flower dropped into the
Egg Harbor River as each name was spoken.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Finally a haunting and
moving tribute was performed on the bagpipes, always moving and even
more fitting on this occasion as the majority of the victims were
Irish immigrants.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This was a very moving
ceremony, which hopefully will become a yearly event.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A video of the walk is
available on YouTube...I'll link it in 'Links'.</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><***> Links <***></b></p>
<p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I actually managed to run up
on on a few pretty decent links, almost all of them local news
articles from the 'Greater Mays Landing Metro Area', so to speak.
Once again, though there wasn't that much info at all on-line about
the wreck, I got lucky with what I did find and this time, as I noted
in the intro to 'Notes', that luck was astronomically good. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">While I was at it, I also
found a couple of pretty good videos about the wreck, and as always,
I'll include the best of what I found here.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">On to the 'Links'!</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6487399564596460661/5535228221357148156#">https://www.amazon.com/Between-Shore-City-Tragedy-Landing/dp/1685240739</a>
First and foremost, the Amazon link for Mari Dattolo's
book, <i>Between The Shore And The City Tragedy At Mays
Landing. </i>Ms. Dattolo did an outstanding job on this book,
both research-wise, and penning it<i>. </i>This is an excellent
book, and pretty much a must read for both history buffs and
railfans. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6487399564596460661/5535228221357148156#">https://hamiltonhistorical.org/1880-railroad-disaster</a>
The Hamilton Historical Society's site is chock <i>full</i> of
interesting little tid-bits, including a couple of photos of the
relevant Railroad And Canal report pages that prove that the wreck
was never recorded officially. This crew did a <i>serious</i> bit
of research putting the site together...research that's still
ongoing, I might add. The site also includes an eleven minute and
change video about the wreck, and the Historical Society's
investigation, which goes into detail about the cover-up.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6487399564596460661/5535228221357148156#">https://shorelocalnews.com/between-the-shore-and-the-city-tragedy-at-mays-landing/</a>
An interview with Mari D'Albora Dattolo, the
author of <i>Between The Shore And The City Tragedy At Mays
Landing. </i>Very much worth a look.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6487399564596460661/5535228221357148156#">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L0sJlGXNnU&ab_channel=MariD%27AlboraDattolo</a>
A very moving video. about the Aug 11, 2022 Memorial Walk
honoring the wreck's victims in Mays Landing. </p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6487399564596460661/5535228221357148156#">https://tinyurl.com/3cz975z4</a>
YouTube link to the video included in the Hamilton Historical
Society link above.</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
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</p>
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</p>
<p style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /><br />
</p>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-28556158032018172832022-07-19T14:36:00.024-04:002023-03-29T17:08:22.072-04:00The Atlantic City Drawbridge Disaster. Atlantic City's Deadly Duo Part 2<p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Atlantic City Drawbridge Disaster</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>October 28, 1906</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Atlantic City's Deadly Duo Part 2</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p><br /></p><p>When Jonathon Pitney invited several Philadelphia land developers to take a look at a remote, all but uninhabited 8-mile-long sand-spit just off of the New Jersey coast back in 1853, he kicked off something <i>big. </i>As in kicking off what would grow into a much-beloved major industry 'Big'. As in kicking off what would become a summer tradition for thousands upon thousands of families by planting the seeds that would grow into The Jersey Shore 'big'. As in kicking off the development of the nation's very first 'Railroad Resort'...a little burg we now call Atlantic City...'big'. <i>That </i>kind of big.</p><p>When trains started rolling along the Camden & Atlantic Railroad and Atlantic City opened for business, Pitney obviously hoped that the new city, as well as the railroad he built to serve it, would prosper. And thrive. And, most importantly, make Big Bucks for he and his backers.</p><p>And the soon to be Crown Jewel of The Jersey Shore did <i>all</i> of the above, succeeding beyond Dr. Pitney's wildest dreams. The public, though they didn't realize it until the first dozen or so trainloads of vacationers rolled into Atlantic City, wanted an easily accessible beach. I mean <i>really</i> wanted.<i> Craved</i> may even be a better word.</p><p>The first two hotels (The Beloe House, and the United States Hotel, the latter of which at one time was the largest hotel in the country) were soon joined by well over a dozen equally huge, even more lavish inns, while new attractions were added every summer. The city's soon to be legendary resort strip grew ever larger, expanding yearly, with new hotels and amusements, and restaurants, and other assorted attractions abuilding during the off-season to open, amid great fanfare and extravagant advertisements, at the beginning of each new summer season. </p><p>As the resort strip grew, so did the beach-craving crowds that flocked to it each summer. By 1878 500,000 people were riding the train into Atlantic City annually, and, by 1900, that total had more than doubled to well over a million visitors every summer, brought there by dozens of trains daily, rolling in on at least four different rail lines.</p><p>This led to a problem...Atlantic City was experiencing a traffic jam. The Camden and Atlantic had been joined by three other lines serving two different railroad stations, with nearly a hundred trains rolling into town daily during the summer. More trains were coming into the city than the infrastructure could really handle.</p><p>Not only were trains rolling into town right on top of each other, these same trains had to be turned around so they could head back <i>out</i> of the city. To do this, they probably used a turning wye...an arrangement of tracks and turnouts, shaped like, well, a 'y', that allowed trains to make what was essentially a three-point turn. This was <i>not</i> a quick, easy procedure, and in fact, it was manpower, time, and space intensive at best, and probably lead to iron-horse gridlock at worst. </p><p>Worst still, having that many train-movements in both that small of an area and that short of a period of time was just asking for a collision or three. There had, I'm sure, been minor incidents over the years, but not <i>all</i> of them were minor. The city fathers and railroad brass had already dealt with one major train wreck, and they really wanted to avoid another. The July 30, 1896 <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-atlantic-city-diamond-crossing.html">Atlantic City Diamond Crossing Collision </a> was still fresh in their memories as the new century dawned, and they took great pains to avoid a repeat of that horror, or train collisions of any other variety, be they crossing collisions, rear end collisions, or head on collisions. All of the above could be equally devastating and deadly.</p><p>And they apparently did a pretty good job in avoiding another major <i>collision, </i>but they didn't foresee what would happen on Oct 28, 1906, and really, I'm not sure they <i>could</i> have. A decade and change after the Diamond Crossing collision took fifty lives, yet another train wreck matched that number and added to it, killing fifty-three. And that second wreck occurred partially because Atlantic City was modernizing its rail network. But that modernization had a tiny, but fatal, flaw and mechanical flaws can be every bit as deadly as carelessness ever dared to be.</p><p>Before we take a look at the wreck, we've got to take a quick look at the upgrades that were made to the 'West Jersey' as the locals called the West Jersey & Seashore. The Pennsylvania Railroad, which had become the owners of the West Jersey, was...as they tended to do in that era...going first class in a big way. And, unfortunately, those first-class upgrades ultimately led to the wreck.</p><p>In the decade between the two wrecks, Atlantic City grew all but exponentially. There were already at least three and possibly four separate rail lines coming in to the city by the beginning of the 20th Century, owned by the Reading Railroad, and the Pennsylvania Railroad, the latter through a pair of lines run by Pennsy subsidiary West Jersey & Seashore RR., yet this <i>still</i> wasn't really enough to efficiently handle all of the rail traffic crossing The Thoroughfare every summer.</p><p>The Pennsylvania Railroad had purchased the original line into Atlantic City...the old Camden and Atlantic...back in 1896, merging it with the West Jersey, and giving that road two lines into the resort city. The Camden and Atlantic ran into hard times during it's latter years. Freight traffic yielded the highest revenues, and therefore profits, for railroads, and the Camden and Atlantic just didn't have that much freight traffic, unlike it's two chief rivals, the Reading and the Pennsylvania railroads, both of which were <i>huge </i>interstate rail systems.</p><p> The Camden and Atlantic was a 70 or so mile long point to point rail line that was originally built for one purpose...bringing vacationers to Atlantic City. There just wasn't that much business or industry to generate freight traffic. The C&A brass had to hope that heavy summer passenger traffic would yield enough profit to carry them through the other nine months of the year, and it, well, just didn't</p><p>So, through corporate manipulations that are <i>far</i> too complicated to even think delving into here, the old Camden and Atlantic became part of the huge Pennsylvania R.R. system, through the West Jersey & Seashore. And I have a feeling that the Pennsy/West Jersey suits found that the C&A infrastructure was, well, lacking. Still single tracked and aging, it <i>really</i> wasn't up to the heavy traffic that the summer beach season brought each year. Therefore, they set out to upgrade and modernize, and by upgrade, I mean <i>seriously</i> upgrade<i>. </i>In late 1906, The West Jersey introduced some truly revolutionary technology.</p><p>Back in 1888, just a dozen or so miles north of where I'm typing this, the very first electric street railroad, AKA trolley line, opened for business in Richmond Va. It was pretty much an instant success, and other cities, nationwide, quickly jumped on the band wagon. Again, I'm simplifying <i>big</i> time here, but railroads took notice, initially with thoughts of how to solve the problems of steam locomotives in long tunnels,</p><p>The first electric locomotive was developed in 1893, and in 1895, the Baltimore & Ohio opened the first electrified stretch of main line...a four mile long stretch of connector track that connected the City of Baltimore to the main line into New York. This line entered Baltimore through a series of long tunnels. After that connector line was electrified, the steam loco crews would bank their fires, then the electrics would couple on to them, and pull the trains through the tunnels, a system that was ultimately used in several other cities.</p><p>Seeing how effortlessly those first electric locomotives pulled entire trains, steam locomotives included, railroad brass began pondering on the question 'I wonder if electrifying long stretches of track and getting rid of the steam locomotive <i>entirely</i> would work?'. To make a long story short, yes...yes it would. Very<i> very </i>well, in fact.</p><p>The Pennsylvania Railroad got on the electrification bandwagon early, and probably included the West Jersey in those plans as soon as the option to pull their trains with electric locomotives became available. Oh...the Pennsy was going in a slightly different and arguably even <i>more </i>high tech<i> </i>direction with the West Jersey electrification.</p><p>Rather than an electric locomotive pulling a string of coaches, they decided to go with what were basically powered coaches...self-propelled, double-ended passenger cars, each with an operators compartment on both ends and their own self contained electric motor...a type that would become very familiar on subways, elevated trains, and commuter trains over the following decades, and that survives in more modern form to this very day. </p><p>The West Jersey bought sixty-eight of the new cars. Each of them was just over fifty-five feet long, weighed in at 89,000 lbs. apiece, and seated fifty-eight passengers. Most importantly, <i>all</i> of them...sixty-two 'chair cars', and six baggage-mail combinations...were motorized, with each of the cars powered by a pair of 200 H.P. General Electric electric motors...one on each truck, as the wheelsets are called. This meant that every car could be used as a 'control car' at the train's head end, and each train had a control car on <i>both</i> ends.</p><p>This gave the new cars a whole slew of advantages, not the least of which being they didn't have to be turned around in Atlantic City. On a multiple car train, all the engineer...actually known as a 'motorman' on an electric train...had to do was switch ends, now running the train from the operators compartment on the other end...now the front...of the train. Just pull out of the station, switch over onto the westbound track at a crossover, and head back for Camden.</p><p><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSE9j0QfostefQqwRYhO0zUT9__l6LbxuKTyc0AFG8Ir4xTa5flWrTUE04qkdY5AcCvSISWKG7UjoI-ci7qiN_mVWL1Weein-oJ8u_kNbdG5o-0asPRUoVeTqr-_89XrybXoyqKmXHqxcWB2tNZU28RxWMFXrkgRQSHgJVndjfH_FpCVBqk9tIjhrS/s1920/Electric_traction_for_railway_trains;_a_book_for_students,_electrical_and_mechanical_engineers,_superintendents_of_motive_power_and_others_(1911)_(14758763135).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1027" data-original-width="1920" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSE9j0QfostefQqwRYhO0zUT9__l6LbxuKTyc0AFG8Ir4xTa5flWrTUE04qkdY5AcCvSISWKG7UjoI-ci7qiN_mVWL1Weein-oJ8u_kNbdG5o-0asPRUoVeTqr-_89XrybXoyqKmXHqxcWB2tNZU28RxWMFXrkgRQSHgJVndjfH_FpCVBqk9tIjhrS/w640-h342/Electric_traction_for_railway_trains;_a_book_for_students,_electrical_and_mechanical_engineers,_superintendents_of_motive_power_and_others_(1911)_(14758763135).jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">The Pennsylvania Railroad, which was the West Jersey & Seashore's parent company, bought 68 of these new, then very much State Of The Art motorized coaches and placed them in service in mid-September 1906, just over a month before the Drawbridge Disaster. Each of the coaches was fifty-five feet long, weighed in at 89,000 lbs., and could seat 58 passengers, and each was double ended, with a motorman's compartment on both ends of the car. Each of the cars was powered by a pair of 200HP G.E. electric motors, probably one for each truck.<br /><br />Each car was also capable of picking up electric current two different ways...either from an overhead wire, using a trolley pole, or from a third rail running alongside the track, using a hot shoe. You can see the trolley pole, which is in the retracted position, extending out over the roof at the front of the first car. The small wheel at the end of the pole is grooved, and ran along the overhead wire...springs held the wheel against the wire, with the wire running through the wheel's central groove. The metal wheel, in turn, picked up the current from the wire, and transmitted it to the motor controller, motors, lights, etc, through a cable.<br /><br />The third rail, meanwhile, can be seen running alongside the tracks...in between the tracks on the double track main line at the bottom right of the frame, and next to the inside rail on the siding that the cars are parked on. Each truck was equipped with both a motor set and a hot shoe, which allowed every car to be powered, and more importantly, allowed each train to be double ended, with a control car at each end...the control cab was likely behind the right-side front window. A pair of switches allowed the motorman to switch between the trolley pole and the third rail from the control cabin.<br /><br />The cars...and, in fact, the trains...being double ended allowed the trains to make the return trip without turning around at a turning wye...the motorman just 'switches ends' at each end of the trip. There was probably what was essentially a master switch at each control station that cut the controls at each station in or out of the circuit. (I picture it as being one of those big, old fashioned knife switches). The switch at the control cab that was being used by the motorman to drive the train would be 'on', while all of the others would be 'off'.<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>Of course, if the West Jersey was going to upgrade it's rolling stock, they also needed to seriously upgrade their infrastructure as well. The first thing they did was double track the
line, which would also double the number of trains that could run between Camden and Atlantic City in any given period of time. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If they were going to run electric trains on the route, they had to provide electric power to said electric trains,. OF course, this involved a well-more-than-significant outlay of funds to build power generating stations, substations, and the network needed to actually transmit power to the trains. Here again, they utilized methods familiar to both trolley users and subway/elevated train riders. A very short section of the route would be serviced by overhead trolley wires, with the power transmitted to the motors through 'trolley poles', while most of the route would be served by third rails running along side the track, with metal 'shoes' extending out from beneath the car running along the energized third rail, and transmitting power to the motor...a method used on subways and elevated trains to this very day. </div><p></p><p>Of course, double tracking the line also meant that they had to replace all of the bridges along that route as well, and electrifying that trackage just added an extra complication to that task. I have a feeling that one of the reasons that third rails were chosen for power transmission was because of the swing bridges that the line had to cross, all of which had to be rebuilt if not entirely replaced. It was probably far easier to connect/disconnect the third rail when the bridge was opened or closed than it would have been to do the same with an overhead trolley wire. (We're gonna look at this, as well as electrification of the line, a bit in 'NOTES' )</p><p>Speakin' of those swing bridges...One of the bridges that needed upgrading was the former Camden and Atlantic, now West Jersey, swing bridge over the Thoroughfare. Work on upgrading the former Camden and Atlantic track and bridges started in January of 1906 and continued through the first three-quarters of the year. Work probably progressed from west to east, and the bridge over The Thoroughfare was the last bridge to be upgraded. The Thoroughfare swing bridge didn't re-open to traffic until the new electric trains started running on September 18, 1906, likely amid much fanfare and after a huge amount of build-up. This also meant that the new bridge <i>and</i> the West Jersey's new electric trains both went in service too late for the Summer of '06' tourist season. It <i>did,</i> however, open in time to host Atlantic City's second major rail accident...</p><p>And this brings us to Sunday, October 28th, 1906.</p><p>The new bridge over The Thoroughfare, like it's predecessor, was a wooden trestle with an iron or steel swing-span at it's mid-point. The swing-span, also like it's predecessor, was powered by electricity...but there the similarities between the two bridges apparently ended. Being double tracked, the new bridge was wider than the one it replaced, which would have made the swing span larger and heavier as well. The new bridge also included installation of the third rails that provided power to the new electric trains' motors...lets take a quick look at the operation of this bridge.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsTUY_vJvwqfAZ9XG0LMAEyrNucgf83NeaJusqExXCuFtXLp5TNwU3bwu_qqSJ3wTO50QPxsByZKUf1zsCITK6NzDEeNDk1HBN_COiZYD7gUhAAqDeScWFU6_tlNyqGnw6DoU2tBcrWPC_oYzFhXqqVQ3wExQeytPIxotXIIsC9PQumcfbxeFEBbwd/s1600/Scene_along_Atlantic_City_and_Shore_Railroad,_between_Atlantic_City_and_Ocean_City_-_Two_Mile_Trestle_across_Great_Egg_Harbour_Bay.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1006" data-original-width="1600" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsTUY_vJvwqfAZ9XG0LMAEyrNucgf83NeaJusqExXCuFtXLp5TNwU3bwu_qqSJ3wTO50QPxsByZKUf1zsCITK6NzDEeNDk1HBN_COiZYD7gUhAAqDeScWFU6_tlNyqGnw6DoU2tBcrWPC_oYzFhXqqVQ3wExQeytPIxotXIIsC9PQumcfbxeFEBbwd/w640-h402/Scene_along_Atlantic_City_and_Shore_Railroad,_between_Atlantic_City_and_Ocean_City_-_Two_Mile_Trestle_across_Great_Egg_Harbour_Bay.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I looked for a picture of the West Jersey & Seashore drawbridge over the Thoroughfare, I truly did...t'warnt none, as the old fella says. Closest I could find was this shot of the swing span in the middle of the two mile long trestle over Greater Egg Harbor Bay, about 10 miles south of Atlantic City. Like the Thoroughfare bridge, this span was owned by the West Jersey & Seashore.<br /><br />Both bridges use wooden trestles for the fixed portion of the span, with a steel plate-girder swing span over the channel. The bridge pictured is similar to the Atlantic City span where the wreck occurred, but there are also differences. The Egg Harbor bridge is <i>far</i> longer (Two miles vs the Atlantic City bridge's 450 feet). Also note that the line crossing the Egg Harbor bridge used overhead wire and trolley poles rather than third rail.<br /><br />One pretty big difference is the construction of the swing spans. While both use plate girder construction, the bridge deck on the Egg Harbor bridge is nestled down between the girders, while the bridge deck in Atlantic City was built on top of the girders. Had the Atlantic City swing span used the same type construction as the Egg Harbor swing span, the cars <i>might</i> not have gone into the water...the girders would have acted as guard rails. <br /><br />Of course, the wreck would have still been a bad one...the cars would have slammed into the girders at somewhere between thirty and forty Miles Per Hour. While extremely modern for the time, they were <i>still</i> primarily of wood construction, and would not have faired well when slamming into a five or so foot high steel girder at that speed. There still, very likely, would have been deaths and injuries, just no where near as many as actually occurred.<br /><br />The bridge over Greater Egg Harbor Bay was considered somewhat of a local landmark in it's day, but it...like the bridge over The Thoroughfare, where the Drawbridge Disaster occurred...is long gone.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>When a ship or boat whistled for the bridge to be opened, the bridge tender referred to his train schedule, then replied, using the bridge whistle (Then as now, an air horn on electrically powered bridges) to advise the pilot and captain of the approaching vessel whether they were clear to proceed. Then he'd engage the bridge's electric motor and pull a 'johnson bar' like directional lever to open the bridge.</p><p>The mechanism that opened the bridge first lifted the entire lift span a few inches to disengage the third rail, <i>then</i> turned the bridge 90 degrees to open a pair of channels on either side of the swing span. The instant that bridge started turning, automatic signals...probably semaphores in that era...a half mile or so from either end of the bridge dropped to the 'STOP' position, the lights installed with them going red, indicating that the bridge was open and that approaching trains needed to stop short before reaching it..</p><p>Note the way I worded that...the signals didn't change until the bridge started swinging...<i>not</i> when the mechanism lifted it prior to turning it. Keep that in mind, it'll be real important a few paragraphs down, when we get into just what happened 116 years ago, at around 2:20 PM on October 28, 1906.</p><p>On that long ago Sunday afternoon. Atlantic City suffered a drawbridge accident...but it wouldn't be your typical drawbridge disaster...you know, the kind where an engineer ignores signals and manages to drive a train off of an open drawbridge. This one would come in out of left field, <i>big-</i>time, because when <i>this</i> drawbridge disaster happened, the bridge was <i>closed.</i></p><p>Just how does a drawbridge disaster happen with the bridge <i>closed???'. </i>Remember that mechanical flaw I mentioned earlier...?'</p><p>Sometime around, or maybe a bit before 2 PM that afternoon, a yacht blew for the bridges over the thoroughfare to be opened (There were at least five of them back then...one for each rail line as well as a swing bridge for the Pleasantville-Atlantic City Turnpike. Getting all of them opened must've looked like a giant-sized water ballet of sorts.). In the bridge tender's cabin for the new West Jersey bridge, sixty-five year old Danial Stewart probably first glanced at his train schedule to make sure he wasn't getting ready to open the bridge beneath an oncoming train. When he saw that the next scheduled train wasn't due to pull out of the West Jersey's Atlantic City depot for about 20 minutes, he tooted the bridge's airhorn to let the yacht's pilot know he was clear to proceed, threw what was very likely an old fashioned knife-switch to start the process of opening the bridge, then yanked the 'johnson bar' to 'OPEN'.</p><p>As noted above, the bridge first raised about three inches or so, then started turning, powered by a <i>big</i> electric motor beneath the center of the swing-span. The instant the swing-span started turning, a pair of semaphores, a half mile or so from either end of the bridge, dropped to the horizontal position, indicating to on-coming engineers that they needed to stop short of the bridge. Upon seeing the 'STOP signal, most engineers would probably slow to a crawl, then stop where they could see the bridge, as well as a second pair of semaphores, hard by the span, that would indicate that the bridge was closed, locked, and safe to cross once the bridge was closed again.</p><p>But the semaphores went unseen this time. There were no trains approaching. One West Jersey train was getting ready to pull out of Atlantic City, and a second, inbound from Camden, was still about a half hour out. Dan Stewart probably just leaned out of one of the bridge tender cabin's windows, enjoying the crisp fall air as he watched the yacht ease through the channel between shore and swing-span, thoughts of his impending retirement passing through his head. He may have even wondered what it was like to be rich enough to afford a vessel such as the one passing the bridge, He didn't suspect for one second that he was less than a half hour away from witnessing a nightmare.</p><p></p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then the
yacht was clear, and Stewart shook his head, banishing the daydreams
of retirement and large, expensive watercraft for the time being as
he tooted the bridge's horn to warn that it would be moving, then
pulled the Johnson Bar to 'CLOSE' and threw the knife switch again.
Technology had evolved exponentially since the<a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2021/09/norwalkbridge-disaster-norwalk-may-6-th.html"> Norwalk Bridge Disaster</a> fifty three years earlier. Bridge operation was now semi-automatic. The swing-span
slowly turned back to the closed position, then as soon as the tracks
were lined up horizontally, the electric motor powering it shut down and the span stopped turning. It was <i>supposed </i><span style="font-style: normal;">to
also lower as soon as the tracks on the swing span were lined up with
those on the fixed section of the bridge, and it </span><i>did...</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
sort of. Somehow within the last few hours, the swing-span had been knocked out of balance. It
lowered, but only one end actually lined up with the fixed track
properly...the east end, closest to the Atlantic city rail terminal...and even that end wasn't </span><span><i>perfectly</i> lined up, as the rails on the bridge were tilted very subtly upwards.</span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Had
the signaling system been designed to indicate that the bridge was
</span><i>completely</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> lined up,
both vertically </span><i>and</i>
horizontally, the semaphores would have remained in the 'STOP' position, but the system only indicated horizontal alignment.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
as soon as swing-span stopped turning as it lined up with the tracks
on the fixed trestle, the semaphores swung up to the vertical
position, indicating that the bridge was closed, and the track
was clear. Stewart then grasped the 'Johnson bar and shifted it back
to the 'Locked' position...and as he did that, the semaphores hard by the ends of the bridge swung upwards, indicating...falsely...that the bridge was safe to cross.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">As far as Stewart could tell, everything was
perfectly normal. And as far as the signals were concerned, he was absolutely right.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then, a few minutes after he closed the bridge, the 2:15 train from Atlantic City to Camden rumbled onto the bridge, eerily silent compared to steam locomotives, it's three cars looking for all the world as if they were rolling along without the benefit of a locomotive. The shoes sliding along the third rail may have spit the occasional blue spark, the wheels click-clacking over the rail joints, doing so particularly loudly as the train rolled across the joint between the fixed trestle and the swing-span itself. </span></p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-size: small;">And, as the train's motorman raised a hand in greeting as they passed the bridge tender's cabin, something completely unnoticed happened...the swing span tilted the <i>other</i> way. As the train crossed the out-of-balance span, its weight shifted from one end to the other, tilting the west end of the swing span downward, lining the track on <i>that</i> end of the swing span up with the fixed bridge just long enough for the train to safely cross from the swing span to the fixed section of the bridge.</span></p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Again, </span>that distinctive 'click-<i>clack'</i> as the train's wheels crossed the gap between swing-span and trestle may have been a bit sharper than usual, the jolt felt by passengers and crew just a scosh rougher...but not enough for anyone to comment on it. If they <i>did</i> notice that extra-sharp little jolt, it was forgotten as the motorman moved the motor controller around its quadrant, and the train all but silently picked up speed...</p><p style="orphans: 2; text-align: center; widows: 2;">**</p><p style="orphans: 2; text-align: center; widows: 2;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvxqYaYJ-HoG1NsJZ1kh1CcN3ijoAhstNJZQy-pVzRYOL3EC5DLIVMaNegbpI8a7UhsuX7tVrWvAKSx8u714NDq3x7Mq6cnWgy5bJgdiW46JSbTcWnOAgtEG6GA7FgTgp7eBeonu8suJKysB7xBifDRFYWnRn6JDf4vvFiLK7RnccKQO7lgcAmAxT/s1080/R%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvxqYaYJ-HoG1NsJZ1kh1CcN3ijoAhstNJZQy-pVzRYOL3EC5DLIVMaNegbpI8a7UhsuX7tVrWvAKSx8u714NDq3x7Mq6cnWgy5bJgdiW46JSbTcWnOAgtEG6GA7FgTgp7eBeonu8suJKysB7xBifDRFYWnRn6JDf4vvFiLK7RnccKQO7lgcAmAxT/w640-h640/R%20(1).jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1908 map of Atlantic City, showing the central portion of the city, including the section of The Thoroughfare where the wreck happened. Though this map was published two years after the Drawbridge Disaster occurred, the street layout and bridges likely changed very little if at all.. Note that there were five, count 'em, five draw bridges crossing The Thoroughfare back then...four rail bridges and a road bridge. All were still in use until at least the early-mid 1930s. <br /><br /> The turnpike was gone by 1941, and all but one of the rail bridges...the one that would ultimately become the NJT bridge...were gone by 1957. The modern expressway had been added by 1973.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIjXf3w6JGwBP8g8bcRqX6iQaODW7QJyXQe4mYuQzf0PWLmY7hcmnjJZ-pZ8XriJ9OJ8CgnxP1obtE_4bMuZ7V-jm1eOvSocHILfhL3F4uXwGAtu4hqICCxTUeAZq6UcWeBhFY-DW-ICRfJFcRV60n3UNgvSh7C20KVD30r6XF4Q5MIAR--eCA4idE/s473/R%20(1)%20cropped.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="473" data-original-width="344" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIjXf3w6JGwBP8g8bcRqX6iQaODW7QJyXQe4mYuQzf0PWLmY7hcmnjJZ-pZ8XriJ9OJ8CgnxP1obtE_4bMuZ7V-jm1eOvSocHILfhL3F4uXwGAtu4hqICCxTUeAZq6UcWeBhFY-DW-ICRfJFcRV60n3UNgvSh7C20KVD30r6XF4Q5MIAR--eCA4idE/w466-h640/R%20(1)%20cropped.jpg" width="466" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cropped view of the above map, showing the bridges, with the West Jersey and Seashore bridge marked by a pair of arrows. There were four rail lines coming into Atlantic City back in this era, and ultimately all of them would be owned by either The Pennsylvania Railroad or The Reading Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad, parent company of the West Jersey and Seashore, kicked the tech game up to another level when they electrified the line all the way from Camden to Atlantic City.<br /><br /> By the early 1960s, the number of rail lines into the city had been whittled down to one. While some believe that the present day New Jersey Transit (NJT) line into Atlantic City. is built on the former West Jersey right-of-way, I, along with a good many others, believe it's actually on the old Reading right of way. The West Jersey Right Of Way was a good bit further north<br /><br />The southernmost bridge is the old Pleasantville and Atlantic City Turnpike, which was open until at least the mid 1930s.. That drawbridge had been removed by 1941, according to a topo map from that same year on Historic Aerials' site. Most of the present day Atlantic City Expressway is built on top of the old turnpike, which was right next to the former Reading Railroad Right Of Way...and the present day Expressway is right next to the NJT line coming into the city.<br /><br />Of course, looking at two other other topo maps, from the mid-60s and early 70s, the very real possibility exists that the modern expressway is actually built at least partially on the old Reading right-of-way. Unfortunately, these same topo maps and aerials aren't available for me to post here due to copyright issues.<br /><br />Take a look at the modern satellite views below.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; text-align: center; widows: 2;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Toc8z5tbeMgsJhLXs039EiRXnxducYYOkiawn27w3A4GAvRnrx_9XEXA_PZV9I02j_q0jKzQLzQRWf-4UU9smI6lpt8IEGt5nWE3vplTfufJJo_w1S7Xc_XjQ5d_Ooa90cC3aWJ-7yd_YsnXV2N2cp_LydP2Rkg5f-7TAZWWDEfIwZw-sitd8gn2/s1920/Screenshot%20(2733).png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Toc8z5tbeMgsJhLXs039EiRXnxducYYOkiawn27w3A4GAvRnrx_9XEXA_PZV9I02j_q0jKzQLzQRWf-4UU9smI6lpt8IEGt5nWE3vplTfufJJo_w1S7Xc_XjQ5d_Ooa90cC3aWJ-7yd_YsnXV2N2cp_LydP2Rkg5f-7TAZWWDEfIwZw-sitd8gn2/w640-h360/Screenshot%20(2733).png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Modern satellite view of the approximate area covered in the first map above. The Thoroughfare, along with the area where the disaster occurred...which I cover in more detail below...is mid-frame, and is outlined in white and labeled. <br /><br />If you stand at the present day intersection of Bacharach Blvd and the Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector, and look west, out over The Thoroughfare, you're standing just a few dozen yards east of where the east end of the bridge would have been.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioW3jhD37eNkt-gE-PhyCHOlB2_6t8ABoHvi_AC-KovVuM67EI0NvDUalUhpToaBMENXVgrOgmoYuhmlEDl2CoALeiJry6KDWx9ASBGEFg_WogLZm_FTUZEjGDemGHpTMB5SHaKkevxc6eyc8eqK6_r-NcBAY1vYyvkF6nlieJr3zry0Te89Io1u2r/s1920/Screenshot%20(2734).png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioW3jhD37eNkt-gE-PhyCHOlB2_6t8ABoHvi_AC-KovVuM67EI0NvDUalUhpToaBMENXVgrOgmoYuhmlEDl2CoALeiJry6KDWx9ASBGEFg_WogLZm_FTUZEjGDemGHpTMB5SHaKkevxc6eyc8eqK6_r-NcBAY1vYyvkF6nlieJr3zry0Te89Io1u2r/w640-h360/Screenshot%20(2734).png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Thoroughfare, in the area where the Drawbridge Disaster occurred, shown on a modern satellite image. Only one rail line and drawbridge...owned and operated by New Jersey Transit...remains today. Thanks to Photoshop's less affluent but equally capable cousin, Paint Shop Pro, I moved a ghost image of that modern bridge to the site of the old West Jersey bridge to illustrate just where the wreck occurred. Interestingly...and I also noted this in my post on the 1896 Diamond Crossing wreck...all of the old right-of-ways are still visible, including part of the long-gone turnpike<br /><br />This one was pretty straightforward as to cause...the bridge was out of alignment, and when it closed, the track on the west end of the swing span was several inches higher than the track on the fixed trestle. Unfortunately, the signaling system was only designed to indicate whether the bridge was open or closed, but not whether it was aligned vertically. Therefore, it showed red if the bridge was open, and went to green when it closed as long as the tracks were lined up horizontally, no matter <i>how</i> badly out of alignment they may have been vertically.<br /><br />The bridge had been opened for a passing yacht just before the eastbound three car electric train arrived, and was closed as the train neared the bridge. As noted above, it closed and gave a green light and vertical semaphore, indicating that the bridge was safe to cross, despite the fact that it was out of alignment vertically by several inches.<br /><br />The out-of-alignment bridge apparently 'see-sawed on it's center pivot, making the east end of the swing span lower than the west...the 2:20 train from Atlantic City to Camden crossed with no problem only minutes before the wreck, it's weight tilting the swing span as it crossed so the west end was lined up well enough for the train to cross safely. Then, when the west bound train rolled off of the west end of the swing span onto the fixed trestle, the swing span tilted back, once again lifting it's west end several inches higher then the track on the fixed trestle<br /><br />The east bound train, from Camden, rolled onto the bridge only minutes later, and was running a good 40 or so when reached the swing span. When the lead truck on the first car slammed into the out of alignment swing span, it derailed and started bouncing across the ties, jerking further to the right with each bounce. The trailing truck followed suit, and the derailed car shuddered over to the right, and dropped off of the bridge and into the water below, dragging the other two cars with it. <br /><br />Almost everyone in the first two coaches drowned, including the motorman, while many in the third coach escaped because the brakeman got a door opened before the car went off of the bridge. Then, even more fortuitously, the car's 's trailing truck got hung up on the fixed trestle at the east end of the swing span, and the coach hung there precariously long enough for many of the occupants to scramble out of the car before it, too, plummeted into the Thoroughfare.<br /><br />At least 53, and possibly as many as 57, depending on the source, died in the wreck.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">**</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="orphans: 2; text-align: center; widows: 2;"><br /></p><p style="orphans: 2; text-align: left; widows: 2;">..And, as the train accelerated westward across The Meadows, the out of balance swing span again tilted, kicking the west end upward and leaving the track on that end of the swing span about three or four inches higher than the track on the trestle. No one noticed the movement.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">An hour or so before that westbound train crossed the swing-span, it's twin had pulled out of the new West Jersey terminal in Camden with motorman Walter Scott driving. Conductor John Curtis was in charge of the train, while Brakeman Ralph Wood rounded out the three man crew. Only two of the three would survive the trip.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">About four miles east of the Camden terminal, Scott switched over from overhead wire to third rail, The train had two cars when it pulled out of Camden, running as a two car train until it rolled in to one of its first stops, Westville, bordering Camden to the south. The train had around 80 passengers distributed throughout its two coaches, most of them women and children. Twenty of the passengers were members of Tasca's Royal Artillery Band, enroute to Atlantic City to play at Young's Million Dollar Pier. A third coach was added in Westville, and several passengers moved to what was now the rear car of the train. Unfortunately for the band members, they elected to stay where they were.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The train made several more stops on the way to Atlantic City, dropping off and picking up passengers at each stop, until it reached The Meadows, just west of the bridge, sometime around 2:20 PM, rolling along at a good fifty or so. Walter Scott saw the westbound train approaching on the other track, and very likely raised his hand in greeting, maybe even giving the airhorn a quick blast as the two trains blurred past each other.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> Shortly after they passed the westbound train, Scott spotted several semaphore signals...one set giving the status of the track ahead, another indicating whether the draw bridge over The Thoroughfare was open or closed...ahead of him. The arms of both were sticking straight up, the lights below the arms glowing green, indicating a clear track ahead.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Scott could see the new bridge about a half mile ahead of him. He had to start slowing both to enter Atlantic City, and to stop at the new Atlantic City terminal, less than a half mile beyond the bridge, so he backed the speed controller off a couple of notches, and possibly made a gentle application of the air brakes, slowing gradually to make the ride as gentle as possible for the train's passengers.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Early afternoon sunlight glinted off the thoroughfare as they approached the bridge, brakes hissing and squealing subtly, dragging the train's speed down to about 40 by the time they rolled onto the fixed trestle, seconds away from the swing-span. Below them, though they couldn't see it happening, water eddied and burbled around the bridge pilings as the tide rolled in.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Afternoon sun flickering off of the thoroughfare's placid water caught the attention of the train's passengers, and I can just about bet a mom or two pointed to the yacht receding in the distance and said 'See the boat?' to her child. Other passengers began making ready to disembark, a few others were carrying on conversation...and suddenly their world was shattered as the train's leading truck slammed into a cliff.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The 'cliff' was only three or four inches high, but it might as well have been a solid rock wall when the leading wheels hit it at forty miles per hour. The front end of the car bounced upward a good foot, jolting to the right at the same instant, then came down <i>hard</i>, with the front truck off the track and slued to the right. The hot-shoe broke contact with the third rail, killing power to the car instantly, but a combined hundred and thirty or so tons of momentum kept the train moving, shuddering along the ties and angling towards the edge of the swing-span as it went.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> Every head in the car jerked around towards the sudden, solid, ringing 'BAM!!!' that reverberated from forward and beneath the car at the same instant that all of interior lights went out and all of them were thrown forward, catching themselves with a hand against the seat back ahead of them. A dozen moms threw the 'stiff-armed seatbelt' across their children's chests as the car started shuddering, bouncing rapidly up and down as it moved forward, still moving at between 35 and 40 MPH. and angling further to the right with every bounce.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">In the control cabin at the forward end of the car, Scott caught himself before he was thrown headfirst through the car's tall, narrow windscreen, but he still likely slammed against the control pedestal painfully. Instinct and training kicked in, and, even as the shuddery bouncing blurred his view through the windscreen, he slammed the brakes into emergency, even though he knew it wouldn't do any good. He knew what was happening...the car had derailed, and the front truck was bouncing along the ties.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The first car's rear truck probably hit the end of the displaced swing-span at about the same instant Scott slammed the brakes into emergency, doing the same violent hop-and-skip as the front truck. The train's first car, now completely off the track, bounced along the ties, angling to the right, for maybe another 20 feet before plunging off of the south side of the swing-span. the falling car angled downward violently, still moving forward at thirty or so when it speared into the water fifteen feet below the tracks, sending a curtain-like geyser of water up and over the bridge.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The car's occupants screamed in terror as the front end of the car angled downward, then were pitched head long into aisles and over seat backs when the front end slammed into the water with about the same impact as slamming into a brick wall at 30 MPH, a wall of water bursting through the twin windscreens with the force of a dozen fire hoses, bowling people over like paper cups caught in a gutter during a downpour.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The car filled in an instant, going under like a crash-diving submarine, its front end slamming <i>hard</i> into the muddy bottom twenty or so feet below the surface. The car's front end dug into the bottom and kept going, angling away from the bridge, throwing mud-clouds aside as both its own momentum, multiplied by the momentum of the still coupled,
still moving second and third coaches shoved it along the bottom.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The coupling between the first and second coaches likely ripped apart as they went off of the bridge, dropping the back end of the first coach straight down. A second curtain-shaped geyser of salt water blossomed up higher than the bridge deck as the back end of the lead car hit the water and just kept going, the rear truck sinking deep into the bottom mud. </p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The second coach didn't fare much better than the first, and its occupants got even <i>less</i> warning than those in the first coach. The front end of the car was suddenly jerked <i>violently</i> to the right and off the track, slamming across the up-kicked end of the swing-span at just about the same instant. Its wheels shuddered across the ties for about half the length of the swing-span before it, too, careened off of the bridge and sent a geyser skyward as it hit the water.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">These coaches weren't meant to be water-tight and were immensely heavy. The second coach didn't even pretend to try to float, instead angling downward as water gushed in through dozens of openings while the panicked, terrified occupants desperately tried to pull themselves through open windows and open the doors at the ends of the car. The front end of the second coach probably slammed into the back end of the first as it went under, partially crushing the first car's roof, before ricocheting to the right and digging its own furrow through the bottom mud as it careened across the bottom of the thoroughfare. </p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Most of the passengers who were still in the first two coaches when they slammed into the water were probably thrown forward, ending up in a tangled mass of limbs at the forward ends of the cars. This violent tumble injured many of them as they bounced into seats, package shelves, and each other, making escape all but impossible. In the first coach, Motorman Walter Scott never even made it out of his operator's compartment, his body likely crushed by the mass of humanity that was slammed forward by the car's impact with the bottom.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Terrified watery bedlam reigned inside both coaches as passengers tried desperately to escape before the cars flooded and sank. They had only seconds...well less than a minute...to make their escape. I don't know if they broke windows out, or simply opened them, but a dozen or so passengers <i>did</i> make it out of windows, one of them being conductor John Curtiss. One man in the second coach, however, managed to get stuck as he was trying to pull himself through a window, and drowned as the car sank.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The third coach all but mimicked the second, jerking to the right and slamming across the end of the swing-span as the wheels jittered and bounced across the ties before hurtling off of the bridge and angling downward into the water, sending yet another curtain of water skyward...but the occupants of the third coach got a break. The passengers, and more importantly, brakeman Ralph Wood, had watched the two cars ahead of them plunge off of the bridge, and as the third coach's wheels jolted across the ties, Wood ran to the rear of the car and yanked <i>hard</i> on the lever that threw the doors open.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The passengers made for the doors almost as a single body, probably literally climbing over each other...and then the front end of the car tilted downward as it left the bridge. The women and children screamed, the men cursed...and the car slammed to a stop, throwing some of them forward. The coupling between the third and second cars, like that between the first and second, had torn loose, so the third coach was no longer being dragged along. Then, as the car fell from the bridge, either the coupling on the rear of the car, or possibly the rear truck itself got snagged on the abutment supporting the end of the swing-span, jerking the falling car to a sudden stop.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">This break was only temporary...the car was tilted sharply downward, it's front end in the water and flooded back at least to the fifth or sixth row of seats. The car's own weight, as well as that of the water inside of it, was pulling it off of the abutment...the car's occupants could feel it shifting, hear the creaking and groaning as it started sliding.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">"Come on-GO!!!" Wood yelled, and the passengers on the high end of the car started pulling themselves out of the door and onto the pilings, some of the men helping wives and children out as they escaped. Passengers further forward in the car frantically pulled themselves upward, using the tilted seat backs as a make-do ladder. As they reached the high end of the car, Wood boosted them out through the door.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Most of the escaping passengers made it up onto the bridge, a couple dropped into the water then swam to one of the pilings and held on to await rescue. In all about twenty people made it out of the car before the up-tilted end of the car finally yanked free and dropped straight down, slamming hard against the fixed trestle and tearing away about ten feet of its sidewall while it was at it. The front end of the car shoved a mini-tidal wave through the bridge pilings as it struck the water while the now-damaged rear end of the of the car slammed down hard on the wood-timbered abutment, bounced sideways, then kept sliding, tilting hard to the right as it slid, The car finally jerked to a stop with its damaged rear end resting partially on the abutment, canted to the right with several feet of its roof and damaged side out of the water. A couple more people managed to pull themselves out of wrecked car once it's mad fall stopped, Brakeman Wood among them.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Brakeman Wood rode the car down, then pulled himself out of the wildly tilted end door...or maybe even through the hole where the sidewall used to be....as the car filled, shot to the surface, and swam to safety. As I noted above, a couple more people escaped with him, but everyone hadn't made it out of the car...a couple of other heroes were made that day.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> A passenger named Harry Roemer, who was likely on the low end of the tilted car, was pulling himself through an open window when the car slipped off of the pilings and sank. Roemer managed to pull himself free, shot to the surface and sucked in a lung-full of air, then went back down, swimming along the side of the car, kicking in several windows, and pulling several people from the third car before he had to go back up for air. </p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The wreck didn't go unseen...far from it, in fact. Atlantic City was a pretty bustling little burg, even in the off-season, and the Atlantic City end of that bridge was right smack in the middle of town, so dozens of people saw the wreck or its immediate aftermath. Bridge Tender Dan Stewart was the closest to the scene by far...he watched the eastbound train roll onto the bridge just as he'd done dozens of times before, watching it, but not really <i>seeing</i> it, daydreaming as his eyes followed the train, not really paying attention to it until the lead car suddenly jumped upward, hopped sideways, and plunged off of the bridge, the second and third cars following it over the side.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Stewart's eyes went <i>huge</i> as a curtain of white water rose upward, then collapsed, splashing onto the swing span...and suddenly the train was gone. What Stewart <i>should</i> have been doing was snatching up the telephone, ringing the operator, and calling in the cavalry...<i>should</i> have been doing. Instead, however, he bailed out of the cabin, and walked to his house, where he was found, in a state of shock, several hours later.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">A work train was parked on a siding couple of hundred feet west of the bridge, and maintenance worker J.S. Deford just happened to be looking out of one of the windows in a crew-car (Bunk room), when the inbound electric train rumbled past. Like the bridge tender, Deford was possibly daydreaming as he watched the train rolled onto the bridge...then suddenly his thoughts were shattered when he watched it shift violently to the right and plunge off of the bridge. His reaction was the polar opposite of Stewart's...Deford bailed out of the bunk car and ran hard across the grassy, dusty expanse between the siding and the bridge.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">He probably watched the third coach slide into the water just about the time he made it to the fixed trestle, and when he looked down into the water, he saw a nightmare, The first two cars were completely under, marked only by their trolley poles poking above the surface. One end of the third car, tilted crazily to the right, stuck out of the water hard by the wooden abutment supporting the swing-span's east end. Panicking, terrified people were swimming...or <i>trying</i> to swim in the heavy clothing of the era...in the water near the bridge.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The tide was coming in, and that helped some....at least they weren't being carried away from the bridge...but as it dragged the struggling passengers under the trestle, the water eddied and swirled around the pilings, making it difficult for them to hold on and stay above the surface...especially the kids. </p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Deford didn't hesitate more than the second or so that it took him to yank his shoes and jacket off before diving in....but it still wasn't that much he could do. He pulled three people onto the wooden abutment, but unfortunately, two were already dead. But at least he'd tried. And he wasn't the only one. One woman smashed her way through a window, shot to the surface and took a huge breath, then submarined back down, pulling a man through a window and taking him back up, where he swam to the abutment. She did this three more times, rescuing three more men, including her own husband, from one of the submerged cars.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Several men from town had seen the wreck and rushed to the bridge, diving in themselves...but by then the incoming tide was rushing hard and fast, putting them in as much danger as the people they were trying to rescue...<i>more</i> than the ones gathered on the abutment. Cooler heads, as they say, prevailed, and several boats were launched, a couple of them, by 1906, possibly even gasoline powered. If not gasoline, the workhorse of the era, steam.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Though there's no record of it happening, I can easily picture a big steam or gasoline launch nosing in to the abutment, her pilot holding her bow against the pilings with engine and rudder, deck crew probably first tying off with a quick-hitch secured bow line, then assisting the stranded train passengers on board as other crewmen pulled people still in the water out of harm's way.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">A dozen or more boats were probably on scene with-in a half hour of the wreck, all competently and even expertly crewed, and they had their work cut out for them. Somewhere between thirty and forty people made it out of the three cars before they sank. While the larger launch's crew dealt with the people on the abutment, the crews of the smaller boats plucked people clinging to the trestle pilings out of the water. </p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Unfortunately, not all of the citizens who flocked to the scene came to help. News of the accident spread through Atlantic City like wildfire, and hundreds if not thousands of people lined the bridge and the shorelines, many crossing the bridge over to The Meadows, watching the rescue and generally getting in the way. </p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Thankfully, several people had called both the cops and the fire department (What do you want to bet a few boxes were pulled, sending horse-drawn fire rigs rushing to the scene?) and several dozen officers ended up on scene, soon backed up by the Fire Department. </p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Police Chief Maxwell responded to the scene, and quickly had his men set up a cordon, at least pushing people back off of the bridge and on to the shore where they couldn't fall in and become even more of a problem. This singular task was more than enough to keep the Cops busy, but when a full first alarm assignment from the A.C.F.D. (Probably at least two engines, a truck company, and a battalion chief) rolled up, their guys really didn't have anything to do. Fire Chief Black arrived on scene fairly early in the incident (Then as now, major incidents attracted 'White Shirts' the way light attracts moths) and quickly made his guys available for 'Whatever was needed'. Several of them were temporarily detailed to Chief Maxwell, to assist with crowd control.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">These guys had their work cut out for them in another, far more heartbreaking way...More than a few of the people watching the rescues were relatives of passengers who'd been on the train, waiting for word of their loved ones. And, as has happened at every major man-made disaster since it became possible to kill dozens of people at a time in one accident, those worried relatives crowd-rushed the cops and conscripted firefighters, demanding answers that were impossible to give. Sadly, this goes on at major incidents to this very day. Technology may have evolved hundreds of times in the last century and change, but worried-sick relatives terrified that their loved ones might be injured or worse have...and will...remain the same. Unfortunately, the relatives of fifty three of those passengers would have to wait until the morgue was opened to allow for public viewing the next morning. Hopefully, the relatives of the passengers who survived learned that their loved ones were still alive the evening of the accident.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Once things became a little organized, the phone lines began humming, and one of the first frantic phone calls made all but immediately after the wreck went to the West Jersey brass. The station master from Atlantic City was probably on scene almost before the rescues even began, and I can just about bet one of the West Jersey's new electric coaches was eastbound from Camden, scheduled as a special train, with the road's head honchos on board within a half hour or less of the wreck. They were likely on scene by 3:30 or so.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">By that time anyone who survived the wreck was out of the water and the injured had been transported to the hospital. A few bodies...those that had somehow floated free of the submerged coaches...had been recovered and transported to a temporary morgue that had been set up at the nearby Empire Theater, but for the most part, things had reached an impasse, of sorts. The resources needed to recover bodies trapped in a submerged railroad car just didn't exist at the city...or even state...level in 1906. While the Navy, as well as civilian salvage firms, had and regularly used divers, their use in rescue and recovery situations such as this wreck was rare, and they were not set up for quick response. (A situation that's literally 180 degrees away from today. Now just about every coastal community as well as those with a large body of water within or bordering their boundaries either has their own fire department dive team or has access to one nearby that they can call for mutual aid. There would very likely be divers in the water within a half hour or less of any similar accident today.).</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">That's not saying that officials on scene just sat on their respective laurels and just waited for something to happen. Divers were quickly requested (Though I didn't see this stated, I believe they were U.S. Navy divers), while the West Jersey brass wasted no time in getting a pair of big wrecking cranes dispatched to the bridge. Again, though, this was 1906...none of this could happen particularly quickly. </p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The wrecking train was likely sitting on a side track, already made up and ready to roll...all they needed to do was couple a locomotive to it (A switch engine, already steamed up, was often used for this duty) and a crew had to be made up to man it (What do you want to bet this was handled with some form of on-call duty schedule?). The wreck train would have been ready to roll within an hour or less of being requested....but it likely didn't leave for a couple of hours.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The reason for this delay was likely the divers. If they were, in fact, U.S. Navy divers, they were probably dispatched from the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and it's a good bet that both divers and much of their equipment were brought to the scene by the same wreck train bringing the cranes...that would have been the most efficient way to transport them, at any rate...but it would have also delayed the wreck train's departure for the scene.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">When they arrived in Atlantic City they still had to get a barge to work off of, and while that wouldn't have been a particularly difficult item to find in a coastal city, it still took time to find one, secure it's use, and get it to the scene. Enough time that, by the time our divers were on scene and on board the barge, gear and equipment sorted, checked, and ready to go, the sun was sliding down over The Meadows.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">And one thing that they <i>didn't</i> have...and wouldn't have for more than a decade...was efficient and effective portable lights, and most importantly, a generator both portable enough and powerful enough to power them. All of the survivors had been rescued hours earlier by the time the divers were getting set up, and the operation had become purely a recovery operation. By a bit before Midnight, twenty-six bodies had been recovered and transported to the morgue, and the decision was made to hold off until the next morning.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">While no activity took place after nightfall, I have a feeling that railroad and city officials burned a few barrels of midnight oil as planning sessions took place. So, once the sun came up the next morning, divers and crews returned to the scene and made ready to work (And the crowds returned and lined the banks of The Thoroughfare to watch the proceedings, likely again overtaxing the men of the A.C.P.D.)</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">While the city fathers and railroad brass burned midnight oil, relatives of missing passengers were showing up where-ever they thought they could get any information...the morgue, city Hall, the scene...and, to complicate matters even more, The Press was demanding information about the wreck itself. And The Pennsylvania Railroad, as Corporate America tended to do back then, absolutely and flatly refused to release <i>any</i> info.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The morning after the wreck, as operations at the scene ramped up, a public relations guru by the name of Ivy Lee, who is popularly regarded as the Father of Modern Public Relations, took a look at the incident and realized that The Pennsylvania R.R. (The parent company of The West Jersey & Seashore) had themselves a true public relations disaster brewing...brand new technology being involved in, or even worse, <i>causing</i> a major, catastrophic loss of life accident within the first month of beginning operation is <i>still</i> the stuff of corporate office nightmares. </p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The Pennsylvania Railroad Brass was refusing to release <i>any</i> info, which was tantamount, in the eyes of The Fourth Estate, to saying 'We Know We're Guilty'...trust me, Corporate America was seen as a dishonest and untrustworthy Evil by the Press, and much of the American public.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Lee got hold of the Pennsylvania R.R. brass, and persuaded them to not only release information and allow the Press on scene to take their own photos, he also persuaded them to give him the info and allow him to release it to major papers and wire services as what would go down in history as the very first press release. He also managed to get his ideas approved early enough in the operation for photos of the cars being lifted from the water to appear in papers along with the afore-mentioned premiere press release on October 30th, only two days after the wreck.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Of course, while Ivy Lee was meeting with the railroad brass-hats, divers and railroad employees and APD officers were gathering at the scene and setting up for what can only be described as a macabre day's work. I don't believe the divers entered the coaches to remove bodies, because I believe the decision was made to raise the cars, <i>then</i> remove the bodies...this would have been, by far, the easiest and most efficient way to recover the bodies of the deceased. The divers' main job was hooking the cables from the big steam cranes to the coaches. I would imagine they also made a sweep of the area in order to go ahead and recover any easily accessible bodies, and I believe several bodies were brought up and taken ashore aboard a big gas or steam powered launch before the cars were raised.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Once these tasks were complete, the big wreckers were eased out onto the bridge, and, one by one, the divers connected cables to the sunken cars so they could be worked in closer to the bridge, then raised and brought ashore. As each car was dragged ashore and secured, crews would enter the cars, and begin removing the bodies and loading them in ambulance wagons for transport to the temporary morgue.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></p><p style="orphans: 2; text-align: center; widows: 2;">***</p><p style="orphans: 2; text-align: left; widows: 2;">Plenty of on-scene pics of this one. I didn't even try to pick and choose...I just posted all of the pics I found that were decent quality:</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrpBBzShC9TRq450mPNJvTirxVuEnPzUBu5KFoVU_sk59zpc_xIFdtBcC1wjjw9U_g15wjctCeiur1Hvr0ygROXFuTcs3rRzDC3LNRB2MkrACclDpeMDXJtzJa76PKroLjyOyNDq_MsK4w9nOrQXSXedBdA8evSej4WzP8pUuHIJBb4nBQamUv5-JG/s1156/1906-10-29%20Brooklyn_Times_Union%20-%20Atlantic%20City%20Train%20Wreck.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="917" data-original-width="1156" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrpBBzShC9TRq450mPNJvTirxVuEnPzUBu5KFoVU_sk59zpc_xIFdtBcC1wjjw9U_g15wjctCeiur1Hvr0ygROXFuTcs3rRzDC3LNRB2MkrACclDpeMDXJtzJa76PKroLjyOyNDq_MsK4w9nOrQXSXedBdA8evSej4WzP8pUuHIJBb4nBQamUv5-JG/w640-h508/1906-10-29%20Brooklyn_Times_Union%20-%20Atlantic%20City%20Train%20Wreck.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This drawing appeared in the the next day's Brooklyn Times-Union, and is a pretty detailed, if not completely accurate rendering of the scene...while the fixed portion of the bridge was a timber trestle as depicted, the swing-span was a steel plate girder span, and the rescues weren't going on at the same time the cars were being lifted from the water. Still, it gave the paper's readers a good idea of how the scene looked.<br /><br />Though many, if not most, present day Atlantic City residents don't know about this accident, it was a <i>huge</i> story when it happened, not only nationally, but internationally, with front page stories in papers world-wide in the day or two after the wreck, and follow-ups for a couple of weeks.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBPDGR9ijpN9eSKILwRmCyMduHz63wc7GNEVmyA87ipCsbKhBZN0SvJgyi-k4GGW-RucT0duf0n0xwGaA1s2tBGeASRweZnCTyMTJeMxFTGMPjvlYV6hVmQbyz-kyIrvvNnPC49RZjyeGNeX5Nq1ZKyWqIAOM7eWHANEkvzfTHeF4tSM_URNXLsq0u/s600/card00646_fr.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="600" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBPDGR9ijpN9eSKILwRmCyMduHz63wc7GNEVmyA87ipCsbKhBZN0SvJgyi-k4GGW-RucT0duf0n0xwGaA1s2tBGeASRweZnCTyMTJeMxFTGMPjvlYV6hVmQbyz-kyIrvvNnPC49RZjyeGNeX5Nq1ZKyWqIAOM7eWHANEkvzfTHeF4tSM_URNXLsq0u/w640-h406/card00646_fr.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I put this one in out of order because it is the only pic I've seen that actually shows the swing-span. The locomotive, which is at the head end of the wreck train, is on the timber-trestle fixed span on the east end of the bridge. The steel girder span ahead of the locomotive, left center of the frame is the swing span. The car in the water is the third coach, which got caught on the bridge abutment on the east end of the swing span.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">When the third coach went off of the bridge, its rear truck got lodged on either the abutment or the fixed trestle itself, and held, tilted sharply, long enough for many of the passengers in this coach to escape. After several seconds the car slipped off of the abutment, slamming into the fixed span and </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">partially overturning on the way down. The car's rear platform lodged on the abutment on the way down, holding one end of the car out of the water...this allowed several other passengers, including brakeman Ralph Wood, to scramble out of the wrecked car.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> This shot was probably taken at low tide, as a good portion of the car's out of the water.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One unusual feature of this accident was the fact that the bridge was closed when the train plummeted off of it...the wreck was caused by the swing span being out of balance and out alignment, with the tracks on the swing span being higher than the tracks on the west fixed span. When the train hit the out of alignment swing span's tracks, it derailed, bounced across the ties, and fell off of the bridge.</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNqEDVOp5eGXp8O0yOHFU77rV6dzyk7YXMkbgiTrBbZdUG-We7S8VIDk_3t8eSn1H-UOm35z87jnHWOuBhojURMZrwv4wgqOcijr4NedtoMxvN6fSmIakFFak3RjZwuI3ObGj616LSh28EeIyVJzeP-aH9h9ZHgV_DMu3WtH3mp8rk1gRjbq_uEnud/s1177/WreckET.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="1177" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNqEDVOp5eGXp8O0yOHFU77rV6dzyk7YXMkbgiTrBbZdUG-We7S8VIDk_3t8eSn1H-UOm35z87jnHWOuBhojURMZrwv4wgqOcijr4NedtoMxvN6fSmIakFFak3RjZwuI3ObGj616LSh28EeIyVJzeP-aH9h9ZHgV_DMu3WtH3mp8rk1gRjbq_uEnud/w640-h482/WreckET.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Wrecking crane lifting the first car from the Thoroughfare. The cars were probably lifted from the water, then dragged to shore, where the bodies of the deceased passengers who were still aboard the cars were removed and taken to a makeshift morgue at the Empire Theater.</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9kf5fHF_DxwjjH90VnCcoa6fo0Ym7luURAFpwDeXPpTloekUvIZ3fauZ48MjsMpA-jqf09t8b99dHdBUMUiMXD07vQG-vdPinMRb4uEmMdeKc_aC2TgR5i2sUkhWmkUTW65Qoir9J87R9MgTiSP63naLZv8_ODHxGZ5oto7beWzVCgyX4rcnoMKPf/s1422/R.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1422" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9kf5fHF_DxwjjH90VnCcoa6fo0Ym7luURAFpwDeXPpTloekUvIZ3fauZ48MjsMpA-jqf09t8b99dHdBUMUiMXD07vQG-vdPinMRb4uEmMdeKc_aC2TgR5i2sUkhWmkUTW65Qoir9J87R9MgTiSP63naLZv8_ODHxGZ5oto7beWzVCgyX4rcnoMKPf/w640-h406/R.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Another view of the first car being lifted from the water....it appears it's actually being dragged ashore here. Note the number of spectators and how close they are to the scene. It's always amazed me how close civilians were allowed to be to the scene back in the day.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNcP4W7GRVtMxDe7j5ZOOJKB_sCWm8VJNUthaUmtLqX0UsyrfQMANAsDEUbngjKwxKwQn0m2GciAur_HjCOqpRbM3tdUq9CzyfBg1NgXfLpgn0ryZR3QMJjCmY-cIcrEag-7LizfDoDWRI2yPAZfH9Gi9baWctazbtq14tJ5_x5eECsWPL8Hp1RaQp/s768/Screen-Shot-2022-07-11-at-1.24.13-PM.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="768" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNcP4W7GRVtMxDe7j5ZOOJKB_sCWm8VJNUthaUmtLqX0UsyrfQMANAsDEUbngjKwxKwQn0m2GciAur_HjCOqpRbM3tdUq9CzyfBg1NgXfLpgn0ryZR3QMJjCmY-cIcrEag-7LizfDoDWRI2yPAZfH9Gi9baWctazbtq14tJ5_x5eECsWPL8Hp1RaQp/w640-h456/Screen-Shot-2022-07-11-at-1.24.13-PM.webp" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Another view of the first car being lifted from the Thoroughfare, this one shot from the bridge deck. The photographer is actually standing on the abutment that supported the east end of the swing span, which would have been immediately behind him. You can easily see how the second car crushed the roof of the first when the two cars plunged off of the bridge. The car's actually been dragged up on the shore here. the other two were probably dragged ashore next to it. making it far easier for the bodies of the deceased passengers to be removed. <br /><br />Those big steam powered wrecking cranes were massive beasts, rated at around 75 to 100 tons apiece in this era, with later ones having capacities of up to 250 tons, and were the kings of railroad maintenance of way departments, and were in use right on up to the latter two decades of the 20th Century. Private contractors usually handle clean-up of derailments, using big crawler type cranes, today<br /><br />Also note the size of the crowd on the shore, and how close they were allowed to get to the action as well as the number of people on the bridge itself...they were extremely lucky that no one was injured or worse as the cars were dragged ashore. This day and time, there wouldn't be any spectators with-in a quarter mile or so of the scene.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbeDAPcfxSObKA-OaOviQLdm2P0TwzsvUXFVB7HVY51WNrd8aXV8Q2vKpdW2DxXDDNlPOh921fyEZyhQKIvD8FStjFpYWwXah9qXL-FBf031PQESO5siz37sD-ciJQqa-kSQmhgUNAlIx5JQRpBbCQyqPmIUp6xRcvtPTxZJwr4jZQAzfnawnZbgRp/s1200/4cdddbd52789b.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbeDAPcfxSObKA-OaOviQLdm2P0TwzsvUXFVB7HVY51WNrd8aXV8Q2vKpdW2DxXDDNlPOh921fyEZyhQKIvD8FStjFpYWwXah9qXL-FBf031PQESO5siz37sD-ciJQqa-kSQmhgUNAlIx5JQRpBbCQyqPmIUp6xRcvtPTxZJwr4jZQAzfnawnZbgRp/w640-h360/4cdddbd52789b.webp" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">First car's ashore, and the locomotive's likely repositioning the wrecking cranes to get the second coach. The locomotive's on the rear of the work train's consist of cars here, pushing the train rather than pulling. It probably positioned the wrecking cranes where they were needed, then the train's brakes were locked down, and locomotive crew made a run to one of the turning wyes to swing the locomotive around and return to the scene, coupling the locomotives front coupler to the rear of the work train when they arrived back on scene.<br /><br />This is actually a different...larger and newer...locomotive than shown above, and there are two cranes in use. I'm thinking that there were either two work trains, or the work train that did respond used 'doubleheaded' locomotives.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfGoHjt5tx8WOfH09VEbRf_VuWI7OR0C2jF2CbGzKc04vGAcSqIm9YAqux1PXG1OH6CuphfeZ56KDz0Vk9ngkvtJi6FtnNecRPnSBQ6S8oB__Ci7VeGnNl21CMLKbHChiFbk4KaopnlOPpmSTPOqTvsEOKSgSBKh-tE-xiozTVCuccbwkShKuqH99q/s1000/s-l400.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="649" data-original-width="1000" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfGoHjt5tx8WOfH09VEbRf_VuWI7OR0C2jF2CbGzKc04vGAcSqIm9YAqux1PXG1OH6CuphfeZ56KDz0Vk9ngkvtJi6FtnNecRPnSBQ6S8oB__Ci7VeGnNl21CMLKbHChiFbk4KaopnlOPpmSTPOqTvsEOKSgSBKh-tE-xiozTVCuccbwkShKuqH99q/w640-h416/s-l400.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An unfortunately poor shot of what I believe is the second car being lifted from the water. Like the first car, the second car was brought ashore with bodies still aboard as this was the easiest and safest way to actually recover the bodies.<br /><br /> The trucks are still on the bottom of the Thoroughfare...on most rail cars, the car bodies stay on the trucks through gravity. Of course, in this case, the trucks also include the motor sets. The attachment between trucks and car bodies are brake hardware/air lines and, in the case of motor cars such as these, wiring. The car bodies rest on large king pins that allow the trucks to pivot, and while the trucks and car bodies are in physical contact with each other, there is no physical attachment, such as bolts, holding the two together. So when the cars went in the water, the heavy trucks, which included the motorsets on these cars, dropped away, tearing away the wiring and brake lines, and sank to the bottom.<br /><br />Note that two wrecking cranes are being used to lift the car from the water....Looking at these pics, I believe that either, two work trains were on scene, or the train that responded was pulled by two locomotives ('Doubleheaded' in railroad-speak) as two different locomotives are seen.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZka2rQENcMXiBbrkL1NvH2BbWgjoRiURuaL2IgYpFGojYcNV5mDZTc5satk-FqSfedwCKtI7ME3QeL-gmuUVVlBRcur_VBgeBC_xaB5wAsTXwJRH7lH4uJ3BOJbDmZhJIc8ny-dkb8zOLHkFvCEv3gEFrnq5F8-QMURgoV6QbraCssoAiFKRX5TUW/s1195/Wreck.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="1195" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZka2rQENcMXiBbrkL1NvH2BbWgjoRiURuaL2IgYpFGojYcNV5mDZTc5satk-FqSfedwCKtI7ME3QeL-gmuUVVlBRcur_VBgeBC_xaB5wAsTXwJRH7lH4uJ3BOJbDmZhJIc8ny-dkb8zOLHkFvCEv3gEFrnq5F8-QMURgoV6QbraCssoAiFKRX5TUW/w640-h474/Wreck.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A pic of the overturned, partially submerged third coach still resting on the abutment, where it landed after finally slipping off of the bridge. Most of the occupants of this car escaped, thanks to the quick action of the brakeman.<br /><br />Note the number of spectators lining the bridge...this just still boggles my mind.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_CAtKeiuWGLrF73krJmGZUAky6ARipzXpVwNrsk87-2u6MjDtWmYmGeDlB2Pke5E2CLEqOP49mL67bEv0izO5YqBol0Wcof4OwSN9HmQvCrZbG6V--Y2QYFd2p0mMEyOvTV526DLgaAtn0RWcCP-fIAixeH6z633iY93X3b1qdrBnVHKvKmtsHpF2/s1190/WreckE.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="1190" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_CAtKeiuWGLrF73krJmGZUAky6ARipzXpVwNrsk87-2u6MjDtWmYmGeDlB2Pke5E2CLEqOP49mL67bEv0izO5YqBol0Wcof4OwSN9HmQvCrZbG6V--Y2QYFd2p0mMEyOvTV526DLgaAtn0RWcCP-fIAixeH6z633iY93X3b1qdrBnVHKvKmtsHpF2/w640-h468/WreckE.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Remember me commenting on how close spectators were allowed to be to the scene...here's the proof. Some of these guys <i>had</i> to have been railroad employees, though the boats may have been privately owned.<br /><br />I have a feeling this may have been earlier in the incident, before the wrecking train arrived on scene, while bodies that had floated free of the cars were being removed from the thoroughfare. The majority of the bodies were left aboard the submerged cars and removed once the cares were brought ashore.<br /><br />Take a look in the background, beyond the bridge, and you can see one of the other railroad bridges across the Thoroughfare...there were four of them by this time, as well as the bridge for the Pleasantville-Atlantic City Turnpike. All were in place and in use until at least the early to mid 1930s. <br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">**</div><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">And here's where a problem that seems to crop up at every incident with catastrophic loss of life from this era, and even well into the first quarter or so of the last century rears its head...no one's absolutely sure just <i>how</i> many people actually died. The most commonly quoted figure is 53, but a couple of sources have given the figure as 57, and one early newspaper article actually reported a death toll of 74, a figure that, thankfully, was greatly inflated.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> Officials weren't even sure of just how many passengers were on the train in the first place, making it even more difficult to come up with a good figure for the total number of fatalities. They <i>should</i> have been able to compare the number of tickets sold to the number of survivors, and at <i>least</i> come up with a solid number of missing passengers. But it didn't work that way.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">As I noted above, Conductor John Curtis survived the wreck, and was probably rescued, along with over a dozen passengers, from one of the bridge abutments. One of the very <i>first</i> things he was asked by his bosses after his rescue was how many passengers were on board. Should have been an easy question...all he had to do was count the tickets...but there was a problem.</p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">After kicking his way through a window and nearly drowning, Curtis was all but totally traumatized...he couldn't even give them a cohesive account of what had happened and kept changing the total number of passengers to totals that were just shy of ridiculous.... all of the figures he gave them were north of one hundred...before finally admitting that he had no clue how many passengers were on board the train.</p><p align="LEFT">Ultimately eighty-eight
punched, full fare tickets were found, and that was determined to be
the total number of passengers on board. This figure apparently also matched up when officials compared the number of survivors to the number of fatalities, though when those two totals were added, they actually came up with 89. Only
fifty-two of the fatalities were passengers...the fifty-third was Motorman Walter Scott. So they at least knew they didn't have anyone
missing and had <i>finally </i>come up with the official
number of fatalities.</p><p align="LEFT">All of the bodies were transported to the morgue, and a parade of distraught relatives of the missing shuffled through, desperately hoping their loved one wouldn't be under one of those shrouds even as they knew they would. Then a mother or wife would scream a horrible, despondent sob, or a husband or father would croak a more subdued, but still heart broken 'Oh, God', and another body would be officially I..D.ed. </p><p align="LEFT">There is very little more heartbreaking that having to identify a loved one's body, but a couple of these cases were <i>especially </i>heartrending. Philadelphia resident Fred Benckert, for example, was supposed to have made the trip to Atlantic City with his wife and two small sons, but some work obligation kept him from doing so, so he made the trip later. He traveled to Atlantic City by car, itself an adventure of the first magnitude in 1906, and arrived only to be told of the wreck. After searching for his family, he made his way to the morgue, only to find all three of them among the dead. Mr. Benckert is said to have fallen into a dead faint at the sight, and had to be helped from the building</p><p align="LEFT">Then there was Sam McElroy, also a Philly resident, who was making the trip to Atlantic City with his wife, five year old daughter, and three year old son. Apparently, he made it out of one of the cars, but was unable to rescue his family. After spending a sleepless night somewhere, he had to undergo the agony of watching the recovery operation the next day, then searching for his family at the morgue, and IDing the bodies of his wife and daughter. His son was still missing (And sadly, I found no info on whether the child was found or not, though I assume he was.). When asked for his home address as the inevitable forms were filled out, he gave the official his home address, but also informed him that he wouldn't be returning there, as there was nothing to return for.</p><p align="LEFT">These are just two of over fifty such sad tales. </p><p align="LEFT">As heartbreaking as this task was, identification of bodies was probably a fairly quick process, as almost all of the passengers were local, many of them actual residents of Atlantic City. Releasing the bodies to the families, and arranging transport to their funeral home of choice would have been yet another heartbreaking task, one that would have been a bit more time consuming as well as involving red tape and paperwork, but it, too, likely took only a couple of days at the most. </p><p align="LEFT">The funerals, however, probably seemed to go on forever.</p><p align="LEFT">A Coroner's Jury was all but inevitably convened to determine cause, and if possible, assign responsibility for the disaster, and once Pennsylvania Rail Road officials and mechanics discovered that the swing span was out of alignment and tilted, the cause was pretty straightforward. It was a mechanical glitch, nothing more or less, and for once, the Coroners Jury couldn't really assign blame for the accident. I can only assume that all the deaths were listed as being caused by drowning. </p><p align="LEFT">The three wrecked coaches sat, side by side, on the shore of the Thoroughfare until those same wreckers could put new trucks on the rails and lift the coaches onto them. (These were likely unpowered trucks used for the singular purpose pf towing the wrecks to the West Jersey shops...the original powered trucks were still on the bottom of the thoroughfare, and our divers likely assisted with their recovery as well.)</p><p align="LEFT">I can just about guarantee that the Pennsylvania railroad made sure that the cars were removed from the scene as quickly as possibly...they didn't want them sitting there in plain sight, reminding everyone who so much as glanced at them of the disaster, any longer than absolutely necessary. Then once they got them to the West Jersey shops, if at all possible, they were probably repaired and reused, if not as powered cars then as regular passenger coaches on another portion of the line. All three of the coaches were damaged in the tumble from the bridge, and from slamming into each other as they went in the water, but none of them appeared to be complete write-offs by any means.</p><p align="LEFT">It probably took another day or two for mechanics to chase down the gremlin that caused the problem and then fix it, but I can just about guarantee you that the bridge was repaired, back in service, with trains running again, within about a week. </p><p align="LEFT"> All of the rail lines into Atlantic City, as well as the old turnpike, were still in use, with all of the drawbridges still in place, at least until the early-1930s (The last aerial photo I found with them in place was taken in 1933), but by 1957, only the present-day modern bridge (Today's NJT line, built on the old Reading RR right-of-way) was in place. The new Atlantic City Expressway had been added by 1970. The old right of ways...rail lines and old turnpike...were, and still apparently are, still clearly visible.</p><p align="LEFT">And the story pretty much fades away into the sunset. No memorial was ever erected to the memory of the fifty-three who died in The Thoroughfare that Long ago mid-fall Sunday afternoon. Even the bridge itself, and the rail line it served. is long gone, and the wreck has become a historic footnote in the city's history. At least it's somewhat remembered, unlike the diamond crossing collision a decade earlier. Unfortunately, like the fifty victims of that wreck, the Atlantic City Drawbridge Disaster's fifty-three victims remain without a memorial.</p><p align="LEFT"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***>NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF<***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">I did <i>not</i> enjoy the same level of good luck, research-wise, with this post that I did with the Diamond Crossing collision's post. Not even close, in fact, and actually that's a little bit puzzling. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The Drawbridge Disaster is the best known of Atlantic City's two rail disasters, yet it's also the <i>least</i> represented of the two on the ol' inter-webs. Seriously, there was <i>very</i> little information out there about this one. This was especially puzzling considering that the very first press release...<i>ever...</i>was released by the Pennsylvania Railroad's embryotic public relations department with-in 24 hours of the wreck in an early effort at damage control. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The Drawbridge Disaster is also pretty well known among serious railfans, as well as serious scholars of Atlantic City history, so there should have been at least a <i>little</i> more info available, but, trust me on this, it just ain't out there...I looked.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Another interesting paradox is that the Drawbridge Disaster is by far the better represented of the two disasters in written, spoken, and video histories of the city despite the fact that it's the least represented on-line. Seriously, the Drawbridge Disaster is usually mentioned in some detail in any history of the resort city, while the Diamond Crossing collision is barely mentioned in passing, if at all.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Interesting Fact Number Three...this is the <i>second</i> time that a drawbridge disaster has overshadowed a diamond crossing collision in the media. (The first was when <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2022/01/grand-crossing-train-collision-april.html">Chicago's Grand Crossing Collision</a> was completely overshadowed by the <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2021/09/norwalkbridge-disaster-norwalk-may-6-th.html">Norwalk Bridge Disaster.</a>). It seems a bit more puzzling in this case, though, because both incidents occurred in the same city, on the same rail line, were just about equally as deadly, and were both pretty spectacular, news-story wise.. I think the fact that the Drawbridge Disaster involved brand new, cutting edge technology, <i>and </i>happened right at the city's front door, in full view of many of it's citizens, may have had something to do with this.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Drawbridge Disaster, BTW, was also one of the very early incidents of any kind to have fairly extensive photographic coverage in the press, some pretty good pics at that. I have a feeling that this fact alone may go a long way in explaining why the Drawbridge Disaster is the better known of the two...it became a press photographer's fantasy, one that they took full advantage of, making the Drawbridge Disaster, by <i>far,</i> the better documented of the two.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Speaking</i> of those photos, happily, several of them are available on-line. Unfortunately, they included very little text describing just what you were looking at...not a problem with some shots, such as the cars being lifted from the water, but it would have been nice to know, for example, just where in the incident's timeline some of the more generic shots were taken. Still, it was nice to have some pics of the incident itself.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And as for links, I did manage to find one very good newspaper article that provided the bulk of my research, a slew of photos of the scene, and the Wiki page which, like the Diamond Crossing Disaster's Wiki page, was actually pretty sparse, info-wise.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Of course, there is a caveat to that newspaper article...news articles in that era were were both <i>far</i> more graphic than modern day news articles, as well as featuring near tabloid level sensationalism, so some of the actions reported may not have happened as written. Or even close to 'As Written'. Or, maybe even at all. One good example is that third coach....the article describes it as coming to rest almost completely submerged, while the photos clearly show that several feet of the car were out of the water, and that one end was heavily damaged, probably from hitting the bridge on the way down, a fact that was never even mentioned in the article.</p><p style="text-align: left;">How the wreck happened was pretty straightforward, of course, and that one detailed newspaper article I found gave a pretty good description of how the train went in the water, giving me a nice spring-board to use when describing the wreck as it happened. I, however, have no clue what really went on inside those three coaches in the minute or so between the first coach slamming into the out-of-sync swing span and the three coaches hitting the bottom of the Thoroughfare. It would be more than accurate and maybe even a bit of an understatement to call that minute or so a watery version of what nightmares are made of. </p><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">One important detail, BTW, that I couldn't<i> </i>find, though I very much wanted to, was the text of Ivy Lee's press release. I'm still lookin', though. and if and when I find it, I'll absolutely add it.</span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">Of course, this lack of good sources </span>led me to do a good bit of guessing, a fair amount of reading between the lines, and a <i>lot</i> of speculating, but then again speculating and guessing are pretty much necessary in writing a post about <i>any</i> incident that occurred a century and change back...unless of course all you want is a dry recital of known facts. Trust me, I <i>never </i>want <i>any </i>of my posts to be simply<i> </i>dry lists of facts.</div><div><br /></div><div>Besides, that speculating and between-the-line reading makes these posts all the more fun to write, and hopefully also makes them a good way for you guys to spend a few minutes. </div><div><br /></div><div>As always, I described the actions and events as I thought they may have happened, and as always any errors are mine. As in all of my posts, I tried to make it as accurate as possible, as well as informative, and hopefully, a good read. </div><p style="text-align: left;">So...on to the 'Notes'!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><***></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Electrification was a <i>huge</i> technological advance for railroads in the late 19th/early 20th century and the West Jersey's parent company...the huge and legendary Pennsylvania Railroad System...adopted the new tech very early in the ball game. The P.R.R. used it extensively on portions of it's system, especially in the Northeast Corridor, until the road's ultimate twin demises...first being rolled into the Penn Central Transportation Company along with the New York Central and the New Haven railroads in 1969, then ultimately being gobbled up by Conrail and Amtrak in early 1976.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Electric locomotives were far more efficient than steam as well as far cleaner. But there was one drawback, initially, to electrification, and its name was infrastructure. When the Pennsylvania Railroad electrified one of its routes, they also had to build and install the infrastructure required to deliver the volts to the locomotives, and this resulted in a battle of the technologies that was even bigger than the infamous 'Betamax vs VHS' battle three quarters of a century later. </p><p style="text-align: left;">That battle was between Third Rail and Overhead Catenary systems, with the difference being that <i>both</i> systems won out in this case. As discussed in the main body of the post, a third rail is an electrically energized strip of metal that runs alongside the track to transmit electricity to a locomotive's motors through a 'hot shoe' attached to the locomotive or power car's trucks. This shoe slides along the rail to 'pick up' the electrical current. with the regular rails serving as the ground</p><p style="text-align: left;">On a train such as the West Jersey train involved in the wreck, each car is powered and has multiple shoes...generally one at each wheelset...and any one shoe can actually provide power for multiple cars.</p><p style="text-align: left;">This system is compact, comparatively inexpensive, and easy to build, but can be dangerous to the general public and railroad track maintenance workers. The rails carry both high amperage and somewhere around 600 volts, and coming into contact with the third rail would instantly fry anyone unfortunate enough do so.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Also, the rails have to be 'gapped' at grade crossings and the like...the third rail ends about 50 feet on either side of the grade crossing, and the train drifts through the gap, with the shoes resuming contact when the third rail continues. A buried cable bridges the gap between the two sections of third rail and the end of the third rail is ramped to ensure the reconnection with the shoe is smooth. Each car having multiple shoes helps out here, because if the train's long enough, there will always be a shoe in contact with the third rail on either side of the gap.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A similar buried cable also provides continuity at draw bridges, BTW. When the bridge is opened, the power is automatically switched to a cable, buried on the bottom of the body of water, that allows the circuit to remain complete. If this <i>wasn't</i> done, the circuit would be broken every time a bridge opened, stopping <i>every </i>train on that section of the line until the bridge closed again.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then there were (And are) catenary systems, where a retractable framework on the roof of the locomotive picks up electricity from overhead wires suspended above the track. Far less dangerous to the public, but more difficult to build and maintain. The two systems battled it out at the beginning...</p><p style="text-align: left;">...And as I noted above, <i>both systems</i> won. The third rail system is still in heavy use in urban mass transit systems such as subways and Chicago's legendary 'El', while the catenary system is used on longer suburban lines, such as Metro North's line along Long Island Sound, as well as railroad mainlines such as Amtrak's operations along the Northeast Corridor. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Interestingly enough, though NJT has several electrified sections, their present-day line into Atlantic City <i>isn't</i> electrified. Those trains are headed by diesel locomotives.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><***></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">The West Jersey's electrified line from Camden to Atlantic City generated more than a little controversy even before the Bridge Disaster occurred. There were several people killed or injured by the new electric trains in the month and a half between the line's opening and the disaster. At least three people were killed when struck by the trains, a couple more were injured in the same way, and there were also several close calls.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The lucky individuals who survived these far-too-close encounters with new technology all quoted the same causes for their accidents. They either didn't hear the train's near-silent approach, looked and saw only coaches and assumed they were <i>not</i> moving because they saw no locomotive, or a combination of the two.</p><p style="text-align: left;">While the argument can, and should, be made that if they had been both more careful and more observant, the accidents wouldn't have happened...walking across a railroad grade crossing without looking <i>and</i> listening has <i>never</i> been a good idea...their reasons actually had some merit.</p><p style="text-align: left;">These new motorized cars were <i>very</i> cutting edge for their day, and the idea of a railroad car moving under its own power, with no chuffing, steam and smoke belching behemoth at the head end of the train, was <i>extremely</i> difficult for John and Jane Q Public to get their collective heads around. People were used to watching for the column of smoke from the locomotive and listening for both the distinctive 'Chf-chf-chf-chf' of the locomotive's exhaust, and the sharp, shrill blast of a steam whistle. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The problem, of course, was the fact that there was no smoke column from the new cars, they were all but silent when approaching a crossing, and they had airhorns...likely among the first vehicles of any kind to be so equipped...rather than whistles. The airhorn's 'Bull in Heat' honk really didn't mean anything to the general public, though it <i>should</i> have made them at least look in the direction the sound was coming from to see what was making it.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Several people were also killed or injured when they came in contact with the third rail, but as the article I read noted, they pretty much had to be trespassing for this to happen. The third rails were well covered and guarded in the vicinity of stations and grade crossings, and there was a gap at the crossings themselves, as I noted above.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The accidents did instigate a call for better grade crossing safety (Watchmen at more crossings, and longer hours for the watchmen who were already in place. It'd be about a decade before the first automatic crossing signals...the venerable wig-wag signals...began appearing.).</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><***></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Interestingly enough, several decades later, when diesel locomotives began heading up streamlined passenger trains, there was another rash of grade crossing accidents, these involving vehicles being struck by trains, and the absence of that tell-tale column of smoke was, once again, cited as one of the causes, along with drivers not recognizing the air horn as an oncoming train. I cover this as well as the iconic warning light that was developed to try and remedy the problem in the notes of <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">this post</a> .</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><***></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Let's talk about our divers for a bit. Today, when we think of divers at an emergency scene such as the Bridge disaster, we think 'Scuba Diver', and picture our diver wearing a wet suit (Or dry suit...they look essentially identical, especially to the untrained observer.) and face mask, breathing through a regulator that's clenched between his teeth and connected to the single or double tank S.C.U.B.A. outfit on his back by hoses. This, of course, is <i>exactly</i> what modern day fire and police department scuba teams suit up in, and their units are often designated as 'Scuba Rescue' units. </p><p style="text-align: left;">And a problem raises it's head...in 1906, those familiar SCUBA outfits we're all so familiar hadn't been developed yet, and wouldn't be for nearly four decades.<i> </i>The first SCUBA gear of the type we're familiar with was developed during World War II by none other than the legendary Jacques Cousteau, and while self contained units such as oxygen rebreathers existed before before 1906, but weren't all that common nor were they cheap.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Generally commercial and military divers only had a couple of options.</p><p style="text-align: left;">They could use either the iconic diving helmets all of us are familiar with from watching cartoon deep sea divers do battle with cartoon octopi on Saturday mornings, or they could use early regulators and face masks. Regulators had been developed in the early 19th century, and one type, the <span style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: times;">Rouquayrol-Denayrouze</span></span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 12.3704px;"> </span>was actually manufactured, with changes as technology progressed, from 1865 to 1965.</p><p style="text-align: left;">While some attempts at including a self contained air supply had been made, the means to store and supply high pressure gasses in such applications just wasn't there yet by 1906, nor would it be for a couple of decades or so, so <i>all</i> of these suits were supplied from an outside source...generally a ship or barge mounted air compressor. The earlier ones had been supplied by manually operated bellows.</p><p style="text-align: left;">My bet is our Navy divers utilized a full body diving suit with regulator and face mask for the recovery and salvage work in Atlantic City. The water depth was only about 20 feet, and they were working in close, cramped quarters, so the less cumbersome regulator and suit system would have been easier to work in, and probably safer, Of course, there was <i>still</i> one problem.</p><p style="text-align: left;">No matter which system they used, all of them were dragging an air hose along with them. This, of course, presented all <i>kind</i> of hazards. The hose could get snagged on the bridge or on wreckage and get cut, which would necessitate an <i>immediate</i> emergency ascent. </p><p style="text-align: left;">While that scenereo would've been sweaty-palm level scary, it wouldn't have been a death sentence by any means. These were, after all, professional divers, and they had probably drilled on the procedure for releasing their weight belts and shooting themselves to the surface to the point that they could do it in their sleep...it was, after all, a procedure that could potentially save their lives. If any of them <i>did </i>have to do an emergency surface<i>, </i>at least they weren't but twenty or so feet down, so the trip up to the surface...holding their breath, or more likely, breathing out slowly...wouldn't have taken but a few seconds, but it would have been a long, <i>long</i> few seconds!</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then there were the problems that weren't as dangerous, but were seriously aggravating, at best, such as getting the multiple air lines tangled when multiple divers were in the water. I believe a version of the 'Buddy System' was already policy for professional divers, be they military or commercial, so these guys probably went down in pairs. It wouldn't surprise me if, at least once or twice, a couple of divers had to back-trace their air hoses and untangle them before continuing.</p><p style="text-align: left;">These hoses, BTW, pretty much guaranteed that the divers wouldn't go inside the cars...had they done so, it wouldn't have been a case of <i>If</i> an air hose got snagged/cut/tangled, but <i>When. </i>And if one of the divers was inside one of the sunken coaches when he suffered a cut air hose, he wouldn't be able to surface quickly...or at all, and his name would have, sadly, very likely been added to the death toll from the wreck.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Of course...and I mentioned these devices above...there <i>is</i> the possibility our divers could have been equipped with something like the <a href="http://historyofdivingmuseum.blogspot.com/2011/11/henry-fleuss-early-scuba-pioneer.html">Fleuss Rebreather</a>, which would have changed the whole ball game. These rigs reportedly allowed fairly decent bottom time and were self contained, so our divers wouldn't have had to drag an air hose around with them with all of the hazards and problems that entailed. These rigs would have also allowed far, <i>far </i>more freedom of movement, and if <i>anyone</i> had them it was likely to be the Navy, an organization known to do a bit of underwater work now and again. But even if the Navy <i>did</i> equip our divers with the rebreathers, they still didn't get in the water in time to do anything other than salvage and recovery. And they <i>still</i> wouldn't have gone inside the coaches to recover bodies, both because of visibility issues, and the cramped working conditions.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And most importantly, and sadly, there absolutely wouldn't have been any live rescues. While it's nice to think of our divers hustling to get in the water, and possibly make some rescues, it just wouldn't have happened...Time was against them from the instant a telephone rang at the Philly Navy Yard. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Anyone who didn't escape from the cars died within a couple of minutes of them going in the water, while it would have taken the divers, at best, two or so hours to get on scene, and that's if everything went absolutely smoothly from the minute a grizzled Chief answered our phone call. Once they got on scene, even if they <i>were</i> using the rebreathers, which would have cut their dress-out time immensely, it would have <i>still</i> very likely been 5 PM or so before a diver went in the water. (Full disclosure here, gang...one source <i>did</i> report that divers were in the water with-in an hour after the wreck, but I could find no details as to how they pulled that off, especially if our divers were Navy divers, coming from Philadelphia. Today they could absolutely have divers in the water <i>well</i> within an hour. Heck, with-in a <i>half </i>hour, and they'd be A.C.F.D. divers <i>. </i>But in1906? Can't see it happening.).</p><p style="text-align: left;">Their first task upon getting in the water would have been recon...determining just how the cars were resting on the bottom and how difficult either recovering the bodies or the cars themselves would be, as well as recovering any bodies that were immediately accessible. The decision to raise the cars and then recover the bodies was likely made very early in the ball game, possibly even before the first diver went in the water.</p><p style="text-align: left;">This type of dive is <i>never</i> a walk in the park, but this one was particularly hard on these guys. I read a description of what one of the first divers in the water saw when he looked in one of the coaches...the very first thing that met his eyes was a young child pressed up against a window. That, guys, is what PTSD, which wouldn't actually be identified and defined for nearly three quarters of a century, is made of.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then, as described in the main body of the post, they assisted with rigging the cars to be raised. Our divers, guys, performed salvage and recon.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><***></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Emergency response to the Drawbridge Disaster wasn't quite 180 degrees away from what a modern response to a similar incident would be today...<i>150</i> degrees maybe, but not a full 180.</p><p style="text-align: left;">There was actually a fairly effective emergency response, with multiple rescues made fairly early in the incident, and everyone who made it out of the coaches was on dry land with-in about an hour of the wreck. The only thing was, most, in not all, of these rescues were made by citizens and railroad employees rather then the fire department.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Back in this era, fire departments were set up to do one thing really well...operate at fires. The first purpose-organized rescue unit...FDNY's legendary Rescue 1...wouldn't go in service until 1915, and, while big-city departments located on the coast, or on the Great Lakes, had fireboats which were used to rescue people in the water occasionally, even these companies were mainly set up for, well, water-borne fire-fighting.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Smaller cities such as Atlantic City often didn't have fireboats, and Atlantic City's fire department...which had just gone fully paid two years earlier...had absolutely <i>no</i> water rescue capability in 1906. While the department did respond to the drawbridge disaster, likely to a pulled box or two, when they got to the scene there really wasn't much they could do. Citizens with boats had the rescues well under way, there was no fire, and they had absolutely no capability to deal with the submerged cars. When AFD's Chief of Department arrived on scene, very likely after being advised of what they had by the Alarm Office, he detailed his guys to assist the Police Department with crowd control.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Once the Navy divers arrived on scene, A.C.F.D.'s guys were likely released from the scene, and returned to service.</p><p style="text-align: left;">As for the cops, their task on scene was actually very similar to what the modern APD would be doing on a similar scene...crowd control and perimeter control, and from what I read, they had their work cut out for them (And from the pictures of the recovery operation, they ultimately got overwhelmed by the huge crowd) </p><p style="text-align: left;">The railroad, assisted by Navy divers, apparently handled the heavy work, while the police department likely handled body recovery once the cars were pulled up on shore, <i>possibly</i> assisted by the Fire Department. But the Atlantic City Fire Department played, at best, a secondary role in the incident.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">NOW...lets take a quick look at the likely response if, say, the all but improbable happened and a NJT train managed to run an open swing bridge. To make it interesting, lets have the tones hit at either morning or evening rush hour.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">The dispatcher lists off a long list of units to respond, then announces 'At the NJT bridge, for a train in the water...'</p><p style="text-align: left;"> 'Oh S--T!...would be spoken...<i>loudly...</i>a couple of times as the guys and gals slid the poles and bailed into the apparatus bays, trust me on this. Battery trickle-charger cords would be yanked free, turnouts would be pulled on, crew compartment doors would 'Crump!' closed as bay doors rumbled up, and big diesel engines would crank over with the sound of multiple giants clearing their throats. At Fire Station 2, a pair of boat trailers, each mounting a Zodiac, would be hitched up, one to Rescue 1's rig, the other likely to Special Ops 1's big dualie pick-up. Rigs would then pull out of the stations, swinging towards The Thoroughfare, Federal 'Q sirens yowling and air horns braying.</p><p style="text-align: left;">AT AFD's Fire Headquarters, the white-shirts would head for their cars, AFD Chief of Department Scott Evans among them. Atlantic City's FD would respond <i>big, </i>with Engine 2 responding from their North Indiana Ave station, only a half mile or so from the scene, first due. Engine 2 would be followed closely by Rescue 1 and Special Ops 1, each towing a Zodiac. The Zodiacs would be in the water with-in minutes of the tones hitting, their crews searching for any passengers or train crew who are in the water.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Atlantic City's Dive Team would be responding from Station 1, with divers paged out and converging on the scene from their duty stations...several would probably be with companies already responding to the scene.. They'd be putting divers in the water with-in 15 minutes of the train going in the water. </p><p style="text-align: left;">On shore, a command post would have been set up by the first due Battalion Chief, and a major incident would be declared, It's a good bet that Chief Evans would take command when he arrived. The Batt Chief would quickly give him a progress report, telling him what had already been done, and what resources he'd already requested, then he'd turn command over to Chief Evans, who would start divvying the scene into sectors (Marine, Medical, Rescue, etc) and giving each sector to one of his deputy or Battalion Chiefs. Dispatch would have already assigned a radio channel to the incident, and each major sector would very possibly get it's own channel.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It being a navigable waterway, I have a feeling the Coast Guard would be on scene to assist in short order as well.</p><p style="text-align: left;">EMS in Atlantic City is provided by a third service, and they'd have ambulances rolling to the scene as well, and they would be implementing procedures to handle a mass casualty incident...Atlantic City's hospital would have been notified, and would be implementing their own disaster plan, getting ready to receive multiple patients.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And A.C.P.D. would, once again, be handling crowd and perimeter control, along with New Jersey State Police, who would be called in to assist <i>early</i> in the ball game. And there would be one <i>huge</i> difference between now and 1906...if you weren't actually authorized to be on scene, you wouldn't get anywhere <i>near </i>it. There definitely wouldn't be a crowd of hundreds of spectators on the bridge. </p><p style="text-align: left;">One thing they would definitely do is set up a specific area for The Press, and the Fire Department would have a designated public information officer, and part of his job would be to update them on a regular basis. Of course, this day and time, such an incident would be broadcast...live...on both TV and online, almost from the instant the first in rigs rolled in to the scene. The Forth Estate would have both land, air, and marine resources on scene, and one of the tasks assigned to A.C.P.D.'s marine division, and the Coast Guard, would be keeping boats at a safe distance and, most importantly, out of the way.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Mutual Aid, especially EMS units, would be requested early and copiously (An old and very accurate Fire Service adage is 'It's far better to call for help early, and turn them around if you don't need them, then call for help late and have to wait for them when you <i>do) </i>and incoming units and crews would be assigned to a staging area near the active scene and would be called in as needed.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Of course one <i>huge</i> advantage we have today (And have had for many decades) over responses in the late19th/early 20th century is communications. Radio communication has made coordinating operations at incident scenes dozens of ways easier and smoother that the 1906 version would have been. As I noted above, the incident would be assigned it's own channel, and each major sector would also likely get a channel.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Hopefully, though, the closest Atlantic City will ever come to having to handle something like this is as a scenereo devised for a disaster drill, and they never have to find out how well it works for real.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><***></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div style="background-color: white;"><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Having spent three and a half decades as a fire/incident scene photographer, one thing that I found interesting as I researched this one was the number of photos that existed of the scene. This was one of the very first major rail accidents that enjoyed extensive photographic coverage, and we can thank Ivy Lee for that. Not only did he create and release the very first press release, he also convinced the Pennsylvania Railroad to allow the press, including photographers, access to the scene</span></div><div style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";">And these early press photographers also enjoyed some pretty cutting edge camera technology, for the time...</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">thankfully, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";">camera technology had come a long way from the huge, clunky old glass negative view cameras that required several seconds to create an image on a glass plate. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";">Kodak, of course, had its uber-popular brownie, which used 120 roll film, in mass production, but I have a feeling the press used something a bit more robust and high-tech, and a bit less 'toy-like' for their photography needs.</span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";">But just what did they have available, and I know what some of you are thinking...but you're a couple of years early to be thinking of any of the iconic 'Graphic's just yet. T</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">he earliest versions of the venerable, and much beloved Speed-Graphic wouldn't come on the scene until 1912 and even it's predecessor, the huge and bulky Press Graphic, wouldn't come out until 1907.</span></div><div style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The long forgotten photographers who ventured out onto The Thoroughfare's waters in small boats, stood on the shore right at the water's edge, and even ventured out onto the bridge on that long ago October day probably used something like the </span><span style="color: #444444; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: times;">Goerz-Anschutz Camera</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">, made and improved from 1890 to the late 1920s These cameras took crisp, sharp pictures and had some pretty advanced features for the time, including a focal plane shutter adjustable up to a 1/1200<sup>th</sup> of a second. </span></div><div style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDVTjKiz6hNfMj_NdKKBlvwh9dJif397pMAW51pJ8krvo_-irKDKacyWEHo6PNJwbS4WNrQEQw3UtcYCjOz-wip0Em_E27p5Kx-m660ebGyhFmLsZuejUvEQJ96kMC53ZHMADtriVyXge_tjSI2QN33hlN4XNPVuGJQkSFPiTUBAgVKWWF2DY7fDTn/s400/C233.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="400" height="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDVTjKiz6hNfMj_NdKKBlvwh9dJif397pMAW51pJ8krvo_-irKDKacyWEHo6PNJwbS4WNrQEQw3UtcYCjOz-wip0Em_E27p5Kx-m660ebGyhFmLsZuejUvEQJ96kMC53ZHMADtriVyXge_tjSI2QN33hlN4XNPVuGJQkSFPiTUBAgVKWWF2DY7fDTn/w640-h532/C233.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">A Goerz-Anschutz Camera from 1904, which was a popular press camera of the day. and was very possibly used by press photographers at the Bridge Disaster. These wood bodied, leather covered folding bellows cameras featured high-quality German optics and focal plane shutters adjustable up to1/1200th of a second. They used 4X6 inch sheet film, with each sheet held on a plate and loaded separately. The viewfinder was a simple folding square crosshair 'gunsight' type finder, visible top center of the camera in the photo. Helical focusing was used, and shutter controls were complicated...it took two adjustments to get the shutter speed set. <br /><br />Though still slow loading, these were pretty much top of the line in 1904, when this model was introduced, and the large format coupled with the fast shutter speeds allowed for extremely crisp, sharp photos. The rig would have set you back around $10...around $330 in 2022 money, which was actually a pretty good deal. You won't touch a high end DSLR for under four figures today.<br /><br />They were made, with improvements along the way, from the early 1890s to the late 1920s, and were overshadowed by the iconic Speed-Graphic in the U.S. by the mid teens.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">These weren't view cameras, BTW...they used a simple wire and crosshair finder, much like a gun sight, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";">mounted on the rear top of the camera body. In later years, this was changed to a secondary lens optical finder, mounted the same way as the older 'gun sight'. It was still a sheet film camera, though, requiring a separate sheet of film, mounted in a holder, to be loaded for each shot.</span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">They were also large format, using 4X6 inch sheets of film for each shot. This made for awkward loading, but also allowed crisp, sharp, extremely High Res photos that rival photos taken by modern, multi-thousand dollar DSLRs.</span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";">If it was a </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: times; text-align: right;">Goerz-Anschutz</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";"> or similar sheet film camera, where separate plates holding a sheet of film had to be loaded for each shot, these guys were definitely doing some hustling to get the shots they got,…loading the beast was not a quick, simple process, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";"><i>especially</i> if they were in a small boat.</span></div><div style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">Single lens reflex cameras existed back in that era, but they were nothing like the sophisticated 35MM SLRs we've been shooting with for literally half a century. Those early SLRs required the photographer to look down into the viewfinder to compose and focus the shot, and though the mirror raised automatically when the shutter was pressed, it didn't lower until the photog cocked the camera to take the next shot. Definitely <i>not </i>ideal for situations where quickly composing and shooting...which was almost <i>all</i> press photography...was required<i>. </i></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";">With-in a decade or so, more sophisticated press cameras such as the iconic Speed-Graphic would be introduced, and many if not most would be equipped with exchangeable backs that could be loaded with roll film, but in 1906, press photogs had the likes of the Goerz-Anschutz and it's competitors to record the events of the day. These really were outstanding cameras, and their users</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";"> got some seriously awesome shots with them.</span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">Large format cameras such as the Goerz-Anschutz, and the later Speed-Grapgic, would be the workhorses of Press Photography until the late 1950s or early 1960s..Even though 35 MM film would be introduced in 1913, it wouldn't gain any prominence until the 1930s, and wouldn't be a truly major player until the 1950s.</span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">I'm not going to even try to delve any further into the history of Press Photography here. That's a fascinating subject that deserves it's own blog post,...heck, it's own book. Several of both have been published.</span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">Personally, though, I'm glad that, by the time I dived into fire photography with both feet, the 35mm single lens reflex (And later in my career, Digital SLR) was king, and that if I was feeling particularly lazy, all I had to do was set the mode dial to 'Program', and let the camera do everything but compose the shot and press the shutter button.</span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><b><***> LINKS <***></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">Surprisingly little out there on this one, but I still ran up on a couple of interesting links, the best of the bunch being a very detailed period newspaper article that provided the bulk of my research material. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;">I've included the best two or three...and that's literally all I could find that wasn't a rehash of the Wiki page. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_Atlantic_City_train_wreck">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_Atlantic_City_train_wreck</a> The Inevitable Wiki Page. This one, like the Diamond Crossing Collision's Wiki Page, is actually...and unfortunately...pretty sparse, info-wise.<br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><a href="The St. John Sun – God swa,m to ogle News Archive Search ">The St. John Sun – God swa,m to ogle News Archive Search</a> An article published in the St John, New Brunswick <i>Sun </i>the day after the wreck. This is an extremely detailed and well written article, and illustrates just how effective Ivy Lee's premiere press release was. This article was detailed enough that it provided most of the research for this post, but there <i>is</i> a caveat...the Victorian Era media's tendency to sensationalize news stories. The detail included in this article puts the sometimes very bare bones articles we get today to shame. This sensationalism was a marketing tactic that was meant to generate sales of both subscriptions and news stand sales, but it also means you have to take some of the info in period news articles with a grain or so of salt. I cross checked this one as much as I could, though, and it's accurate enough, as well as being an awesome and interesting read. </span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><a href="https://strangeago.com/2022/07/11/1906-atlantic-city-train-wreck/ ">https://strangeago.com/2022/07/11/1906-atlantic-city-train-wreck/</a> This one came sliding in at the 12th hour so to speak. An interesting blog post about the disaster that includes a bit of human interest, some interesting detail, and a couple of pretty awesome pictures that I hadn't seen anywhere else. The blog itself, a collection of the bizarre, is a great read, packed with interesting articles that would make perfect time killers on a rainy day.</span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><a href="History of Public Relations Part 3 (communicationnotebook.com)">History of Public Relations Part 3 (communicationnotebook.com)</a> A short article about Ivy Lee, contained with-in a comprehensive series of articles about the history of public relations. The man was absolutely the Grandfather of modern public relations. There is a link at the end of the article to more detailed information about him as well.<br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><a href="https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=10114">https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=10114</a> An extremely detailed and equally fascinating article about the electrification of the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad, from the Saturday, Nov. 10, 1906 <i>Western Electrician, </i>which was a period trade journal for electricians. This article goes into far, <i>far</i> more detail than I did on the line's electrification, and is a must read for rail fans!<br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></div></div><p></p>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-84150392929813910982022-04-17T14:56:00.010-04:002023-02-21T14:40:58.747-05:00The Atlantic City Diamond Crossing Collision. Atlantic City's Deadly Duo Part 1<p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Atlantic City Diamond Crossing Train Collision</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>July 30, 1896</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Atlantic City's Deadly Duo Part 1</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>A Deadly End To A Day At The Beach</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDK6488iVMpyY_NdNovtyYahyUyX7wA8CMVxGexuS1_yf_ptOKN70PVlKhAQbcdqDLJbeu5DH_zyhHJmi29KXSDHxG4bSfTJ6NjIeLLso2cx4GVlVtBgjg-aWSNpZiIM2nVaRd9wCSOM36cNo4sIJGn6iZxYLeMLPZ1HfaSDnSJq11_V21NdtoIrXW/s684/images.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="684" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDK6488iVMpyY_NdNovtyYahyUyX7wA8CMVxGexuS1_yf_ptOKN70PVlKhAQbcdqDLJbeu5DH_zyhHJmi29KXSDHxG4bSfTJ6NjIeLLso2cx4GVlVtBgjg-aWSNpZiIM2nVaRd9wCSOM36cNo4sIJGn6iZxYLeMLPZ1HfaSDnSJq11_V21NdtoIrXW/w640-h502/images.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b><p></p><p>By the time 1896 rolled around, there were just shy of 190,000 miles of revenue generating railroad in the U.S., an increase of right around <i>2000% </i>over the total mileage forty-three years earlier, in 1853, the year that <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2022/01/grand-crossing-train-collision-april.html">Chicago's Grand Crossing Disaster</a>...the nation's first major loss of life train wreck and subject of my last post...occurred. That averages out to about 4200 miles of new track per year, every year, for four decades and change...someone had <i>definitely</i> been busy 'Workin' On The Railroad', as the classic old tune goes. </p><p>While those 190,000 miles were a bit<i> </i>more evenly distributed across the nation in 1896 than they were four decades earlier, the Northeast still boasted well more than its share of track. Just take a look at the number of major cities stuffed into the 440 or so mile stretch between Washington, DC and Boston, Mass. and you begin to understand why. Simply put there were (And are) a <i>slew </i>of people stuffed into that relatively small area.</p><p>Rail lines were built where the people were, and by the late 19th Century, the Northeastern U.S was already pretty well packed with said people, with more arriving every day. On top of that, the region was home to much of the nation's heavy industry as well as several of the country's largest and busiest ports (Including <i>the</i> busiest, a little burg named New York City). Thanks to the ever-growing transportation needs of what's known today as the Northeast Corridor, track milage in the region increased even <i>more</i> quickly than it did in the rest of the country.</p><p> By 1896 there were probably 30,000 miles or more of track in the northeast alone, and when you have that many rail lines in that small of an area, it's a given that they are going to cross each other a bit more than occasionally.</p><p>Ideally, all of these crossings would have been what the railroads refer to as 'Grade Separated'...one line crossing the other on a bridge...from the git-go. This is obviously the <i>safest</i> way to go, but needless to say, <i>not</i> the least expensive...just the opposite in fact. And the railroad bean counters...like those in<i> </i>any and all industries... absolutely <i>hated</i> 'expensive', so if they were given the choice between Expensive and Safe vs Inexpensive and Not So Safe, inexpensive would win every time.</p><p>This is why there were <i>way</i> more than a few locations where railroads crossed each other at grade, the tracks crossing at what's called a 'Diamond Crossing'. Frogs, as the slotted metal castings that allow two tracks to intersect are called, are <i>way</i> less expensive than bridges. Of course, once those crossings were in place you had the minor little issue of two trains approaching the same crossing at the same time, often several times a day on busy rail lines.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBu_RIr-LkDN66QXfQTOx5mSGPDiRRc7_oG472IljE0_UIngpMfAnzGhrLsM0heQBeqB6KP0mjovMYiqpLeT2y2SyaTitKW4qprLtPnkJhByahMz78de8PBi30YbvRutA7QP1GGYuQ0zATSjOIYxH-zYvYGfHaiH_Xmk94ZfAsmFpp6Nn-LD0XQ5F7/s640/263930828_593591235196919_8406017646678371114_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBu_RIr-LkDN66QXfQTOx5mSGPDiRRc7_oG472IljE0_UIngpMfAnzGhrLsM0heQBeqB6KP0mjovMYiqpLeT2y2SyaTitKW4qprLtPnkJhByahMz78de8PBi30YbvRutA7QP1GGYuQ0zATSjOIYxH-zYvYGfHaiH_Xmk94ZfAsmFpp6Nn-LD0XQ5F7/w640-h480/263930828_593591235196919_8406017646678371114_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">A diamond crossing, where two rail lines cross each other at grade. While these two rail lines cross at right angles, the diamond where the Atlantic City wreck occurred was sharply angled, <div><br /></div><div>The major problem with diamond crossings was, of course, the possibility of two trains arriving at the crossing at the exact same time. Good traffic control procedures and strict adherence to safety regulations were an absolute must to prevent that from happening.. And when those procedures and regulations were ignored, collisions inevitably occurred, and some of those collisions...such as the one I'm covering in this post...were catastrophic.</div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><p><br /></p><p>This, needless to say, <i>invited</i> disaster on engraved invitations, and my post about the Grand Crossing Collision illustrated that just about perfectly. Sure, safety technology had advanced in leaps and bounds in the forty-three years between 1853 and1896, and that <i>should</i> have prevented, or at least minimized such disasters. The tools to do so were certainly in place as the end of the 19th Century loomed.</p><p> All of the major railroads had installed air brakes on their trains, covered vestibules between passenger cars were becoming more common, passenger cars were heated by steam rather than stoves in each car, and most passenger trains had electric lighting rather than oil or kerosene lamps. On the track side of things, by the end of the 19th Century block signaling was replacing timetable based traffic control, which meant that the great majority of diamond crossings were also protected by trackside signals. Granted, they were often manual rather than automatic, but that was still far better than <i>no</i> signals. Well, <i>most</i> of the time, anyway.</p><p>See, there's a reason I mentioned these manual signals...one thing that all of the more-modern technology in the world <i>can't</i> change is human nature. And manual signals were controlled by, well,<i> humans. </i>And humans have an unfortunate tendency to make mistakes. And those manual signals, coupled with a couple of those mistakes, were very much the cause when, forty-three years and change after the Grand Crossing Collision, there was yet <i>another</i> diamond crossing collision, and <i>this </i>one was about three times more deadly.</p><p>For this one we're heading for the Jersey Shore, and specifically, to Atlantic City, New Jersey. You know Atlantic City...featured most famously in the beloved board game 'Monopoly', most recently in the hit HBO series 'Boardwalk Empire', and currently, while still beloved for its beaches and boardwalk, probably best known as the second most popular gambling destination in the U.S.</p><p>In the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries, Atlantic City was known for its beaches, huge, lavish and luxurious hotels, and seven-mile-long boardwalk. What a lot of people <i>don't</i> know about Atlantic City, however, is that it was one of the very first 'Railroad Resorts'. It was, in fact, very literally <i>built</i> to be a railroad resort.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">*</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1hLOn-61YUMeHaMZo_xmvNEwZ_vdrWJoroDvYC4SFfGenFWR8dHNrwPw0fUTBau8SAcna6bcXSooTZiX_UezW1BdOEzmkXIK8efsGAHISv5Zf6sn6Ea01v39GjYuiaDSrZ7od9g9jrKTboB4lhnsgvwwX2zcwfssQXPlZAPKJmerPh4I1uqUC8JVb/s672/unitedstateshotelcompanyvig.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="672" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1hLOn-61YUMeHaMZo_xmvNEwZ_vdrWJoroDvYC4SFfGenFWR8dHNrwPw0fUTBau8SAcna6bcXSooTZiX_UezW1BdOEzmkXIK8efsGAHISv5Zf6sn6Ea01v39GjYuiaDSrZ7od9g9jrKTboB4lhnsgvwwX2zcwfssQXPlZAPKJmerPh4I1uqUC8JVb/w640-h338/unitedstateshotelcompanyvig.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">An early post card showing the United States Hotel, one of the first two hotels built in Atlantic City. <br />The other was the Belloe House, which, hard as I tried, I couldn't find a picture, or even much information, about.<br /><br />Both hotels were huge, luxuriously appointed...at one time the United States Hotel was considered the ;argest hotel in the U.S....and owned by the railroad that originally developed Atlantic City (The Camden & Atlantic). Thanks to owning both the hotels, and the railroad that brought guests to those hotels, The C&A's owners pretty much made a killing off of Atlantic City's early years</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyQzA480XLxrGmoyPKY5iPldnvBepLkL6awLbWf5VtouHTu_a6iOlDVbf72j4_AyRSzJRg5_Ys-Gxq7Bn_GGpA5CHv91tkhjfblknme1OYw2OlBm09oL7XIpiisVsa-QSq2f0iGbwhXC8bH4naIc9Z4v_tIhlwUMGZhc_ZRcdzYnM5edKab__2ieW-/s612/a8c45fca-4bcd-4fcb-9bc8-31f51f5644f3_1.cb6d5d274fcf96e601878e29c1d1e9c2.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="612" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyQzA480XLxrGmoyPKY5iPldnvBepLkL6awLbWf5VtouHTu_a6iOlDVbf72j4_AyRSzJRg5_Ys-Gxq7Bn_GGpA5CHv91tkhjfblknme1OYw2OlBm09oL7XIpiisVsa-QSq2f0iGbwhXC8bH4naIc9Z4v_tIhlwUMGZhc_ZRcdzYnM5edKab__2ieW-/w640-h640/a8c45fca-4bcd-4fcb-9bc8-31f51f5644f3_1.cb6d5d274fcf96e601878e29c1d1e9c2.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">An Atlantic City beach scene from mid-summer 1896...crowds at the beach are <i>not</i> a new thing!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: center;">*</p><p><br /></p><p>In the early 1850s, a New Jersey doctor named Jonathon Pitney got hold of a group of developers from Philadelphia and invited them to come and take a look at some land. The land in question was a large, isolated sandspit off of the New Jersey coast...an eight-mile-long arrowhead shaped expanse of sand and dunes and grasses that, while picturesque, didn't seem to be all that useful. It wasn't easily accessible, had few structures and no roads, and boasted a total population of about eight.</p><p>Nonetheless, the good Doctor and these future-gazing developers looked over said sand-spit, rubbed their chins thoughtfully, and surmised 'If we build a <i>big</i> hotel here, connect it to Philadelphia via a rail line, and advertise the benefits of a beach vacation during the broiling hot summer months, They Will Come...</p><p>So, Atlantic City was laid out on the wider, northern end of the sandspit, streets were graded, construction was started on the Belloe House and the United States Hotels as well as the Camden and Atlantic Railroad, stretching from Camden N.J. to the new beach city, and when all of the above were completed and advertised, 'they' did <i>indeed</i> come. Okay, the development of Atlantic City may have been a <i>little</i> more complicated than that, but those developers who gazed across that sandspit and saw dollar signs hit it right on the money.</p><p>Both the United States Hotel and the Belloe House were owned by the Camden and Atlantic, so the railroad (And its owners) made a handsome profit off of every facet of Atlantic City's early years, and still turned a handsome profit when other hotels were built shoulder to shoulder along Atlantic Ave.</p><p>The Camden & Atlantic RR, and Atlantic City itself, just about had a monopoly at the time...see, going to the beach was <i>way</i> more complicated in the mid 19th Century than it is now (And has been for nearly a century.). Today, you want to go to the beach, you load kids and dogs and beach toys and such into the Family Truckster, maybe hook a boat or personal watercraft to the trailer hitch, jump on one of those roads with a red, white, and blue shield denoting the route number, and head for your beach of choice.</p><p> If you live in one of the coastal states along the US. East Coast, you're no more than five hours from a beach, and that's if you live, say, in the westernmost reaches of Virginia or North Carolina. Most people on the East Coast live three hours or less from <i>several</i> beaches. It can literally be a day trip. Leave home by 7:30AM, be at the beach well before lunchtime, spend a good six or more hours on the beach (Long enough for a real good burn!), leave around supper-time, and be home in time for the eleven o'clock news..</p><p> Even if your home's in one of the land locked states, if you want to spend a week at the beach it's still only a two or three day trip at the most by car or a flight of a few hours on one of those big birds built by Boeing or Airbus.</p><p>In 1853, however, there just weren't many real resort beaches (If there were <i>any</i>). Unless the beach was hard by a major city, it wasn't easily accessible, and if you wanted to stay there for a few days, you'd be living in a tent. And there was <i>no</i> way to get to the beach quickly, unless you lived practically within sight of it.</p><p>Atlantic City changed that. Jump on one of the Camden & Atlantic's trains in Camden, N.J, just across the Delaware River from Philly, or at one of the towns between Philadelphia and Atlantic City served by the line, sit back in an upholstered seat in a railroad passenger coach, watch the scenery roll by, and be among the first several thousand people to experience that lovely feeling of 'Being Able To Smell The Ocean' when you're a few miles from the beach. </p><p>Then you had the hotels, which were massive and luxurious and overlooked miles upon miles of pristine beach with the Atlantic surf smacking the sand. Attractions were added yearly. The boardwalk was added around 1870 and expanded annually. Specialty shops and restaurants were opened, side shows and amusement parks were added, and the beach got more crowded every year.</p><p>By 1874, even though the city's permanent population was only around 2500, the summer population exploded every year, with around 500,000 people riding the train into Atlantic City annually to spend a few weeks frolicking in the sun. By 1896, the year we're looking at in this post, the number of visitors had grown exponentially, and the number of railroads serving the Crown Jewel of the embryotic Jersey Shore had, at the very least, quadrupled, with the Camden & Atlantic, the West Jersey and Seashore, the Reading Railroad, and the Pennsylvania Railroad all running trains into the city.</p><p>This extensive rail network had made Atlantic City into a popular summer day-trip destination for groups, associations, and lodges. Members of these various organizations and their families would board an excursion train early in the morning for the hour or two trip to Atlantic City, be on the beach well before noon, spend a long day in the sun and surf, and catch another train home that evening.</p><p>One group that booked such an excursion was the Bridgeton Chapter of the of the Improved Order Of Red Men from Bridgeton, New Jersey, forty or so miles southwest of Atlantic City, in the southwestern part of the state. They booked the trip for Saturday, July 30th, and gathered at the Bridgeton train station probably around 8AM or so, to board and make the hour or so trip to Atlantic City.</p><p> I'll let your imaginations play with that happy scene. Dozens of giddily excited kids on that adrenalin-and-sugar fueled high that beach-bound kids have down to an art form, while their parents tried, with that chaotic desperation known to parents the world over, to keep their flocks of kids and their gear more or less organized. Keep in mind here that families tended to be <i>large</i> back then.</p><p> Ultimately rounding up said kids...threats of 'Turning Around And Going Right Back Home', a standard weapon in the parental arsenal for centuries, were very likely deployed here and there...before getting ready to board. Brightly colored miniature metal pails and equally colorful metal shovels, along with whatever other toys and gear accompanied families to the beach in the late 19th Century were in abundant supply, as were bags holding extra clothing and swimwear for kids and parents alike. The air was absolutely tingling with excitement. </p><p>Finally getting aboard (There were reportedly as many as five or six hundred people on this excursion), and the train was alive with that giddy, giggly kid feeling, mirrored a bit more conservatively by their parents, as the locomotive started chugging busily, the train jerking gently as it started moving. To understand the excitement level on that train, you have to remember, this type of trip was a, <i>maybe</i>, once in a summer event for inland-dwellers back then. You couldn't just jump in your car, get on the interstate, and head for the beach for the day every other weekend or so. </p><p>The excursion train they had just boarded was operated by the West Jersey and Sea Shore Railroad, one of the newer lines serving Atlantic City. The nearly 600 beach-goers were distributed through seven wooden coaches, very possibly headed up by a more modern version of the famed 4-4-0 American class, or maybe a 'Ten Wheeler' (4-6-0) or another larger class of passenger locomotive, with engineer John Greiner at the throttle. </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">*</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOAyEkfwo97pMxAhdwRT1wIMfvtPNa2kjYam5sbKHl6dfvslMMSd8fwBJfFkPqsjoN1n1kpb6jmPIyb5Itd-epJSenmkaulUD4rRLnpbC4E_6jla7ASmok41WtqnNNb0-AR2ortYR77USQD-IfzqmgDqjv2h832ALM3HOh2Td-bkp5fZ-ee-x5Ii-x/s553/77270e2b242ecb1c9e9a70c0c17b1647--train-stations-hello-dolly.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="553" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOAyEkfwo97pMxAhdwRT1wIMfvtPNa2kjYam5sbKHl6dfvslMMSd8fwBJfFkPqsjoN1n1kpb6jmPIyb5Itd-epJSenmkaulUD4rRLnpbC4E_6jla7ASmok41WtqnNNb0-AR2ortYR77USQD-IfzqmgDqjv2h832ALM3HOh2Td-bkp5fZ-ee-x5Ii-x/w640-h276/77270e2b242ecb1c9e9a70c0c17b1647--train-stations-hello-dolly.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">An 1890s vintage passenger locomotive of the type that may have been heading up both of the trains involved in the wreck, basicaly an updated and modernized version of the classic 4-4-0 American class of locomotive. Steam locomotives had evolved into fast, powerful, efficient machines by the last decade of the 19th century.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoqkYRAanfqfK6robwYmBc6QDBVCF_16e-u7QXAAZ-Pvoj9tJ2L81421ok8cozexAWCV2zHcn9iwJ5AiUY8AH353Uxaiyccuuk2fOw6XcxdFPIcjhT5kRIT-32oZ-569s2xTBFKUptD_kxBtsEZEQRPtFMbme0jyhNJxYsFRmUzgy68cPJLhDmNDGw/s1024/passenger-car-1024x768.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoqkYRAanfqfK6robwYmBc6QDBVCF_16e-u7QXAAZ-Pvoj9tJ2L81421ok8cozexAWCV2zHcn9iwJ5AiUY8AH353Uxaiyccuuk2fOw6XcxdFPIcjhT5kRIT-32oZ-569s2xTBFKUptD_kxBtsEZEQRPtFMbme0jyhNJxYsFRmUzgy68cPJLhDmNDGw/w640-h480/passenger-car-1024x768.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Typical Pennsylvania Railroad wooden coach from the late 1800s/early 1900s, and a good representation of the type of coach in use by railroads all over the country during that era. The Pennsy railroad shops built 600 of this class of passenger coach, some of which were in service up to the late 1920s. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This car would have been typical of the rolling stock on both the West Jersey excursion train and the Reading express train.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUvaij3-e35aFMu8TbK9nnrDqoj7w683eJp0coviyMS7xbadGJMAN9uY0EBJ5cnqc2WtZCrJO9-f-aq_k6W_CZgKKUzTBXMTBWnBWrPi_p1KbeWK6p6sMPhhdHirpPWqd2v7J5eEnAruhLYcfIVOdcyfySjGZT2J_aIlJ9UdzZMiIGCjVk2StV949z/s1600/424520905_7187637c18_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="1600" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUvaij3-e35aFMu8TbK9nnrDqoj7w683eJp0coviyMS7xbadGJMAN9uY0EBJ5cnqc2WtZCrJO9-f-aq_k6W_CZgKKUzTBXMTBWnBWrPi_p1KbeWK6p6sMPhhdHirpPWqd2v7J5eEnAruhLYcfIVOdcyfySjGZT2J_aIlJ9UdzZMiIGCjVk2StV949z/w640-h344/424520905_7187637c18_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Interior of a typical wooden passenger coach from the 1890s, Both the Pennsylvania/West Jersey and the Reading trains going into Atlantic City were short runs of no more than a couple of hours, so their coaches were set up to carry the maximum number of passengers (Around 80-100) comfortably...or as comfortably as the technology of the era allowed at any rate. They were heated by steam, but that didn't do much good in mid-July. 'Air Conditioning' was of the age-old X-60 type...open however many windows as were available and go 60 miles per hour.<br /><br />These cars offered absolutely no protection to the occupants in a wreck, especially if the car was broadsided by an oncoming locomotive. They were also easily 'telescoped'...one car forcing it's way inside the car ahead of it...in collisions. Occupants of the cars would be horrifically injured, most likely fatally, in either case.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*</div><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p>They had probably arrived in Atlantic City by 10AM, and, while the excursionists were enjoying the beach, the train crew would enjoy a <i>little</i> down time...but not much. They had to service the locomotive with coal and water, oil the moving parts, inspect the brakes and other safety gear, and generally make sure the train was ready to head back west. Train orders had to be received from the dispatcher, then the train was likely run out to a turning wye to get swung around so the locomotive was aimed in the right direction for the trip home, that itself a laborious and manpower-intensive process.</p><p>By 6 PM the locomotive had been serviced, the train turned, and the crew fed. Also, by 6 PM, after eight or so hours on the beach, those same kids and parents were pleasantly bushed, ready to head for home, and gathering at Atlantic City's rail terminal, ready to board the train for the return trip. The boarding process took maybe a bit longer than normal, but by 6:40 PM all of them had grabbed seats throughout those seven coaches. Parents were talking about the day, laughing at humorous happenings, and comparing their and their kids' activities. The younger kids were quietly examining seashells and other gathered treasures, some of them leaning against their parents and each other in that sun-induced stupor all of us remember pleasantly from our childhoods. Meanwhile, the teens in the group talked among themselves, comparing and contrasting experiences, boys discussing hot girls and girls cute guys spotted, giggles inevitably erupting from the latter as the train pulled out of the station, about 10 minutes late, and headed west through the center of Atlantic City. In theory they were maybe an hour or so from Bridgeton. They wouldn't make it.</p><p>At the time, the WJ & SS...referred to from here on as the 'West Jersey'... tracks paralleled both the original rail line into Atlantic City...the Camden and Atlantic Railroad, by then actually a subsidiary of the West Jersey...and a competitor, the former Philadelphia and Atlantic City Railroad, now owned by the huge Reading Railroad system. From what I could gather, The Camden & Atlantic tracks ran just to the north of the West Jersey's tracks, the Reading tracks just to the south. The West Jersey tracks arrowed southwest for about three miles before they had to swing slightly northward to follow the northern shore of Lakes Bay before once again turning towards Bridgeton.</p><p>The Reading tracks also slanted southwest for a shade over two miles before, a bit more than a mile from the drawbridges over the narrow channel known as The Thoroughfare, curving gently northward to aim towards Philadelphia. Less than a hundred feet past that curve, they crossed the West Jersey tracks on a diamond crossing at an <i>extreme </i>angle.</p><p>This was a dangerous crossing, especially during the summer when traffic was heavy, and the extreme angle probably didn't help at all. Forward visibility from either side of a steam locomotive's cab is poor already without the added handicap of a screwed-up sight line thrown into the mix. On top of that is the fact that by the time an engineer realized that another train was fouling the crossing, it would be far too late to bring his train to a stop, even with modern airbrakes. There <i>had to</i> be a way to control traffic to avoid...well to avoid incidents like the one I'm covering in this post. And there was, in fact, traffic control in place, traffic control that had worked flawlessly for at least a couple of decades.</p><p>Hard by the crossing was what is known in railroad parlance as a 'Tower'...a small two-story structure with the entire upper half of all four second story walls consisting of windows. The tower operator's primary responsibility was controlling traffic passing through the crossing. To do this he set manually controlled semaphore signals that indicated whether the crossing was clear or occupied, and if a train...or pair of trains...was approaching it, which of them had the right of way. </p><p>Railroad semaphore signals consisted of a brightly painted wooden or metal arm, mounted on a pivot at the top of a tall mast beside the tracks. If this arm was vertical, it indicated the track ahead was clear, set diagonally, meant that the engineer needed to be prepared to stop at the next signal, and horizontal indicated 'STOP until the signal indicated otherwise.</p><p>The Reading's double-tracks had three semaphores on either side of the crossing, the furthest out about 2000 yards...just over a mile...west of the crossing. The West Jerseys' tracks east of the crossing were controlled by a pair of semaphores, the furthest out very likely just west of the drawbridge. These signals were what were known as interlocking signals...if the operator set the signal to indicate, say 'Clear' for the West Jersy, the signals for the Reading would automatically set to 'STOP', and vice versa. </p><p>The signals weren't set on a whim of the operator, either...or at least they weren't supposed to be. There was a hierarchy of trains and a protocol that was to be followed. Inbound trains had priority over outbound trains. And top priority trains, such as express trains, had priority over lower priority trains, such as our excursion train, which was considered an 'Extra' train. On top of that, scheduled trains always had the right of way over 'extra' trains.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">*</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaDQtIdkH8fMg2dVLie92Isjt4LtD1v_HDWDL6Lffh-wpXKL0gJfq6C5zX_oOGAiLm5zTBqzpyZCqx82kx-2354VM2kF9IC8FJDWvHvMf0J21N5SYjkXtAXDiNIUV84V6ixIudrr2MXsEVjeVWtnNq5jw2DGdtpa1NcJZb0F4zidf85e_8ee3lLHrq/s1800/qPAhubbs.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1296" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaDQtIdkH8fMg2dVLie92Isjt4LtD1v_HDWDL6Lffh-wpXKL0gJfq6C5zX_oOGAiLm5zTBqzpyZCqx82kx-2354VM2kF9IC8FJDWvHvMf0J21N5SYjkXtAXDiNIUV84V6ixIudrr2MXsEVjeVWtnNq5jw2DGdtpa1NcJZb0F4zidf85e_8ee3lLHrq/w460-h640/qPAhubbs.jpg" width="460" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">An interlocking tower similar to the one that sat next to the diamond crossing where the wreck occurred.<br />Signals were controlled with large levers that moved rods and levers connected to the signals. These rods ran through pipes and could extend for a mile or more. They required some serious grunt to move.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOl_NvDF2HtVCgwPDC8ikmAKIgpTrIVcEqQv-NSNnanuenWsAfZNyHF2Abyynlkm8hKWeZILsK-zsibUdSyLult3CJsAwAuxN-ScRid7wN_ZGnNWRzjalQJFJR6412VRs19kE0GmMX31rYme5pGZCQBvrlVosKabrhb80Da47uy9ykhBf7qV114oES/s1866/R.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1866" data-original-width="967" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOl_NvDF2HtVCgwPDC8ikmAKIgpTrIVcEqQv-NSNnanuenWsAfZNyHF2Abyynlkm8hKWeZILsK-zsibUdSyLult3CJsAwAuxN-ScRid7wN_ZGnNWRzjalQJFJR6412VRs19kE0GmMX31rYme5pGZCQBvrlVosKabrhb80Da47uy9ykhBf7qV114oES/w332-h640/R.jpg" width="332" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">A semaphore signal similar to the ones controlling the diamond crossing in this post. This particular signal is indicating a clear track ahead. If the semaphore's arm was down at a 45 degree angle, it would indicate that the next signal was likely set to 'STOP', and that the engineer should start slowing in preparation to stop at the next signal. If the arm was all the way down, at a right angle to the mast, this would indicate 'STOP'<br /><br />The signals also had lights, so they would be visible at night. a red light, of course, indicated 'STOP', yellow indicated that the engineer should be ready to sop at the next signal, and, in 1896, and for a couple of decades into the 20th century, <i>white</i>...not green...indicated a clear track ahead. The white light was changed to green sometime in the early 20th century. <br /><br />There were still a few...and I mean a <i>very</i> few...of this type signal in service on the BNSF's Glorieta and Raton subdivisions, in New Mexico, as of 2021, but the majority of the nations semaphores have been replaced with more modern signals.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: center;">*</p><p><br /></p><p>About fifty minutes before the West Jersey excursion train pulled out of Atlantic City's terminal, an express train, bound for Atlantic City, pulled out of Philadelphia's Reading Terminal and headed east, with veteran engineer Edward Farr in the locomotive's right seat. The train was cleared through to Atlantic City with few stops, so Farr shoved the throttle open once they cleared the station and rolled onto the branch line from Philly to A.C, and by the time they crossed the Delaware River on the newly built Delair Bridge, they were rocking along at between 50 and 60 mph. In Atlantic City, the tired excursionists were gathering kids and belongings to make their way to the West Jersey railroad station. Fifty people had right around an hour to live.</p><p>Back in Atlantic City, not quite an hour after the Express pulled out of Philly's old Reading Station, Greiner was pulling out of Atlantic City's West Jersey/Camden and Atlantic train depot. He had to keep the excursion train's speed down until he crossed a drawbridge over the Thoroughfare...a winding channel separating Atlantic City from the mainland...but once he crossed the bridge, he, too, could shove the throttle open...but not wide open. Just under a mile after crossing the drawbridge, he had to cross the Reading tracks, and he needed to watch for the semaphore near the bridge...the 'distant' signal. If it was yellow...which he seriously suspected it would be because he knew the express was due just before 7PM...it would mean he should be ready to stop at the second signal...the 'Home' signal, nearer the crossing.</p><p>On that Saturday evening, a fellow by the name of George Hauser was manning the tower. The Reading/West Jersey crossing was situated on a marshy, wooded peninsula in a compact little region of N.J. known as The Meadows, and the tower was probably sited in the crossing's northern quadrant, situated so the tower operator could see for a couple of miles, both east and west, along both sets of tracks. Most importantly, he could see up the West Jersey tracks, all the way to the drawbridge.</p><p> On that hot July evening, Hauser not only had this unobstructed view of the rail lines to guide his actions, it's a pretty good bet that he also had a copy of the train schedules as well as a clipboard holding any special train orders to guide him, On top of that, he was probably well aware that the daily 5:40 Reading R.R. express from Philly, scheduled to arrive in Atlantic City at 6:55 PM, was due. </p><p>In fact, as the minute hand of the big clock set on the tower's wall eased upward across the '9', and the hour hand crept ever closer to '7', he was probably <i>looking</i> at the Reading express, still a couple of miles out. He then turned to look up the West Jersey tracks. Thanks to the train order board, he also knew that an 'Extra' train, an excursion train bound for Bridgeton, was due to pass the tower any minute. In fact, as he turned and looked back towards Atlantic City, he could also see the excursion crossing the drawbridge. </p><p>As I noted above, there were explicit rules and regulations that dealt with this very situation. The express train was inbound and a regularly scheduled train at that. The excursion train was outbound, and a lower priority 'extra' train. So it should have been a simple, and all but instinctive move...the Reading express train should have been given the right of way, and the two semaphores for the excursion train should have been set, respectively, to' Caution' and 'STOP'...but that's not the way it happened.</p><p>The Express was between one and two miles out. The Excursion was less than a mile out. Hauser did some quick mental triangulation, squinted meaningfully, then grabbed one of the shoulder-high metal levers that controlled the semaphores, and heaved on it, pulling it towards him. Inexplicably, the semaphores for the West Jersey...the excursion train...swung upright, indicating a clear track. At the same time, the signals controlling the Reading dropped, the distant and midpoint signals going to a diagonal position to indicate 'Prepare To Stop, the 'Home' signal...closest to the crossing...dropping until it was horizontal, indicating 'STOP'.</p><p> As the excursion train rolled off the drawbridge, Greiner was leaning out of the cab's right side picture window, peering ahead of the locomotive, rolling along at about 25 MPH or so as he looked for the signal mast that should be visible on the right side of the right-of-way. While Greiner could see the right side of the tracks, he <i>couldn't </i>see to the locomotive's left, because the boiler blocked his view, which also meant he couldn't see the Reading's tracks east of the crossing...but he <i>could see</i> them, angling away, ahead and to his right, <i>west </i>of the crossing, so it's a good bet he could at least see the smoke from the express train's locomotive. In fact, it's not at all unlikely he was actually expecting to see the express train as it was a daily run.</p><p>This <i>should</i> have been his first clue that he was going to have to stop. He <i>should</i> have backed off of the throttle and pulled the train's airbrakes into the 'service' position, slowing the train to bring it to a smooth, slow stop short of the crossing, because he, like the tower operator, was more than familiar with the regulations governing the crossing. Inbound trains had the right of way.</p><p>But there was a problem...about the time he spotted the express train, likely saying something like 'Reading express's inbound...he's a little early...', Greiner <i>also</i> saw the 'Distant' semaphore signal, and the long, red and white finger of the semaphore was vertical, indicating that <i>his </i>train had the right of way, and a clear track. Greiner pulled the throttle towards him, at the same time looking over towards his fireman and saying '...Annnd, believe it or not, we've got a clear board...'</p><p>A similar conversation was probably taking place in the cab of the express train's locomotive, very possibly at almost the exact same time. Farr's fireman had most likely also spotted the smoke from the excursion train's locomotive, and had turned and called 'Ed we got a train on the West Jersey tracks!' across the cab, to be told something to the effect of 'He should be stopping for us...we've got the clear track inbound'.</p><p align="LEFT">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">And
this is where things <i>really</i> began to go south. Ed
Farr may not have seen the first semaphore...the 'Distant'
signal...</span></span> set to 'Caution' because the express may have already passed it before Hauser reset them. Even so he <i>still</i> had to pass the
intermediate and home signals, with the former set to 'Prepare to
Stop', and the latter set to 'STOP'. and he <i>should</i> have
seen them and, well, stopped. And here's where that ol' bugaboo,
complacency rears it's ugly head.</p><p>
</p><p align="LEFT"><span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><span>Farr
had probably been driving the express for at least a couple of years
at this point, and he seldom if ever had to stop inbound. An inbound
express train had the right of way at the crossing on </span><span><i>two</i></span><span> different
levels...it was, well, </span><span><i>inbound</i></span><span>,
and it was also a top priority train, one that other, lesser, trains
yielded the right-of-way to.</span></span></span></p><p> Because he'd been driving the Express for so long, Ed Farr knew <i>exactly</i> where to start looking for the semaphore signals. In fact it was probably second nature. The problem is, though, he had almost never <i>had</i> to stop for them, so, well he <i>didn't. </i>He may not have even <i>looked</i> at the semaphores as he passed them. He could have just assumed that they would be set to give him the clear track ahead, so he didn't even slack up, roaring towards the crossing at around 45 MPH.</p><p>Meanwhile, totally against protocol as it may have been, Greiner <i>did</i> have a 'Clear Board'...the signals set to give him a clear track ahead. Seconds after he saw the semaphore, John Greiner was pulling the overhead-mounted throttle back towards him, opening the valve that sent steam to the cylinders, the locomotive's connecting rods flashing as the train accelerated toward its cruising speed of fifty or so Miles Per Hour.</p><p>As the excursion train hurtled towards the crossing, Greiner keeping an eye on the moving column of smoke marking the express train, watching as the locomotive, then the string of coaches following it became visible. Farr's eyebrows raised in puzzlement. Something wasn't right. The express was <i>supposed to</i> be easing to a stop. It was <i>not</i> supposed to be punching a smoke column skyward, connecting rods a blur as it bore down on the crossing at nearly fifty miles per hour. His eyes wide with horror, Greiner shouted, 'HE'S NOT STOPPING!!!, at first lunging for the brake handle before realizing it was futile...the crossing was less than a hundred feet away. They were pounding across it before Greiner could even grab the brake handle.</p><p align="LEFT">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;">In
the cab of the Reading train, Ed Farr's fireman went bug-eyed,
possibly exclaiming 'What the hell is this guy doing'???' an instant
before he very likely and very loudly yelled something like
'...Big Hole her, Ed!!!!!'...Railroad speak for 'Emergency Stop
NOW!!!!'. Ed Farr didn't take time to ask what was wrong...he just
grabbed the brake handle and yanked it <i>hard</i> into
'emergency' with one hand while grabbing the 'Johnson Bar', as the
reversing lever was known, on the right side of the cab, with the other and hauling
it into 'reverse'. Even as he was struggling with the Johnson bar,
Farr suddenly saw the West Jersey locomotive sweep into view less than
100 yards ahead of them, and even as the brakes dumped and steel
wheels began singing against the rails, he knew with a horrifying
certainty that they wouldn't even come <i>close</i> to
stopping in time...</span></span></p><p> Greiner's first instinct when he saw the Reading locomotive bearing down on them was to jump. In fact he even stepped back from his seat to the rear of the footplate, between the cab and the tender, tensing to leap, looking up as he heard their wheels hit the crossing to see that the front of the onrushing Reading locomotive, fifty or so yards away, coming fast and looking as big as a house as it bore down on them. Greiner, realizing that his own locomotive, at least, would get clear, dived back into the cab. His locomotive and tender got clear...</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">*</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmwhqrHEAjkDvkakrQB3kvnnGCX2HXbGOlbLOO9FHGPdWH96pFNMYlBE4LhQzbIdDY5kUVtC_HHedht6tQl5ybX8DRoBMajqE6RdRaEO7pcFJo36pwdJXPtoi5DGJlh2YFb4tCnw3IMFZRBNLvyu7QT8xzXcxuSpfQLxwwFV7ezhr8fOWB6vB8LKrg/s2200/Screenshot%20(2557).png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1053" data-original-width="2200" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmwhqrHEAjkDvkakrQB3kvnnGCX2HXbGOlbLOO9FHGPdWH96pFNMYlBE4LhQzbIdDY5kUVtC_HHedht6tQl5ybX8DRoBMajqE6RdRaEO7pcFJo36pwdJXPtoi5DGJlh2YFb4tCnw3IMFZRBNLvyu7QT8xzXcxuSpfQLxwwFV7ezhr8fOWB6vB8LKrg/w640-h306/Screenshot%20(2557).png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">A map of Atlantic City from the late 1890s, showing both the old West Jersey and Seashore and Reading rail lines as well as the old Pleasantville and Atlantic City Turnpike. I also labeled the two main rail stations and a proposed station that would be built years later to serve both lines. The former Camden and Atlantic City RR also still existed, and was actually a susiduary of the West Jersey & Seashore in 1896, at this point, but wasn't shown on the map.<br /><br />Both the West Jersey and Atlantic City Railroads were served by their own stations, and trains from both lines had to be turned at a turning wye to bead back out of town. I can pick out what was probably the West Jersey turning wye, but can't find one for the Reading.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYbI1ye79SkMkuxSC1EdSvw9wUlQi-Q5I2A5qOeFl141HBDw5Bgdoedp4TmQr_NqFhA9BpVwL5q9ZD-xbHPn1rT38iI90Pzx-ZPcMMrl6a8UevSy7lV10JW2Ub_5AG4xy0dKnt5H94f8uMPbeOYWWwZlaAkAnIpZ2-MjnFKLrW8RloEA7mVlmfniVw/s819/Accident%20Area%20Detail.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="819" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYbI1ye79SkMkuxSC1EdSvw9wUlQi-Q5I2A5qOeFl141HBDw5Bgdoedp4TmQr_NqFhA9BpVwL5q9ZD-xbHPn1rT38iI90Pzx-ZPcMMrl6a8UevSy7lV10JW2Ub_5AG4xy0dKnt5H94f8uMPbeOYWWwZlaAkAnIpZ2-MjnFKLrW8RloEA7mVlmfniVw/w640-h432/Accident%20Area%20Detail.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">A detailed map of the area around the crossing, with the direction of travel of both trains, the location of the crossing, and the location of the tower all illustrated. I had to extend the two rail lines and the turnpike, and draw in the crossing and the location of the tower, so they are very much educated guesses, location wise...but I <i>did</i> have something to go on, sort of (Take a look at the second satellite view, below)<br /><br />The West Jersey excursion train was westbound out of Atlantic City and approaching the diamond at the same time as the Reading RR express train. Rules and regulations gave the express the right of way at the crossing on two levels...Inbound trains always had the right of way, and the express was a higher priority train than the excursion, so the signals should have been set against the excursion.<br /><br />There were five total semaphore signals...two for the excursion and three for the express train. The signals for the express should have been showing all green, giving it the right of way, while the 'Distant' signal for the excursion should have been showing 'yellow' (Prepare to stop) and the 'Home' signal, nearest the crossing, should have been showing 'STOP'<br /><br />The tower operator, who was responsible for traffic control at the crossing, set the signals just the opposite, giving the excursion the right of way. The engineer of the express train, for reasons not known to this day, ran two 'Caution' signals and the stop signal, and broadsided the first coach of the excursion train, derailing five of the excursion's coaches as well as its own locomotive and tender and one of its coaches. Fifty died in the crash, including the engineer and fireman form the express train, and around sixty were injured.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisEXDpc0PdXTukYQ_RXkp5iF66On1roNbxlsFxEBrJDa9Dz31JR7DK97Y2P6Ds8onOcw7QV1AXR0iiFWyyNNYCijX7h4w4qxSpSoQJfTE0RSj-y1xu9DNlwVjGfftV6yITyv26rFLFmMnE6_7inFwI9DPZFlpIY7W2CVHBSkTk2ipAVIFSHlXSUIU8/s1920/Screenshot%20(2513).png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisEXDpc0PdXTukYQ_RXkp5iF66On1roNbxlsFxEBrJDa9Dz31JR7DK97Y2P6Ds8onOcw7QV1AXR0iiFWyyNNYCijX7h4w4qxSpSoQJfTE0RSj-y1xu9DNlwVjGfftV6yITyv26rFLFmMnE6_7inFwI9DPZFlpIY7W2CVHBSkTk2ipAVIFSHlXSUIU8/w640-h360/Screenshot%20(2513).png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">For comparison purposes, a satellite view of the same approximate area shown in the area map above. The best part's the detail view, though.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWGmc7icTsNVyfRsIt0gblXE6Slwr2LIxwGHR-_Lqi4k3z22J7T9hKOGysyL2MXcnDe9BxHnNVwWOfIfj81rdjV5TEix4F-v5DuB5__pZjGh7c4cGU-4l5jki4_pNMPHTw2ZcBcqrmzersrnM1sLcu9rfIP-VWAKIjlAv3nXFN_f-B1_OzqlNuv8DN/s1920/Diamond%20Crossing%20Wreck%20Detail%20View..png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWGmc7icTsNVyfRsIt0gblXE6Slwr2LIxwGHR-_Lqi4k3z22J7T9hKOGysyL2MXcnDe9BxHnNVwWOfIfj81rdjV5TEix4F-v5DuB5__pZjGh7c4cGU-4l5jki4_pNMPHTw2ZcBcqrmzersrnM1sLcu9rfIP-VWAKIjlAv3nXFN_f-B1_OzqlNuv8DN/w640-h360/Diamond%20Crossing%20Wreck%20Detail%20View..png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Detail View showing the same approximate area as the detail map above. To my pleasant surprise, the old West Jersey right-of way is still visible, and better yet, what I truly believe to be the former diamond crossing is <i>also</i> visible (And labeled). I extended the old West Jersey right of way just a bit to illustrate how it and the former Reading tracks crossed. That was a <i>serious </i>angle!<br /><br />For the crowning touch, so to speak, the right of way of the old Pleasantville and Atlantic City Turnpike is even visible...there's even a street named 'Turnpike Rd' on the other side of The Thoroughfare that matches up with it perfectly.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">*</div><br /><p><br /></p><p>...But the first two passenger coaches didn't. The passengers seated on the right-hand side of the coaches saw what was coming. Some of them froze in terror, rooted to their seats while a few others dived out of their seats and scrambled for the vestibules, hoping to make it to coaches further back towards the end of the train. Not a one of them made it more than a few feet down the car's center aisle.</p><p> The Reading train was sliding. all wheels locked and singing against the rails, when its locomotive jack-hammered the first passenger coach just about broadside with a heart-stoppingly sudden, splintering '<i>CRUMP!!!', </i>ripping through it almost lengthwise because of the crossing's extreme angle. The wooden coach came apart like a hammer-hit eggshell, splitting almost in two and leaving part of its sidewall draped across the locomotive's cab as it was kicked to the left, spinning clockwise and dragging the second coach off of the rails as it derailed violently. Almost all of the passengers in this first coach were ejected, either in the initial crash or as the shattered remains of the coach flipped and rolled, tossing passengers and wreckage in its wake, tumbling across the road that paralleled the Reading tracks back in that era before finally careening into a water-filled ditch just south of the road.</p><p>The second coach, careening off of the West Jersey tracks at an angle, slammed <i>hard</i> into left side of the Reading locomotive's cab. Slamming into the first West Jersy coach at an angle and over-running wreckage from it had already thrown the front end of the locomotive to the right and off of the track, and this second impact finished the job... The derailing locomotive, probably still moving at a good 35 to 40MPH, dragged its tender and the train's first coach off the rails before slamming over onto its right side, spinning, and sliding, digging a trench in the marshy soil between the Reading tracks and the road, tossing dirt-clods and mud curtains aside as it slid, shuddering to a stop with part of the first West Jersey coach lying across its cab. Farr and his fireman were both ejected as the locomotive flipped. Farr ended up partially beneath the locomotive, his fireman was nearby, mortally injured.</p><p> Even as the Reading locomotive slammed over and slid, its derailing tender pummeled the second West Jersey coach, already crushed for a quarter of its length, into kindling. The shattered coach derailed to the right, its shattered remains caroming across the road, shedding parts and passengers as it went. It's wreckage, no longer even vaguely resembling a railroad car, probably ended up partially on the road, blocking it.</p><p>The Reading train's first coach followed the locomotive and tender off the rails, bouncing across the West Jersey tracks, at the same instant the excursion train's still rolling third coach, which had ripped free of the second coach during the collision and derailment, reached the crossing. The excursion train's third coach probably broadsided the Reading coach, almost stopping short, definitely stopping quickly enough for the fourth coach to keep coming, over-ride it's coupler, and violently telescope the third coach, forcing its way a good quarter to a third of the way inside of it, brutally crushing and maiming passengers and smashing both cars into kindling while it was at it. </p><p>The Reading coach slammed over on its side, probably rotating even as it slid...inside, passengers tumbled from seats and bounced around the interior, pin-balling off of seats, walls, and each other like pocket change in a dryer for seconds that seemed like hours, before the shattered car shuddered to a stop, injuring nearly everyone on board and killing at least two. </p><p>The last three cars of the excursion train were still on the track and still rolling when they slammed into the fast-growing mound of debris directly ahead of them...the fifth coach overrode it's coupling and slammed <i>hard </i>into the fourth, crushing the vestibules of both as it came up short, but thankfully these three cars had lost enough momentum that they didn't telescope each other. The sixth and seventh coaches probably kept coming, possibly derailing and jackknifing at the same time the remainder of the express plowed into the wreckage fouling the crossing. The express train...or what was left of it...may have derailed as well. Then for a few seconds everything was, relatively at any rate, quiet. </p><p>The vestibules of the third and fourth cars of the excursion trains were blocked, so those passengers who<i> could</i> climb from the windows did so, dropping to the marshy ground. Parents lowered their kids out of the windows then climbed down themselves. Able-bodied passengers in the overturned Reading coach pulled themselves up and out through the windows on the high side, which had become skylights. Dads helped kids to climb onto the side of the car, told them to stay put, then helped wives to climb out before pulling themselves out and helping their families climb to the ground. Several passengers were able to escape in this manner...but several <i>more</i> were still inside the shattered coach, injured or worse</p><p>The second through last cars of the express train weren't as badly damaged as the excursion cars, and those passengers began climbing down from the platforms. Cries for help and moans were drifting out of the wreckage of the excursion train's first four cars and the express train's first car, and the uninjured and lesser-injured passengers made their way to the crushed cars and began working on rescuing trapped passengers. At least, they were thinking, it can't get any worse.</p><p>Except, it absolutely could...and did. Dozens of passengers were still trapped in the wreckage, and several dozen more were either on or in the coaches, trying desperately to disentangle the trapped passengers, or standing around, 'supervising', the entire scene backdropped by an eerie, all-encompassing roaring squeal as steam escaped from the overturned Reading locomotive's damaged boiler. No one gave it a second thought...The hissing roar of steam locomotive relief valves venting was a common sound.</p><p>Except this boiler was not only damaged, but <i>catastrophically </i>damaged in the crash, and in an instant frozen in the survivors' memories forever, the damaged seam let go with an ear-shattering roar, sending a thunderhead of condensing steam skyward and, far worse, spraying the trapped passengers and their would-be rescuers with high-pressure superheated steam and water. One second, they were straining and grunting, pulling at debris and lifting it away from trapped passengers, or standing on the gravel and earth embankment that the tracks and road were built on, the next second those grunts of effort became shrieks of agony as they were suddenly enveloped in a seemingly white-hot steam cloud while scalding sheets of super-heated water flayed away their skin. Dozens of passengers who had survived the crash...some relatively unscathed...were either scalded to death or critically burned.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQ0oLEYkSxnFE_2IQF75xUCz2fqagjMfZiFBspX8zUqxEqaYBnWVXol1MjCDd3eSh58dfZarnyqzPmX8Ro1wsKW5jpepYtRQx1uQHkZ5RLMkG9c22BygIKghAq-EbFn9tJecdN9OEjpLoYcJPKN9O4QDZdj3JbzgTYz0WKa0mVkj-G2uigR81iGmJ/s1042/Accidnet%20Scene%20Photo.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="1042" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQ0oLEYkSxnFE_2IQF75xUCz2fqagjMfZiFBspX8zUqxEqaYBnWVXol1MjCDd3eSh58dfZarnyqzPmX8Ro1wsKW5jpepYtRQx1uQHkZ5RLMkG9c22BygIKghAq-EbFn9tJecdN9OEjpLoYcJPKN9O4QDZdj3JbzgTYz0WKa0mVkj-G2uigR81iGmJ/w640-h508/Accidnet%20Scene%20Photo.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo of the overturned Reading locomotive, probably taken the next day. You're looking west up the double-tracked Reading track here with the single tracked West Jersey track coming in from the upper left. The diamond crossing is just <i>barely</i> out of the frame on the bottom right. As can be seen here the tracks crossed at an <i>extreme</i> angle, and the eastbound Reading express train would have been on the inside track. <br /><br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The angle is so extreme that when the Reading locomotive slammed into the first West Jersey coach, it pretty much ripped through it lengthwise, ripping it apart and violently ejecting all of the occupants before bunting the few remains of the car across the turnpike into a water-filled ditch. The impact was so great that the Reading locomotive not only derailed, it also overturned and spun back across the diamond, bringing part of the first coach's sidewall along with it. One of the Reading coaches also derailed and overturned, while five of the West Jersey coaches were wrecked.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">The group of men in the lower left corner of the frame are very likely recovering either the body of the fireman, or engineer Ed Farr. One newspaper ran a very accurate, very detailed drawing based on this photo, but the artist left this particular detail out of the drawing. Meanwhile, in the background you can see what appears to be a big heavy wrecking crane on the Reading tracks. Crews have been busy overnight, as much of the wreckage that inevitably blocked the crossing has been cleared...a train carrying the uninjured and slightly injured excursionists home went through sometime around daybreak.<br /><br />Another thing that's notable is the number of spectators standing around close to the wreck. Note the woman standing on the Reading tracks...me thinks it's highly unlikely that she's there to help clear wreckage or recover bodies. A good many of the stylishly dressed gentlemen standing around are also 'Lookie-Loos', as modern first responders call those who come to fires and accidents just to, well, look. The aftermath of train wrecks and other disasters were considered spectator events back in this era, and for many years afterward. Were this a derailment on the NJT today, there wouldn't be any civilians anywhere with-in a mile or more of the scene.<br /></span><p><br /></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><p><br /></p><p>News of the accident reached Atlantic City <i>quickly! </i>Hauser probably telegraphed the first report of the crash in almost as soon as it happened, and train-parts were very likely still bouncing and tumbling when he pounded out the first frantic dots and dashes. The <i>citizens </i>of Atlantic City, however, learned of the crash almost as quickly, and far more graphically. They probably first heard either the crash itself, or the Reading loco's boiler exploding, then saw that huge, boiling column of steam surging skyward. This steam cloud attracted first attention, then curiosity, then horrified realization. Atlantic City's citizens didn't know for sure exactly <i>what</i> had happened, but they knew <i>something </i>had happened, and whatever it was, it was bad. They started heading for the scene, singly and in small groups at first, then, as more detailed information filtered back to the city, in droves.</p></div><div><p>Reaching the accident was actually pretty easy back in the day. A drawbridge carried the Pleasantville and Atlantic City Turnpike across the Thoroughfare just south of the Reading and West Jersey RR drawbridges. After crossing The Thoroughfare, the road slanted northwest for about a half mile before swinging into a sharp left-hand curve and paralleling the Reading tracks all the way to, and beyond the scene, ironically very likely crossing the West Jersey tracks at a grade crossing just beyond the scene. From the looks of things, the present-day Atlantic City Expressway follows just about the exact same route as the former turnpike from that left-hand curve westward for at least several miles. </p><p>Within a half hour or less of the crash traffic between the drawbridge and the accident scene was every bit as crowded as modern beachbound holiday weekend traffic ever dares to get, with what was said to be thousands of people on foot and horseback moving among and around every form of horse drawn vehicle imaginable. Once they arrived, these citizens found a scene that was just about as horrible as it gets.</p><p>When the Reading locomotive slammed into the West Jersey train's first coach, it all but tore it apart, literally smashing through the wooden car lengthwise before bunting it into the ditch. More than a dozen passengers were killed instantly in the collision, and several of them were literally torn apart as the locomotive ripped through the car. Other passengers were violently ejected from the shattered coach as it flipped across the road and landed in the ditch.</p><p>First arriving rescuers (And spectators...a <i>slew</i> of the Atlantic City residents who journeyed to the scene did so out of curiosity) ran up on a mound of wreckage blocking the turnpike, crowds of passengers...both slightly injured and uninjured...pulling them towards the moans and pain-filled cries coming from said wreckage, and bodies all over the scene, some horribly injured, others already very obviously dead.</p><p>With growing horror, these same rescuers (And spectators) realized that some of the smaller pieces of wreckage were actually body parts. Swallowing both horror and nausea, many of the men climbed into the wreckage, trying to disentangle and extricate the trapped passengers. Freeing some of them was relatively easy, involving simply lifting them and carrying them out of the wrecked cars. Others required more work.</p><p>You have to remember that this was 1896, decades before even the most basic mechanical rescue tools were introduced. While many of the passengers had self-extricated, at least a couple of dozen of the injured passengers were in those first four West Jersey coaches. Anyone still inside the first two were probably already dead, but well over a dozen more people were likely still trapped in the telescoped third and fourth coaches as well as the overturned Reading coach. With only hand tools, probably from either the intact Reading coaches or the undamaged West Jersey locomotive (Both passenger trains as well as locomotives and cabooses carried a variety of rescue tools...prybars and hand saws...back in the day.) they started prying and pulling and cutting to free the trapped passengers. They had their work cut out for them, most especially in the telescoped coaches.</p><p>One account I read while researching this one spoke of 'The roof of one car being ripped off and dropping into the car on top of them'...that almost <i>had</i> to be the third coach, and rescuers who made their way inside found an absolute horror. Passengers in the about a third or so of the third coach...the distance that the fourth coach had forced its way inside of it...were crushed to death, probably accounting for at least a quarter of the fatalities, but there were also passengers trapped beneath the car's collapsed roof, as well as other passengers trapped inside the shattered coach. Many of the trapped, injured passengers were women and kids, and the rescuers did their best to comfort the frightened victims as they employed brute strength to lift and pry the broken car away from them.</p><p>The same thing was going on in the overturned Reading coach, which had probably been pile-drived by the still-moving third West Jersey coach before overturning. The Reading coach wasn't as badly damaged as the telescoped West Jersey coaches, but it presented another rescue problem...the make-do rescuers had to remove the victims through the windows, or possibly the now horizontal doors on the ends of the cars. This would have been a difficult and involved technical rescue operation <i>today</i>, even with modern equipment and training. A hundred and twenty-three years ago, without either, it would have been a nightmare.</p><p>Even worse, many of the passengers in all of the wrecked coaches had been horribly burned when the boiler exploded and were screaming in agony whenever anyone so much as touched then. When lifted, their skin and flesh sloughed from their bodies, and many of them were all but insane from pain. Most of the burn victims who were still alive when the rescuers arrived wouldn't live another 24 hours.</p><p>As several crews worked to free the trapped passengers, another group of rescuers moved among the bodies of the passengers who had been ejected, looking for signs of life and finding that many of these people were, amazingly, alive. Many of them horribly injured, some of them also burned, but alive. Rescuers started moving them to the embankment, probably between the road and the track, separating the still live victims from the deceased while they were at it. </p><p>Greiner and his fireman both survived with few if any injuries, but Farr and his fireman weren't so lucky. Both were ejected as the locomotive rolled and slid, with the fireman found either gravely injured or dead near the wrecked locomotive, and Farr dead, his body trapped beneath the locomotive's drive wheels and running gear. While the fireman's body was recoverable, removal of Farr's body would have to wait until a heavy wrecking crane could lift the wrecked locomotive.</p><p>In the tower, Hauser was busier than the oft-noted one-armed-paper-hanger. Telegraph wires were humming, and one of the very first things that he probably did, hard on the heels of the crash, was pounding out urgent messages to stations west of the scene stopping all traffic into Atlantic City on both the Reading and the West Jersey tracks. Once he confirmed that it was a <i>major</i> accident, with multiple injuries and deaths, another message was sent to Atlantic City Hospital, on the oceanfront, to tell them to get ready for an influx of patients. When the hospital received that message, calls went out for every doctor in Atlantic City to head for either the hospital or to the scene. </p><p> By 1896, the era of sending a rider on a fast horse to deliver these messages and requests had, thankfully, ended. The telegraph took care of the inter-station messages such as the urgent order to stop traffic, but I have a sneaking suspicion that most of the local messages were sent and handled quickly and relatively smoothly, thanks to Alex G. Bell's little invention. The telephone had become a common tool in businesses by the end of the 19th Century. There were somewhere around 250,000 telephones in use nationally by 1896, with the number growing quickly. Most were in either businesses or government offices, and I can just about bet that Atlantic City's hospital, hotels, and major businesses such as railroad offices had phones to communicate at least locally.</p><p>Meanwhile, as those notifications were being made, anyone who had brought a wagon to the scene was recruited as a make-do ambulance driver, and said wagons were maneuvered in as close to the scene as possible, the first group of patients were loaded, and these make-shift ambulances headed back for the city. There would be, very literally, dozens more patients to follow, suffering the gamut of injuries, from lacerations and contusions to massive, unsurvivable trauma. Six of these injured patients would die before morning, two more would die with-in the next few day, bumping the total number of fatalities to at least fifty.</p><p>While those patients were being loaded aboard the makeshift ambulances and some rescuers continued to search for injures passengers, others rolled up their sleeves and started the macabre task of body recovery, gathering the bodies they could access and recover, then laying them out on the embankment and covering them, often with newspapers, to await transport to a temporary morgue when one was set up an hour or two into the incident. Other hardy (and strong-stomached) individuals started gathering the body parts that were scattered around the scene and piling them in one place, while another group began collecting personal belongings, and piling them in another spot. </p><p>As these volunteer rescuers removed trapped passengers, loaded the injured onto wagons, and collected bodies, they realized that they were running into another problem...it was getting dark. The crash happened around 6:50 PM. This was long before 'Daylight Time' came into being, so by about 7:15 the sun was already dropping below the tree line and daylight was fast slipping away. Decently powerful portable scene lights and the generators needed to power them just plain long didn't exist yet and wouldn't for about a quarter century or so.</p><p> They may not have had lights, but they <i>did </i>have a <i>lot</i> of wooden debris. Men gathered wreckage from the wooden coaches, piled it high in a couple of strategic locations, and lit it off to provide light. These bonfires gave them light, after a fashion at any rate, but they also <i>had </i>to have given the already macabre scene an even more eerie, Dante-esque atmosphere.</p><p> They were going to need the light from the bonfires, because they weren't finished by a <i>long</i> shot. There were still passengers, living and dead, trapped in the wrecked coaches. They had made pretty amazing progress in the first hour or so of the incident, though, especially considering this was a group of 'civilians' and <i>not</i> an organized emergency response team of any kind, and that they were working with, at the most, hand tools. With darkness falling and flames dancing high into the hot night, they continued their efforts, now bathed in the flickering orange glow from the bonfires.</p><p>Even as all of this was happening, the investigation into the accident was kicked into gear by the arrival of Coroner William McLaughlin, who headed for the scene as soon as he got word of the accident. It's unknown just how soon into the incident he got there, but I believe it was fairly early on, possibly even before the bonfires were lit. He probably gave the wreck a quick 360...or as much of a 360 as was possible...when he arrived and may or may not have found and questioned John Greiner and his fireman while he was at it. We do know for sure that he went to the tower very shortly after he got there, bailed up the outside stairway, entered the tower, and probably started questioning Hauser almost before the door slammed closed.</p><p>He probably asked what happened first, and in answer Houser equally likely told him something to the effect of 'The West Jersey Excursion train had the clear track, and the Express ran the signal and hit it'. Mclaughlin's mouth probably dropped open upon hearing this. He was likely aware of railroad protocol as well as the fact that Hauser's actions busted it wide open, and when Hauser saw his look of disapproving surprise, he insisted that he set the signals to favor the excursion train because he thought it had time to clear the crossing. McLaughlin's very next question would...or at least <i>should...</i>have been something to the effect of. 'I don't care <i>how </i>much time you thought the West Jersey train had, why did you bust protocol <i>bigtime </i>by giving it a clear track'...but that question wouldn't get asked, at least not right then or right there.</p><p> Why? Because some things really haven't changed in a century and a quarter or so. The railroad was already in Damage Control mode. The phone was ringing, or the telegraph sounder was pounding out a message before McLaughlin could ask more than that first question, and when Hauser answered he was told in no uncertain terms not to answer <i>any </i>questions about the accident from <i>anyone</i> until he talked to the railroad brass.</p><p>When Hauser told McLaughlin that he couldn't answer any more questions. McLaughlin replied by having him arrested pending an investigation and transported to the Atlantic City jail. Hauser immediately posted a $500 bond...almost $17,000 in 2022 dollars...and likely went home to await the empanelment of a Coroner's Jury (And very possibly to pour himself a strong drink). </p><p>After Hauser was arrested, though, they probably have had another problem<i>. </i>The tower was more than likely being used as the on-scene command post, so they needed someone who was telegraph-qualified. Of course, it's a good bet that it also had a telephone by 1896, which would have simplified things greatly. Whatever they were going to do to take care of this sudden communications gap needed to be done quickly (And apparently, was), because as the rescues were in progress and the investigation starting, city officials in Atlantic City weren't just sitting on their hands.</p><p> While Atlantic City didn't have a paid fire department yet...fire protection was provided by nine volunteer companies until a salaried department was organized in1904...they <i>did </i>have a director of Public Safety, a gent by the name of James Hoyt, who had also been notified early in the ball game, He set up a command post (Probably at City Hall), probably grabbed a few other city officials to give him a hand, and they collectively rolled up their sleeves and dived right into the action.</p><p>It had quickly become obvious that this was a horribly grisly scene, with multiple fatalities, and one of the first things they needed to do was set up a morgue. The old Excursion House hotel, on Mississippi Ave at the oceanfront, hard by the turnpike, was chosen as the site for the morgue, probably due to its location and the fact that it may have been vacant at the time. Word was relayed to the scene (To the tower), probably by telephone, to have all of the bodies transported there.</p><p>While they were at it they needed to simplify the transport of both the injured <i>and</i> bodies. A call was made to Atlantic City's central rail terminal, and Hoyt told them he needed a couple of passenger cars and a locomotive. Preferably yesterday.</p><p> I'm not sure exactly how they did it, but I'm thinking that, if the last couple of West Jersey coaches were still on the track, a locomotive was backed to the scene and coupled to them, and those coaches would be used to shuttle both injured and dead, as well as the uninjured passengers from both trains, into the city. It would take a while to make that happen, though...up to a couple of hours if they didn't have an available locomotive with steam up. </p><p>If the West Jersey coaches were derailed, it would be longer still...not only would they have to find a locomotive and crew, they would also have to scare up a couple of passenger coaches. At any rate, they wouldn't be able to transport by railroad until at least a couple of hours into the incident, so at least half of the injured and many of the bodies were transported by wagon.</p><p> Meanwhile, the injured were arriving four or five at a time, in the backs of wagons, and <i>all</i> of them were going to Atlantic City's hospital. Atlantic City's then small hospital quickly became overwhelmed when thirty-plus patients, all badly injured, arrived with-in the first hour or so, a fact that Hoyt was quickly made aware of. He had a group start calling hotels near the Excursion House to ask if they could be used as temporary hospitals. The names of the hotels willing to do so were relayed to Hoyt at the command post, and he and his assistants put their heads together to brainstorm a game plan. One thing they absolutely needed to do was manage just how many patients were sent to each hotel.</p><p>They came up with a number, then probably either sent someone to the Atlantic City side of the turnpike drawbridge, or even more likely, recruited the bridge tender and had him intercept each wagon load of either patients or bodies and direct them to the proper destination. I have a feeling that the telephone helped out here as well. Once they decided how many patients would go to each hotel, they could keep tabs on how many patients were at each location, then advise the bridge tender where the next 'X' number of patients were to go. </p><p>Of course, once they got a locomotive and crew out to the scene, either with a couple spare coaches from Atlantic City, or coupled it to a West Jersey coach or two that was still on the rails, the remaining injured would arrive en-mass, and the operation of the drawbridge could be terminated. Of course this created a possible new problem...now they would have possibly dozens more patients arriving at once. They absolutely <i>had</i> to get the hotel-hospital operation ironed out and running smoothly before that happened. </p><p>The incident had probably been on-going for a good hour or so by the time the decisions concerning the morgue and using the hotels as temporary hospitals were made, but they were still short on one more important resource. Doctors. Every MD in Atlantic City, along, likely, with a few vacationing doctors who volunteered their services, were up to their elbows in seriously injured patients, with each doctor having several patients under his care. One of the local MDs probably told Jim Hoyt, in no uncertain word that they needed help. <i>Big-</i>time.</p><p>It wouldn't surprise me if Hoyt was given this information about the same time as the decision to use the hotels was made ('Jim, we're running out of doctors, here...'). Being director of Public Safety, Hoyt knew that the City of Philadelphia had a 'Emergency Corps', consisting of doctors who volunteered to respond to any major incidents with-in the states of Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, (A concept that was pretty ahead of its time in 1896!), and the incident probably wasn't more than a couple of hours old when he had a message telegraphed...or maybe even telephoned... to Philly, requesting the team's response.</p><p>Of course, the Emergency Corps members still had to be notified, and then they had to get them to the scene. </p><p>Today regional technical rescue teams and mass casualty response teams are alerted by pager, and can be deployed quickly, with multiple specialized vehicles hitting the road and heading for the scene, Federal-Q sirens screaming and Grover air horns braying, within minutes of the request.</p><p>Back in 1896 it wasn't that simple. While the doctors could be (Maybe) reached by telephone, they still had to be found and notified. Maybe...I'll even say probably...there was some kind of duty schedule that simplified things a bit, but getting the team rolling still probably wasn't exactly lightning-fast.</p><p> While our doctors were being notified, a train and train crew had to be made up. By 1896, train wrecks, sadly, had become commonplace, and railroads had emergency response down to an art form, with trains made up, coupled together, loaded with supplies such as stretchers, medical supplies, hand tools, and even heavy lifting jacks, and ready to roll...but a locomotive and crew had to be found and readied. Slowing things up a bit more in this particular case, our Emergency Corps members had to be found, gathered, and boarded. </p><p>Fifteen of Philly's Emergency Corps doctors answered the call, grabbed medical bags, and gathered at, I seriously suspect, the Camden and Atlantic City rail terminal across the Delaware River, in Camden, New Jersey, which also meant they had to <i>get</i> to Camden. And we have another problem...there wouldn't be a road bridge across the Delaware River to Camden for another thirty years. This meant that they would have to catch a ferry across the Delaware River first, <i>then </i>make their way to the Camden train station. Needless to say, this delayed their departure for Atlantic City even more. </p><p>The train bearing the Emergency Corps members didn't pull out of Camden until about 10:45 PM, probably, as I noted above, using the former Camden and Atlantic City tracks, (Which also meant that this was also West Jersey train, as the Camden and Atlantic was owned by the West Jersey by 1896 ) as they weren't blocked by wreckage. The locomotive heading up the rescue train, carrying only the doctors, would have only been pulling a couple of coaches, and would have had the highest priority. Every train between Philadelphia and Atlantic City would have been ordered to take a siding until the rescue train roared past, throttle wide open, probably running an honest 60 or so MPH.</p><p>That absolutely <i>had</i> to have been a hell of a ride. You have to keep in mind that in 1896, 60 MPH was an all but unheard-of speed, and running that fast at night would have been a thrill-park-level ride. The cars would have been rocking gently, but perceptively, the rapid-fire 'click-<i>clack,</i>click-<i>clack,</i>click-<i>clack,' </i>of wheels hitting rail joints making their speed all the more obvious. Our doctors would have been discussing the crash all the way in, wondering just what had happened as well as just what they were facing and what they would need, their hearts thumping with an adrenalin-fueled hyper awareness that emergency responders have felt untold millions of times over the passage of time.</p><p>All of them would probably been in one coach, and as they neared 'The Shore'...probably about the time they blew through Pleasantville, just under three miles from the scene...they would have moved to the right side of the car and started pressing their faces against windows. They would have spotted the orange-tinged smoke columns from the bonfires first, making them wonder if the wreckage was on fire until they passed the scene. Their eyes would have widened in shocked horror as they rolled past the scene and saw the wreckage, jumbled together and silhouetted by the fires, a horror image that would be indelibly embedded in their memories forever</p><p>I can almost bet that whoever was in the tower called the station to let them know 'The relief train just went through' as they passed the scene. They would have rolled into Atlantic City only five or so minutes later to find transportation waiting for them at the train station. By then, Hoyt and his crew had the city-end of the operation running like a Swiss watch, and they had already decided how many of our relief doctors would go to which locations...the only decision that needed to be made was just <i>who</i> was going where. </p><p>This was likely taken care of in a few minutes, and the horse drawn taxis or omnibuses that normally transported tourists now transported our doctors. They probably arrived in Atlantic City around 11:45 PM and were up to their armpits in patients by midnight or very shortly thereafter. To Atlantic City's overburdened MDs, they were about as welcome a sight as was possible. All of them would have a long <i>long</i> night. </p><p>The night would be equally long at the scene...most of the injured had probably been transported, either by wagon or train, by about 1AM, but there were still bodies that needed recovering, and a few of them...most notably Engineer Ed Farr's body...would have to await the arrival of a heavy wrecking crane. There were only twenty-nine bodies in the morgue by midnight, and body recovery went on through the night, with the last comparatively easily recovered bodies probably arriving at the temporary morgue sometime around sunrise the next morning. Forty-two bodies would ultimately be brought to the temporary morgue, with eight more dying at the hospital, bring ing the total numnber of fatalities to fifty.</p><p>The same train that had transported the injured and the bodies was likely also used to shuttle the uninjured passengers back to Atlantic City, where another special train would transport the uninjured excursion train passengers...along with thirty or so passengers whose injuries had been minor and who had already been discharged from the hospital... home. But it would take a while for <i>that </i>to happen as well. </p><p>The West Jersy tracks (As well as the Reading tracks) were still blocked. Both railroads, apparently, moved quickly to get the tracks cleared and repaired to the point that trains could run. working by firelight alongside the rescuers who were recovering bodies. The two groups just about <i>had to</i> be working on these two diverse tasks at the same time, because the West Jersey special train taking the uninjured excursion passengers back to Bridgeton left Atlantic City 'several hours' after the accident...I'm guessing around daybreak or a little before.</p><p>The first few minutes of <i>that</i> trip were probably about as traumatizing as it gets. The passengers first had to board another train at the very station where the fatal trip began, then ride along the exact same route, finally passing the scene, where the overturned and shattered Reading locomotive was on display for all to see, wreckage was piled high alongside the tracks, smoke was still rising from the bonfires, and people were still crawling around the ruins. </p><p>The scene was bad enough at night...daylight, however, revealed just <i>how</i> devastating the collision actually<i> was. </i>Of course, all<i> </i>of these people had experienced the collision firsthand the previous evening and were likely already traumatized. Passing the wreckage again just reinforced that trauma. On top of that the train probably had to creep past the scene at reduced speed. The tracks had been repaired, but this was likely a temporary repair, specifically to allow that particular train to pass, and to allow wrecking and recovery equipment access to the scene. </p><p> Coroner McLaughlin apparently didn't waste any time either...he had a Coroner's Jury empaneled by the afternoon of the next day (The 31st), though actual testimony apparently didn't get rolling for a couple of days. The most telling testimony came on August 4th, when John Greiner as well as several surviving passengers from both trains testified. The jury retired the next day and returned verdicts on August 7th. Greiner was all but cleared of fault, though the jury did note that he should have used more caution in crossing in front of the oncoming express train (Translated, I'm sure, to 'Knowing you were supposed to yield to the express, you should have slowed and prepared to stop, just in case.) </p><p>They <i>really</i> socked it to Ed Farr, who of course, wasn't able to defend himself. The jury noted that, in blowing through the crossing at 45-50 mph he ignored not one, but <i>three</i> signals...two set at caution, and the third to 'Stop'...a move that many found absolutely inexplicable, as he was well known as a very conscientious and safe engineer.</p><p>That old bugaboo, complacency, just may have been the culprit...the afternoon express had the right-of-way on two different levels. It was inbound <i>and</i> it had priority other trains going in <i>either</i> direction unless train orders demanded otherwise, so it was a fair to good bet that he just assumed he had the right-of-way...something he may have done multiple times in the past. It's a more than plausible theory, and the one I subscribe to (As if I'm some kind of expert or something).</p><p> There's one little problem with that theory, though...he <i>had</i> stopped, while inbound, on at least one other occasion, a fairly recent occasion at that, and that is what had people scratching their heads. Again, Farr was <i>not</i> known to be a reckless engineer. A few people theorized that he had possibly suffered a heart attack or stroke just before reaching the signals, but if that had been the case, his fireman would have been aware that something was wrong and could have brought the train to a stop. As both Farr and his fireman were killed in the crash, it was a mystery that would remain unsolved.</p><p>Of course, blaming the Express' crew was also the easiest way to close the case, and let's be real here...what ever the reason, he <i>is</i> the one who blew through <i>three</i> signals set against him while the excursion train <i>did</i> have a clear track.. Ed Farr's actions were found to be the primary cause of the collision.</p><p>While they were at it, the Coroner's Jury also slammed George Hauser, noting that he used exceedingly poor judgement when he abandoned all protocol and gave the excursion train the clear signal. There was no mention, however, of what if any consequences he suffered because if the jury's verdict, though I can't help but wonder of he ended up losing his job over his error.</p><p>Whatever consequences he may have suffered, it couldn't bring back the fifty people, many of them women and children, who died in the crash, nor could it miraculously heal the dozens who suffered debilitating injuries. Most of the victims lived in Bridgeton, New Jersey and news of the crash probably hit the town the next morning with the arrival of the uninjured and slightly injured passengers. Needless to say, family members of the doomed beach-goers wo <i>didn't</i> return to Bridgeton freaked, leading to an influx of worried family members who fell upon Atlantic City, but I suspect they had to wait a day or so. </p><p>Once the special train taking the uninjured excursionists home had passed the scene the tracks were probably blocked for several more hours as the big steam-powered wrecking crane righted and removed the Reading Locomotive, and Ed Farr's body was recovered. Then permanent repairs had to be made to the damaged tracks, which could have taken another day or so, so it could have well been August 1st or even 2nd before any other trains could pass the scene.</p><p>Once those repairs were completed, the family members of the deceased and injured fell upon Atlantic City, some to visit their injured relatives, and others to search for missing loved ones, many of whose bodies <i>still</i> hadn't been identified a couple of days after the accident. I couldn't find much information at all about this phase of the incident, but it couldn't have been even vaguely pleasant for either those manning the temporary morgue, or family members searching for loved ones. Many of the bodies were dismembered and mutilated beyond recognition, several were horribly burned by the steam from the boiler explosion, and in some cases identification was likely all but impossible. </p><p>On top of that, remember that this was in the middle of the Summer...Residents of any given U.S. East Coast beach city will tell you that their hometown is among the hottest places on earth during the summer. These bodies were sitting for a couple of days before they were identified and released to family members, or possibly released for burial in a mass grave (Which is what was done with the body parts that were recovered from the scene). The inside of the old Excursion House absolutely couldn't have been a pleasant place to be.</p><p>Then, of course, once the bodies were identified, the surviving relatives had to arrange for transport back to Bridgeton, where funerals probably seemed to go on forever during that first week of August, 1896. Many of these funerals were especially tragic because...as is often the case in accidents such as this...many families lost multiple children, several families lost <i>both</i> parents, and a couple of families were wiped out entirely.</p><p> Sadly, there doesn't seem to be any memorial to the fifty victims of the crash, which actually seems to have flown under the radar, largely because it was overshadowed ten years and change later by <i>another</i> deadly crash, also in Atlantic City, on the same railroad.</p><p>But it hasn't been entirely forgotten. The headstones of the victims still exist in Bridgeton, of course, and descendants of some of the victims still live there At least one of them has memorialized their distant, deceased relatives in a blog post, which I'll include in 'Links'</p><p>I always find it sad when victims go unmemorialized...these people left Bridgton that long ago July morning for a day at the beach, as millions of families have done over the last century and a half or so. Unfortunately, their day ended in a scene of absolute horror. Hopefully this post will help keep them from being forgotten.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***> Notes, Links, And Stuff <***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">When an incident occurred a century and a quarter ago and isn't all that well known in the first place, I'm not exactly surprised when I can't find all that much information about it. In fact, I'm <i>more</i> surprised when I find <i>any </i>usable information...much less an actual abundance of it...about <i>any</i> obscure or semi-obscure incident, especially one that occurred over a century ago</p><p style="text-align: left;"> That being said, when you've got a run of good luck going, you need to run with it. The 'Good Luck' I'm speaking of here is finding really good information sources for a post about a less than well known incident, even though few such sources actually exist. For the second post in a row, <i>all</i> of the links I found were good, solid links packed with useful information, even though there were only about four or five of them...the inevitable Wiki article, a pair of blog posts, a reprint of a newspaper article, and even a photo of the scene, taken the next morning.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And the good luck just kept on rolling in...what I believe to be the old right of way for the long-gone West Jersey and Seashore R.R. still exists, now utilized as a power line right-of-way, and clearly visible on Google Maps' satellite view.. You can...I think...even see where the old diamond crossing used to be, as the present-day NJT rail line into Atlantic city lies on the former Reading right-of-way. Of course, and maybe even inevitably, this happy find refuted a bit of the info I already had, as the description of the approach to the crossing in one of the blog posts I found and the way the crossing was <i>actually</i> laid out were two entirely different animals.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Still, with the quintet of good links, and the google maps satellite image of the old West Jersey right of way backing me up, I had a good solid base to start building this one on. Oh, there were a few more little bumps in the road...but they also added a bit of a challenge to the process and made it more fun to write. The afore-mentioned discovery of the old West Jersey right-of-way caused me to have to rework a few paragraphs. There was no real description of exactly <i>how</i> the crossing and tower were positioned in relation to each other or, even more importantly, exactly where the wrecked cars and locomotive ended up in relation to the crossing and each other. (That one scene photo helped immensely here...and contradicted the way I <i>thought</i> the Reading locomotive and the excursion train's cars landed while it was at it, causing me to have to make a couple more 'on the fly' changes), . Oh...the use of the telephone was pure speculation on my part...but I'm also pretty sure that one was right on the money (I'll look at why in one of the 'Notes'.)</p><p style="text-align: left;">Ineitably, I ran up a bit of contradictory info here and there. One good example's the name of the tower operator...he was identified as both George Hauser and William Thurlow....Hauser was the name that appeared most frequently, while Thurlow's name appeared only once, so I went with the most popular choice. </p><p style="text-align: left;">There was even a fair amount of detail concerning just what went on at what had to have been an unbelievably chaotic scene, but still not enough to keep me from filling in the blanks, so to speak, with what I <i>think</i> may have happened. Obviously, for example, I have no idea what conversations actually took place in the locomotive cabs or in the tower, but I think (Ok, <i>hope</i>) I made some pretty good guesses. I have no clue what went through the heads of James Hoyt and his crew as they did what can only be described as an outstanding job of getting things organized in Atlantic City, nor do I truly know how or when during the incident's time line anything happened, so I had to sort of read (And write, for that matter) between the lines a bit and hope that the way I <i>think </i>things happened is at least close (Or, barring that, at least makes sense) .</p><p>I also had to do a bit of guess work to figure out just how the West Jersey and Reading lines were actually situated as well, even with the West Jersey right-of-way still visible. In fact, that may have been the biggest guess of not only this post, but possibly of this entire blog so far.</p><p> The West Jersey line the wreck occurred on was described in one of blog posts I used for reference as running parallel to and between the former Camden & Atlantic and the Reading tracks until they reached the fatal crossing, but here's the thing...the former Camden & Atlantic was actually a subsidiary of the West Jersey in 1896 (Also making it, like the West Jersey, part of the ginormous Pennsylvania Railroad system).</p><p>The West Jersey was actually a pretty comprehensive system in 1896, comprising nearly 800 miles of track (Counting yard leads and sidings), with several long branch lines. If not for the fact that the blog post I just mentioned <i>distinctly</i> mentioned the West Jersey running parallel to and between the former C&A and the Reading, I would have wondered if the West Jersey right of way and the former C&A right of way were one and the same, with the branch line leading to Bridgeton actually branching off of the old C&A right of way at a turn-out (What non-railfans call a 'switch). And a tiny part of me <i>still</i> wonders if that was the case. The thing that puzzles me is the fact that the old C&A right of way is completely gone, though it <i>does </i>appear on some old topo maps (But the fatal diamond crossing <i>doesn't</i>, adding a bit more confusion to the mix)</p><p style="text-align: left;">So, after squinting at said maps and the satellite view meaningfully and at length I ended up writing it the way it <i>seems</i> to have happened, according to the descriptions I read, and the layout of the old right of way and what <i>may</i> be the location of the diamond crossing...I tried to get it close to right. That being said, as always, any errors are mine and mine alone, and anyone with better, more accurate information, please feel free to speak up. I hope I at least came close to being accurate, and while I was at it, I hope I made this post informative, interesting, and a good read.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> On to the 'Notes'!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Not only was Edward Farr's death one of the most horrible out of the fifty deaths caused by the wreck, his death also caused one of the weirdest incidents of the whole event. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Farr was ejected from the cab of the Reading locomotive as it flipped on its side and slid, and he somehow apparently ended up beneath one of the big drive wheels, pinned between it and the ground. At least when the boiler exploded, he was probably already dead, because he would have been just about at ground zero when the huge burst of superheated steam and water blasted out of the boiler. Because his body was trapped beneath the overturned locomotive, it was also one of the last, if not the last to be recovered, probably the next morning. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Farr was also married, and his wife was likely notified of his death the next day, maybe even before her husband's body was removed from the scene. I believe the Farrs lived in Philadelphia, and his wife was probably notified of his death by Reading railroad officials. Several news articles reported that, upon hearing of her husband's death, Mrs. Farr 'Fell to the floor, dead'...likely suffering a fatal heart attack.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then, a couple of days later, no less than the New York Times reported that Mrs. Farr attended her husband's funeral, and even gave a statement to the paper that she was 'absolutely devastated' by her husband's death.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Either the reports of her death were false news, meant to further sensationalize the wreck (Not all that improbable, as news reports in that era tended to be far more graphic and sensational than they are today) or, in an even <i>weirder </i>twist, someone impersonated her at her husband's funeral.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Either way, it just added a surreal bit of weirdness to an already immensely tragic accident.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">While none of Atlantic City's fire companies responded to the scene, I can just about bet that some of the city's firefighters were among the huge crowd of citizens who responded to the crash. I can also just about guarantee that when they got to the scene, they dived in with both feet and went right to work. It also wouldn't surprise me if they were a large part of the reason that operations at the scene were handled with at least a suggestion of organization.</p><p style="text-align: left;">In 1896, Atlantic City's nine volunteer fire companies had well over a dozen<i> huge</i> frame hotels to protect as well as hundreds of smaller businesses, a few hundred private dwellings, and miles of boardwalk, so they had their share of incidents in any given year. The fact that this largely wooden city was still standing attests to their skill. These guys knew what they were doing.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And, judging from their stations, several of which were utilized by the salaried A.C.F.D. until well into the late 20th Century, these weren't impoverished fire companies running ancient equipment out of lean-to sheds. These were well financed, well equipped fire companies. Their guys were seasoned firefighters, their officers experienced in taking the chaos of a fire scene, and whipping it into order, and all of them were well acquainted with handling large, chaotic emergency scenes. And I have a feeling that the first several firefighters arriving on scene on scene did just that. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I also wouldn't be surprised if some of them weren't on the way to the scene as soon as they saw that column of steam boiling skyward, and when they got there, they dived right in and assisted in the rescues. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that word <i>may</i> have even been sent back for extra hand tools...axes and prybars...from the city's single truck company (The truck itself, being both horse drawn and the only ladder company in the city, most likely wouldn't have responded). </p><p style="text-align: left;">While firefighting and rescue in 1896 and 2022 are entire universes apart in many ways, the basics haven't changed. On a major accident scene, you locate your patients, you gain access to them, you disentangle them, you extricate them, and you transport them. From the sounds of things, the crowd gathered around that pile of wreckage a mile or so east of Atlantic City did just that. And, again, I have a sneaking suspicion that a few dozen members of Atlantic City's fire companies are a big part of the reason the operation went as smoothly as it did.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Ahhh, the telephone! When I stated that the telephone very possibly sped up and smoothed out communications, it was speculation, <i>but</i> it was speculation that had a few facts along to back it up.</p><p style="text-align: left;">By July 1896, as I noted, there were around 250,000 telephones in use in the U.S., and the very great majority of them were in either businesses or Government offices. This works out to around 5550 phones in each of the 45 states that were then in the Union. Of course, this also meant that any business that had a phone...well, that was just it, that business likely only had <i>a</i> phone, or for a large business such as a hotel, maybe a couple of phones, say, one at the front desk, and one in the manager's office.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Government offices were possibly better equipped but were still <i>far</i> from the point of every upper and mid-level employee at City Hall having their own extension. But there <i>were</i> phones in regular use by then, and the telephone was fast becoming an indispensable tool of both business and government.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Therefore, it all but goes without saying that, when James Hoyt wanted to check on the number of patients at Atlantic City's hospital, or coordinate use of the hotels, or even call to get Philadelphia's Emergency Corps rolling, he grabbed the telephone...long distance calling was already a thing by 1896.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Now, that being said, making a phone call was <i>still</i> a bit more complicated a century and a quarter ago than it would be even a couple of decades later. While direct dialing had already been developed, it was still pretty much experimental and not at all common. Most phone calls still had to go through the operator. You picked the receiver up, turned a crank that generated a current, which in turn traveled through the line to ring a bell at the exchange office. When the operator (Who you very possibly knew by name) picked up, you gave her the number you needed to contact, then she literally physically connected your phone to the recipient's phone, using a wire and jack. I believe the operator also sent the current through the line to ring the phone. then, when the phone was answered, she informed the party of the call, then rang off (Or if she was bored, stayed on the lone and listened!) Needless to say, this process took a bit longer than direct dial, and if the call was an emergency, it could seem even longer.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Whoever our unnamed and unsung telephone operator was that night, she should also be commended, because she was probably busier than the oft-discussed one armed paperhanger. While Alex Bell's invention very likely smoothed the evening's chaos a bit, that smoothing out couldn't have happened without our unsung operator.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">By1900 the number of telephones in service in the U.S. had more than doubled to a bit over 600,000. And only five years after that, the number of phones in the U.S. had more than tripled <i>that</i> total, with 2.2 million phones in service.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">The history of rail service into Atlantic City is a fascinating subject in its own right and is far too complicated to even try to cover in this post...and definitely way too involved to even <i>try</i> to cover in a 'Note'. I'm gonna hit a couple of the high points, though. Lets see...the West Jersey and Seashore was actually a conglomeration and merger of several smaller roads, including the original line into Atlantic City, the Camden and Atlantic, and At the time of the collision, was part of the Pennsylvania R.R. system. By the mid-1920s, which was Atlantic City's heyday, there were at least four rail lines going into three separate stations in Atlantic City. By the Mid 1930s, New Jersey's State Government had ordered the merger of the Reading and the Pennsylvania railroads, and by the Mid-50s, the automobile was pushing the train out of the picture.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Today there is only one rail line serving Atlantic City, operated by New Jerey Transit, and utilizing the former Reading railroad's right-of-way...which became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad before being abandoned for nearly a decade before being reactivated by Amtrak, who ultimately turned it over to New Jersey Transit (That stretch of track switched owners and affiliations over the years the way most people change socks, BTW)</p><p style="text-align: left;">Don't worry, it confuses me, too. I'm gonna throw some links on Atlantic City railroad history into...well...Links.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Both the number of fatal diamond crossing crashes that have occurred over the years and the number of diamond crossings still in service today sort of surprised me as I was researching both this one, and the Grand Crossing Collision.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> I ran up on at least four such collisions (Including this one and Grand Crossing) with either major loss of life (Less than 25) or catastrophic loss of life (25 or more) while I was researching this wreck (And yes, I'm going to cover all four of 'em ) as well as two or three with little or no information available about them. Interestingly, none of the four major wrecks are among the better-known rail crashes despite this type of crash being both unique and unusual. </p><p style="text-align: left;">These major diamond crossing collisions are also pretty much confined to the latter half of the 19th Century, and the first quarter of the 20th Century...traffic control, safety technology, and likely more than a little luck have prevented major loss of life at the others, though it hasn't completely prevented the crashes themselves. Though I haven't found any information other than the location of three more such crashes, I'm assuming, until I discover more info, that loss of life was minimal or, better yet, no deaths occurred.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I was also surprised at the number of Diamond Crossings still in service on major railroads. Not only are there several such crossings where, say, an east-west division of a railroad crosses a north-south division of the same road, there are also quite a few diamond crossings where two major railroads cross. A few of them (Hopefully a <i>very</i> few) don't have <i>any</i> form of positive train control protecting them.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And trust me, collisions at diamond crossings have <i>not</i> been completely eliminated...there was one, for example, in 2015 between two Union Pacific freights at a non-Positive-Train-Control diamond that was caused by crew fatigue...both the engineer and fireman of the striking train were asleep. Thankfully all of the injuries were minor, but that <i>had</i> to be one of the rudest awakenings on record!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">And I can hear some Jersey Shore fans (Of the actual region...not the TV show) yelling '<i>Wait</i> a minute Rob! Atlantic City was <i>not</i> the very first beach resort!!!!</p><p style="text-align: left;">And you'd be right...</p><p style="text-align: left;">While Atlantic City was the first <i>railroad</i> resort and one of the very first true beach resorts, it <i>wasn't</i> the first...or even the first in New Jersey. People had been going to Cape May, 40 or so miles south of Atlantic City. for a century and a half or so by the time the wreck profiled in this post occurred. Cape May, in fact, is recognized as the nation's oldest beach resort. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Atlantic City beat Cape May to the punch in one very important way, though...the railroad. While a rail line from Camden to Cape May was chartered at about the same time as the Camden & Atlantic, the Cape May line wasn't competed until 1863, a decade after the Camden & Atlantic began operations.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Up until the point that trains started running into Cape May, vacationers wanting to visit the resort either traveled form Philly to Cape May by steamboat (And before steamboats, by packet boat) down the Delaware River, or via a very, <i>very</i> long, uncomfortable, often multi-day road trip on horseback or by carriage or stagecoach on much less than ideal roads.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Because of this, Atlantic City overtook and surpassed Cape May early in the ball game, and it took decades for Cape May to catch up, number of vacationers-wise. Of course, today, the 40 miles of beach between the two resorts has become pretty much one mega-resort that's now the southern end of the 'The Jersy Shore's hundred or so miles of beach.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The two resorts developed in two different directions and have two distinct personalities. I've always had the impression that Cape May was more of a 'Cottage' type resort, like the Outer Banks, where Atlantic City is more of a commercialized resort, like Virgina Beach, only more so. Any fans of the two resorts among my readers please chime in.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><***>LINKS<***></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">While researching this wreck, I found a grand total of about five links that actually provided useful information, and one of them was, of course, the wreck's Wikipedia page. Interestingly, it was actually the least informative of the bunch. Like the links from my last post, and for the second post in a row, all of the ones I found were good enough to include here.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Well all but one ::sigh:: R.I.P. Gendisasters.</p><p>The Gendisasters page was, as always, extremely helpful, but sadly that link, which I farmed relentlessly over the last decade and change while searching for subjects for my blog, is now dead, the site apparently hacked by a Chinese firm with-in the last month or so.</p><p>Anyway, on to the 'Links'!</p><p><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Atlantic_City_rail_crash">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Atlantic_City_rail_crash</a> The all-but-inevitable Wiki page!</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://brotmanblog.com/2018/02/16/the-1896-atlantic-city-train-disaster/">https://brotmanblog.com/2018/02/16/the-1896-atlantic-city-train-disaster/</a> One of two blog posts I found about the wreck, this one the most note-worthy of the two because of it's in-depth discussion of two of the blog-owners ancestors, who died in the crash. The blog discusses their linage from their arrival in the U.S. through all of their descendants right on through to the present day.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://ahg3rd.wordpress.com/the-fralinger-family/1896-atlantic-city-train-wreck/">https://ahg3rd.wordpress.com/the-fralinger-family/1896-atlantic-city-train-wreck/</a> The second blog ling, a Worddpress blog that's actually a compilation of several period newspaper articles, and includes a partial list of the dead and injured, as well as a link to an article containing a full list of the dead.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://ahg3rd.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/1896-ny-times-ac-train-wreck-108245782.pdf">1896-ny-times-ac-train-wreck-108245782.pdf
(wordpress.com)</a> The afore-mentioned article containing a list of those killed in the accident...still only a partial list though, as at least six and possibly as many as eight died after being admitted to the hospital. This, BTW, is also a PDF file, so it's downloadable. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><***>Atlantic City Railroad History Links<***></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">Atlantic City wouldn't have existed without the railroad, so it boasts a significant...and significantly complicated...railroad history. I've tried to compile a list of links that clarify that history somewhat...I hope.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Jersey_and_Seashore_Railroad">West
Jersey and Seashore Railroad - Wikipedia</a> And <i>speakin' </i> of the WJ & SS, AKA West Jersey RR. here's that line's Wiki page, which is also a pretty decent thumbnail sketch of Atlantic City Railroad history in general, because the West Jersey was actually created by consolidation of several lines, including the Camden and Atlantic.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_City_Railroad">Atlantic
City Railroad - Wikipedia</a> Yet another consolidation of several rail lines, this one owned by the Reading railroad.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.american-rails.com/prsl.html">Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines: Map, Timetable, Stations (american-rails.com)</a> A quick history of the period after the Reading and the Pennsylvania RR...owner of the West Jersey and Seashore...merged</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-79911095743047179952022-01-17T16:14:00.028-05:002023-02-13T05:39:11.223-05:00Grand Crossing Train Collision. The Frog War That Became The Nations First, Nearly Forgotten, Railroad Disaster<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Grand Crossing Train Collision</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>April 25th, 1853</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Frog War That Became The Nations First, Nearly Forgotten, Railroad Disaster</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>'The Year The Horrors Began'</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Remember that sixteen year long run of astonishingly good luck that I all but said ended with the <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2021/09/norwalkbridge-disaster-norwalk-may-6-th.html">Norwalk Bridge Disaster</a>? Spoiler alert, gang...I was wrong. That run of good luck actually came to an end two weeks <i>before</i> the Norwalk Bridge Disaster. Sadly, though, the train wreck that <i>actually</i> ended it has just about fallen completely off the radar, largely because the more spectacular, deadlier, and more media-friendly Norwalk disaster overshadowed it.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Just about everyone who has even a minor interest in railroads and railroad history (And a surprisingly large number of people who <i>don't</i> have any such interest) have heard of the Norwalk Bridge Disaster, but most of these same people have either forgotten about the earlier wreck or, even more likely, never knew about it in the first place. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Lets see if we can fix that, at least a little.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Norwalk Bridge Disaster was the first major <i>bridge</i> disaster in the U.S.. The thing is, many people (Including a few pretty serious rail fans) think it was the very first major rail disaster of <i>any</i> kind, and, well, it wasn't. Another not quite as deadly train wreck beat it to the punch by just under two weeks. This other disaster 'only' killed 18 people,...a death toll that was still triple that of <i>any</i> previous single wreck, and only five fewer than the total number of rail fatalities that had occurred over the past 16 <i>years. </i></p><p style="text-align: left;">So, how did a train wreck that was, for two weeks, the deadliest train wreck in U.S. history, get overshadowed and all but forgotten? </p><p style="text-align: left;">Simple...the Media, newspaper sales, and the age old difference between Rich and Poor.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Norwalk Bridge Disaster involved a prestigious express train full of doctors that plummeted off of an open drawbridge, killing 48 people. Seven of the 48 fatalities were MDs. </p><p style="text-align: left;">This first wreck, which occurred just south of Chicago's 1853 city limits, in then very rural Cook County, involved a collision between a passenger train and a train loaded with immigrants in the middle of a marsh on the barren, rural outskirts of a major city. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Though tragic, it just wasn't all that sensational. There were no celebrities present, no daring rescues, no crazy visuals, nothing at all that really grabbed the media and hung on. Well, except for those 18 deaths.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Those 18 fatalities still made it the deadliest train wreck, and indeed, the deadliest land transportation accident of any kind, in U.S. history, so the Media jumped right in and ran with it. The crash was covered nationwide, headlining the front pages of major and minor newspapers the day after the crash. The investigation of the wreck likely also received pretty wide-spread coverage, and it appeared that the story had gained a good bit of traction despite it's lack of media friendly elements...</p><p style="text-align: left;">Then, just under two weeks later, Ed Tucker drove the <i>Boston Express</i> through an open drawbridge. Suddenly, that <i>first </i>accident apparently ceased to exist, at least as far as the Media was concerned. They dropped it like the oft-discussed hot rock, and figuratively (And, for those reporters living close enough to Norwalk to do so, literally) flocked to Norwalk.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Norwalk crash had everything The Media...and, whether we like to admit it or not, The Public... craves. A sensational accident scene, heroic rescues, the tragic death of the wealthy, He said-He Said controversy, a long, drawn out investigation, and even a picturesque setting. </p><p style="text-align: left;">This same public craved information about the Norwalk disaster, snapping up newspapers and magazines featuring articles about it as soon as they hit the news stands, so the Media gave them what they wanted (And what, incidentally, generated the most sales and, therefore, profit). They quit covering the wreck near Chicago, and went full court press on the Norwalk disaster.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A sound business practice of course, and one that's adhered to and followed religiously to this very day. One that also resulted in everyone pretty much forgetting about the Chicago accident as they followed the much more sensational Norwalk disaster. It wasn't long before the Chicago train wreck...which would come to be known locally as The Grand Crossing Collision...pretty much dropped off of the radar. </p><p style="text-align: left;">It really shouldn't have, though...there was plenty of intrigue, controversy, and dirty-dealings surrounding The Grand Crossing Collision for everyone. Thing is, most of the shenanigans took place well <i>before</i> the accident ever happened. </p><p style="text-align: left;">So, lets take a look at the <i>actual</i> first major loss of life train wreck in the U.S.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I've already made it pretty clear where we're heading for this one...Chicago, or actually just south of the Chicago-Cook County line, in then very rural Cook County. By mid 1853 there were just shy of ten thousand miles of rail line in the U.S., and Chicago was already setting itself up to become one of the nation's major rail hubs. </p><p style="text-align: left;">That ten thousand miles of rail line was <i>not</i> evenly distributed throughout the land...most of those miles were on the East Coast or in the upper Midwest. The Illinois Central Railroad had been chartered and had pushed rail lines all the way from the southern tip of Illinois to the northwestern corner of the state, with a branch line extending eastward towards Chicago.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The I.C. was the longest railroad in the world at the time, but it didn't connect in any way what so ever with any of the eastern rail lines...a situation that several of those eastern railroads, as well as the I.C. itself, very much wanted to remedy. And while they were remedying <i>that </i>problem, the I.C figured they would extend that eastward-pushing branch line all the away to The Windy City.</p><p style="text-align: left;">News flash...</p>Shenanigans may have been involved with this expansion, and those shenanigans just <i>may</i> have played a part in causing the accident. (Shenanigans??? In <i>Chicago?!?!? </i>Say it ain't so!!!!!).<div><br /></div><div>The events leading up to the collision actually began with a 'Frog War'...</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Wait</i> a minute, Rob!!!' I hear you guys yell. 'What do battling amphibians have to do with train wrecks???'</div><div><br /></div><div>Not that kind of frog, gang. 'Frog' in this instance is railroad terminology referring to the grooved metal castings that are used when two railroad tracks cross each other. These castings allow the flanged wheels on a train going through the crossing on one track to cross the intersecting track. (While we're at it, when two railroad tracks cross at grade, the crossing is called a <i>diamond crossing</i>, named for the configuration of the rails at the crossing.)</div><div><br /></div><div>And when the management of one railroad wanted to cross the right of way of a competing railroad, and was denied permission to do so, the resulting hostilities that often occurred were referred to as 'Frog Wars'.</div><div><br /></div><div>These Frog Wars often resulted in frayed tempers, which regularly escalated into battles between construction crews of one road, and groups of large and willing individuals from the other road who were sent to stop them. While injuries to <i>those</i> individuals weren't uncommon, these Frog Wars usually didn't result in death or injury to passengers. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>Usually</i> didn't. That, sadly, was about to change...</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBoVl1lRIzA20yx4wanMgCcAfaVirT6Okz5ho17HXh_J10soKyyFXaO_wDJ52iDw8HSanQX_n8PVe8lSc_gfAukTCfbSEiiTR2EzveZPR5eedz5l3sSLpt0dn66MgssSYUji3c7y3MjB096VxcD8ybbeMXcfqQOtoyckAGG2gUnn6bYlDRGna-rLQ-=s750" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="750" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBoVl1lRIzA20yx4wanMgCcAfaVirT6Okz5ho17HXh_J10soKyyFXaO_wDJ52iDw8HSanQX_n8PVe8lSc_gfAukTCfbSEiiTR2EzveZPR5eedz5l3sSLpt0dn66MgssSYUji3c7y3MjB096VxcD8ybbeMXcfqQOtoyckAGG2gUnn6bYlDRGna-rLQ-=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A grade crossing of two rail lines...the slotted castings where the rails cross are known as 'Frogs', and it was these devices that 'Frog Wars' were named after. These crossings are also known as 'Diamond Crossings'</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">While crossings such as this were fairly common in the early years of railroading, the great majority of them have been eliminated. There are still a few out there, most being main lines crossing industrial spurs or light rail lines. There are still a very few examples of two major rail lines crossing each other, however, but the probability of an accident similar to the Grand Crossing Collision happening at one of them today are infinitesimally small. Explicit, detailed rules and regulations and modern technology, such as automatic block signaling, derailers, and switch interlocks, make the diamond crossings that still exist hundreds of times safer than the one featured in this post.</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div>So, anyway, The events leading up to the collision actually began with a 'Frog War' between a quartet of competing railroads...The Chicago and Rock Island, the Illinois Central, the Michigan Central, and the Michigan Southern railroads,...and it was actually kicked off when the Chicago and Rock Island (Better known simply as The Rock Island) grabbed the right of way that the I.C. wanted for the final leg of it's route from Cairo Illinois To Chicago.</div><div> </div><div>While the Illinois Central was the world's longest railroad in the early 1850s, stretching for the entire 500 or so miles from Cairo, at the extreme south end of the state, to Galena, in the extreme Northwest corner, it hadn't been extended into Chicago...yet. There was also a 300 mile long mile branch line (Itself longer than any of the nation's other railroads) stretching almost all the way from Centralia, Il, 125 miles north of Cairo, to Chicago. Note I said <i>almost.</i> The line hadn't yet been constructed all of the way into Chicago, instead ending somewhere around Kankakee. </div><div><br /></div><div>The IC brass <i>had</i> picked the preferred route from Kankakee to Chicago though. This route would have swung west of Lake Calumet, then gone just about due north to the Chicago River, taking the I.C.'s trains directly into the heart of Chicago.</div><div><br /></div><div>Annnd, that's where they ran into a problem...the Rock Island had already bought up 'Considerable Acreage' along that <i>very </i>route, and not only that, they already had crews clearing right of way, and laying track. Time for the I.C. to drop back and punt...for now.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, we had two eastern railroads vying to be the first such lines into Chicago. The Michigan Central, pushing westward from Detroit, and their arch rivals, the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana, usually known simply as the 'Michigan Southern', coming in from Toledo, Ohio...but then <i>they</i> ran into a problem. Illinois wouldn't grant them (Or <i>any</i> out of state railroad) a charter to build new track within the state...they'd have to buy trackage rights from an existing railroad. </div><div><br /></div><div>Not <i>that</i> big a problem, though...there were already two rail roads a-building towards The Windy city, so the Michigan Central bought trackage rights from the Illinois Central, while the Michigan Southern allied themselves with The Rock Island...which would be the first of the two home-state lines to reach Chicago. That being the case, of course, The Michigan Southern was the first eastern line into Chicago, with the first M.S. train chugging into The Windy City on Feb 20, 1852.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Illinois Central still planned to run their main line west of Lake Calumet, but instead of continuing due north into Chicago, they planned to swing to the east after passing the lake, <i>then </i>swing north, paralleling Michigan Ave and the shore line of Lake Michigan, entering Chicago that way.<i> </i>One problem, though, and it was a<i> biggie. </i>To make that eastward jog before heading north, hugging the lake Michigan shoreline, and heading into The Windy City,<i> </i>their new right of way had to cross the Rock Island-Michigan Southern right of way just south of the Chicago city line. And, as the two eastern rail roads were bitter rivals, the Rock Island absolutely refused to allow the I.C. to cross their right of way. In any shape, form or fashion.</div><div><br /></div><div>The I.C. wasn't planning to take 'No' for an answer, however, and their management sent I.C. Chief Engineer Roswell B Mason into the fray, with orders to get their rail line across the Rock Island's rail line using whatever methods seemed workable. Or, likely, words to that effect. </div><div><br /></div><div>Very shortly after receiving these orders, Mason had a plan devised, and crews working. The way I understand it, track was laid to within a few hundred feet of the Rock Island's track, on either side of the R.I. right of way, with the Illinois Central crews just waiting for a chance to lay track. Or build a bridge. Or do something to get <i>their</i> track across the Rock Island-Michigan Southern tracks. </div><div><br /></div><div>And the R.I. decided that this was <i>not</i> going to happen, and they even had a specific '<i>This' </i>in mind that they needed to guard against. For some reason that I can't quite get my head around, the Rock Island brass were convinced that the Illinois Central was going to throw a bridge up and across their tracks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though the Rock Island's management got the exact method the I.C. planned on using wrong, they <i>still</i> had a valid concern. Though the area in question is deeply within the city of Chicago today (And, in fact, already was when the turn of the 20th Century came around), in the early 1850s it was in an isolated, very rural portion of Cook County. On top of that, the R.I.'s track ran through a good size marsh just south of the city line, cutting it off from civilization even further. An experienced crew could, under cover of darkness in that isolated location, easily get track laid up to the Rock Island's tracks and get a crossing installed while they were at it, without anyone seeing or hearing them. (Note that I said 'Get A Crossing Installed'...<i>not</i> 'Build A Bridge'.)</div><div><br /></div><div>The Rock Island brass was well aware of this, and were fearful of almost this <i>very </i>thing<i> </i>taking place, except for that little thing about thinking the I.C. construction crew could build a bridge overnight. So they hired a guard and posted him at the point where they figured the I.C. would most likely build what they were absolutely convinced was going to be an overpass, with explicit orders to stop any and all unauthorized construction that might be taking place. </div><div><br /></div><div> Keep in mind here that said guard would be all by himself, and would have absolutely <i>no</i> way to call for back-up. This would make for a pretty one sided confrontation if and when the I.C construction crew should show up...</div><div><br /></div><div>....They, of course, did indeed show up, and the resulting confrontation was even more one sided and over with even more quickly than you might think. The I.C, simply sent a crew in to kidnap the guard and deposit him somewhere he couldn't do anything to prevent them from building a crossing. Oh...they didn't build a bridge. Building a bridge is <i>not</i> exactly a quick, simple <i>or</i> inexpensive proposition, and Mason had rejected that alternative early in the ball game. </div><div><br /></div><div>What he and his crew <i>did</i> do was install a 'Diamond Crossing', as a level crossing of two rail lines is known, at the same time extending the new track to the crossing. By midmorning the next day, the way I understand it, the first Illinois Central train was rumbling through the crossing, heading in to Chicago. That couple of hundred yards of new track was probably a rough ride the first week or so...there's no way the road crew could have ballasted and aligned it properly in the few hours it took them to lay it...but it <i>was </i>capable of supporting a likely slow-moving train. Construction crews would come in later and make the necessary improvements.</div><div>.</div><div>The Rock Island/Michigan Central Brass probably weren't too happy about the new crossing, but it seems they couldn't...or at least <i>didn't</i>...do too much about it, either.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, all of a sudden, we had two railroad main lines crossing at grade as they entered a major city. OH...did I mention that the engineers on each railroad assumed that <i>they</i> had the right of way, and that the trains on the <i>other</i> railroad would stop for them?</div><div><br /></div><div>This likely created more than a few problems before the crossing had been in place for even few weeks.</div><div>A general...and unwritten...rule giving trains inbound to Chicago the right of way over outbound trains, was ultimately established, but it wasn't official, wasn't part of <i>any</i> of the four roads' rules and regulations, and, as we'll soon see, was often ignored.</div><div><br /></div><div>There was no signaling system, no written rule of right of way, and neither railroad had any actual hard and fast regulations governing the crossing. Just pairs of trains that had no way at all to stop quickly in an emergency hurtling towards each other...I mean what could <i>possibly</i> go wrong?</div><div><br /></div><div>It's actually more than a little surprising that an accident didn't happen within the first few <i>days</i> of the crossing's very much clandestine construction. In fact, given the lack of rules, lack of safety technology, and the attitudes of the train crews, I'm pretty sure that a few accidents probably <i>did</i> occur in the weeks and months after the crossing's completion. Somehow, though, they went nearly a year before a major accident occurred. But when it <i>did</i> occur, it was a biggie. And while it was at it, it was also the train wreck that actually <i>did</i> end that sixteen year run of good luck I've spoken of so often.</div><div><br /></div><div>And that brings us to April 25th, 1853.</div><div><br /></div><div>By early1853 both the Rock Island and the Illinois Central, as well as The Michigan Central and Michigan Southern were well-entrenched and successful, with several trains a day arriving and departing from The Windy City. </div><div><br /></div><div>It wasn't at all unusual for east bound passengers on a westbound Rock Island train to switch trains at a depot a few miles east of Chicago's train station, boarding an eastbound Michigan Southern train there so they could continue their journey. That, in fact, is exactly what was supposed to happen at about 9:15 PM or so on that long ago Monday night, when a Michigan Southern train, helmed by engineer Ed Davis rolled to a stop at the station platform. The Rock Island train was <i>supposed</i> to be waiting for them...but it wasn't. Not only was it not there, it <i>wouldn't</i> be there for about another half hour...the first of many small and not so small fails that, when strung together, would cause the night's disaster.</div><div><br /></div><div>While the Michigan Southern train and it's passengers cooled their collective wheels and heels just outside of Chicago, a Michigan Central train was <i>inbound </i>to Chicago on the Illinois Central tracks, nearing the end of it's journey, and taking the concept of 'Running Late' to a new level. The train, with engineer Thomas Rackham at the throttle, was running seven <i>hours</i> late. </div><div><br /></div><div>That wasn't the only<i> </i>problem Rackham was facing that night.</div><div><br /></div><div>Several hours earlier, Rackham noticed that his locomotive's headlight wasn't casting it's warm glow across the station platform as he eased into the depot at the then small town of Michigan City, about 50 miles southeast of Chicago. So, once the train rolled to a stop, he climbed down onto the station platform, walked to the front of the big 4-4-0 American class locomotive that was heading up the train, and looked up at the big, boxy headlight mounted on the top front of the boiler, just ahead of the smokestack. </div><div><br /></div><div>The lens was dark (And I have a sneaking suspicion, broken. I'll get to why in a bit). Rackham breathed a sigh of frustration, told his fireman what was going on, and went in search of the foreman of the Michigan Central locomotive shop, located in Michigan City. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, headlights in 1853 weren't exactly high tech devices. Electric headlights wouldn't appear for nearly thirty years, and wouldn't come into regular use for a half century or more. Even kerosene-fueled headlights wouldn't be introduced for about a decade or so, so most locomotive headlights in the early 1850s burned whale oil. The set-up was much like a big kerosene lantern, with a wick drawing the whale oil up into the burning chamber, where the flame was backed by a big, highly polished reflector. There was a glass lens in front of the flame, and on some headlights I have a feeling this may have been a Fresnel lens, which gathered and magnified the light further.</div><div><br /></div><div>The main function of these lights, BTW, was <i>not</i> to allow the engineer to see ahead of him, though that was one of it's benefits. These lights could be seen for a couple of miles across flat, unobstructed terrain, and their main function was to warn people who might be on the tracks/at a grade crossing/what have you that a train was coming. They also served to warn the railroads' engineers that another train might be coming towards them...remember, the great majority of rail lines were single track back in that era.</div><div><br /></div><div>But the light on Rackham's locomotive was doing none of the above. The shop foreman, a guy named Jurret, climbed up on the front of the locomotive, peered into the defective light, climbed back down...and told Rackham that he couldn't do anything with the light right then. (Mechanics telling you things you don't want to hear is <i>not</i> a new thing by a long shot!)</div><div><br /></div><div>Again, there wasn't but so much that could go wrong with the things, so I'm thinking the lens may have gotten broken somehow...but whatever the problem, Rackham decided to continue without the head light. It was a fairly bright night, and the head light didn't provide <i>that</i> much added illumination. And he <i>was</i> running, well, extremely late. Heck, <i>beyond</i> late.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqki-YfZAbGEdtg6-cMSA9SQjENG_0tmpi43LwW-2994hbojPy52SaTsvzCM1yJ3u4QgUXs6xt1-casbNqS9CJQRW5QJHa9iQfSg2htY01HT1r3fcZctArQ1Arb67-P0S0paaZFiKwayUDk8EtH0InG-2lIhMQ5Pw1exniat6cNeEAGEoN4Mky6nzU=s468" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="468" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqki-YfZAbGEdtg6-cMSA9SQjENG_0tmpi43LwW-2994hbojPy52SaTsvzCM1yJ3u4QgUXs6xt1-casbNqS9CJQRW5QJHa9iQfSg2htY01HT1r3fcZctArQ1Arb67-P0S0paaZFiKwayUDk8EtH0InG-2lIhMQ5Pw1exniat6cNeEAGEoN4Mky6nzU=w640-h406" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An unfortunately poor photograph of a Michigan Central 4-4-0 American Class locomotive from 1854, slightly newer than the one that was heading up the immigrant train, but likely still very similar. Note the size of the headlight and the fact that it appears to have a chimney on it because, well, it does. These headlights burned oil, and worked very similarly to a kerosene lantern...oil in a tank in the lower portion of the housing worked it's way up a wick into the burner chamber, where the flame was backed by a highly polished reflector, and focused using what was probably a Fresnel type lens.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> The headlight on Rackham's locomotive was out, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the headlight's lens was broken. This was very much a contributing factor in the cause of the collision.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Another interesting note about this particular locomotive...the connecting rods from the cylinders to the drivers apparently work on the front driver's axle, which is probably set up like a crankshaft, rather than directly on the drive wheels. The four drivers themselves (Two to a side) are connected to each other by a separate short connecting rod.</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>So Rackham reboarded his locomotive, whistled for brakes to be released, and when he was advised that all brakes were off he yanked on the whistle lanyard twice, then eased the throttle open. Spitting puff-balls of smoke into the night sky, the train pulled out of Michigan City.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Rackham's train was a freight train, and all of the cars <i>were</i> freight cars...but the last three or four of them weren't carrying freight. All of these last few cars were box cars converted to immigrant cars with the addition of an entrance/exit door on each end and several rows of benches for the passengers. I'm not even sure the cars had windows in them, and there was definitely no way for the occupants to move from one car to another.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>I'm also not sure if the immigrant cars were part of the train's original consist, or if they were added to the train somewhere along the way, but I <i>do</i> know who the passengers were...German Immigrants, headed for Chicago with dreams of a new life. There were about eighty of them divided among the cars, so maybe twenty or thirty people in each car.</div><div><br /></div><div>This was the cheapest train fare available to them, and all of them were just glad they'd managed to book a spot on one of those hard wooden benches, with their personal belongings, in bags and suitcases, piled on the floor around them. To them, uncomfortable as the ride was, it was a pretty awesome deal.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*</div><div><br /></div><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Ed Davis pulled his locomotive's
whistle lanyard twice to signal 'Moving Forward' and eased his throttle forward a good two, maybe
even three hours after Tom Rackham did the same in Michigan City. Michigan City's only fifty or so miles from Chicago, but because Rackham's Michigan Central freight train was
averaging only about fifteen miles per hour that fifty mile run in to Chicago would have taken just shy of three hours. By the time the Michigan Southern train pulled out of the depot, the
Michigan Central train was nearing the end of it's run to Chicago...and was only, at the most, about a mile and a half from the infamously clandestine diamond crossing.</p></div><div><br /></div><div>Two miles east of the Rock Island depot and only ten minutes or so into it's trip, Ed Davis' Michigan Southern train was also approaching the crossing. The diamond crossing, as I noted earlier, had been thrown together in the middle of a marshy bog in a desolate little corner of Cook County. As the two trains hurtled towards each other that marsh was pumping a translucent haze of ground fog into the early spring evening...not enough to hamper visibility, but just enough to make the scene, as they approached the crossing, downright eerie. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even with the ground fog in the vicinity of the crossing, both engineers should have had an unobstructed view for at least a couple of miles in all directions. Engineers on these two lines were bound to have had the mantra 'Check For Cross Traffic' drilled into their heads relentlessly, and all...or at least most...did <i>just </i>that, checking for the tell-tale column of smoke from an oncoming locomotive by day, and the glow of the locomotive' headlight at night. Even though the Michigan Southern train was still a mile or so away from the crossing, Davis and his fireman both had an unobstructed view for at least twice that in all directions, and an oncoming headlight would...or at least <i>should...</i>have been a brilliant pinprick of light piercing the night's darkness, like a low-flying (And slow-moving) shooting star. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, in keeping with that mantra, Ed Davis peered out of the picture window on his side of the cab, as his fireman did the same over on the left side of the footplate. Neither saw anything, Davis kept the train at it's cruising speed of about 25 MPH as they rolled towards the crossing...now less than a mile away...but there was something he had no way of knowing. Tom Rackham's Michigan Central freight/immigrant train had reached that same crossing first, and it didn't have a working headlight to warn of it's approach.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though the Michigan Central train was Westbound, approaching Chicago from the east, when it made the connection with the Illinois Central tracks, it swung north, so it was approaching the crossing itself from the south. Meanwhile, the Michigan Southern train was approaching the crossing from the west, so it was approaching from Rackham's fireman's side...the left side...of the cab. I'm not sure which of them actually noticed Davis' headlight first, but I'd lay bets it was Rackham's fireman. He spotted it, said something like 'Tom...headlight comin!'. Rackham looked across the cab, out of the cab's left side picture window, and saw the Michigan Southern train's headlight hanging above the intersecting track like a bright, displaced...and moving...moon.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rackham now knew two things...he was fast approaching the diamond crossing, and so was another train. He squinted at the oncoming headlight, guestimating distance and speed, and decided that the distant train was at least a mile and a half away, and that he had plenty of time to clear the crossing.</div><div><br /></div><div>While Rackham was guestimating speeds and distances, he was also assuming two things. (And we've all heard the old saying about what assuming does to you and me...). As he gazed at Davis' oncoming headlight, he assumed that <i>he</i> had the right of way, and that the <i>other</i> train would stop...and actually, according to that unwritten rule, as he was inbound he <i>did </i>have the right of way. There was one <i>big</i> problem, though. In order for Davis to give him the right of way, he had to know he was there. And order for that to happen, he had to be able to <i>see</i> his train. Which brings us to Rackham's <i>second</i> assumption...he assumed that Davis could see his train, despite the fact that he had no working headlight. </div><div><br /></div><div>Rackham's train was rumbling along at somewhere between 12 and 15 miles per hour when it plunged into the thin, misty layer of ground fog generated by the marsh. That layer of fog <i>may</i> have been the reason Rackham eased the throttle back, letting the train's speed drift downward as he neared the 'frog' where the two tracks crossed.</div><div><br /></div><div>He couldn't <i>see</i> the crossing...remember he had no headlight, plus the ground fog obscured it...but he could feel and hear it as the locomotive's wheels rolled through the frog's flange slots and guardrails, a quick, distinctive little down-up jerk, accompanied by a click-<i>clack-clack-</i>click-clack as the big drive wheels rolled through the frog. and bumped along the guard rails. </div><div><br /></div><div>Rackham glanced across the cab, out of his fireman's window as he felt the locomotive roll through the crossing, and for just an instant, the oncoming headlight, blurred by the mist, was aimed right at him...but it was still <i>way </i>off. 'I've got a good four or five minutes' he thought to himself, as his train's speed bled off, until the twenty-four freight cars were barely moving as fast as a man can walk...about 4 miles per hour. He'd overestimated that distance/time ratio by over a mile, and a good three minutes.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg334fnsns7PSA5GUDtMEJFPMUQrj0AuOxyFLytvVeTE5KQWegqBu4jMR6_nlQTXdMPd7lTeul-uLkGv2NT9cWwE_sCVgTYBIPL6heyp01aNHxFQ2plyH2jLbJdJWpS2bQafz6AGUV8hXacskGIVDxIf_DI7cxeMUJ_wkSqBXdN8tfqcETtWDuVfApb=s3493" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1075" data-original-width="3493" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg334fnsns7PSA5GUDtMEJFPMUQrj0AuOxyFLytvVeTE5KQWegqBu4jMR6_nlQTXdMPd7lTeul-uLkGv2NT9cWwE_sCVgTYBIPL6heyp01aNHxFQ2plyH2jLbJdJWpS2bQafz6AGUV8hXacskGIVDxIf_DI7cxeMUJ_wkSqBXdN8tfqcETtWDuVfApb=w640-h196" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The area around Grand Crossing has changed just about 180 degrees in the past 168 or so years,...from a single track diamond crossing in the middle of a marsh miles from civilization to the grade-separated crossing of several major rail lines in the heart of Southside Chicago...that it would be all but useless to try to diagram it on a Satellite image as I usually do. Instead, this time I decided to make an attempt at artwork, and draw a diagram. I also placed a satellite view of the area in the same frame. <br /><br />The Michigan Central combo freight/immigrant train, with Thomas Rackham at the throttle and running seven hours late, was on the Illinois Central tracks (Midframe on the map, running from top to bottom), northbound into the city, running without a headlight. The Michigan Southern train, helmed by engineer Ed Davis on the Rock Island tracks (Running from upper left to lower right, diagonally across the map) was eastbound, approaching the crossing at the same time as the immigrant train. Due to the Immigrant train's lack of a headlight, Davis couldn't see the Michigan Central train approaching.<br /><br />Rackham, however, <i>did</i> see the M.S. train's headlight, but elected to enter the crossing anyway after misjudging both the M.S. train's speed and distance. To make matters worse, after entering the crossing, Rackham slowed to about walking speed...about 4 MPH.<br /><br />Davis realized that a train was fouling the crossing when Rackham's locomotive threw sparks...seconds later he saw the slow-moving train in the glow from his headlight. He whistled for brakes, but his brakemen barely had time to start spinning the brake wheels before they broadsided one of the immigrant cars, destroying it and wrecking at least one other immigrant car. The Michigan Southern locomotive derailed, and at least three of the Michigan Southern cars...a baggage car and two coaches...derailed and hurtled into the marsh. Eighteen people...all from the immigrant train...died and several others were injured.<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*</div>Ed Davis watched little tufts of ground fog, luminous in the back-wash from the his locomotive's headlight streaking past the cab, letting him know he was approaching the marsh, and therefore, the crossing. He may have backed off of the throttle a notch or so, but even so, they were still moving at between 20 and 25 mph when the unseen Michigan Central locomotive tossed some sparks, despite the screen in it's diamond shaped smoke stack.</div><div><br /></div><div>Davis' didn't have a single clue anything was amiss until he heard his fireman, looking out of the cab's left-side window and spotting the sparks, say something like 'Where'd <i>they</i> come from'?? When Davis leaned across the cab to peer out of the left side picture window, and saw a bright orange constellation of displaced, fiery little stars, spreading out and drifting away ahead and to his left, his blood ran cold...there was only <i>one</i> thing that could cause those sparks....</div><div><br /></div><div>...And then sudden a curse, and a shouted '<i>Ed!!!!</i>' from his fireman, who was now peering through the cab's small left side front window all but confirmed his fears...Davis grabbed the whistle lanyard and tugged it, blasting the signal for<i> 'Down Brakes!!" </i>even as he turned to gaze through his own front window, looking down the side of the boiler and ahead to see freight cars creeping through the circle of light from his head light, 350, maybe 400 feet...about 10-15 seconds... ahead of them.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I noted in my post about the Norwalk Bridge Disaster, safety tech...and particularly, brakes...was sorely lacking in 1853 (And for years afterward). Trains had no central braking system, so when the engineer whistled for brakes, the trains' brakemen had to scramble to the roofs of freight cars, or run through passenger cars to spin brake wheels on the ends of the cars, applying the brakes on each car separately. </div><div><br /></div><div>This was a maddeningly uncomfortable and dangerous task in normal circumstances, and an all but heartbreakingly hopeless task in an emergency. The Michigan Southern brakeman scrambled when Davis whistled for brakes, but they were at the most, fifteen seconds away from the crossing...and the Michigan Central train. He barely had time to get his hands on the first car's brake wheel, much less spin it to tighten down the brakes.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the cab, Davis could see the end of the train...not clearly, but he could tell where the train stopped, and the emptiness of the open prairie started, and that vague line of transition was creeping towards the crossing agonizingly slow. For just a second...more wishful thinking than anything else...he thought that the M.C. train would clear the crossing before they reached it. And in almost that same instant, he realized, with growing horror, that it wouldn't.</div><div><br /></div><div>Still, he tried desperately to avoid the inevitable, possibly even trying to reverse the locomotive...but even if he <i>did</i> try, there just wasn't enough time for it to be effective. Steam engines have to be completely stopped before they can be reversed (If you've ever seen the movie 'Titanic', you've seen this, when the <i>Titanic's </i>engines are reversed just before she hits the iceberg. Though her engines were hundreds of time bigger than a steam locomotive's cylinders, the procedure for reversing them is very similar in concept). If he <i>did</i> try to reverse, the locomotive's big drivers may have been stopped and sliding, and <i>may</i> have even started spinning in reverse, but this had little effect on the train's speed. The locomotive was still being shoved forward not only by it's own momentum, but also by that of the train it was heading up, so it was <i>still </i>moving at between 20 and 25 MPH when it broadsided the second or third immigrant car, and the impact was absolutely cataclysmic...</div><div><br /></div><div>If you tossed a ceramic coffee mug up in the air, then hit it as hard as you could with a baseball bat, you'd get pretty much the exact same effect...the wooden immigrant car all but exploded, all but ceasing to exist in a cloud of wood fragments, personal belongings, and bodies. The car's twenty or so occupants were violently ejected, the impact throwing them ahead and to the sides of the onrushing Michigan Southern locomotive, several of them inevitably landing on the track ahead of it. </div><div><br /></div><div>The immigrant train's passengers had absolutely no warning, other then hearing the Michigan Southern train's whistle as Davis whistled for brakes, and <i>maybe</i> a fleeting glimpse of it's headlight, before their world literally exploded around them. One second they were snoozing, or talking quietly, or maybe gathering their possessions in anticipation of their much delayed arrival in Chicago, the next second...if they weren't killed outright in the collision... they were tumbling head over heals through the air, then landing hard in the marsh beside the tracks, or far worse, <i>on</i> the track, to suddenly be brutally mauled by the onrushing, locomotive. Eighteen of them would die.</div><div><br /></div><div>This same impact likely yanked the cars directly ahead and behind the one that got hit <i>violently</i> to the right and off of the track, likely depositing them into the marsh, very probably ripping them apart, or at least tearing the ends off of them as it did so. Most of their occupants also suddenly found themselves tumbling into the dark, muddy water of the marsh, as their ride suddenly came apart around them...one second rocking to the gentle rhythm of the train's motion, the next violently tumbling and splashing into dark, nasty mud, many of them pin-balling off of pieces of the two shattered cars while they were at it. </div><div><br /></div><div>The car <i>behind </i> the struck car also angled off the track, but momentum kept it kept coming, so before it careened into the marsh, it first bounced off of the M.S. locomotive's tender, then slammed into the front end of the M.S. baggage car, shoving it to the left and off of the track.</div><div><br /></div><div>Davis and his fireman were probably jolted and flung forward when they slammed into the immigrant car as the impact scrubbed some of their speed off, then the front of the locomotive started bouncing and shuddering....the car's iron under-frame, rudimentary as it was, had likely jammed itself beneath the locomotive's forward truck even as it was rolled into a mass of unrecognizably twisted metal. Those four wheels were now bouncing along the ties, the immigrant car's mangled frame screaming against the rails, tossing tossing sparks aside as it was pushed along ahead of the locomotive, running over and mangling any occupants of the car who'd landed on the track. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even with it's drivers spinning desperately in reverse, it's front truck off the rails, and the immigrant car's frame jammed beneath it's front end, momentum carried the locomotive through the crossing and at least a couple of hundred feet beyond, shuddering as it's derailed front truck bounced along the ties, steam whistling from the burst seams of the boiler's crushed front end leaving a cumulous cloud of steam in it's wake.</div><div><br /></div><div>Behind it the baggage car, shoved off of the rails by the last immigrant car, probably uncoupled from the tender as it hurtled off of the track, dragging the first two coaches off the track as well, and threw a wall of muddy water and shattered wood ahead of it as it belly-flopped into the marsh, and slammed <i>hard</i> into the immigrant car that had been <i>ahead</i> of the one hit by the locomotive. This
collision stopped it's forward motion, and the
passenger car behind it partially telescoped the baggage car as it,
too, angled off of the rails, tilting sideways and tearing through the baggage car's end and sidewall, crushing it's own end platform and
several feet of it's length before it, too, shuddered to a stop.</div><div><br /></div><div>The next passenger coach just banged hard into the first coach's crazily tilted end platform, crushing it and smashing the other end of the car, even as it ricocheted off, slewed crazily, and slammed over onto it's side, throwing it's own curtain of muddy water aside as it did so.</div><div><br /></div><div>The rest of the train would have followed those cars off of the track, except that the coupling between the second and third coaches probably tore loose. Those cars, still intact, jolted to a rough, head-jerking stop, staying on the track, the first intact coach possibly rolling partway through the crossing before it stopped..</div><div><br /></div><div>Conductor Herbert 'Pop' Whiting was in that first passenger car, possibly standing in the aisle talking to a couple of the passengers, when he suddenly hurtled off of his feet, slamming first into into one of the seats, then to the floor as the car suddenly jerked <i>hard</i> to the left and started, literally, coming apart around him.. Whiting knew they were in the process of derailing, that they had hit something, but for several very loud, very violent seconds all he could do was, literally, hang on for the ride as the car bounced, then slammed down amid the crunch of shattering wood, a soggy splash of muddy water, and the yells and screams of the passengers as they were catapulted from their seats, some of them bouncing off of <i>him</i> in the process.</div><div><br /></div><div>And then it was over. The rough nightmare ride had only lasted a few seconds, though those seconds seemed to last hours. On top of that, they were now enveloped in pitch black darkness, the only light provided by the stars, weak and shadowy, barely intruding through the windows and gaps in the shattered side walls. </div><div><br /></div><div>The car was lit by oil lamps, but by sheer luck either all of them were out, or they had been hurled into the muddy water, preventing an even <i>worse</i> tragedy. The same had happened to the lamps in the shattered immigrant cars, and the same guardian angel apparently kept them from lighting up as well. One of the elements of nearly <i>every</i> early train wreck would be fire, ignited either by the lamps or stoves...they had at least dodged <i>that</i> bullet.</div><div><br /></div><div>But
now he needed light. Whiting could hear moaning all around him, but
he couldn't see. He somehow made his way off of the train and the first thing he saw was the overturned second coach...uninjured passengers from the last several cars were swarming over the tilted sides, their lanterns looking like fireflies flitting around the scene. They were already helping the overturned car's occupants climb through the windows and out of the tilted vestibule door on the undamaged end. All seemed relatively uninjured.</div><div><br /></div><div> Screams and moans were coming from the first coach, as well as from the wreckage of the immigrant cars,...if he was going to help these other passengers, Whiting knew he needed to be able to see what he was doing. He went in search of a lantern of his own, making his way to the intact cars and probably grabbing a lantern from one of them, He lit it, then quickly made his way back to the wrecked cars, using the light from the lantern to look around the shattered wreck of the first passenger car, wondering as he did how he...or, in fact, <i>anybody</i>...survived the crash. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ed Davis had made his way back from the wrecked locomotive by then...ironically, very likely also holding a lantern...and likely ran up on Pop Whiting as he returned to the wrecked cars. Davis first asked Whiting if he was OK, and when Pop, despite his own injuries, answered that he was, Davis said something like 'It's bad Pop...other side of the train's a massacre...'</div><div><br /></div><div>'We gotta take this one thing at a time...what about our passengers?' He said as he swung the lantern around, letting it's feeble glow sort of light up the scene. Among the first things they saw was Norwegian passenger J.N. Flesh, who was hanging upside down outside of the left side of the shattered first coach. His foot was entangled in the wrecked car, and he was probably hanging on to the car's frame to keep himself out of the water. Whiting and Davis made their way to him, quickly disentangled his foot, then helped him up. By some luck, Flesh's injuries weren't serious (I'm wondering if he got tangled in the wreckage trying to get out of the car). </div><div><br /></div><div>Almost as soon as he finished helping Flesh, Whiting heard two more nearby voices, calling him for help, and swung the light around, searching. It flickered off of the surface of the water, then across two mud-spattered faces. Passengers George Miner and Allen Richmond...both Ohio residents, and both injured far worse than Flesh had been...were in the water, hard by the tracks. Whiting, probably with the help of Davis and his fireman, pulled the two men out of the water, and laid them on the low embankment supporting the track.</div><div><br /></div><div>Whiting knew he could do absolutely nothing for them, and then he heard <i>more</i> plaintive moaning and crying. He started walking towards the partially derailed locomotive, pushing aside clumps of grass and splashing through knee deep water as he worked his way around the wreckage of the baggage car, Davis and his fireman following in his wake. He could see the shadowy form of the tender, itself also tilted crazily to the left from it's collision with the last emigrant car, and he probably hadn't made it halfway to the locomotive before he all but stumbled over either the first body, or the first horribly injured emigrant. </div><div><br /></div><div>He and Davis ran up on more as he made his way towards, then around the front end of the locomotive. Between the two of them, in only five or so minutes, they ran up on over a dozen horribly injured passengers from the emigrant car, and two things <i>quickly</i> became obvious...they were completely overwhelmed, and they needed to get help. Like yesterday.</div><div><br /></div><div>Whittling started hiking back towards the depot that the M.S. train had just left less than a half hour ago, possibly walking through the undamaged cars to get around the train rather than walking through the marsh, then climbing down and using the lantern to see where he was going, and most importantly, <i>stepping</i> as he walked down the middle of the track, stepping on the ties as they provided the most stable surface, picking his way along at what had to have been a maddeningly slow pace.</div><div><br /></div><div>If the accident had occurred during the day, and he could have seen where he was going, Pop Whiting could have jogged, and made better time. However, it was night, and a moonless night at that, so he had to pick his way along taking care not to roll his ankle on the ballast gravel, or miss his footing and take a tumble. Injuring himself in a fall would be catastrophic, not only for him, but for the injured passengers at the accident scene.</div><div><br /></div><div>The depot was about 2 1/2 miles from the accident scene, maybe a forty-five minute walk at a normal walking pace, thirty minutes at an easy jog...but as I noted, it was night, and Whiting was having to take care with his footing. It could have been 90 minutes or so before Pop Whiting made it to the depot.</div><div><br /></div><div>While bursting through the door to announce the disaster would be an awesome visual, I have a feeling that, injured and just finishing up a 2 1/2 mile hike, it was more like a limping trudge as he pushed the door open, found the station agent, and told him something to the effect of ' Ed Davis just hit an immigrant train...we've got bodies all over the place'.</div><div><br /></div><div>This was the absolute first anyone had heard of the crash, and people started scrambling...but it wasn't much they could actually do. Details get pretty vague here. The sources I found stated that they returned to the scene with a locomotive, but as to where that locomotive came from and what they did when they got there...?</div><div><br /></div><div>I think that they probably flagged down the next east bound train, backed it onto a passing siding, uncoupled the locomotive, and headed for the scene...they may not have even taken any cars with them as several of the M.S. passenger cars didn't derail. Meanwhile someone was sent down track to flag any other oncoming trains so they wouldn't run up on the wreck (The same was done at the scene, probably before Whiting even began his hike, with brakemen heading further east on the Rock Island tracks, and in <i>both </i>directions on the Illinois Central tracks to flag traffic. Each stopped train would then send someone down track behind the train to do the same so another train wouldn't slam into the either the wreck or one of the stopped trains, making a horrible situation even more catastrophic.</div><div><br /></div><div>If the railroads had telegraph service by then, the Rock Island station agent could have telegraphed the next station west, and had them stop trains, but they absolutely <i>had </i>to get traffic stopped.</div><div><br /></div><div>With that task taken care of, the quickly thrown together rescue train headed for the scene, probably not moving <i>too</i> fast, because they needed to get stopped themselves before piling into the last car of Ed Davis' train.</div><div><br /></div><div>Back at the scene, after his locomotive had been suddenly and violently jerked backwards several feet like some huge fish tugging on a giant fly-fisherman's lure, Rackham, his fireman, and the rest of his crew had made their way back to the wrecked cars. His heart had risen to his throat, then sank when the locomotive was jerked to a stop...he knew exactly what had happened, One of the very first things he ran up when he reached the wrecked cars was a young girl, in her teens, holding an obviously dying boy, his head in her lap as she sobbed 'Mein brudder, mein brudder...' A few feet away, a young German mother was holding her dead infant, sobbing and wailing. </div><div><br /></div><div>Rackham found Davis, and they quickly went to work. The Immigrant cars were piles of shattered junk, and those piles of junk were hiding who knows <i>how</i> many bodies, and there were moans and sobs on all sides of them. They had to step around several bodies...all of them mangled to some extent...and then one of the passengers from the express train called 'Hey, I've got three kids here!!!!</div><div><br /></div><div>Davis and Rackham sloshed through muddy water to where a man was lifting the body of one child...a boy of about 10...from the water. Davis took him, and carried him to the embankment, near his locomotive, where the headlight was still illuminating the track. He gently laid the boy on the track, then made his way back, passing Rackham, who had a girl of 7 or 8 in his arms, her long, blond hair streaming mud, her face dark...mud or bruise?...and got back to the spot where the kids had been lying just in time to hear the passenger who'd called to them exclaim 'Oh my dear Lord...' in a hushed sob as he lifted a tiny form from the water...another little boy, this one only about three years old.</div><div><br /></div><div>'We've got to get these people some help...' Rackham may have said to be told by Ed Davis that his conductor was, even then, hiking back to the Rock Island depot.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's gonna take a while...' Rackham may have replied, then both engineers may have gotten the same thought almost simultaneously.</div><div><br /></div><div>'What kind of shape's your engine in?' Davis asked, to have Rackham reply. '...I'm good to go...'</div><div>'...And you're even already aimed for Chicago...'</div><div><br /></div><div>Nothing more needed to be said. Rackham and his fireman took off towards their locomotive at a dead run...or as near a dead run as the dark night and unsure footing would allow, Rackham possibly...even probably...telling his fireman to uncouple the rest of the train as they pounded up the track. Rackham mounted the cab's footplate while the fireman slipped between the tender and the first freight car, yanked the pin out of the old-style link and pin coupling, and tossed it to the ground, where it hit with a bouncing clank. </div><div><br /></div><div>The fireman was running along the left side of the tender almost before the pin stopped bouncing and rolling...he mounted the ladder on his side of the cab, shouting 'GO! at Rackham before he was all the way on the cab footplate. As soon as he was in the cab, he yanked the firebox door open and started heaving more wood on the fire. </div><div><br /></div><div>Rackham shoved the throttle forward, and the locomotive, relieved of the weight if the train, jumped ahead, accelerating rapidly as it spat puffballs of smoke skyward, making it to Chicago's Illinois Central depot in under half an hour. </div><div><br /></div><div>Rackham quickly hunted down the stationmaster and advised him what had happened, and that unnamed individual found a couple of men who were good runners, aimed them towards the homes of two doctors he knew (I'm assuming here, BTW) and had them fetch them.</div><div><br /></div><div> While they were accomplishing that, our stationmaster got a locomotive and a passenger car (I'm betting they used the just arrived locomotive from the freight train, already sitting there with steam up), couple them together (They likely had to <i>back</i> back to the scene) and waited. </div><div><br /></div><div>It took a while for the messengers to find the two Doctors...Drs. Palmer and Clark by name...but once they finally arrived at the station these two gentlemen, having already been told what was up, quickly boarded the passenger car, bringing whatever equipment they had along, and took seats as Rackham pulled the reversing lever, shoved the throttle forward and started backing towards the wreck site. </div><div><br /></div><div>The passengers and train crew at the scene, meanwhile, didn't just stand around doing nothing after Rackham left for Chicago. The most severely injured were moved to the intact passenger cars, where they would be at least a little bit more comfortable While that was happening, others grabbed scraps of wooden wreckage (There was a <i>lot</i> of it around), piled it on the tracks well away from the wrecked cars, and used the oil lamps to start a pair of bonfires, both for light and warmth. As an added benefit, the fires also marked the scene for Rackham and Pop Whiting's return.</div><div><br /></div><div>The two doctors arrived first, around midnight...considering the technology of that era and the fact that the wreck occurred at about 10PM, not all that bad a response time. Drs. Porter and Clark were quickly taken to the MS passenger cars, where they began doing what they could for the severely injured.</div><div><br /></div><div>OK, I know what you're thinking...the injured were then moved to the rescue train, and transported to Chicago, where they were moved to a hospital...but that's not what happened, at least not yet. Instead, while the two Doctors were treating the injured, the uninjured 1st class passengers from the Michigan Southern train were loaded onto the just arrived passenger car, and taken into the city.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ultimately the injured passengers...and the two doctors...were pulled into Chicago as well. Remember, Pop Whiting and the Rock Island station master returned to the scene with a locomotive, and though it doesn't actually <i>say</i> this anywhere, my bet's they coupled that locomotive to the intact M.S. cars...already loaded with the injured...and backed to the station, then maybe even into Chicago. Once in the city, the injured were, assumedly, transported by wagon to a hospital, or possibly private homes that were quickly converted to makeshift hospitals, which was something that wasn't at all unusual during that era.</div><div><br /></div><div>But it was still <i>hours</i> before the injured made it to a hospital, and there are absolutely <i>no </i>details as to <i>that</i> part of the operation. Whatever was done, eighteen people were dead...all from the immigrant train...and at least sixty were injured.</div><div><br /></div><div>A Coroner's Jury was empaneled the very next day, and, after listening to testimony from several parties (And I can't help but think, shaking their heads and making under-their-breath exclamations of disgust), they deliberated for two days, then posted a verdict that dropped the hammer on just about everyone involved. </div><div><br /></div><div>Both Davis and Rackham were found guilty of Gross Carelessness and Neglect...Davis for not stopping and giving the inbound Michigan Central Train the right of way, and Rackham for running without a headlight and, knowing that the Michigan Southern train's engineer couldn't see him, not stopping and allowing that train to pass.</div><div><br /></div><div>Davis, in fact, used that very defense...how the heck could he give the Michigan Central train the right of way if he couldn't <i>see</i> the thing?!? The Jury apparently did <i>not</i> find this to be a mitigating circumstance. </div><div><br /></div><div>The jury wasn't finished with Rackham just yet...they also faulted him for not maintaining speed. If he was going to proceed through the crossing, he should have kept his speed up so he could clear the crossing as quickly as possible. Had he done so, proceeding through the crossing at his normal speed of 12-15 MPH rather than slowing to 4MPH, his train just might have cleared the crossing before the Michigan Southern train reached it.</div><div><br /></div><div>While they were at it, the Coroners Jury also found the conductors of both trains guilty of the same charge, mainly because conductors are considered to be in charge of the train. (The 'Captain Of The Ship Is Responsible' theory). They also let go on the shop foreman in Michigan City as well, slamming him for not repairing the headlight, and declaring him unfit for his position.</div><div><br /></div><div>While no official record still exists of what...if any...consequences anyone faced, I have a feeling that a couple of people at least found themselves unemployed. It's also a good bet that, as the old saying goes, 'Meetings were held, committees were formed, and memos (And policies) were generated.</div><div><br /></div><div>And the diamond crossing that was the cause of this whole mess? The sensible thing to do would have been replace it with a bridge, and who knows, that may have even been discussed...but it didn't happen, at least not for half a century or so.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once the wreckage was cleared, and the tracks repaired (You damn well <i>know</i> the accident tore the tracks up) the infamous diamond crossing stayed in service. Oh, actual written policies as to who had the right of way (Inbound trains) were created, then expanded upon, requiring <i>all</i> trains to stop before preceding through the crossing. The marsh was also drained, dirt-filled, and graded, allowing the small township of Hyde Park Township, with-in whose boundaries the crossing was located, to grow. </div><div><br /></div><div> The area developed <i>rapidly, </i>spawning a thriving community. These new written policies helped that community grow...remember, they required <i>all</i> trains to stop before preceding through the crossing. So businesses catering to the train crews were built and opened, then a railroad depot was built, and the community...as well as the crossing...continued to grow. The city of Chicago took notice, and annexed Hyde Park Township, along with a good bit of that corner of Cook County, in 1889.</div><div><br /></div><div>The crossing grew with the two railroads (Rock Island and Illinois Central), and by 1901, The Michigan Southern and Michigan Central had built their own lines, and several other rail lines...including commuter lines...had been built, and all of them seemed to converge in that one little corner of southside Chicago. The Illinois Central had grown to six tracks, crossed, at grade, by the two track Michigan Southern (Which would become part of the huge New York Central System) and the three track Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago (Which would ultimately become part of the Pennsylvania Railroad). Thirty separate and distinct diamond crossings with-in yards of each other, crossed by hundreds of trains a day.</div><div><br /></div><div>BUT Wait...There's more! There were also a couple of commuter rail lines/street car lines that had to cross all of the tracks, also at grade, adding another hundred or more trains <i>per day</i> to the mix, as well as upping the total number of diamond crossings to around 60 or so. </div><div><br /></div><div>To show how heavy traffic over the crossing was, during the 21 day period between Nov 30, 1908 and Dec 21, 1908, 12,279 trains...6,616 passenger trains and 5,663 freight trains...passed through the crossing. That's 584 trains per day. Twenty-four trains per hour, or about one train every two minutes.</div><div><br /></div><div>At least the crossings were protected by automatic block signals by that time...or at least the main lines were. That didn't happen until the early 1890s (About the time of the Colombian Exhibition) and the commuter lines/trolley lines were, from what I read, <i>never</i> protected by block signals.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again, it's a miracle that there weren't more catastrophic accidents at the crossing.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEik7AKSmSHGFAVP8OlOFhK9_mDom7x-VaI25iznu4RSSuXYDHyfiXpDjCZg6uPyKrb6y8t1zXz_SRjMnA_NbFzfz-oOWrCSZtcVV0P6deKkZiBthW6NsAMVgg3lBE_GzSCMQKlt9XbdllfDDYHq1N59nRE4zRa5_TwmFFCJQLX_DDNbaG0ggfarON9n=s640" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="640" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEik7AKSmSHGFAVP8OlOFhK9_mDom7x-VaI25iznu4RSSuXYDHyfiXpDjCZg6uPyKrb6y8t1zXz_SRjMnA_NbFzfz-oOWrCSZtcVV0P6deKkZiBthW6NsAMVgg3lBE_GzSCMQKlt9XbdllfDDYHq1N59nRE4zRa5_TwmFFCJQLX_DDNbaG0ggfarON9n=w640-h422" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Grand Crossing in it's heyday. The tracks running from the lower left corner of the frame to mid frame are the Illinois Central 's tracks, crossing the Pennsylvania R.R's tracks in the foreground, and the Michigan Southern tracks in the background. Looking at the crossing's lay-out, it's a wonder there weren't far more deaths than there were. Trains being required to stop before preceding through the crossing helped in that respect, at least in it's earlier days, but as the crossing became busier, that requirement was dropped, and reduced speed/flagmen were used. It wasn't protected by block signals until the early '90s</span></div><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>And, even with the written policies, there were still accidents...and deaths. None...miraculously...were as serious as the 1853 collision, and many involved pedestrians or vehicles getting hit by trains at street grade crossings near the 'Grand Crossing' rather than two trains colliding, but accidents were claiming around twenty or so lives annually at the turn of the 20th century, and had been doing so for at least two decades.</div><div><br /></div><div>Discussions concerning eliminate the crossing had been going on since the early 1890s if not before, and a promise to eliminate the crossing at Grand Crossing as well as numerous street grade crossings 'Within five years' were made a couple of times during that same decade. Unfortunately, the only thing that actually <i>had</i> been accomplished during those multiple half-decade spans of time were discussions and inspection tours of the district by various high-ranking officials. Ironically. it was a profoundly tragic accident during one of these inspection tours that kicked things into gear...sort of.</div><div>.</div><div>Of all the street grade crossings in the vicinity of Grand Crossing, 76th street was likely the most infamous, both because it was so close to the crossing that it had to cross <i>all</i> of the tracks, and because it was used daily by dozens of school kids going to and from school. Sadly, a couple of those kids would loose their lives at that crossing annually, a fact that was brought to a head in 1902.</div><div><br /></div><div>That was the year that a special train carrying railroad officials, city officials, and members of the press on an inspection tour of the Grand Crossing District struck and killed a fifteen year old girl on her way to school at 76th street. When, shortly after hearing the whistle screaming a warning, they felt the slow moving train jerk to an unscheduled stop, all of the above piled off to see <i>why</i> it had stopped. They found the girl's mutilated body trapped beneath the rear set of wheels on the tender, a look of horrified surprise on her face, her books still in her hand. She had apparently been walking across the tracks at 76th street, distracted by teen-girl thoughts, and didn't see the train until the last instant before it hit her. </div><div><br /></div><div>The engineer saw her a second or so before the train hit her, laid down on the whistle, and and yanked the brakes into emergency...but it was too late. Even at 10 or so MPH a locomotive pulling a couple of passenger coaches takes 100 or so feet to stop. </div><div><br /></div><div>Needless to say, the sight of that young girl beneath the train's wheels helped push a resolution to fix the crossing (Even though that accident had nothing to do with the diamond crossing itself) through city council, and the railroads pledged to have an overpass built to replace the giant multiple-diamond crossing, along with overpasses at various street crossings, with-in five years, at a cost of 1.5 million dollars...just shy of 50 Million in 2021 dollars. </div><div><br /></div><div>Chicago City Council's actions went further than a mere resolution...a city ordinance requiring both the grade separation of the huge multi-crossing at Grand Crossing and the elimination of street grade crossings in the district was passed. Quickly, I might add, with little argument against. The ordinance required the work to be completed with-in five years, later extended to six years. This young girls death, witnessed by railroad and city officials, as well as the Press, helped energize the effort to push this ordinance through.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Illinois Central started elevating it's tracks above street level, first building temporary wooden trestles to get the tracks over the streets, then replacing the trestles with cast concrete bridges ands earth fill, with the work completed by the end of 1909...this eliminated several road grade crossings. At the same time, the Michigan Southern
and Pennsylvania railroads also took similar action in eliminating several road
grade crossings in the Grand Crossing district. Sadly, the infamous crossing at 76th street was <i>not </i>among them, as it was hard by the main diamond crossing. (I'm going to take a look at that part of the project in 'Notes') It would have to wait until the huge Grand Crossing itself was grade-separated.</div><div><br /></div><div>So...-just how <i>was</i> that project coming along?</div><div><br /></div><div> Surprising absolutely <i>no </i>one, when that five year time-frame expired in 1907, absolutely nothing had been done...not a shovel full of dirt had been turned...on the major grade separation at Grand Crossing itself. Completion of that portion of the project was <i>still</i> projected to be five years down the road, and trains were still hitting people, cars, and occasionally each other, and as a result, the crossing was <i>still</i> claiming lives.</div><div><br /></div><div>The reasons for the delay would be pretty familiar, even today, There were disagreements on which line was actually going to elevate it's tracks, and just where the money to do all of this would come from. </div><div><br /></div><div>There wasn't really another defining moment, or at least one I could find. Everything just finally came together sometime in 1911, and one of the biggest public infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Chicago up to that time was finally under way.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Michigan Southern tracks, as well as the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago tracks were elevated to cross the Illinois Central tracks on a bridge, while twenty-seven street grade crossings on all of the lines...including the Illinois Central...were eliminated, with the streets going beneath the tracks</div><div><br /></div><div>The Rock Island/MS (By then, New York Central)/Pennsylvania rail lines were rerouted and elevated at Grand Crossing and placed on a temporary wooden trestle while more modern (And permanent) concrete and steel plate girder bridges were built. The lines, of course, then had to be shifted to the permanent bridges. While they were at it, the 75th Street, infamous 76th Street, South Chicago Ave, and Woodward Ave road grade crossings were eliminated. Frustrations likely abounded for citizens, railroad workers, and officials alike for a couple of years...but the end result was worth the effort.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1qS93EWuFhYlLVaMSN_OQ6PcAMFxFA8RrXMLTrkGHPMBXEiY8nrET4ra-C3NjKxOS6aMbZVN3uiO5Bs2vQ4pjYzUs4pshzXJAqvgmbs9eRmcyWYrpFwBkm9tsKrAo7CC8GwzhtiPGRR40winvCzWYenaL6CORB_13EMQNM-aZyDuspWTSxxmV7uPb=s1920" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1096" data-original-width="1920" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1qS93EWuFhYlLVaMSN_OQ6PcAMFxFA8RrXMLTrkGHPMBXEiY8nrET4ra-C3NjKxOS6aMbZVN3uiO5Bs2vQ4pjYzUs4pshzXJAqvgmbs9eRmcyWYrpFwBkm9tsKrAo7CC8GwzhtiPGRR40winvCzWYenaL6CORB_13EMQNM-aZyDuspWTSxxmV7uPb=w640-h366" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Grand crossing shortly after the grade separation project was completed. The Pennsylvania's and Michigan Southern's tracks crossed the Illinois Central tracks on the bridge. The bridge pictured was actually a temporary trestle, which would be replaced by a more modern bridge with-in three years.<br /><br />Also note 76th Street, labeled right midframe, going beneath the Michigan Southern/Pennsylvania tracks as well as the Illinois Central tracks. While the MS/Pennsy tracks crossed the street on a conventional bridge, 76th Street was actually lowered to get it under the I.C. tracks, while the I.C was also raised several feet and placed on earth fill, crossing 76th Street on a bridge. 75th Street was also handled the same way on the other side of the main crossing,.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2Y_1w2rnh23bKgK5BiAOnQWX0mLSvSZ4VTvMtqLYQ7VkLCoPGF909R5k1cRAxxGr1pBrpQ0bCe-JHIOoRLoOWrxicmROyjTNhum5hE9XUEcp1dCDr_AXeT85gcaPsH37qIuynmV-mzRZdG6a9MMpDx-YA-Pqzq2EuvRM1g4MAn-80VMZL6zPhGiVz=s2048" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1322" data-original-width="2048" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2Y_1w2rnh23bKgK5BiAOnQWX0mLSvSZ4VTvMtqLYQ7VkLCoPGF909R5k1cRAxxGr1pBrpQ0bCe-JHIOoRLoOWrxicmROyjTNhum5hE9XUEcp1dCDr_AXeT85gcaPsH37qIuynmV-mzRZdG6a9MMpDx-YA-Pqzq2EuvRM1g4MAn-80VMZL6zPhGiVz=w640-h414" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Pennsylvania R.R passenger train crosses the Illinois Central tracks at Grand Crossing, shortly after the grade separation project was completed. This is actually a temporary trestle...it was replaced by a more modern plate girder bridge by 1915.<br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgh_AskGsMwBt46Jsuz81rPnhCy3WNh2H2YYmR49v9mzYoz7gWbypR0iIQvA_I82dAqSysXRxntgOzsIqYhQVuwxXK-AnzlZ0be6BTKWSBWRQJx2B-h_-QWSRQ5ZieInNbia2_hoXB1xSgH6fq8crSfEVREQCK0kB4OGEjydwoXpq1sNKnn41MZ9Tdk=s1539" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="1539" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgh_AskGsMwBt46Jsuz81rPnhCy3WNh2H2YYmR49v9mzYoz7gWbypR0iIQvA_I82dAqSysXRxntgOzsIqYhQVuwxXK-AnzlZ0be6BTKWSBWRQJx2B-h_-QWSRQ5ZieInNbia2_hoXB1xSgH6fq8crSfEVREQCK0kB4OGEjydwoXpq1sNKnn41MZ9Tdk=w640-h326" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The crossing as it appears today, with the Chicago Skyway (I-90) paralleling the former Rock Island/New York Central/Pennsylvania/ Michigan Southern...all now either CSX or Norfolk Southern...tracks as they cross the former Illinois Central, now Canadian National, tracks.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The giant multiple diamond that gave the community it's name was finally gone, but the <i>name</i> Grand Crossing lived on. That particular neighborhood, now inside the Chicago City Limits by ten miles in all directions, is, to this day, still known as Grand Crossing. Grand crossing, in fact, is the name of <i>two</i> overlapping neighborhoods. Grand Crossing itself occupies an area of about 2 square miles, bordered by E. 67th Street to the north, East 87th Street, The Illinois Central tracks, and East 83rd Street to the south, 1600 East to the east, and South Cottage Grove Ave to the West, with the still extant, and very active elevated crossing just about smack dab in the center of the area, near East 76th Street and The Chicago Skyway (I-90)</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgY7MCWqsu99jFghzxmmx8clGvSdLS_Rmf46EvnlcwoIzHG3stqclxGYeSiBNGjiCsr6rBNT7GWMMW5gH5ZIfRFuw7RqZ9RdNfNkaOkFEq6_dxihCSHUivTXsSw5SSyFlcok5cE8IHPrcjdDJPmIzKecX-2qeAG9BdPXZ0yHY_cbBjV1IIgkAyJzb4n=s1920" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgY7MCWqsu99jFghzxmmx8clGvSdLS_Rmf46EvnlcwoIzHG3stqclxGYeSiBNGjiCsr6rBNT7GWMMW5gH5ZIfRFuw7RqZ9RdNfNkaOkFEq6_dxihCSHUivTXsSw5SSyFlcok5cE8IHPrcjdDJPmIzKecX-2qeAG9BdPXZ0yHY_cbBjV1IIgkAyJzb4n=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A map showing the two Grand Crossings...Grand Crossing and Greater Grand Crossing. The shaded area indicates the area where the two neighborhoods overlap.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-Q31gxBR6mFIvkPuM8d-PAcWtYOE-7ylPasny0afEKNszfXAPVeLSZnxo5gGOg4yZGbsX96RhAK3w1Mg-HKF6KbtQRyDqitZy8-Ccg4F8A_OHox5vWC3pRGi-D0X-LE36SKpDdVZMmJgE3geiObZdSkT3NUmjk0gqJ3vCXBO4friv5iHsmMZgWzr9=s1114" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1114" height="612" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-Q31gxBR6mFIvkPuM8d-PAcWtYOE-7ylPasny0afEKNszfXAPVeLSZnxo5gGOg4yZGbsX96RhAK3w1Mg-HKF6KbtQRyDqitZy8-Ccg4F8A_OHox5vWC3pRGi-D0X-LE36SKpDdVZMmJgE3geiObZdSkT3NUmjk0gqJ3vCXBO4friv5iHsmMZgWzr9=w640-h612" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A map of Chicago and environs there-of, showing the location of the actual railroad crossing at Grand Crossing within the city. Now within the City of Chicago by miles in all directions, the crossing was in a marshy, isolated corner of Cook County a couple of miles south of the city limits in 1853</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Then you have <i>Greater</i> Grand Crossing, generally to the West of Grand Crossing, with a good sized hunk of it's area...from South Cottage Grove Ave to the former Illinois Central, now Canadian Northern tracks...overlapping Grand Crossing for several square blocks bordered roughly by the Illinois Central tracks to the east, South Cottage Gove Ave to the West, E 67th Street to the North, and E 79th Street to the south. Both Grand Crossings are densely populated, active, and bustling working class neighborhood, loaded with families and kids, multi-cultural restaurants, hundreds of successful small businesses, 14 schools, one big park (Grand crossing Park), and a very definite sense of community. The famed crossing that lent it's name to the area is still the centerpiece of the neighborhood, with the elevated tracks now on a more modern, plate girder and concrete span.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 2021 versions of both the neighborhood and the crossing are whole worlds away from their 1853 form, and I cant help but wonder if any of the neighborhood's 33,000 or so residents know of the crossing's deadly history...then I realize that they most likely don't. Deadly as the wreck was, it's just a small bookmark in the history of a city that's had more than it's share of both disaster and shenanigans over the past couple of hundred years. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even among disasters, the Grand Crossing Collision kind of got pushed back into the wings, so to speak, and it's hard earned claim...unhappy though it may be...to being the nation's very first rail disaster got usurped by the Norwalk disaster only two weeks later. </div><div><br /></div><div>Not many people have heard of this one. Hopefully, even if only one other person learns about it, this post will help change that.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***>NOTES, AND LINKS, AND STUFF<***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Finally...for the first time in a couple of years...one that <i>didn't</i> take me most of a year to write!!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This one kind of came in out of left field. Remember, at the beginning of this post, when I wrote that <i>lot's </i>of people...even some serious rail fans and history buffs...weren't aware of this one? I was one of them. Actually I'd heard vague mention of an immigrant train getting broadsided sometime before the Civil War, but I didn't know the timing, location, or, indeed, any of the other details about the accident. Until after I'd already posted the Norwalk Bridge disaster, while I was researching something else entirely.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This <i>really</i> put me in a quandary, because I had already posted that the Norwalk disaster was, well, the <i>first</i> major train wreck. Then when I started researching the Grand Crossing crash, I realized that (A) <i>it </i>was actually the nation's first major train wreck, (B) it preceded the much better known Norwalk disaster by only two weeks, and (C) that the Media all but abandoning coverage of the Grand Crossing accident in favor of the Norwalk disaster was very likely the reason...or at least a big part of the reason...<i>why </i>the latter accident was all but forgotten. So I decided I had to fix <i>my </i>error as quickly as possible, and shed some light on the Grand Crossing accident while I was at it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I was lucky in one respect, though...while the ol' Google-machine didn't reveal many sources of info about the accident, the ones it <i>did</i> give me were <i>good</i> sources, chock full of little details, such as Pop Whiting's hike for help, and the clandestine crossing installation that, ultimately, caused the accident in the first place (Really,...that couldn't have happened that way anywhere <i>but</i> Chicago!)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Of course (And I've very much gotten used to this, especially in incidents that occurred 175 years ago...heck, it adds a challenge), a lot of details <i>weren't</i> included. We have no way of knowing <i>exactly</i> what went on in the immediate aftermath of the collision. Oh, those articles gave me <i>some </i>of the details, some pretty important ones at that, but we have no way of knowing what actual reactions and conversations took place, so, as always, I had to write those parts as I thought they might have happened.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I hope I got close...or at least made it believable, and, as always, I hope I made it readable and educational while I was at it. Also, any errors in this thing are mine and mine alone, </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">On to the notes!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's unfortunate that the Grand Crossing collision has fallen off of the radar on several levels, and the biggie, of course, is the collision's 18 victims, who've been all but forgotten. There isn't even a list of the victims' names, much less any kind of a memorial to honor them, <i>anywhere</i>...not even one of those State historical markers you find along the highway (Trust me, I searched). A plaque dedicated to the victims <i>did</i> once exist, affixed to the wall of a railroad building near the crossing, until sometime in the middle of the 20th Century. Unfortunately, it was lost when when the building was torn down. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Likely the only memorials of any kind that still exist are the tomb stones at their graves, now likely long faded to unreadability, if they ever existed at all.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Apparently, being the architect of the 'frog war' that ultimately lead to the wreck didn't hurt Roswell Mason's political career any in the least. Fifteen years after the disaster, Mason ran for Mayor of Chicago on the Citizen's Party ticket, and won, serving in that office from 1869-1871.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">His stint as The Windy City's mayor wasn't what you'd call uneventful, either...it was during his tenure as Mayor that The Great Chicago Fire occurred, and he became notable for placing the city under Martial Law during the fire.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">He was remembered fondly enough for the City to name an elementary school after him, (Roswell Mason Elementary School, 4217 W. 18th Street) and also had an entire town...the tiny town of Mason, Illinois, 225 miles south of Chicago and 319 souls strong...was named in his honor. Interestingly, Mason, founded in 1860, was named for the I.C. chief engineer well before his stint as Mayor. The Illinois Central (Now Canadian National) runs right through the center of town, and was likely the town's lifeblood in the mid 19th Century, so I can't help but think that his affiliation with the railroad had a bit to do with the naming of the town.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Mason wasn't the only person associated with Grand Crossing's early years to have a town named after him. The town of Whiting, Indiana, two miles or so southeast of the Chicago line, and eight miles southeast of Grand Crossing, was named for Pop Whiting. The town was founded in 1871, incorporated in 1895, and has a present day population of just shy of 4800 people.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Frog wars were actually pretty common back during the last quarter or so of the 19th Century, as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog_war">this list</a></div><div style="text-align: left;">shows, and interestingly, the Grand Crossing frog war is the first one that occurred. (And, again the only one that ultimately resulted in a major disaster).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">These disputes were actually kind of inevitable during that era...railroads were expanding exponentially, laying thousands of miles of new track per year, and it stands to reason that two (And in one case, three) roads would want to occupy the exact same place at the exact same time. A dozen or so of these disputes led to actual frog wars.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's actually kind of amazing that this type of dispute didn't happen more often in the early days of railroading than it did, because rail lines cross each other on a regular basis. By the end of the first decade of the 20th Century, when one railroad needed to cross the right of way of another, rather than staging a long, drawn out 'Frog War', the two roads would let their legal departments and management teams hash out the details. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">By that time (And well before, in fact) almost all new railroad construction that required one rail line to cross another utilized a bridge to do so rather than at-grade diamond crossings.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There was a good multiple example of this right in my adopted home town of Chester, Va, which was once served by no fewer than <i>four</i> railroads...the Atlantic Coast Line, The Seaboard, a narrow gauge line named the Tidewater and Western, and the electric interurban line that ran between South Richmond and Petersburg. For about a decade and a half, all four lines were in operation at the same time.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Seaboard tracks crossed both the interurban tracks and the ACL tracks about 3/4 of a mile north of Chester, and the ACL tracks were crossed by the interurban tracks and the Tidewater and Western tracks just about smack dab in the middle of town. All of these crossings were on bridges, all of which are now long gone. Only the ACL tracks...now part of CSX...remain, though several of the bridge abutments still stand.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Several street grade crossings were eliminated at about the same time the diamond crossing was grade-separated, and most of them were done in the conventional way...the rail line was elevated to cross the street on an overpass. Several of the crossings, however, had to be handled differently, 75th Street and 76th Street in particular, due to their proximity to the diamond. Both streets crossed <i>all</i> of the tracks. The Illinois Central crossings of the streets were eliminated first, in a pretty <i>un</i>conventional manner...the streets were <i>lowered. </i>The IC tracks couldn't be raised but so much because of the soon-to-be-started grade separation, so the streets were dug out and depressed a good 10 feet or so, while the I.C. tracks were raised three or four feet on earth fill, crossing the streets on a bridge. The I.C. crossing at South Chicago Ave was handled similarly. The IC/CN bridges over these streets are extremely low clearance.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The MS/NYC/PRR tracks were raised and crossed 75th and 76th streets on conventional bridges when the diamond crossing was grade separated.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBqbEuAgvn0aUlUVyKf4xpwHPpx1GbYBjvVzEUgnBn8yQgzETSozn3QOYfIyMcnCQu-ui06tV7hq8ymbNaTIfMtSln5RghwNinl36gEoBfFxpQSxq3tkM1EBJLMnvsIWOPwQc3FTwf8slmZXBd10bK9TfwPoZtjzswTdUifsPxDJYCxji14rEmp-ij=s1920" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBqbEuAgvn0aUlUVyKf4xpwHPpx1GbYBjvVzEUgnBn8yQgzETSozn3QOYfIyMcnCQu-ui06tV7hq8ymbNaTIfMtSln5RghwNinl36gEoBfFxpQSxq3tkM1EBJLMnvsIWOPwQc3FTwf8slmZXBd10bK9TfwPoZtjzswTdUifsPxDJYCxji14rEmp-ij=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">75th Street, approaching the Canadian National...formerly Illinois Central...bridge in Grand Crossing. It's very easy to see how the street was lowered here. 76th Street was handled identically, though it's not quite as easy to see the grade leading to the bridge there. Clearance above the roadway is 13'7".</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Grand Crossing, in it's latter days, was one of the largest, busiest, and most dangerous multiple diamond crossings in the U.S., if not the world, but it wasn't the only multiple track diamond crossing in U.S. by far. Many have been eliminated, either by grade separation, or abandoning lines, but a few sill exist, and one of them is in Chicago, just a few miles northwest of Grand Crossing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This one is in <a href="https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2015/01/brighton-park-crossing.html">Brighton Park</a> and had the distinction of being one of the last such diamond crossing in the U.S. controlled by manual semaphore signals. The manual signals, controlled by big levers in a wooden watchman's shack, were in operation until 2007, and harked back to the steam era. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The crossing, with Canadian National (Formally Illinois Central) tracks crossing the Norfolk Southern, is still active, and features ten separate diamond crossings. It's located near South Archer Ave and South Western Ave. The semaphores and the signalman's shack are now long gone...the crossing's now controlled by automatic interlocking and more modern signaling. The semaphores were removed and sent to a museum, and the shack was also supposed to go to a museum, but burned before it could be moved.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvZAola6XPfmIpbL2Yy4sDjaNcNLKmnG_sj0Xq8Khj0Uh0eSbnC65qVCvO4GGx-hDv5H2Yi4QJXUmr699BCmZz_5lAn5KOX-LCcOdSbS2feH_MjjCb5WEolx4D55Grx-czUPA51ap2VxGBeEtk9U9KQ-sm53nZQw_C9LHp6nT-TCfIid7Txp-iIng9=s1000" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="1000" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvZAola6XPfmIpbL2Yy4sDjaNcNLKmnG_sj0Xq8Khj0Uh0eSbnC65qVCvO4GGx-hDv5H2Yi4QJXUmr699BCmZz_5lAn5KOX-LCcOdSbS2feH_MjjCb5WEolx4D55Grx-czUPA51ap2VxGBeEtk9U9KQ-sm53nZQw_C9LHp6nT-TCfIid7Txp-iIng9=w640-h456" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Illinois Central #6050 pulls a freight across the CSX and Norfolk Southern tracks at Brighton Park Crossing during the Summer of 1996. This was the last manually controlled diamond crossing in the U.S., and remained so until 2007. The manually controlled semaphore signals were operated from the small frame cabin on the left side of the frame. BIG manual levers inside the cabin pushed/pulled rods that ran through pipes to the semaphore masts. From what I read, it took a bit of muscle to operate them.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">All trains were required to stop before preceding, and occasionally at night, a train crew would have to make the trek over to the cabin to wake the operator up so he could clear them to precede through the crossing. This all came to an end in July 2007, when new automated signals were installed, and the crossings themselves were rebuilt. Ultimately, the crossing is going to be replaced with a bridge (Canadian National, crossing the CSX/NS tracks) but that project is in the talking but unfunded stage as I type this. </div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Another multiple diamond crossing that still exists, in a far simpler form than when it was originally built, is located in Memphis Tennessee, just south of Memphis' Central Rail Station, and immediately south of the I.C. bridge over Carolina Ave, between S. Main Street and Florida Ave.. Ironically, one of the railroads that utilizes this crossing is the Illinois Central.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In it's Heyday, the I.C. main line was four tracks, and it crossed six tracks operated by various rail lines operating into Memphis. (Four tracks crossing six....hmmmm...sound familiar?) This made Memphis' multiple crossing pretty much the same size as Grand Crossing, but, apparently, this particular crossing never produced either the controversy or the carnage that Grand Crossing did.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I have my theories on why. Memphis' crossing was developed well after Grand Crossing was, there was probably much more cooperation between rail lines in the crossing's early years, policies and procedures were likely in place as soon as the crossing was completed and evolved with the crossing, traffic control technology had evolved greatly by the time the Memphis crossing was fully developed, and I have a feeling that a good bit of plain long ol' good luck was also in play.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That crossing still exists, but has far fewer tracks these days, with the I.C.'s single line crossing four tracks. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">None of the rail lines that once crossed each other at Grand Crossing exist any more, at least not under their original name...here's a <i>real</i> quick coin-pocket summery of the rise and fall of all four lines. I've included links to detailed histories of all four lines in 'Links'</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Illinois Central lasted the longest...the line was chartered in 1836, though construction didn't start until 1850. The line merged with the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Railroad in 1972 to become the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, only to sell off that portion of it's route in 1988, and once again become simply the Illinois Central. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Then, in 1998 the struggling railroad was purchased by the Canadian National Railroad, and the name 'Illinois Central' was dropped, though some former Illinois Central locomotives retained their I.C. paint schemes.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Rock Island Railroad ( Officially the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific ) was incorporated in 1847, and the first rail was laid in 1851, with the first train running in October 1852. The line was hugely successful until the mid-20th Century, when it began a slow, steady decline. After several failed merger attempts, and a major strike, the Rock Island ceased operations in 1980, with much of it's former trackage being bought by The Union Pacific Railroad.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Michigan Central Railroad began operations in 1831 as the Detroit and St Joseph Railroad, a venture that was less than successful. The Line was bailed out by the state of Michigan in 1837, and renamed The central Railroad of Michigan, shortened all but inevitably to 'Michigan Central.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Michigan Central was also a very successful railroad during the latter end of the 19th Century, became an independent subsidiary of the humongous New York Central system in 1878, and was merged completely into the New York Central system in 1916, though the 'Michigan Central' name didn't completely disappear until the 1950s.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Most of the former NYC/MS trackage that is still active today is owned by CSX. including the line at Grand Crossing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Michigan Southern Railroad also combined with the New York Central system, and therefore also became part of CSX...and CSX found itself with redundant trackage...I believe the former MS/NYC/CSX track at Grand crossing was pulled up, so not only has the Michigan Southern disappeared from Grand Crossing, the former MS track is gone as well.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***>LINKS<***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I sort of figured that, research wise, I'd be behind the eight-ball <i>bigtime</i> on this one right from the git-go. I mean, the crash occurred almost 170 years ago, isn't all that well known, and it doesn't even have a <i>Wikipedia</i> page. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Happily, I ended up being pleasantly surprised. While there aren't many articles of any kind out there about the crash, the few I <i>did</i> find were high quality, well written articles that were chock full of good information. Better yet, a couple of them were located in blogs that were loaded with other interesting articles and pages, the kind that you can lay on the munchies and loose yourself in for a few hours on a rainy or wintry day.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, I'm going to do something that's a rarity for this section of my posts...post <i>all </i>of the links I found. I'm also going to include links to a few articles about the history of the four railroads involved in the Frog War and the crash.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So without further ado...on to the links!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://tinyurl.com/da7puhp9 ">https://tinyurl.com/da7puhp9</a> Article about the Frog War that ultimately caused the collision, from the awesome blog 'Forgotten Railways, Roads, and Places'. A concise and interesting article that includes the text of a period newspaper article about the collision. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> The blog itself is also pretty awesome, choc full of articles about forgotten, abandoned right of ways...you can definitely loose yourself very pleasantly for an afternoon or two reading it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://chicagology.com/grandjunction/">https://chicagology.com/grandjunction/</a> This is probably the best article of the bunch, from the truly awesome blog 'Chicagolgy'. The article includes excerpt from numerous newspaper and magazine articles about both the crash and the grade separation project, going into great detail about the accident and <i>deep</i> detail about the grade separation plan that ultimately eliminated both the huge multi-track crossing at Grand Crossing as well as road grade crossings in the area.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This blog itself is beyond awesome and a must for anyone who's a fan of the Windy City's tumultuous history. You can loose yourself for <i>days</i> in this one!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2014/10/railroad-crossing-war.html">https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2014/10/railroad-crossing-war.html</a> An interesting article from the blog 'Industrial History' that goes into some detail about both the Frog War and the grade separation project. This blog contains loads of articles about Chicago's railroad infrastructure. The linked article about Brighton Park crossing also came from this blog</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.wrhistoricalsociety.com/pop-whiting-railroad-accident">https://www.wrhistoricalsociety.com/pop-whiting-railroad-accident</a> A good human interest story always adds to <i>any </i>post. Here's the story of Pop Whiting's role in the Grand Crossing Collision, from an article on the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society's website and blog. This article goes into a good bit of detail about the collision, and Pop Whiting's role in the aftermath. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>The Four Original Railroads</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.american-rails.com/illinois.html">https://www.american-rails.com/illinois.html</a> A nice little site featuring a concise history of the Illinois Central, plus a boat-load of interesting facts about the line and it's operations and famous trains. Includes timetables and locomotive rosters. American Rails is an awesome site in general, chock full of interesting facts and history of classic American railroads. A must for the railfan.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.american-rails.com/crip.html">https://www.american-rails.com/crip.html</a> History of the Rock Island Line from the same site. Just as good as the I.C> page. Also features the lyrics of the classic folk song 'Rock Island Line, as well as a list of artists who covered it (There were many).<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.michiganrailroads.com/railroads-in-history/464-m/3841-michigan-central-railroad">http://www.michiganrailroads.com/railroads-in-history/464-m/3841-michigan-central-railroad</a> 'Michigan Railroad's page for the Michigan Central. Awesome page and site! (But no page about the Michigan Southern.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Shore_and_Michigan_Southern_Railway">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Shore_and_Michigan_Southern_Railway</a> Michigan Southern's Wiki Page. Best I could do for the M.S.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-81954099719793857752021-09-22T20:41:00.197-04:002022-12-15T12:44:26.183-05:00Norwalk Bridge Disaster. May 6th, 1853. The Nation's First Bridge Disaster <p style="text-align: center;"></p><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="text-align: center;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><b>Norwalk
Bridge Disaster</b></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;">Norwalk, Connecticut</span></b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;">May 6<sup>th</sup>,
1853</span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>The Nation's First Bridge Disaster </b></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;">The Year The Horrors Began</span></b></p><p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The steam railroad's explosive expansion in the mid 19th Century
kicked off what could well be one of <i>the</i> single most
revolutionary transportation developments in the nation's history, as
well as one of the most amazing sixteen year runs of astonishingly
good luck our nation's transportation system has ever experienced.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">Don't believe me? Lets
take a look.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">In 1837 there were
fewer than 1000 miles of rail line in the U.S. You could still
find horse-drawn rail cars in use here and there, and you could
probably come close to counting the number of steam locomotives
in use on those few miles of track using your fingers and
toes. Speeds were slow (25 mph was flat out 'gettin' it') and, while
accidents were pretty frequent, most didn't result in injuries, much
less fatalities. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">That being said, 1837 also brought the
infant U.S. rail system the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6487399564596460661/8195409971979385775#"> very
first multiple fatality rail accident in U.S history</a> .
That accident, BTW happened right here in The Old Dominion, and was
also the very first head-on collision in U.S. history. Three of the
six fatalities were a trio of wealthy sisters, or possibly cousins,
who were the daughters of a well known, well connected, and very
wealthy local family. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Then, the Portsmouth and Roanoke
Railroad...the line that accident happened on...managed to give the
media (Spelled 'Newspapers' as they were the only game in town 184
years ago) yet <i>another</i> related story the night after
the accident when the rescue train, carrying injured passengers to a
hospital in Portsmouth, hit and killed two men walking on the tracks.
And just like that, rail accidents had killed more people in under 12
hours than had died in several <i>years</i> worth of
rail accidents previously...a fact that newspapers of the time very
likely hammered home to their readers.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Speakin' of those newspapers, media
coverage of the accident was comprehensive and huge, with wood-cut
engravings and full page stories on the front pages of multiple
newspapers nation-wide, along with the inevitable follow up stories
about the investigation into the accident's cause and editorials
bemoaning the horrors of this new-fangled technology. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">You'd think the public would have taken
a look at the sudden carnage and backed off from this new and
obviously dangerous way to travel, but that didn't happen. In
fact, the accident didn't even put a dent in the development and
expansion of our nation's rail system. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">People had found that they really,
really <i>liked</i> spending only hours on a, say, 50-100
mile long trip trip, riding in comparative comfort, rather than a day
or more on horseback or enduring a long, dusty, bumpy, exhausting
ride by buggy, wagon, or stage coach. Ditto, the fact that they could
board a train at daybreak, travel 100 miles, take care of what ever
business had necessitated the trip, and return home by...or even
before...nightfall, something that was a ne'er to be realized pipe dream before
the steam railroad made it possible.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Businesses and industries got a double
dose of good karma from the new technology...they could ship larger
quantities of goods further in less time, there-by making higher
profits through more sales. At the same time, they could order
raw materials and other supplies in larger quantities at lower
bulk-purchase prices, and have them arrive more quickly, allowing them to make (And sell) more finished
product in a shorter period of time...again, higher profits through
more sales.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The public <i>wanted</i> more
rail lines, with more destinations, and they wanted more speed...and
they got their wish.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Track mileage nearly tripled, to around
2500 miles, by 1840. And it kept growing...all but exponentially. By
1853 (The year this post is zeroing in on) there were just shy of
10,000 miles of revenue-generating rail line in the U.S. Horse-drawn
rail cars were a distant memory, railroad stations were part of the
small-town and big city landscape, steam whistles blowing for
crossings, and signaling arrivals and departures from stations had
become familiar and well-loved back-ground sounds, rail travel had
become comfortable and commonplace, and steam locomotive technology
had advanced to the point that passenger trains regularly rolled
through the countryside at the then-blistering speed of 40 or so
miles per hour.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">During that same fifteen or sixteen
years steam locomotives evolved, quickly, from small, slow little
rigs that strained to reach 20-25 mph to big, highly advanced
machines capable of pulling a 6-8 car passenger train at 40 MPH, and
a 20-30 car freight...that was a <i>long</i> train in, say,
1850...at 30 MPH all day long. Cabs were semi-enclosed, boilers were
well constructed, valve assemblies were complex, well engineered, and
beautiful to watch in action, and those steam whistles!</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> Aaaaand safety technology was,
well, pretty much nonexistent. And <i>that's</i> where our
run of good luck comes in. Hey, I said that rail travel had
become <i>comfortable</i>...I didn't say anything about it
being <i>safe</i>. because, well, it really wasn't.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The problem was, the technology to keep
these soon-to-be-legendary iron beasts under control just hadn't
evolved as quickly as the locomotives themselves...if at all. While
iron 'T' rails had been developed and were in use on the majority of
those miles of track, there were also hundreds of
miles of primitive 'strip rail...flat iron strips laid on top of long
wooden timbers...in use. Almost all main lines were single track,
requiring <i>strict</i> adherence to time tables to avoid
head on collisions. There were no time zones yet, so keeping those
time tables straight was a near impossible chore because every city,
town, and county set their clocks to their own local...or
'sun'...time.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And, <i>most</i> importantly, there
was no really effective way to <i>stop</i> a train quickly
once it got rolling. Yeah, you read that right...these early trains
basically had no effective brakes. Oh they had brakes...they were
just primitive. As in <i>real</i> primitive. Locomotive
brakes, if they existed at all, consisted of leather covered iron
shoes forced against he outside rim of the driving wheels by a lever
in the cab. The brakes on the cars were only slightly less primitive.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">On the tender (The car directly behind the locomotive that carried fuel and water) and the cars themselves,
a chain and lever assembly, controlled by handwheels at each end of
the cars, forced similar shoes against the wheels. There was
absolutely no way whatsoever to apply <i>all</i> of the
brakes instantly, or even quickly. Each train had brakemen who, when
the engineer whistled for brakes, had to run along the tops of the
cars (Or along narrow catwalks on the sides on flat cars) and spin
the handwheels to set each car's brakes individually.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> This also, of course, meant that the brakeman was exposed to the elements as well as the ever present danger of
falling from...or being knocked from...the catwalk. He had a choice
if he fell...either go off the side (At best, resulting in severe and
likely either debilitating or fatal injuries) or going <i>between</i> the
cars, resulting in an inevitable and horrible death. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The catwalk was only a foot or so wide, and would be swaying with the motion of the car itself...and each car would be swaying in a slightly different direction, making crossing from roof to roof a treacherously dangerous maneuver. Then. once he got to the brake wheel on each car, he had to keep his footing while trying to get the thing to turn to turn. This would have been hard enough to do in <i>good</i> weather. Now...imagine trying to cross the roofs of those swaying box cars and get the brakes set in the middle of a wind-blown gully washer of a July thunderstorm. Or, even worse, make it the middle of January, with the catwalks covered in snow and ice. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">At least on passenger cars, the brake
wheels were on the platforms at either end of the car, so our
brakeman could run through the car to get to the hand wheel rather
than climb ladders and run across the tops of the cars, negating
the dangers from elements and falls. All he had to worry about was
getting the train stopped before the wreck it was getting ready to
have actually occurred.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3t3VkkBmaVPaQUP_6qohEuGmK_RRTLO45RfCkE_yr1V5jAhbPLI_03WPEIJVh3Sey_kEiXzqgYszYBbap2Ykhu9rFBY5ElCI4gP5M323OUYO7AGsybMrD-EgAQeUS0o4jhWaFYBlDZqw/s1171/a344a3f1bb3c0bae8d9df93d86eb4d4b.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1171" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3t3VkkBmaVPaQUP_6qohEuGmK_RRTLO45RfCkE_yr1V5jAhbPLI_03WPEIJVh3Sey_kEiXzqgYszYBbap2Ykhu9rFBY5ElCI4gP5M323OUYO7AGsybMrD-EgAQeUS0o4jhWaFYBlDZqw/w438-h640/a344a3f1bb3c0bae8d9df93d86eb4d4b.png" width="438" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><span>This box car's brake wheel can be seen extending above the roof. The small platform below the handwheel was for the brakeman to stand on when a car, or string of cars was being shifted at low speed in a train yard, <i>not</i> for use when the train was running on the mainline. Also, note that the catwalk extends past the edge of the roof...this has a dual purpose. This supposedly made it a bit easier to go from car to car, as well as giving the brakeman a little more foot room when trying to turn the brake wheel. From this angle, IMHO, it doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><span>This was the </span><i>only</i><span> way to slow or stop a train </span><span>before airbrakes were introduced in about 1872, and the brakemen had to literally run along the tops of freight cars and set each car's brakes separately. It was rough, punishing, dangerous work. </span><span>Exactly how rough, punishing, and dangerous? Take a look at the next pic...</span></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPchd0bkxJtKcndCsW1V8XDFiZjUqTfKcDhpJXE6GP7H6frM0Sij6feUiIM44zS-u0xEESpvun9nbORo5rperBJ7133xb7CFyn5R4X_ErYbfWi8vGEw8634atkA2ddhTnxPGsD2VzzxU/s800/Screenshot+%2528924%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="655" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPchd0bkxJtKcndCsW1V8XDFiZjUqTfKcDhpJXE6GP7H6frM0Sij6feUiIM44zS-u0xEESpvun9nbORo5rperBJ7133xb7CFyn5R4X_ErYbfWi8vGEw8634atkA2ddhTnxPGsD2VzzxU/w524-h640/Screenshot+%2528924%2529.png" width="524" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">This woodcut illustration of a pair of railroad brakemen at work during the winter, with the tops of the cars...and therefore the catwalks...covered in snow and ice, perfectly illustrates the dangers these guys faced. There were several different ways they could loose their footing and be thrown from the train...or worse, fall between the cars, which always meant a horrific death. </span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijWpKIoDJrTrjdbmtSwHOqitfMNdk89PPtSnhK7A3ykMN2p9Wq_feRD9joV5tVUaQC__ndv8H4ilamO-nsIj12j7EdNUtFv8vGKaoIL3FhX3ZvsPsXcULtSMeiT4zboE4huZcd_oulRHs/s1500/carl_vinson_setting_brake_1961.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1021" data-original-width="1500" height="435" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijWpKIoDJrTrjdbmtSwHOqitfMNdk89PPtSnhK7A3ykMN2p9Wq_feRD9joV5tVUaQC__ndv8H4ilamO-nsIj12j7EdNUtFv8vGKaoIL3FhX3ZvsPsXcULtSMeiT4zboE4huZcd_oulRHs/w640-h435/carl_vinson_setting_brake_1961.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">Brakemen on passenger trains had it easier than their freight train riding counterparts. At least passenger brakemen got to stay mostly out of the elements, and they weren't exposed to fall hazards when going from car to car because, as seen here, the brake wheels were on the cars' end platforms.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">This brakemen is using a 'Brakeman's Club', or 'Breaker Bar' to give himself some extra leverage when trying to turn the often stubborn hand wheels. Of course, if one of those stubborn brake wheels should free itself, and suddenly turn freely, that could throw him off balance...a nasty fall on the platform of a passenger car, all but sure death on the roof of a freight car.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">This is a newer car than was used on the <i>Boston Express,</i> and was probably built in the early 20th Century or very late 19th Century...note the modern couplings, air brake hose, and raised 'clerestory' roof...but it still perfectly illustrates the brakeman's job.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Freight or passenger train, he </span><i style="font-family: times;">still </i><span style="font-family: times;">had to set each car's brakes individually. At the train's
head end, if a sudden emergency developed, the engineer would whistle
for brakes, ignore the locomotive's own ineffectual brakes, and, if
he had time, slam the big steamer into reverse. His ( And his
fireman's) very next act was very likely to be jumping clear to save
themselves.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> Meanwhile the brakemen would scramble along the tops of
the train cars, or through the passenger cars, and spin the brake
wheels (Which were often so stubbornly hard to turn that the brakemen
carried wooden 'brake clubs' that they slipped between the handwheel's
spokes to give them more leverage) feverishly, desperately trying to
get as many sets of brakes set as possible.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> A modern train, with
high-tech modern airbrakes that set <i>instantly</i> on
every wheel on the train when the brakes are slammed into emergency,
often <i>still </i>requires more than a mile to stop.
Stopping even the short, comparatively light weight and slow moving trains of the
1840s or 1850s at <i>all</i>, much less quickly, in an emergency
was a hopeless task.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">You'd think that this near total lack
of any safety tech at all would have turned that decade and a half of
explosive growth into a blood bath, with trains regularly slamming into each
other, careening off of the rails, and hurtling off of bridges,
slaying dozens of passengers at a time when they did so, but believe
it or not, that just didn't happen. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Oh there were accidents. Trains
derailed pretty regularly, and, less often, ran into each other, but
very few fatalities resulted. In fact, looking through a pair of
sources (Wikipedia, and GenDisasters.com) I only found eleven fatal
accidents in that 16 year period, only a couple of which resulted in
more than one or two fatalities. The worst train wreck in the 1840s
was an 1844 crash that occurred when a runaway freight car slammed
into the rear car of a passenger train, killing four
passengers....the most fatalities in a single accident since the 1837
head on collision near Suffolk, Va. that was the country's first
multi-fatality train wreck..</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The accidents became more
frequent...and more severe...as road mileage, ridership, and speed
all rose together, and 1852 actually boasted a couple of fatal
accidents, the worst of which was a derailment in Meredith New
Hampshire that killed six...equaling the toll in that first deadly
head-on collision near Suffolk.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> I counted a total of 23 people
killed in those 11 fatal accidents. Of course, twenty-three
accidental deaths is tragic, no matter how long a span those deaths
occur over, but it's still amazing, given the lack of safety
technology of that period, that accidents weren't killing that many
people per accident on occasion.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Even <i>today</i>, with safety
technology that's hundreds of times more advanced than the technology
that existed nearly 170 years ago, U.S. railroads average around
10-15 employee and passenger deaths per year, and a major accident,
with five or more deaths, every three or so years...a far higher
death rate than the US rail system suffered during that 16 year span
from 1837-1853. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So it <i>had</i> to be
luck....an astounding run of amazingly good luck....for hundreds of trains to travel thousands of miles at speeds of thirty or more miles per hour for <i>16 years </i>with absolutely <i>no </i>way to stop quickly in an emergency<i>,</i> and <i>still</i> have fewer than twenty-five fatalities occur in under a dozen fatal accidents during that decade and a half.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> It was also a run of good luck that
absolutely <i>couldn't</i> last. And, well, it didn't.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">1853 would come to be known as 'The
Year The Horrors Began', and it was kicked off by a fatal train wreck
that made national headlines., even though it only resulted in a
single fatality. That wreck occurred on January 2nd of that year, in
Andover, Ma, when the coach that President Elect Franklin Pierce and
his eleven year old son Benjamin were traveling in broke an axle,
derailed, and flipped down an embankment. The President-Elect
suffered only minor injuries, but Benjamin, sadly, was the accident's
sole fatality. The death of his son was said to have demoralized
Pierce so much that it badly impacted his ability to govern the
country.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The nation, assisted by the Media,
grieved right along with the President-Elect, and newspapers carried
the story and it's spin-offs and side bars, for at least a couple of
weeks. People all over the country, no matter who they'd voted for,
read these articles along with morning coffee, shook their heads
sadly, and wondered, just what other horrors a year that started off
this tragically could hold. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">They would find out just over four
months later, on May 6th....that run of good luck was about to come
to a spectacular and horrible end.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">For this one we head for the northern
shore of Long Island Sound, to the pretty and historic little city of
Norwalk, Connecticut. Norwalk's about about 40 miles Northeast of New
York City, and 9 miles west of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and pretty
much straddles all of the East Coast's major North-South
transportation corridors. Both I-95 and U.S. Rt 1 pass through
Norwalk (Both, despite being north-south roads, running almost due
east and west, to follow Long Island Sound, as they roll through
Connecticut). The city is also a well known pinch-point for rail
traffic on the busy North-South rail corridor, a distinction it's
held for at least 168 years or so.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Back in 1853 one of the primary
North-South rail lines heading out of The Big Apple was the New York
and New Haven Railroad, and on it's way north it cut through Norwalk,
using just about the exact same right-of-way that Amtrak, CSX, and North
Metro use to this very day. And, then as now, trains passing through
the city crossed the Norwalk River on a drawbridge.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Ok, drawbridges have been around in one
form or the other since the middle ages, but they became more refined
and far more numerous in the mid 19th Century, as rail lines pushed
across both Europe and the U.S. . Any time a road or railroad crossed
a navigable river, there were two bridge-building options that would
allow ships to pass. You either built the bridge high enough for all
ships to pass beneath it (Think about the masts on mid-19th century
sailing ships...every bridge would've had to have had at least 120 or so feet
of clearance between water and span) or built a drawbridge that could be moved out of the way of
approaching river traffic, allowing ships to pass unhindered. The
drawbridge was always the quickest, easiest, and most importantly,
least expensive alternative. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So, when the NY & NH built their main
line through Norwalk in 1847, they built a single track wood
and iron truss swing-bridge across the Norwalk River. The bridge was
about 400 feet long, with a 140 or so foot long swing-span mid-river,
across the main channel. The swing-span was built on a geared
turntable, which was supported on a large abutment mid-river, and was
capable of being turned 90 degrees, opening a pair of 60 foot wide
channels, on either side of that central abutment, for ships to
pass. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">A steam engine...most likely a small
'Donkey engine'...was probably used to turn the bridge, very likely
with a manual back up (Spell that a <i>big</i> crank), and
the bridge tender's cabin was likely next to the track on the swing
span, while the machinery to turn the span was probably behind, or
maybe below, the bridge tender's cabin.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The swing span itself, from
illustrations I've seen, looks like it was a 'box truss', with a
20-30 foot tall central tower, also a truss design, mid span. This
tower was an integral and important part of the bridge structure,
designed specifically to support the ends of the swing span when it
was open. A quartet of heavy chains ran from anchor points at the top
corners of the tower to similar attach points about fifteen or so feet from either end of the swing span. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnlMMcCp7l-VZdaKn7iXuWVFnNjpx9E-o7QkR6t3b89qf_Lcu1x7end4TAIl7autfeg14NkRENx-IKWoHsIMmS_Zxu4osYnHIfzJiks_xcvsnygahQqHEy9UZyKGu6p8XbeIj-z8OGURI/s913/Screenshot+%2528923%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="913" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnlMMcCp7l-VZdaKn7iXuWVFnNjpx9E-o7QkR6t3b89qf_Lcu1x7end4TAIl7autfeg14NkRENx-IKWoHsIMmS_Zxu4osYnHIfzJiks_xcvsnygahQqHEy9UZyKGu6p8XbeIj-z8OGURI/w640-h378/Screenshot+%2528923%2529.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">A good schematic of the Norwalk swing span, from Famous Structures magazine, showing the center tower and 'The Ball'...raised here to indicate the bridge is closed and safe to cross...to good advantage. The Ball's mast was a good 60 or so feet tall, and would have been sticking up above the tree-tops, which should have made it easily visible during the day. Official reports noted that it was visible from about 3300 feet out.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"> Though I couldn't find any info on the turning mechanism, I <i>think</i> the bridge tender's cabin would have been under the tower on one side or the other, and steam engine that turned the bridge was either below the cabin or behind it. </div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The way this system worked was actually
pretty simple. When the bridge was closed, the chains had a bit
of slack in them because the ends of the swing span were supported on
pilings, but when the bridge started to swing as it opened, the ends
of the swing span would droop slightly as they swung away from those
supporting pilings, and the chains would tighten up as they took the
load (Probably with a series of audible 'CLANK!'s), supporting the
ends of the span. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Those chains, BTW, were absolutely essential parts of the bridge structure. The swing span was <i>not</i> designed
to support it's own weight when open, and the ends of the swing span
would have been cantilevered over the river with absolutely no
support what so ever without the chains supporting them. Without
them, the swing span would have very likely collapsed into the river the first
time or so it opened.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">While supporting the swing span was the
tower's primary function, it wasn't it's <i>only</i> function. The bridge tender had to have a way to warn on-coming
trains that the draw span was open, and this warning needed to be
visible from far enough away to allow the engineers of approaching
trains to see it, then get stopped well before they reached the open
draw span. The best way to make this signal visible from a distance,
of course, was to have it as high up as possible.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> A forty or so foot 'L' shaped
mast sprouted from one side of the tower, putting the top of the mast
about 60 or so feet above the river. A large, bright red hollow metal or
wooden ball was attached to a halyard that ran through a pair of
pulleys at the top of the mast...one on either end of the short,
horizontal section of the 'L'. This allowed the ball to be hoisted to
the top of the mast, or conversely, lowered to the track. Whether or
not that ball was visible indicated whether the bridge was open or
closed. This signal was said to be visible for about 3300 feet before the train reached the bridge, and was definitely
visible from a quarter mile out.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">This system actually
worked <i>backwards</i> from what you might expect, BTW. You'd think that when the red signal was visible at the top of the mast, it would indicate that the bridge was open, and that oncoming trains must STOP...but that's <i>not</i> the way it worked. Instead, if
an engineer could see the red ball at the top of the mast, it meant
that the bridge was closed and that he could cross safely. However if
the ball <i>wasn't</i> visible, the bridge was open, and he
knew he had to bring his train to a stop before reaching the bridge. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> To make sure the engineers of
approaching trains actually <i>looked</i> for the signal,
the NY & NH erected a sign next to the track at that quarter mile
point, lettered 'LOOK OUT FOR THE DRAW', with a painted -hand
pointing in the direction of the bridge. When he passed that sign,
the engineer was <i>required</i> to look for the signal
mast, if he hadn't already done so. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And, though it wasn't mentioned anywhere, I have a feeling that if our engineer <i>couldn't</i> find or see the mast, or 'The Ball' for some reason, he was required to assume the ball was down, and stop immediately.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><span style="font-family: times;">Of course, in order for him to actually
get the the train stopped in that quarter mile (Or, actually in order
for the </span><i style="font-family: times;">brakemen</i><span style="font-family: times;"> to get it stopped) our
engineer had to be going slow enough to both give the brakemen time
to get as many sets of brakes set as possible, and, once
they </span><i style="font-family: times;">were</i><span style="font-family: times;"> set, still have enough room for them to actually stop the train before it reached the open drawbridge. And for </span><i style="font-family: times;">that</i><span style="font-family: times;"> to happen,
the engineer had to slow </span><i style="font-family: times;">way</i><span style="font-family: times;"> down </span><i style="font-family: times;">well</i><span style="font-family: times;"> before
he could actually see the ball (or lack there-of). </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The railroad had
that covered as well.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">N.Y. & N.H.R.R's Rules and
Regulations required engineers to reduce speed to between 10 and
15 MPH as they approached all drawbridges, including, of course, the
Norwalk River bridge. The bridge was opened several times daily due
to the heavy traffic on the river, so it was a pretty good bet that
it would be open...and the ball down...when a train
approached, making that speed reduction absolutely essential. Slowing
to below 15 MPH well before they reached the bridge, and before they could even see 'The Ball' not only gave the train crew more time to look for
the ball, it made actually getting stopped if the ball was down
far, <i>far </i>more likely. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Of course, getting stopped if the ball
was down was <i>still</i> a pretty complicated ordeal, even
at the slower speed. The engineer had to whistle for brakes even as
he throttled back even more while also being ready to reverse the
locomotive if necessary. The brakemen, meanwhile, started scrambling
as soon as they heard the whistle signal for brakes, running along
the tops of the cars (Or through the passenger cars on a passenger
train), jumping from car to car and madly spinning the brake wheels
to apply the brakes on each car. As noted above, this was <i>not</i> a
quick <i>or</i> easy process at all, and I can only
imagine that more than a few sighs of relief were breathed as a train
lurched to a stop short of an open draw bridge.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> But generally, they <i>did</i> get
stopped, usually well short of the bridge. At least they did until
May 6th, 1853 at around 10:30 AM. Keep that big red ball
and the 'Reduce Speed' rule in mind, gang...they play a <i>huge</i> part
in what's to come.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The American Medical Association was
founded in 1847. This was just about the same time that various
business and professional organizations, such as the AMA, realized
that the fast, easy travel provided by railroads would allow people
of like interests from far and wide to gather in one location to
discuss their common interest and interact with each other, spending
money while they were at it...and the convention was born. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The AMA held their sixth annual
convention in New York City during the first week of May, 1853. The
convention kicked off on Tuesday, May 3rd, and ran through Thursday,
May 5th. By the time the morning of Friday the 6th rolled
around, ideas had been exchanged, knowledge had been imparted, drinks
and stories had been shared, promises to keep in touch had been made,
and physicians from far flung cities and towns were gathering at New
York's first rail station, on Chambers Street, to board trains for
home. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">One of these trains was the 8AM New
York and New Haven RR express train, bound for Boston with a few
other stops, such as New Haven and New London, Connecticut and
Providence, Rhode Island, in between. Annnd, we already have a
problem, before the first of two hundred or so passengers even
boarded the train. The engineer who was normally on that run had
begged off for reasons lost to history. His
replacement, Edward Tucker, had only driven the <i>Boston
Express</i> three times, so he hadn't yet developed the
familiarity-bred 'Muscle Memory' that allowed an experienced engineer
to slow and stop when needed almost without even thinking about
it. On top of that, Tucker was just getting back to work
after recovering from injuries he'd sustained in an accident, so he
may not have been performing at 100 percent himself.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr3rQA0YNcRkj3H6efQZSTzbNtRtv415oPmWyrWci39hWLFaH_MuyS6aQXJSgjq5JlFlCJ47UhqFgApvyyuuOnNWBb1kRtgomFXcZ_0TysodiBbAQ-1qByy4yioZZs0hZIpmSx3LRWaI8/s966/1024x1024.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="966" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr3rQA0YNcRkj3H6efQZSTzbNtRtv415oPmWyrWci39hWLFaH_MuyS6aQXJSgjq5JlFlCJ47UhqFgApvyyuuOnNWBb1kRtgomFXcZ_0TysodiBbAQ-1qByy4yioZZs0hZIpmSx3LRWaI8/w640-h246/1024x1024.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This pic is purportedly a photo of a NY & NH passenger train from the same era as the disaster, and, even though it's shorter by four cars than the ill-fated <i>Boson Express</i>, it still gives you a pretty good idea of what the <i>Express</i> looked like as it bore down on the open drawbridge. This is probably a posed shot, BTW...note the way the crew is posed.</span><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Those two hundred passengers didn't
know any of this, of course, nor did they likely care. In
fact, they very likely gave Ed Tucker no more thought than the
passengers boarding an Airbus or Boeing today give their pilot. Like
modern travelers boarding a plane, the passengers boarding
the <i>Boston Express</i> assumed that their engineer
knew what he was doing, and all they cared about was getting to their
destinations, and, maybe (Then as now) getting a window seat rather
than an aisle seat. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Among these passengers was Dr. <span style="color: #202122;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gurdon
Wadsworth Russell. He climbed aboard the third passenger
car,</span></span></span><span style="color: #202122;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></span><span style="color: #202122;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">exchanging
greetings with several fellow convention-goers</span></span></span> as
he made<span style="color: #202122;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></span><span style="color: #202122;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">his
way up the aisle. He finally, after actually trading seats with one
fellow MD, eased himself into a seat near the rear of the car, and
for some reason I picture him opening a just purchased newspaper as
he got comfortable. Keep Dr. Russell in mind as well...</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #202122;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: times;">As
Dr. Russell got situated, porters and baggage handlers loaded bags
and trunks into the baggage car as Ed Tucker pulled a
pocket-watch from a front pocket of his striped over-alls, popped it
open and checked it...a few minutes to eight. They absolutely <i>had </i>to
pull out of the station by 8AM to stay on schedule, and most
importantly, not delay the rest of the trains on the line. The Boston
Express was likely a priority train, meaning that all southbound
trains on the single-tracked line had to, at a given time, take a
siding and wait for the <i>Express</i> to thunder past. </span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">At just about 8AM the train's
conductor, Charles Comstock, got word that the baggage loading was complete, and that
the baggage car was buttoned up...he gave Ed Tucker the 'high'
sign, and Tucker reached up, grabbed the whistle lanyard, and gave
it two pulls, sending a pair of long, piercing wails through the
station. The train's brakemen, already in place, moved through the
train's five coaches, smoking car, and baggage car, spinning the
handwheels on the end platforms to release the brakes.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> One of the train's brakemen...or it's only brakeman if there was only one... likely ended up at the tender, so he could give Tucker the
word that the brakes were off. (This could have well also been Charles Comstock, who may have pulled double duty as both conductor and brakeman). Even as that brakeman released the
tender's brakes, Tucker reached up, gave the whistle two more quick
blasts, then eased the throttle open. The big 4-4-0 that was all but
inevitably heading up the train belched out the iconic CHUF!CHUF!
CHUF! of a steam locomotive starting it's run, spitting puff-balls of
smoke out of it's diamond shaped stack as she pulled out. The slack
'Clanked!' out of the couplings, and each car gave a quick little
jerk as the train started moving...The <i>Boston Express </i>had
begun what was to be her most infamous northbound run.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The train pulled out of the Chambers
Street station and headed north through Manhattan, following present
day Park Av (Then known as 4th Ave) through Harlem and crossing the
Harlem River on a swing bridge before rolling into a very rural,
pre-Bronx Westchester County. Somewhere around 15 minutes after
pulling out of the Chambers Street station, the Boston Express
rounded a couple of wide, right-hand sweepers that aimed the N.Y. &
N.H tracks eastward so they were roughly parallel to Long Island
Sound's northern shore. The U.S. Rail System's sixteen year run
of astonishingly good luck was only a couple of hours away from being
brought to a spectacular and devastating close. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">In 1853. the 280 foot long,
2700 ton sidewheeler <i>S.S. Pacific </i>was one of the
fastest, largest, and most modern transatlantic steamers afloat. One
of four big sidewheelers ordered and built for the newly-formed
American Collins line in 1849 specifically to go head to head with arch-rival Cunard Line's steamers, she immediately began breaking speed
records, snagging the much-cherished Blue Riband on one of her first
voyages.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsuI0HZtgSe8zLjhe73E-c9YsH3RkVgaZqlAAknls6THCjW0gJ56NeTq4Yyjz9xNxUN1wrNvF_0o3KUFS5etTbZbvAYo1SEWh2ryBcY5iYapK9XlvR36-Z6BBVJPs_Xvqrye0FkCOmLM/s744/02_ss_pacific.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="744" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsuI0HZtgSe8zLjhe73E-c9YsH3RkVgaZqlAAknls6THCjW0gJ56NeTq4Yyjz9xNxUN1wrNvF_0o3KUFS5etTbZbvAYo1SEWh2ryBcY5iYapK9XlvR36-Z6BBVJPs_Xvqrye0FkCOmLM/w640-h406/02_ss_pacific.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">S S Pacific...the ship that the Norwalk River Bridge had been opened for. Her crew would be among the heroes of the disaster, immediately launching boats and making numerous rescues.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">The <i>Pacific</i> would be lost less than three years later, disappearing without a trace on an eastbound trip from Liverpool to New York.</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">She'd sail on the New
York-Liverpool route for the entirety of her short career (More on
that in <i>Notes</i>). The New York-Liverpool route would, of
course, become the same New York-Southampton/ Southampton-New York
route that dozens of liners (Including an inauspicious little vessel
named the <i>Titanic</i>) would sail for well over a century...but
there was a <i>huge</i> difference in the western terminus
of that voyage in, say, 1853 as compared to even a couple of decades
later. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">In the early days of
transatlantic liners, travel from outlying communities to the line's
main U.S. terminal...it's pier in New York in Collins' (And Cunard's)
case...was not a quick, easy trip, so these transatlantic voyages
both started and ended as 'local' voyages. As the Collins line
and Cunard liners made their way in or out of New York, they
made stops in many if not most of the smaller ports along Long Island
Sound's northern shore to embark or disembark passengers.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">One of these ports was
Norwalk Connecticut. I don't know whether the <i>Pacific </i>was
in Norwalk at the beginning or end of a trip, or whether, at a little
before 10 AM as she backed away from the dock on the Norwalk River,
she had just dropped off or picked up passengers, but whichever was the case, her captain whistled through voice tubes (Engine Room
Telegraphs were still decades in the future), backing on one wheel as
he went ahead on the other. He expertly brought her around in little
more than her own length, her straight-up-and-down bow swinging until
it was aimed south.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Her bow was now aimed
towards Long Island Sound, pretty much visually splitting the very
item that, would soon make these stops along The Sound
unnecessary...the N.Y. & N.H Rail bridge that crossed the
Norwalk River. Her captain reached up and yanked on the whistle
lanyard, sending the deep, throaty blast of a steamboat whistle
up-river....a sound that the bridge tender was likely waiting for...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">...Bridge tender William
Harford was probably already aware that he'd have to open the bridge,
because he very likely had two very important schedules in his
cabin...a train schedule and a schedule of ship movements. These
pieces of paperwork were <i>doubly</i> important back in
this era, as communications were hundreds of times slower back then
than they are now. While the telegraph was becoming well
established by 1853, it wasn't yet widely used to control train
movements, and even if it had been, there probably wouldn't have had
a key/sounder in the bridge tender's cabin, because of the difficulty
in disconnecting/connecting the line when the bridge was moved. And
even if he <i>could</i> have had a telegraph key in his
cabin, it would have been a moot point...he still had absolutely no
way to communicate directly with either ships or trains.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So these ship movement/train
schedules strictly dictated whether he could open the bridge or not.
More than likely, if a train was due with-in a given time limit (Say,
ten-fifteen minutes), he wasn't allowed to open the bridge until the
train had crossed it, because he wouldn't have enough time to open
the bridge and lower the ball to warn the train's engineer. So when
the <i>Pacific's</i> whistle brayed out across the river,
Harford quickly checked his train schedule. The only train movement
pending would be the Boston Express, not due for a good twenty
minutes or so...more then enough time for it's engineer to see that 'The Ball' wasn't visible, and get stopped. Had that not been the
case, Harford would very likely have used the bridge's own whistle to
send a signal (Say, possibly a given number of short blasts) telling
the ship's captain he'd have to wait for a train to pass before the
bridge could be opened.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">On that May morning,
however, Harford answered with the whistle signal advising
the <i>Pacific's </i>captain that she <i>could</i> proceed.
Even as the bridge whistle's wail died out in the morning air, Harford started hustling. First he had to unlock the bridge, and lift the
short sections of rail connecting the track on the swing-span with
the track on the fixed sections of the bridge...both operations
performed by <i>big</i> manual levers that moved rods and
cranks that disengaged the locks and raised the rail sections. Then
he pushed the directional lever that controlled the steam flow from
'Neutral' to 'OPEN, and
finally opened the steam engine's throttle. The 'donkey engine'
started chuffing...pumping smoke up from it's own stack...and the
bridge began turning...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">...Aboard the <i>Pacific</i>,
her captain saw a puff of smoke from the bridge's own steam engine,
then saw the bridge begin to turn. He whistled up all ahead on
both engines, and her paddle wheels began beating the Norwalk River
into dirty white foam as she eased forward, probably at quarter speed
or so, heading for the slowly opening bridge...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Automated controls and 'Stop
Switches' hadn't even been thought of yet, so Harford had to stay at
the throttle as the bridge opened. Of course, he'd probably been
opening and closing the span for years, so he knew just when to back
off of the throttle, disengage the gears that turned the swing-span,
and let the bridge drift the last few degrees until it was fully
open. The swing-span bumped against it's stops, and Harford
pulled yet another lever that set the brake, locking it open. A pair
of 60 foot wide channels were now clear on either side of the open
swing span. But Harford still had one more task to complete...
possibly the <i>most</i> important task of all. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">As soon as he yanked the
locking lever to lock the swing span open, Harford quick-stepped out
of the door and possibly across the track, to where the signal ball's
mast was mounted on the bridge structure. He unwrapped the
halyard from a cleat at about chest level, and started lowering the
red ball, probably letting the rope run through his curled fingers as
he did so. He was listening even as he let the hollow ball bump
gently onto the track...his timing was good, or so he thought. As he
lowered the signal ball onto the track, the high-pitched tweet of a
train whistle drifted in as the <i>Boston Express</i> blew for a crossing
somewhere west of Norwalk. 'He's got <i>plenty</i> of time
to get stopped...' Harford may have thought as he walked back
across the track to his cabin. watching the <i>Pacific </i>approach
the channel on the west side of the draw span as he did so. Thing is, as he watched the <i>Pacific </i>enter
the channel between swing-span and the river's western bank, Harford
had no idea that his day was about to get really <i>really</i> memorable
in all the wrong ways.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>The N.Y.&N.H. passed into history 150 years ago, and was then buried in another century and change worth of acquisitions and mergers, but trains still roll along the very same right-of-way that the line once occupied. The rail line entering Norwalk from New York now boasts 4 tracks rather than only one, but it still occupies the same basic footprint that it occupied in 1853, complete with a swing bridge over the Norwalk River, and a pair of pretty distinctive curves...forming a long, stretched out 'S'...just west of the bridge. And, thanks to this fact, The </span><i>Boston Express </i><span>would round the same two curves that fateful morning that a modern Amtrak or Metro North train rounds on the way through Norwalk today.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The results, however, of the The <i>Boston's Express' </i>trip through town and across the river that morning would be 180 degrees apart from every other crossing of the river before or since.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i></i>The first curve, about a
mile and a half from the bridge, is a long, left hand sweeper that
swings the rail line north as it approaches the river. The line then
runs north-northeast, converging on the river, for about a mile and a
half before a second, tighter, right hand curve swings it back
eastward about 750 feet from the span. When a train comes out of that
second curve, it's actually only about 400 feet from the bridge.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">It was absolutely essential for engineers to get their trains slowed to the required 15 mph or slower between those two curves. T</span><span style="font-family: times;">he reduced speed made seeing the ball or it's mast far easier, of course, but that wasn't the <i>main </i>purpose of the speed reduction. The main reason they slowed down was so they <i>could</i> get stopped if the ball <i>was</i> lowered. They were <i>far</i> more likely to be able to get stopped safely from 12-15 MPH, than they were from 30-40 MPH...remember, they needed to be going slow enough to both give </span><span style="font-family: times;">the brakemen time to set the brakes on each car, <i>and</i> leave enough distance once the brakes </span><i style="font-family: times;">were</i><span style="font-family: times;"> set to get stopped before they reached the bridge.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">To slow to the required 15 MPH, the engineers who regularly drove that route very likely throttled back as they approached that first curve, letting the friction of the rails against the wheels on the outside of the curve help slow them. They did this all but instinctively, almost without conscious thought. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">On that Friday morning, though, the </span><i style="font-family: times;">Boston Express</i><span style="font-family: times;"> didn't slow at </span><i style="font-family: times;">all </i><span style="font-family: times;">as it approached the bridge. The train instead leaned </span><i style="font-family: times;">hard</i><span style="font-family: times;"> into that first curve, wheels screaming against the rails as it heaved into the curve at somewhere around 30 MPH, eating up the next three quarters of a mile in just a bit under two minutes. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The
rail line cut through dense woods right up to, and maybe even a bit
beyond the point where present day Martin Luther King Blvd crosses
the tracks, which was just about a mile from the bridge. </span><span style="font-family: times;">Ed Tucker should have already slowed the </span><i style="font-family: times;">Boston Express </i><span style="font-family: times;">to the required 15MPH by then, and he </span><i style="font-family: times;">should</i><span style="font-family: times;"> have started looking for the mast shortly after, just before they reached the area now
occupied by the South Norwalk Metro-North station.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> The mast was just
tall enough to peak above the trees then lining the Norwalk River's
banks, and, had Tucker </span><span style="font-family: times;">actually reduced speed and looked for it, he </span><i style="font-family: times;">would</i><span style="font-family: times;"> have seen it, seen that 'The Ball' was down, and whistled for brakes, brakes that should have already been squealing as the brakeman...or men...spun the brake wheels to set them.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">But Ed Tucker didn't back the throttle off a single notch, so when the <i>Boston Express </i>thundered<i> </i>through the grove of trees where the Metro North station now sits, she was still rolling along at a good 30 MPH, punching
a column of smoke skyward, her exhaust huffing that already iconic
'chf-chf-chf-chf-chf' of a steam locomotive at speed...</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Tucker
apparently wasn't even <i>thinking</i> about the draw
bridge over the Norwalk River, much less looking for the signal mast.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv_xzKI39WjRxi4HP94hjG_NdkYN4qxq4TC1KeykH1a7q6WDfOKbHIvAZattwrkG5IViFQFjiEtIt5d4rWL7x2Asher2QFFXrTUuhuZjRUm-_1i8vVK0EQcE0mcwDOmODOOEeMeZnIYlU/s1080/156354195_228878588979506_7950340796408524138_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1079" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv_xzKI39WjRxi4HP94hjG_NdkYN4qxq4TC1KeykH1a7q6WDfOKbHIvAZattwrkG5IViFQFjiEtIt5d4rWL7x2Asher2QFFXrTUuhuZjRUm-_1i8vVK0EQcE0mcwDOmODOOEeMeZnIYlU/w640-h640/156354195_228878588979506_7950340796408524138_n.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">A portion of an 1899 map of Norwalk, Connecticut...as can be imagined, the city had had grown a bit since 1853, but the the route the rail line took through Norwalk is clearly visible. The original Norwalk River bridge had actually been replaced twice when this map was published...the present (And soon to be replaced itself ) Walk Bridge had been built three years before the map was published.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKqutRIbuMw-lHikeo35tQc_D23wyk2Kq_aB-smkMDop-8wbLuUPtLh8_I7JK8qQBf2vfG4E9FKzNqkue_yGzaenGD15qhQlEKEcZ2yX8L406kQroBMCRGjzCWTWm5CunC7T56tzhi2l0/s1920/Screenshot+%2528919%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKqutRIbuMw-lHikeo35tQc_D23wyk2Kq_aB-smkMDop-8wbLuUPtLh8_I7JK8qQBf2vfG4E9FKzNqkue_yGzaenGD15qhQlEKEcZ2yX8L406kQroBMCRGjzCWTWm5CunC7T56tzhi2l0/w640-h360/Screenshot+%2528919%2529.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">A general satellite view of the modern day Norwalk area, with the rail line labeled, as well as the train's direction of travel and the two curves. I cropped this view for a more detailed view of the area around the bridge, which is below.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"> As you look at these satellite views, keep in mind that the area has changed tremendously over the past 167 years.</span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Tucker should have probably started backing off of the throttle before he reached that first curve...he could have used the friction of the outside wheels against the rails to help slow the train, to the required 12-15 MPH. The 'Ball' was supposed to be visible from 3300 feet out from the bridge...a bit over a half a mile...and I've roughly indicated where he should have started looking for it in earnest, as well as the approximate location of the 'Look Out For The Draw' sign. IMHO, if he 'hadn't seen the ball by the time he passed the sign, or very shortly after,, he absolutely should have whistled for brakes ands brought the train to a stop. But, of course, he didn't...</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR_DF8ljvulzy4FvfRYXnz8WxOIUVGdnRh0icPpnxleRC-ozcsWN0DF6fVBMNfVj70USQ4donXr_ghFVB7zJaeakYA_Qtf6TfvgwrDatxF1ePdI0a7q_wU6Aw-GJ0s-Ik3W38O1L5AF1Y/s1920/Screenshot+%2528920%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR_DF8ljvulzy4FvfRYXnz8WxOIUVGdnRh0icPpnxleRC-ozcsWN0DF6fVBMNfVj70USQ4donXr_ghFVB7zJaeakYA_Qtf6TfvgwrDatxF1ePdI0a7q_wU6Aw-GJ0s-Ik3W38O1L5AF1Y/w640-h360/Screenshot+%2528920%2529.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">Detail view of the area immediately adjacent to the bridge. Again, keep in mind that this area has changed tremendously since the disaster, but the rail line following the same right of way allows you to...kind of...see where the various events that made up the disaster occurred.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;">With all the changes that have been made, a few things have remained constant. That curve before the bridge has always been there, as has the bridge over Washington Street just west of the former site of the railroad station. The 'Look Out For The Draw' sign would have probably been just out of the frame, to the west of the railroad station, and by the time Tucker blew by the sign, he had inadvertently committed his train to disaster.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">He was able to see that the bridge was open as he came out of the curve, and probably desperately whistled for brakes in the general area that I indicated. By then there was no way they were going to get stopped, so he and his fireman jumped to save themselves just before reaching the bridge approach...the area that I indicated would have been heavily wooded 167 years ago.</div></span><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">By now, Ed Tucker's<i> </i>fireman should have been all but yelling at him that he needed to slow the heck down, should have been shouting something like <i>'Drawbridge, Ed, Drawbridge!!!...</i>one of a locomotive fireman's many jobs is to remind the engineer of such rules and regulations...but on that May morning, that didn't happen. I'm thinking the <i>Boston Express' </i></span><span style="font-family: times;">fireman</span><span style="font-family: times;"> was either also new to the route, or so busy stoking the engine's boiler that he didn't notice where they were, because, instead of reminding Tucker to slow down and look for 'The Ball', he was apparently busy tossing wood into the firebox. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Tucker, meanwhile, had assumed that iconic steam engineer pose on the right
side of the cab...head out of the window so he could look down the
length of the boiler and, sort of, see ahead of them, wind whipping
through his hair, the trees, brush and buildings beside the right of
way blurring past. There was one final; chance to, maybe, get stopped...the </span><i style="font-family: times;">'Look For The Draw'</i><span style="font-family: times;"> sign. If Tucker whistled for brakes the <i>instant </i> he saw that sign...</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">...A quarter mile from the bridge, the <i>Boston
Express</i> blew past the <i>'Look For The Draw'</i> sign without even slacking up, And,
even though he was watching for obstructions on the track ahead, Ed
Tucker apparently didn't even notice the sign. Looking for 'The Ball'
hadn't even entered his mind. And their last chance to get stopped quickly receded behind them.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Homes, stores, and streets had replaced trees alongside the tracks as they approached a short bridge just beyond the
sign, over what, today, is Washington Street. The Norwalk train
station was
just beyond that short bridge, I believe on the north side of the
tracks. Train stations were always very active and dynamic places
during the day back then, and several people were on the station
platform as the train bore down on the station. Several of them
turned, wide-eyed, as they heard the train's wheels hit the rail
joints on the bridge. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">All of us have been near a
track as a train passes at speed, all of us have heard that melodic
'clank-CLANK clank-CLANK clank-CLANK clank-CLANK ' of wheels pounding
across across rail joints. No one, however, who was on the Norwalk station platform that morning had <i>ever</i> heard them clicking across
the rails with that fast paced train-at-speed
cadence <i>there, </i>because the station was only
about 300 yards...900 or so feet...from the drawbridge. The train should have been rolling along slowly as it passed the station, and they absolutely <i>knew </i>it.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> They watched
in abject horror as the train thundered past, windows on the coaches
a blur. A couple of them may have gestured... frantically and in
vain...towards the river. One or two may have started running
towards the drawbridge. <i>All</i> of them had heard the
exchange of whistle signals between the <i>Pacific</i> and
the bridge, and knew the bridge was open, and knew they were
witnessing the opening scene of a major disaster.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Ed Tucker could see the tracks curling into that second,
sharper curve</span><span style="font-family: times;"> just beyond the station</span><span style="font-family: times;">, </span><span style="font-family: times;">and
he may have backed off of the throttle a bit as they entered the
curve. As they leaned into the curve... entering it just beyond the
station...they were between seven hundred and fifty and eight hundred feet from the
bridge approach. He probably couldn't see the bridge just yet. because it
was most likely still hidden by trees, and maybe a few buildings as they
rolled into the curve. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">That all changed just seconds later, as they
got further into the curve, actually started coming out of it, and he
could see the morning sun kicking back off of the river...and then his blood ran cold as he suddenly spotted the end of the swing
span peeking out from behind the trees on the south side of the
tracks, then watched it get longer and longer as it emerged from behind the
tree line...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Tucker probably let out a
curse as his eyes went <i>wide</i> with shocked, fearful
surprise, then he <i>finally</i> searched out the mast,
finally seeing it, stabbing skyward without the ball at it's top end
as if to mockingly confirm both his negligence and what he was
seeing. He dived for the whistle cord, yanking <i>hard</i> on
it, giving the signal for 'DOWN BRAKES!!' The brakemen started
scrambling...but it was already far, <i>far</i> too late.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">They were coming out of the
curve now, maybe 500 feet from the bridge, about eleven seconds away
at 30 MPH...the speed quoted in official reports.....which was no
where <i>near</i> long enough to even slow down but so
much, much less get stopped, before they reached the open draw span.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The train came out of the
curve, entering the straight stretch approaching the bridge, giving
Tucker an eyeful of the morning sun glinting and glimmering off of
the strip of open water separating the swing span and the rest of the
bridge. Four hundred feet from the bridge...about nine seconds away from disaster.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">He'd whistled for brakes,
and there was no way to get stopped... no time to even try to reverse
the locomotive to try to slow them down. He and his fireman could only
save themselves, and they were running out of time to even do that.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">"Jump for it!!" he
yelled before stepping on the platform between tender and cab, taking
a quick glance at the ground blurring by, and finally leaping from
the train. pushing off <i>hard</i> with his feet, then
tucking and rolling as he hit the ground, bouncing and tumbling for
what seemed like an eternity before he finally stopped, and sat up
just in time to see the last couple of cars of the train blurring
past a few yards away as he took inventory and found, to his amazement, that all he'd suffered were a few bruises.. The fireman had also
leaped clear, and, as the last car flew past them, looked over at
Tucker from the other side of the track, very possibly raising his arm in an 'I'm OK' greeting.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">At almost that same instant
they heard an insanely loud, hissing splashing crash, and both
quick-twisted their heads, looking towards the river where a huge,
ever-expanding column of mixed water and steam was blossoming
skyward, the water column reaching it's apogee, folding in on itself.
then cascading downward as the steam continued rising, the whole
spectacle sound-tracked by a horrendous series of crackling,
splintering crashes as the baggage cars and coaches followed the
locomotive into the river...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The two brakemen (If
there <i>were </i>two...more on that in 'Notes') had an
even more hopeless task. The lead brakeman was probably stationed in
the baggage car...when he heard the whistle shrieking the signal for
brakes, he likely bailed out onto the car's front platform...between
tender and the car...then onto the tender's narrow rear platform,
where he grabbed the tender's brake wheel and heaved on it, willing
it to turn. As he wheel started turning, he may have even seen either
Tucker or his fireman tumbling after they jumped...then he saw the
river, realized they were on the Norwalk River bridge, and a stab of
terror lanced through him as he realized <i>why</i> the
engineer had whistled for brakes at the same instant he felt the
tender heave and tilt as they went off the bridge.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">If there was a lead
brakeman, he died in the wreck...there were no reports of three
people jumping.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I'm pretty sure there was a
brakeman in the last or next to last car, and if there was only one
brakeman, it was very probably Charles Comstock. He had a better deal than the lead brakeman because of the
train's 350-400 foot length. When the locomotive plunged off of the
bridge, the last car was still between five and eight seconds away
from the gap where the swing span had been. I have a sneaking
suspicion that, when he heard the whistle's manic screaming, he dived
out on to the last car's front platform...between it and the sixth
car...and then onto the <i>sixth </i>car's rear platform,
where he strained to free the brake wheel, then spun it madly,
feeling the brakes set... </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">...Harford was very likely
standing in the doorway of his cabin, enjoying the warm weather as he
watched the <i>Pacific</i> clear the channel between swing
span and shore, waiting for her to clear before closing the bridge
again, when he got the very first inkling of impending disaster.. He
could see the smoke column being punched skyward by the locomotive,
moving forward even as it was boosted above the tree-line.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">It was moving <i>way</i> too
fast, a fact confirmed by the fast-paced chuffing of the steam
exhaust as it hurtled towards the bridge. Then his eyes went <i>huge</i> as
the locomotive appeared from behind the trees, leaning gracefully into
the curve, the string of coaches following. The locomotive was coming
straight at him...standing in the doorway of the cabin, he would have
likely been staring across the channel, and straight up the track,
towards the curve. He was suddenly staring the locomotive dead in the
face as it roared up the 400 foot straight stretch of track between
curve and bridge, and his heart jumped into his throat and stayed
there as the onrushing locomotive ate that short stretch of rails up
in, it seemed, less than an instant...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">'<i>...Oh my God, Oh my God,
Oh my GOD, there's absolutely no way he's gonna
get stopped!!!!</i></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">As if to confirm his
thoughts, the locomotive's whistle split the morning air,
kicking a column of steam into the smoke cloud as it desperately
screeched the signal for 'Brakes!!' then. even as the whistle's
scream echoed across the river, Harford watched two men dive from
opposite sides of the cab, hit the ground, and roll...and then the
train was on the bridge.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Harford likely dived
sideways as the train thundered onto the 130 foot or so long fixed bridge
section, seemingly and relentlessly bearing down on the
bridge-tender's cabin, wheels pounding across rail joints like sledge
hammers striking an anvil, steam exhaust roaring like an enraged
beast, eating up the fixed bridge section's length in less than four
seconds, giving him a front row seat that he absolutely didn't
want...</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The locomotive pitched
downward <i>hard</i> the instant it hurtled off of the end
of the fixed bridge section, pointed pilot slicing into the river
followed by the rest of the engine as 20 tons of momentum shoved her
under water, actually cratering the water for a nanosecond before a
huge column of water and steam, sand and mud erupted skyward in a
massive, rushing, hissing, crescendo of noise, making it as high as
the top of the tower before it crashed earthward, leaving a massive
cumulous cloud of steam in it's wake.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The dying locomotive
probably twisted on the way down. twisting sideways and flipping end over end, burying
itself in the muddy river-bottom even as it slid, dredging it's own
channel for twenty or thirty feet before slamming into the submerged
portion of the central bridge pier...and the rest of the train kept
coming.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The tender was dragged off
the bridge behind the locomotive, swinging almost 90 degrees, ripping free of the locomotive, flipping on it's side, and slinging firewood onto the channel as
it disappeared into the massive column of water and steam. The
baggage car uncoupled from the tender, careening into the river right
behind it and slamming <i>hard</i> into the bottom of the
tender and the front end of the flipped-over locomotive, the front half of the car
splintering even as the smoking car telescoped the back half before
being crushed by the onrushing first passenger coach.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">At least eight men are
thought to have died in the smoking car, but the real horror unfolded
in the first coach.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">That first coach was a death
car...even as it was crushing the back half of the smoking car, the
second coach slammed into it and just kept coming, splintering it it
into kindling as it telescoped it, probably killing everyone aboard,
before over-riding the first car's wreckage and slamming over on it's
side.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> The third coach
started off of the bridge but shuddered to a stop even as it's
forward truck dropped off of the bridge, slamming
down <i>violently,</i> tilting the front end of the car
downward, maybe even beginning to lift the car's rear wheels off of the track...then, with a crushing, crackling crash, the forward half
of the car tore away, end platform slamming down on the wrecked,
overturned second coach while it's broken end slammed back against
the bridge as the rear half of the car slammed back down onto the rails, leaving the front half of the third coach, it sides and roof shattered, tilted sharply
downward, while it's rear half stayed on the bridge, almost as badly broken as the front half and tilted slightly
downward, it's front end....what had been middle of the coach only seconds earlier...resting on the track, partially supported by it's violently removed front half. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The train's last two cars
were safe...the brakeman had gotten the brakes set on on one and
possibly both of them,...enough to drag the last three cars of the
train to a stop before they could plummet into the river (Breaking
one of them in half in the process) and save most of their occupants.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The water column collapsed
and fell, part of it cascading against the track, bridge tender's
cabin, and Harford, soaking him to the skin even as he felt the jolt
of the submerged, sliding locomotive slamming to a stop against the
bridge pier, then the further shocks of the other four cars slamming
into and over each other, each impact shoving the engine, and giving
the bridge pier another jolt.. The water column and steam cloud
blocked Harford's view of the rest of the train careening into the
river, but he could still hear the horrendous, crunching, crashing,
splashes and see more water bursting skyward as the tender and four
cars careened off of the bridge in the span of only a couple of seconds...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">...And then it was over, and
the water fell back into the river, and the steam cloud drifted up
and off, and Harford could see what looked like one car on it's side,
mostly submerged, and another...no half of another....hanging off of
the end of the bridge. Fire wood...the wood from the tender, that had
been fuel for the locomotive up until a few seconds ago...was
floating on the river, cordwood floating along with flotsam and
wreckage, and bodies...some moving, others...not. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Calls for help were
intermingled with screams of pain and terror, screams back-dropped by
the <i>Pacific's</i> whistle wailing an emergency signal.
Out of the corner of his left eye, Harford could see the steamer's
sidewheels splashing river-water, back-turning <i>hard</i> in
reverse, as her captain brought her to an emergency stop. On deck,
her crew was going for the boats. After what seemed like an eternity
to Harford, but was likely only a few seconds, he too, went into
emergency mode and started moving...</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1NX7bvdC5Rmc4YuQClLGliMAj4BDse32fMwry3Mmuu-Cvs0WsT-LEwIN6uxF6r59BAl7Ub-Afu95lHHFZuTRHJ5dBfRMQED8s3HmtqcUljgPiMRNRhFgRciut6FJ1UEXZJDUGq0_nIm0/s1413/Screenshot+%2528922%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1413" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1NX7bvdC5Rmc4YuQClLGliMAj4BDse32fMwry3Mmuu-Cvs0WsT-LEwIN6uxF6r59BAl7Ub-Afu95lHHFZuTRHJ5dBfRMQED8s3HmtqcUljgPiMRNRhFgRciut6FJ1UEXZJDUGq0_nIm0/w640-h410/Screenshot+%2528922%2529.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This engraving is probably the best known and most viewed image of the disaster, and has appeared in pretty much every article written about the accident since 1853. You're looking south, towards Long Island Sound. The artist had a pretty keen eye for small details...note<i> </i>the <i>Pacific's</i> funnel visible beyond the bridge. Also note that the swing span's mast is shown with the ball down.<br /><br />As detailed as this is, it was a wood cut engraving of a drawing rather than a photo...the first photograph wouldn't be taken of a train wreck until August of this same year. Getting images into a paper or magazine</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">was</span> <i style="font-size: small;">not</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span> an easy task back then...</span><span>newspapers and magazines employed some seriously talented artists and engravers.</span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The <i>Boston
Express' </i>passengers didn't have a single clue that they were
about to be dropped into the middle of a watery horror show. In fact,
as the train thundered past the Norwalk train station and started
leaning into that second curve, they were doing what passengers on
trains...and later busses and planes...have <i>always</i> done.
Sleeping, or reading, or chatting with their seat mate, or just
watching the scenery scroll past the windows.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr. Russel could have been
doing any of the above when the third coach leaned into the curve,
though it's a good bet that, as they rolled out of the second curve,
he glanced out of his window to see where they were. He may have even
noted that they were nearing the Norwalk River, maybe even getting a
glimpse of The <i>Pacific </i>easing her way down
river, when he and his un-named seat mate bounced together, then he
bounced off of the sidewall, and back against his seat mate
again, one or both of them possibly yelling a heart-felt 'What
the <i>hell?!?!</i>even as the car tilted up, then slammed down and to a stop,
pitching both of them <i>hard </i>against the
seat ahead amid a crunching, glass-tinkling, wood tearing cacophony
of sound, and flying dust and bouncing, ricocheting bits of
debris, and <i>lots</i> of sunlight suddenly flooding in
from ahead of them, where the front half of the car should have been
blocking it...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And then it was over. One of
his fellow physicians shouted 'Everyone OK!?', and Dr. Russel quickly
took inventory of his own injuries, finding, to his surprise, that he
was unhurt (A miracle in itself, he likely thought, with the broken
window glass all over the place). And then he looked ahead of him,
where all of that unaccounted sunlight was streaming in, at about the
same time he became aware of the shouts and screams coming from the
same direction.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">It was probably at that same
instant he realized just how amazingly lucky they had been because
their car was absolutely trashed, and he was sitting all but out in
the open, at the very lip of a man-made mini-cliff.. One sidewall of
the car was was torn away almost all the way back to his seat, and
the roof...or at least <i>part</i> of the roof...had
collapsed, dropping down partly into the car,...but that wasn't the
worst of it. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">"Aw man..." He
started, staring at the gaping maw where the other end of the car
used to be. The floor, seats, everything was gone, broken loose...no
tilted down...from just ahead of him forward. "....The car's
broken in tw..." Then he looked even more closely, and realized
he could see a sort of wedge shaped slice of sky, and river, and
bridge railing. "We're off the bridge, guys!!!" He
may have shouted, even as he moved towards the broken, steeply tilted
forward end of the car. It wasn't a long trip...the broken-off floor
tilted down suddenly and sharply only a row or so ahead of him.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">He looked down the slanted
length of the car's forward half, where twenty or so passengers were
trying to climb up, or at least keep out of the water sloshing around
at the end of the car. A couple of his fellow passengers joined him
at the edge of the chasm. The car hadn't gone into the river...only
the farthest row or so of seats were under water...but all of the
windows were broken, the roof had torn free and was tilted crazily
into the river, the side walls were shattered and tilting, and a couple
of seats had torn free and tumbled toward the submerged front end of
the car, along with every thing that wasn't fastened down,
including many of it's occupants. All of those occupants seemed to be
conscious, alert, moving, and <i>all </i>of them wanted
out, like right then. Dr. Russel took a second or so to examine the
wrecked end of the car, figuring out just how difficult it was going
to be to make that happen. As he did, he also breathed a sigh of
relief, relief that lasted until he realized <i>why </i>that half of the car
wasn't in the river...the wreckage of the cars ahead of it had
stopped it...the rest of the train, he realized with horror, had gone off the bridge.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">"Everyone OK?" He called
down, to be answered by a second miracle. <br /><br />"Yeah, I think
all of us are good, just bruised up some!!" Someone yelled up. "We
just need some help gettin' outa here!"</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">"OK...'" Dr. Russel quickly
took charge. "...Pass the women and kids up first!..."</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The men in the down-tilted
section of the broken coach probably used the seats that were still
in place as a make-shift ladder to pass the women and kids upward to
Dr. Russel and his crew. Of course, some of the seats had torn free
as the car broke in two, leaving gaps, and the car itself was all
but falling apart around them, so this was <i>not</i> a
particularly easy task. Then factor in the fact that the kids were
terrified, the ladies were dressed in the long, voluminous dresses
that were in fashion for the era (Especially to travel...back then
you dressed up to travel!), and the fact that a few of them were
injured, and you wonder how <i>any</i> of them made it up
that slanted, shifting slab of wreckage. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">After all of the women and
children were safely in the more intact rear half of the car, the stranded
men again used the seat backs as a ladder to climb up and out, likely
puckering every time the broken half of the car shifted a bit, and
trust me, it <i>had </i>to be shifting and moving some. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">As the women, children, and
men were pulled up into the intact section of the car (Which, BTW,
would have <i>also </i>been tilted a bit) the menfolk heading the
impromptu rescue operation helped them off of the train, and off of
the bridge...they likely either climbed down from the platform
between the third and fourth cars and walked along narrow plank
catwalks beside the track and off the bridge, or walked through the
train to the rear platform of the last car, climbed off there, and
made their way off of the bridge from there.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The occupants of the broken
section of the car were joined by the passengers from the last two
cars...all uninjured save for a few bumps and bruises...as they
climbed from the train. After disembarking from the train, most of them hiked the the 900 or so feet to the Norwalk train station, which would
very soon become a makeshift aid station.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">As the uninjured passengers
made their way towards the station, Dr. Russel, along with several of
his fellow physicians and several male passengers, made their way back to
the end of the fixed section of bridge, where they found a
scene of watery devastation. The sixty foot wide channel between
fixed bridge and swing span was chock full of wreckage and debris, with the overturned, partially submerged second coach stretched
across the channel. Part of the roof of one of the cars was
resting against the bottom of the overturned car, one end of which
was partially crushed by the forward end of the broken-in-two third
coach. The roof of the third coach had also broken free, and was
tilted downward into the river, partially resting against the
overturned second coach. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Shouts for help and moans of
pain drifted out of the soggy mass of broken rail cars.
The <i>Pacific</i> had launched a pair of life boats, which
were nosing into the wreckage, their crew members using oars to push
wreckage aside, and to reach for train passengers who had,
miraculously, made it out of the crushed cars. Those who were able to
would grab the oar so they could be pulled aboard the boat. A couple
of the passengers were so badly injured that they <i>couldn't</i> grab
the oar, and <i>Pacific</i> crewmembers had to carefully climb over the gunwale of their boat and drop into the river (Diving into that mass of debris
would have been suicide) to disentangle injured passengers from the
mass of wreckage, and help them into one of the boats.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr. Russel and a couple of
other uninjured passengers made their way off of the bridge and down to the river bank, waded into the river...probably walking across or pushing
aside debris as they did so...and pulled themselves up onto the tilted side of the
overturned second coach. The car had twisted as it went off the
bridge, partially dislodging the roof and cracking the sidewall, and all of the windows were broken out, but it was, at least, still
in one piece and mostly out of the water. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">After he and a couple of his
fellow passengers pulled themselves up onto the side of the
overturned car, they stood splay-legged on it's tilted
sidewall, balancing themselves as they looked down through the broken
windows, into the car's interior. Much of it was in deep shadow
and filled with water, but they could see several passengers down
inside the car. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">"Ok, how
many are injured," Dr. Russel may have called down into the car,
to be told "We've got some hurt bad...a couple dead, too."
Dr. Russel sighed...they were running out of miracles. "OK, let's
get the women and kids first. Then help the injured get out...'
Even as they started hauling women, children, and injured passengers
through the windows and onto the perilously slanted sidewall, one of
the <i>Pacific's</i> boats bumped against the car, and
a <i>Pacific </i>crewman called to them to load the
passengers aboard the lifeboat, which already had several passengers
who'd been plucked from the debris-choked river aboard.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">'You Sure?' Dr. Russel may
have asked...even as he helped the first passenger from the
overturned car aboard. 'Looks like you guys are already pretty well
loaded down...' </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">"We can take a slew
more,...' That same crewman told them, then turned and nodded towards
the river bank. 'We only have to go about a couple of hundred feet..' And it was
settled. Dr Russel, the guys assisting him, and the boat crew loaded
as many of the passengers as they could fit aboard, probably
assisting the women aboard first, then tucking the two or three kids
who were among the uninjured in among them before finally assisting a
couple of the lesser injured passengers aboard. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The boat was low in the
water as her crew backed her away and used the oars to pivot her
around and row towards the riverbank, pulling the boat ashore near
the west end of the bridge. This was probably at least fifteen
minutes into the incident if not a bit more, and townspeople had
shown up in force...A group of them helped the passengers out of the
boat and aimed them towards the railroad station, some carrying the
injured. It's a good possibility, in fact, that a couple of people
may have even dragged a baggage cart from the station to the river, using it as an impromptu 'ambulance' to transport the injured who
couldn't walk back to the train station. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The <i>Pacific</i> crewmen pushed
back off, pivoted the unwieldly lifeboat back around...these boats
were absolutely <i>not</i> designed for maneuverability in
tight quarters, BTW...and pulled back towards the overturned coach,
as Dr. Russel and the men assisting him readied a smaller group of
injured passengers for the short trip to shore. The boat's bow once
again bumped against the low side of the sharply tilted car, her crew
expertly swinging her so she was side-to the car, her bow pointed
towards shore. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr. Russel and his own
quickly assembled crew had to balance themselves on the car's tilted
side as they, with the assistance of the <i>Pacific</i> crewmen,
loaded several more injured passengers aboard. "Any more
in that thing?" One of the <i>Pacific</i> crewmen
asked...Dr. Russel, or possibly one of the other uninjured passengers
assisting him, just sighed and said "Only a few bodies." </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">"Climb aboard..."
One of them told Dr. Russel... "No need for you guys to get any
wetter than you already are..." </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">"Yeah..." Dr. Russel and the passengers who'd been assisting him on the rescue
carefully climbed aboard the lifeboat as a couple of her crew stood
half in the boat, half on the car to hold the unwieldly craft steady.
"I can probably do more up there...' He continued, nodding
towards the train station. "...Than I can here...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The boat crew pushed off
from the wrecked coach and made the quick trip to shore, nosing the
bow of the boat up into the muddy river bank. As soon as Dr. Russel
and his crew had helped the injured passengers ashore (Possibly
loading them on another baggage cart for the trip to the train
station), the boat crew pushed off, and rowed back into the mass of
wreckage, searching for more injured passengers...but it's a good bet
that their job was just about done.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The train had just more than
200 passengers aboard...206 I believe is the head-count I
read...spread out among five coaches and a a smoking car. Eight men,
all of whom were killed, were said to be in the smoking car.
This would leave 198 passengers in the five coaches,...about 40
people in each coach.. The two coaches that went in the river, then,
had eighty or so passengers aboard, and forty of them were killed
(The total death toll was 48). Twenty four passengers were listed
as injured,...64 total casualties in the two coaches, with 15 or 16 uninjured, and I can just about bet you that all of the survivors came from that second coach. The <i>Pacific's </i>boat crews would have had to transport
about 40 people...all of the passengers they pulled from the river, plus the ones who were pulled out of the 2nd coach. They could have easily been
taken to shore in two trips, three at the most, fairly quickly once
they were aboard the boats, .</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">But first they had to get
them aboard the boats, and this was <i>not</i> quick <i>or</i> easy,
though...make no doubt about it. While transporting the passengers who needed rescuing to shore didn't take but a couple of minutes, finding them, disentangling them from the wreckage, then getting them aboard the boat, was a chore. When Dr. Russel and company climbed
on the teetering side of that overturned coach, they, along with
the <i>Pacific </i>crewman aboard the two life boats, found
themselves smack dab in the middle of a dynamic and confusing
incident scene that would have been a major challenge <i>today.</i></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">They had over three dozen
people who needed rescue, many of them injured, and while most of the
injuries were of the 'sprain, contusion, and abrasion' variety, they
still had several with unspecified
injuries listed as 'Serious' or 'Much Hurt'....injuries that very
likely made it difficult or impossible for the victims to get
themselves to safety without help. Someone had to go in the water and and assist them into the boats before they could get them to safety on shore.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The one thing the train's
surviving passengers had on their side was the fact that most,
apparently, weren't physically trapped. Those that were, likely died
before they could be removed simply because the heavy, powered rescue
tools needed for just such a task hadn't even been dreamed of yet.
With that thought in mind, it's quite possible that at least a few...and maybe more than a few...passengers survived the accident itself, only to drown before they
could be extricated.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">But miracles...or at least
one miracle...still happened. The crew of one of the boats found a
young girl either trapped in the wreckage, or, more likely floating
amid the debris, and pulled her aboard the boat...as they lifted her
over the craft's gunwale her arms and legs flopped and bounced like a
rag doll's, and water streamed from her hair and the now sodden dress
she was wearing.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Her first name wasn't
listed, but her last name was Griswald, and I got the impression that
she was a small child. Her lips were blue, and she was barely
breathing if she, in fact, even <i>was</i> breathing. The
boat's crew swung the ponderous craft around and made for shore. Now,
these lifeboats were <i>not</i> built for either speed or
maneuverability, but the crew somehow made it to shore in less than a
minute. They spotted Dr Russel, walking towards the train station.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">'DOC!!...' One of the
crewmen possibly yelled at the top of his lungs while the boat was still a
good twenty feet from the bank. '...We've got a little girl...I
don't think she's breathing!!!'</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr Russel turned and ran
back to the riverbank even as the bow of the lifeboat slid up onto
the gravel and mud of the bank. One of the <i>Pacific </i>crew,
carrying the little girl bride-over-threshold style, leapt from the
boat and handed the child off to the doctor, who quickly turned and
carried her up a bit further onto shore, to a dry patch of grass.
There he dropped to his knees, lowered the child to the ground, and
began trying to resuscitate her.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Ok, I know exactly what
I...or any EMS or Medical professional...would do <i>today </i>in
this situation. But I have absolutely no clue what methods were used
to resuscitate (Or at least <i>attempt </i>to resuscitate)
nonbreathing patients 167 years back. Whatever method Dr. Russel used
to resuscitate the child, however worked...that one time...and I have
a sneaking suspicion that the child was actually barely breathing
when the Doctor began working on her, and his efforts improved her
breathing, and returned normal respirations.. It almost goes without
saying that she had to have had a pulse...methods of restarting a fibrillating heart in the
field just didn't exist in 1853, and <i>wouldn't </i>exist for
nearly a century and a half. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr Russel likely saw to it
that the little girl was transported to the train station, very
possibly riding on one of the afore-mentioned baggage carts with her,
monitoring her during the bumpy, jolting ride as best he could. She
was ultimately transported to a hospital in critical condition. No
mention was made of her long term survival, but it's a fair to good
bet that she was the last person pulled from the river alive. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The <i>Pacific's</i> whistle
wasn't the only emergency signal sounded when the train plummeted
into the river...Harford also sounded the bridge's emergency signal
(Being trapped on the bridge, that was one of the few things he could
actually do.). Norwalk's population was just north of 4500 in 1853,
and a good many of them showed up on the banks of the
river, some just to gawk, but dozens of others were there to help.
Being a seafaring town, many of the residents worked on the water in
one capacity or the other, and with-in minutes of the whistle blasts,
several other boats, a couple of them well crewed, were assisting
the <i>Pacific's</i> lifeboat crews.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">It's even a good bet that a
couple of these boats were on the scene while live rescues were still
under way, and it's also possible (Despite my very speculative version of the rescues described above) that the town boats very likely made several of
these rescues...but all of the living were pulled out of the water early on in the incident. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">After the little Griswald
girl was pulled from the river, all that was left, unfortunately,
were bodies, and the boat crews began pulling them from the river ,
transporting them to shore, and loading them on the baggage carts
that had so recently been loaded with the injured. One of the few
other ways Harford could assist in the rescue and recovery efforts
was by pointing out people in the water...living and dead...that the
crews on the boats hadn't seen yet, and their combined efforts began
paying off, if that's the right term to use. The boat crews began
pulling more people aboard. Unfortunately, all of these were now
deceased.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">At the train station, Dr.
Russel had quickly taken command, and had actually set up something
resembling a modern triage operation to determine who went to the
hospital first...but he was still behind the eight ball in a
big way. Even with the fact that several of his fellow MD</span><span style="font-family: times;"> were uninjured and were also lending a hand, they
really couldn't do but so much. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Whatever medical equipment
they had had with them (And trust me on this, they likely had their
medical bags with them.) were now at the bottom of the river in the
crushed wreck of the baggage car. All Dr. Russel and his associates could really do was make their patients comfortable until they were
transported to a hospital (Likely by a special train sent by the
railroad...more on that in 'Notes').</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Then the bodies started
arriving, and Dr. Russel and his fellow MDs attempted to resuscitate
them, even knowing it was a hopeless task (Note here, some of the MDs <i>may</i> have
actually made their way back to the riverbank, and may have been
meeting the bodies as they were brought ashore). </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The destruction of that
first coach was so complete that a majority of the bodies must have either
floated free on their own, or were easily freed by rescuers, because
the macabre head-count of the dead given by Dr. Russel in a first-hand
account of the crash and his actions, published in a period newspaper
article, was close to the actual, official death toll.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr. Russel also noted that
the great majority of the fatalities died by drowning rather than
traumatic injury. It was as he was examining the bodies of the
deceased that he discovered that several of his friends and
colleagues had died in the wreck, including Dr. Archibald Welch, who
was the president of the Connecticut Medical Association. He and Dr.
Welch were good friends, had spent a good bit of time in each others
company at the convention, and had been seated next to each other the
previous evening at the banquet marking the end of the convention.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Finding Dr. Welch among the
victims had to have <i>really</i> been a gut-punch. There
is very little more traumatic for a first responder (And make no
mistake, Dr. Russel was acting as an unwitting first responder here)
than finding a friend or relative among the seriously injured or
deceased victims of an accident. </span><span style="font-family: times;">Unfortunately, I've 'Been There and
Done That'. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr. Russel also noted that he
attempted to resuscitate several other victims, but was unsuccessful.
The little Griswald girl (Who was the daughter of an area minister,
and was traveling with her mom) was the only successful resuscitation
that day. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The railroad station was
probably a madhouse by the time the fatalities started arriving. Not
only were all of the 24 or so injured patients there, all of the
uninjured passengers...just shy of 120 strong...were milling around
along with, likely, dozens of townspeople. Some of these citizens
were there to at least try to help, but an unfortunately large
number were that breed that modern first responders have dubbed
'Lookie-Loos'...people whose sole function was to be there and see
what was going on, getting in the way while they were at it.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Managing any semblance of
organization out of that mess took some serious effort on somebody's
part, not the least of whose was likely Dr. Russell, who as noted,
instituted a very primitive form of triage, though it was likely no
more than keeping the injured, uninjured, and dead separated, and
seeing to it that those who needed to go to a hospital were loaded
and transported. to one (Again, probably in New York) on the
special train that was all but inevitably dispatched from that city
by the railroad. (I'm going to take a more in depth look at the
operation at the train station in 'Notes')</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">While all of this was going
on at the scene, the telegraph were humming as news of the wreck was
transmitted to the line's headquarters (I believe in New Haven) and
then the 'Head Office' sent orders to New York, for the rescue
train. Then, as the Rescue train was steaming north, a second
train, with Railroad Officials on board was headed south form New
Haven. (What do you want to bet that the speed restrictions
were suspended for those two trains and that bridges were ordered to stay
closed until they had passed?)</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Some Kudos have to be passed
to the railroad officials as well...once they arrived, they swung
into action, both in seeing that the victims were taken care of and
in getting the line cleared. One source that I read noted that, by 3
PM, the wreckage had been cleared enough to close the bridge and
allow trains to pass. One of the trains was all but inevitably a
cobbled together replacement for the wrecked <i>Boston
Express, </i>sent to Norwalk to allow the uninjured passengers to continue their
journey North. (Needless to say, full clean-up of the site likely
took several weeks, especially with the technology available to the
railroad a in that era. The ill-fated locomotive may...or may
not...have been left imbedded in the river bottom. More on that in
'Notes').</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The inevitable investigation
very likely started as soon as the railroad brass arrived from New Haven,
and was probably well under way almost before the first injured
passenger reached the hospital. I can just about guarantee that, as
soon as the railroad officials stepped off of the train from New
Haven, questions were asked as to where the principal players in the
accident...Engineer Ed Tucker and bridge tender William
Harford...might be found.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">They were quickly rounded up
(Harford was likely particularly easy to locate as he was probably
still on the bridge), and both were immediately asked the 'Big
One'...was 'The Ball' up or down? And Ed Tucker immediately admitted
to forgetting to even glance out of his cab window looking for
it....Ahhh, no.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">When that question was
asked, a classic case of 'He Said-He Said' immediately ensued, and
I'm talking ensued all the way to the coroners jury that was convened to determine the cause of the accident.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">William Harford stated that
after the <i>Pacific</i> blew for the bridge to be opened,
he checked the schedule as required, saw that he had time to open the
bridge and drop the ball, and proceeded to do both. He also noted
that he lowered the ball...the signal that the bridge was open, and
the train needed to stop...at least 15 minutes before the Boston
Express plummeted off of the bridge.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Ed Tucker, on the other
hand, asserted that he saw the ball hanging high as he approached the
Norwalk train station...which, according to him, he passed doing only 15 or
so miles per hour, as per regulations. He also stated that he
whistled for brakes as he crossed the bridge over 'The road leading
to the depot (Train Station), and that seeing the bridge open as he
came around that final curve, with the ball hanging above it, was a
horrible surprise,...also, obviously his brakeman...or
brakemen...hadn't gotten the brakes set, because he was
absolutely <i>sure</i> that they could have gotten stopped
if they had been...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">All well and good... Except that Bill Harford had said that he had, in fact, lowered 'The Ball, and that the train was going far faster than fifteen mph when it
suddenly appeared, possibly as much as twice as fast.<i>..thirty</i> mph. Of course other witnesses
testified, not the last of whom was a hunter named Ferre, who
testified that he was out on the river in a small boat, and witnessed
the accident from that vantage point. This also gave him a completely
unobstructed view of the bridge, and he testified that the ball was
down for at least ten minutes before the train appeared. While he was
at it, he also stated that the train came at a "strong speed",
suggesting that it was moving along at a good bit more than Ed
Tucker's claimed 15 mph.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Further cooking our hapless
engineer's goose, several other townspeople confirmed Mr. Ferre's
observations...the bridge had been open, with the ball down, for at
least ten to fifteen minutes before the <i>Boston
Express</i> arrived, and when the train <i>did</i> roll onto the bridge, it was absolutely speeding.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Given this testimony, there
didn't need to be a whole lot of discussion RE: The cause of the
accident. The coroners jury raked Ed Tucker over the coals <i>big</i>time,
stating that the proximal and primary causes (Yep, plural) of the
accident were his failure to reduce speed as required, as well as his
absolute failure to observe that the ball had been lowered, signaling
that the bridge was open. The honorable members of the jury, in
fact, <i>strongly </i>suggested that he hadn't even
bothered to <i>look</i> for the ball. On top of that, the
panel stated that, in running at that speed after not even bothering
to look for the ball, Tucker was guilty of criminal recklessness. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">That's not to say there
weren't some dissenting opinions, though...several people testified
that as a train neared the bridge, trees and buildings
intermittently hid the signal mast, while the ball, rather than being
a bright vermillion red as it had been when originally installed, had
faded to a reddish brown, which had a bad habit of blending in
with the woods on the east bank of the Norwalk river, making it all
but invisible during certain times of the year (Autumn, I'm lookin'
at <i>you...</i>This, however, was late <i>Spring, </i>and
the ball should have shown up against the bright green of new leaves
easily no matter what color it had faded to.) </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The above arguments were
basically, moot points. I can easily picture one of the jury
members asking just such a witness '...So tell me sir, how
many <i>other</i> trains have run off of the bridge because
of the issues you just noted?' (Sound of crickets chirping for
several seconds)</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> 'None sir" </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">'Exactly!'</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And as a follow-up, our Juror could have sent this one over the plate: </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">"So, sir, if Mr. Tucker couldn't see the signal at all, why didn't he stop the train until he could ascertain whether the bridge was safe to cross or not...wouldn't that be the prudent course of action?" (And our chirping crickets make a return appearance.)</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Needless to say, the media
had a field day with this one...every major paper in the country
followed the story for weeks, from the initial reports of the
accident to the rescue and recovery efforts to the coroners jury, and
right on through the trials...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">'Wait', I hear everyone
hissing. '<i>Trials</i> you say??' Oh yeah... you really don't
think an engineer is going to recklessly and carelessly run a train
off of a draw bridge, killing nearly fifty people in the process of
doing so, without the State as well as the Public screaming for blood
do you?? Ed Tucker was arrested, indicted, charged, and
tried on multiple counts of manslaughter, and the trial was
likely covered in lengthy detail.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Neither the State or The
Public got their blood, though...at least not from Tucker, who was
acquitted on all charges. They got a second chance at legal
vengeance, though...Ed Tucker was one of <i>two</i> people
arrested and tried on those same charges...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">...And that second
person <i>wasn't</i> either bridge tender William Harford
(Who was found to have done his job properly during the investigation
) or the train's unnamed fireman, who was in a position to stop the
accident from happening (By reminding Tucker of the bridge and the
road's operating rules) but didn't.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The second person tried for
the exact same charges was the train's conductor, Charles Comstock, but neither the State, or the public got their vengeance through his trial either...he was also acquitted on all charges. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Of course, you have to ask yourself, if the Conductor had been convicted, would it have been fair? While charging Comstock does make sense on one level...a train's conductor is considered to be in charge of the train...on another level or two I wonder why he was even charged in the first place. Being in charge of the train, he was also aware of the line's operating rules, but the fact that he was stationed back in the coaches made it difficult for him to communicate with Tucker and his fireman in the cab of the locomotive. There was no transcript available of the testimony from the trial, but it's more than possible that Comstock figured that Tucker would ultimately slow down. And by the time he realized that Tucker <i>wasn't</i> reducing speed...it was too late. But that's speculation, of course. Whatever his testimony, and that of his witnesses may have been, it convinced the jury to acquit him.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The fact that he </span><i style="font-family: times;">was</i><span style="font-family: times;"> charged bolsters my opinion that Comstock just may have been pulling double duty as a brakeman...maybe the powers that be suspected that he performed that job in a negligent manner..</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">...But that doesn't fly either. In fact, it further makes me wonder why he was charged at all. Once Ed Tucker </span><i style="font-family: times;">finally </i><span style="font-family: times;">saw the bridge open and desperately whistled for brakes, the brakeman flat out hustled (Especially if there was only one of them). He or they managed to get enough sets of brakes set to keep the last three cars from going completely off the bridge (The third car, remember, broke in two). If the entire train had gone into the Norwalk River, the death toll could easily have been twice...or more...what it actually was. The brakemen on </span><i style="font-family: times;">The Boston Express</i><span style="font-family: times;"> were, IMHO, unsung heroes. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So, if Comstock was acting as a brakeman as well, he not only shouldn't have been charged...he actually should have been commended. This, in fact, could also be a big part of the reason he was acquitted.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Mirroring the coverage of that first multi-fatality train wreck 16 years earlier, media coverage of the accident was huge.(And again, newspapers were the only game in town back then. Big difference, BTW, between 'Then' and 'Now'...Back then, the public had to wait from a day to a week to get details about new developments. Today, an incident of this magnitude would be covered, live, 24-7, by any or all of a dozen or so news channels). Papers, both major and minor, covered the accident and investigation closely, with detailed articles appearing daily for weeks. On top of that, major magazines carried even more detailed articles weekly. The investigation, trial, and acquittals were reported on in deep detail. Detailed (And surprisingly accurate) woodcuts illustrating the accident scene accompanied both newspaper and magazine articles. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The train-riding public weighed in on the accident, from horror about the accident itself, to concern about the safety record of railroads, to anger over Ed Tucker's acquittal. And, as an outraged public tends to do, they very likely demanded changes that would make rail travel...which suddenly seemed dreadfully dangerous...safe again.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The Connecticut State Legislature listened, and acted. A law was passed requiring all trains to come to a complete stop before crossing any and <i>all</i> drawbridges. And, at least in Connecticut, the traveling public felt safe again. One <i>big</i> problem. This law just rendered one of the prime advantages of rail travel...speed...all but null and void (Again, at least within the borders of Connecticut.)</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Lets keep something in mind here...the <i>Boston Express</i> wasn't going but <i>so</i> fast in the first place. Norwalk's about 50 miles east of New York City...the train pulled out of Chambers Street station at 8AM, and the accident happened sometime between 10AM and 10:30AM so the absolute fastest the train was moving was maybe 30MPH, and only in short bursts. It's average speed was closer to 20MPH.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">That same 50 or so mile stretch of track crosses several small streams and at least one large, heavily trafficked inlet (Cos Cob Harbor) before it reaches Norwalk. Then, east of Norwalk, the line crosses several more streams before swinging north, leaving Connecticut behind, and heading for Boston. My bet is that, back in the 1850s, many of those bodies of water were crossed on drawbridges, which would have required the train to stop. Even if only <i>half</i> of the crossings were on drawbridges, the complicated and involved procedure required to stop trains in that era would have required engineers to drop their speed by about half, making that trip through The Constitution State only slightly faster (But admittedly, far more comfortable) than a trip by stage coach.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I have a sneaking suspicion that this law didn't stay on the books (Or at least wasn't strictly enforced) but for so long. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And, in the 'Some Things Haven't Changed That Much In 170 Years' category...the families of the deceased, and injured as well as the injured themselves, were quick to seek legal council, and sue the crap out of the railroad. Considering that the railroad was found to be <i>completely</i> at fault, the NY & NH couldn't do much but hang on and try to ride out the storm. Spoiler alert...they almost didn't. The courts awarded the plaintiffs $290,000 (Just shy of 10.25 <i>million</i> in 2021 dollars), a sum that came perilously close to bankrupting the railroad.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">There was another victim in this accident, BTW...a victim that's not often mentioned...and this victims, isn't a 'Who', but a 'what. An intangible 'What' at that. See, When <i>The Boston Express</i> hurtled off of the Norwalk River Bridge , it not only killed nearly fifty people...it also killed a sense of innocence.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> This was one of the first major loss of life accidents in the U.S. involving <i>land</i> transportation.. Cataclysmic loss of life in transportation disasters was, sadly, not uncommon back in that era...but it was always loss of life at sea. Before the railroads, ships were the only type of transportation capable of carrying hundreds of passengers, and of killing a like number if something went wrong. And, back then, the list of 'Things That Could Go Catastrophically Wrong' at sea was, to put it mildly, lengthy.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">On top of that, very few years passed without a ship or two just disappearing without a trace, along with her crew and passengers...the very fate suffered, ironically, by the <i>S.S. Pacific</i> less than two years after the Norwalk accident.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So, the public got used to reading about cataclysmic losses of life in shipwrecks, both at sea and in inland waters. They were appalled by the loss of life, of course, but they weren't surprised by it. For the great majority of the population, articles about hundreds of people dying in shipwreck were just that...news stories that really didn't affect them at all. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Railroads were different, though. Everyone either rode a train to reach a destination, or had family or friends who rode a train, at least on occasion. And none of them ever died... or at least very few did. Accidents occurred of course, and every once in a while someone died in a train wreck, but generally train wrecks were more or less just inconveniences, with few injuries, and fewer deaths. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">People expected to reach their destination safely, expected their loved ones to arrive refreshed, and in one piece when the train pulled into the station. Cataclysmic rail accidents just didn't <i>happen. </i>The general public literally assumed that a cataclysmic rail disaster was all but impossible and we can thank that 16 year run of astonishingly good luck for that attitude.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So, when Ed Tucker drove the <i>Boston Express</i> through that open drawbridge, he figuratively slapped a naïve and trusting public across the face, letting them in on a sad fact...train wrecks could indeed kill dozens of people at a time, and not only that, they could do so in an instant.<br />
</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The public perception of rail travel changed a bit after the Norwalk accident...it would have almost had to have. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find that ridership dropped a bit in the months after the accident, and the travelling public was probably just a bit more skeptical of rail travel, at least for a few months...but not enough to visibly slow the growth of the rail network in the U.S. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">There were just under 10,000 miles of track in the U.S. when the accident happened in May of 1853...seven years later, in 1860, that figure had tripled to 30,000 miles. (And it would <i>keep</i> climbing, tripling again, and busting 100,000 miles before the turn of the 20th century, and peaking at just over 254,000 miles in 1916.)</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">This runaway growth occurred despite the fact that, unfortunately...and inevitably...the Norwalk accident kicked off a trend. Every decade since 1853 has featured several catastrophic train wrecks, all of them killing 25 or more people, as well as several 'lesser' accidents that killed fewer than 25...a fact that permanently branded 1853 as 'The Year The Horrors Began'.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***>Notes, Links, And Stuff<***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">This ended up being one of the easy ones...sort of. There was a good bit of information out there about the accident, especially considering the fact that it happened nearly 170 years ago. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">This was one of the very first major loss-of-life train wrecks, <i>the</i> first major bridge disaster, and it involved a train full of doctors (One of whom was the hero of the day) so it was in the news for weeks, with a slew of articles written about it. A good many of those articles were preserved. and were available on-line, among them one featuring a first hand account by Dr. Gurdon Russel himself. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">There were descriptions of the bridge, explanations of the NY & NH regulations vis-à-vis drawbridges and speed restrictions, the actual names of many of the major players, and even a casualty list.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">ANNNNND...I still had to do a good bit of speculating here. Make that a <i>lot</i> of speculation here!</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">First off, there was <i>still</i> a good bit of conflicting information, as always seems to happen with <i>any</i> major disaster. The various sources I found listed the death toll as anywhere from 45 to 60 (48 was the figure that was quoted most frequently, so it was the one I used), the first two cars of the train were variously listed as 'Two baggage cars; a baggage car and a smoking car; a baggage car and a mail car; and a baggage car and <i>two</i> mail cars (This would have made the train one car longer than it actually was). The train's speed was quoted as anywhere form 25 MPH to the oft-noted 50 MPH (The official speed when they went off of the bridge was listed as 30MPH, so, again, that's the one I went with).</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Likewise the operation of the bridge...I did some research as to how drawbridges of that era were operated...and found precious little information, so I wrote that the way I think it would have happened. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><span style="font-family: times;">As to what went on immediately after the </span><i style="font-family: times;">Boston Express</i><span style="font-family: times;"> went off of the bridge...Full disclosure, gang...I have absolutely </span><i style="font-family: times;">no </i><span style="font-family: times;">idea, so that's pretty much </span><i style="font-family: times;">all</i><span style="font-family: times;"> speculation. Oh, I tried to find out who did what when, and Dr. Russel's first hand account helped a bit in that respect. We know the </span><i style="font-family: times;">Pacific's</i><span style="font-family: times;"> crew launched boats and rescued many of the passengers, and we know for sure that Dr. Russel, with the assistance of several other passengers, pulled the survivors out of both the front half of the third coach and the overturned and partially sunken second coach. We also know that Dr. Russel basically worked his butt off at the scene, and that he </span><i style="font-family: times;">did</i><span style="font-family: times;"> resuscitate one apparently lifeless passenger,...very likely the little Griswald girl.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">What we <i>don't</i> know is the details of just <i>how</i> they did any of the above, so, again, I wrote it the way I thought it probably happened. Did it happen exactly the way I wrote it? Probably not exactly...but I bet I wasn't but <i>so</i> far off! OK, make that I <i>hope</i> I wasn't but so far off!</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The aftermath of this one, especially compared to the aftermaths of a few of the incidents I covered in some of the previous several posts (Iroquois Theater Fire and New York Tenements, I'm lookin' at <i>you</i>!!) was pretty cut, dried, and straightforward, and as a result, pretty quick to get written about and done with., so much so in fact that, as I was writing, I actually wondered if I'd forgotten something!</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">As always, any errors are mine and mine alone, and anyone who has more and better info, feel free to chime in. This, as are all of my posts, is permanently a work in progress, and I have absolutely no qualms about going in and fixing errors or adding updated information.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">A huge 'THANKS!!' to all my readers, and as always I hope that I made this one both educational and fun to read!</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">On to the 'NOTES!!</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Lets take a quick look at the breed of locomotive that was heading up the <i>Boston Express, </i>as well as a good three-quarters of the trains running during the latter half or so of the 19th century.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">First, steam locomotives are classified by their wheel arrangement...Leading truck (Front set of wheels, under the steam cylinders)-Driving Wheels-Trailing Truck (Rear set of wheels, under the cab). The prevalent locomotive type during this era was the 4-4-0 (Also known as the American Type), which, as the numbers '4-4-0' indicate, has a four wheel leading truck at the front end, four big driving wheels (Two on either side) beneath the center of the boiler, and no trailing truck beneath the cab. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgToU6QtrqcHq1IH2nhSC6ScGtc3pXsUI9oidlBqZSkGKuLgCJmFYnLhKvn6vn0gDN4nZdDeNpj7_Ggy-H9_sY0OWyQlkyvxzoxwMscQWIGU9-p_gg17saaWoPlo6yPSQMNY4qSsNVKteI/s900/main-qimg-3bb2878256baf7e0162f69ed159f898b.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="900" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgToU6QtrqcHq1IH2nhSC6ScGtc3pXsUI9oidlBqZSkGKuLgCJmFYnLhKvn6vn0gDN4nZdDeNpj7_Ggy-H9_sY0OWyQlkyvxzoxwMscQWIGU9-p_gg17saaWoPlo6yPSQMNY4qSsNVKteI/w640-h480/main-qimg-3bb2878256baf7e0162f69ed159f898b.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">A beautifully restored 4-4-0 wood burning locomotive. That big 'bonnet' style smokestack incorporated a screen like spark arrester that, in theory anyway, kept the locomotive from spewing sparks into the woods and fields and setting brush fires along the right of way. </span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This locomotive is of a slightly newer vintage than the one on the head end of <i>The Boston Express, </i>but it follows the same basic design. These locomotives were 25-30 feet long without their tender, weighed in at 20-25 tons or so, and were the workhorses of early American railroading.</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The 4-4-0s in use during the early 1850s were actually pretty small compared to locomotives (Even later American Types) of even a couple of decades later. These mid 19th Century locomotives were generally around 25-30 feet long (Without the tender, which carried fuel and water), and weighed in at around 20-25 tons. They were also almost all wood burners, with the iconic diamond or bonnet shaped smoke stacks worn by all wood burning locomotives. These stacks were designed that way for a reason, and it wasn't aesthetics. There was a screen-like spark arrester built in to the wide portion of the stack that, in theory anyway, kept the locomotive from tossing sparks and burning embers into the woods lining the tracks, thereby leaving woods and brush fires in it's wake. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">These locomotives reached a fairly high state of development early on, and weren't replaced by larger, more powerful locomotives with more and larger driving wheels, and thus more tractive effort and pulling capacity, until trains got longer, and cars...both passenger and freight...got larger and heavier. during the latter part of the 19th century. (Airbrakes had to be developed before <i>that </i>happened, but that's a story or two for another time!)</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Even after being replaced by larger, more powerful locomotives, some American Types stayed in service, on short lines and in secondary service on major railroads, into the 1940s. Around 40 or so of the more than 25,000 4-4-0s that were built survive today, many on static display, with a few, such as the well known (Among rail fans, at least) <a href="https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/The_Eureka" target="_blank">Eureka #4</a> still in operation on scenic and excursion railroads.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">This, of course, in just a quick overview of the type...for a more detailed look at the legendary 4-4-0 American Type locomotive, <a href="https://www.american-rails.com/4-4-0.html" target="_blank">click here</a></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Speaking of 4-4-0 American types that are still in service, several working reproductions have been built since about the late 1950s, and are in service, heading up trains at various amusement parks and theme parks around the country. The newest one,<i> York #17</i> was built in...are ya ready for this?...2013! <i>York # 17 </i>was built for the <a href="https://www.northerncentralrailway.com/" target="_blank">Northern Central Railroad,</a> a tourist line in York County, Pa, by the <span style="background-color: ghostwhite;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Kloke Locomotive Works of Elgin, Illinois</span><span face="rubik, helvetica, arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16px;">. </span><span>The locomotive is a replica of a Civil War era 4-4-0 built by Rogers Locomotive </span></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span>Works, and was actually built using original blueprints from that company. </span></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">The locomotive is loaded with polished brass, and sports an authentic wood-burning bonnet style smokestack, complete with spark arrester, though she actually burns oil for both practical and economical reasons.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i>York # 17,</i> of course, has modern airbrakes and couplers, as well as other safety features unheard of and undreamed of in the 1860s, but in operation and appearance, she's an authentic steam locomotive, not to mention being a moving work of art. She's still in service, and the Northern Central's open for excursions, with some Covid restrictions. Definitely worth the trip, just to see her in action, and hear that authentic whistle!</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">While we're talking about the locomotive that went in the Norwalk River on that May morning...well that's just it. There are those who believe it's still there. Citizens of Norwalk, have, in fact, wondered for decades if the<i> </i>ill-fated locomotive was still buried in the river's bottom muck. And it could very well be.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Or...maybe not.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">While the channel was cleared shortly after the accident, there is no record of the locomotive actually being salvaged from the river. Clearing the wreckage of the passenger coaches would have been both necessary, to clear the channel, and comparatively easy, if both resource and time consuming. The coaches were of mostly wood construction, and could be easily dismantled and removed from the river. Heck, the first coach, baggage car, and smoking car, were already so badly damaged that they were all but <i>already </i>dismantled.<i> </i> Removing them would have consisted of pulling pieces out of the channel, and loading them on either flat cars or a barge for removal from the scene.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The tender and steel frames of the coaches would have been a bit more difficult, but doable. The frames of the coaches would have been in one piece, but they likely only weighed a couple of tons apiece. The tender was all steel and likely in one...very battered...piece, but it was also empty, and would have weighed in at five or so tons. There were transportable derricks at the time that could be mounted on a barge, and could lift five or so tons, but that was about their maximum load capacity. These were <i>manual</i> derricks by the way...steam powered derricks and cranes didn't start appearing until the latter two or so decades of the 19th Century.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Land based cranes capable of lifting more...far more in fact...existed, but these were <i>huge, </i>man-powered<i> </i>beasts, powered by brawny dudes running in what were in effect gigantic hamster wheels known as tread wheels. These rigs were also definitely <i>not</i> portable. They were found at either ports, for cargo handling, or construction sites, where they were built in place, then dismantled and stored when no longer needed.<i> </i></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">We won't even get into one of the two huge gorilla's sitting in the corner of the room...clearing any of the sunken wreckage would have involved diving operations to attach chains or slings to the wreckage. We'll just ignore that one for the moment, though because the capability of lifting a twenty ton locomotive from the bottom of the river may not have even existed in 1853. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">First. lets take a quick look at what would have happened to the locomotive after it pitch-poled spectacularly into the river. The Norwalk River has a mud and silt bottom, and we're talking <i>soft</i> mud and silt. The channel the locomotive dug as it ploughed through the mud would have been several feet deep...but that wouldn't be the end of the steamer's self-initiated burial. It's weight would have continued pushing it down into the soft bottom muck until it was, very likely, all but completely buried.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Not only would this have made it all but unnecessary to recover it, because it wouldn't have been blocking the channel...it would have made it all but impossible. Divers would have had to dig beneath the locomotive to sling it, and the derrick used to lift it would have had to have been capable of not only lifting the locomotive's 20 ton weight, it would have also had to overcome an equal amount...or maybe even <i>more</i>...suction to break it free of the bottom. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> The technology to do all of the above just may not have existed yet.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> Oh, diving on it wouldn't have been the problem. Diving suits capable of use in <i>far</i> deeper water not only existed, they had been around, and had been used for salvage operations, since the early <i>18th</i> century...a century and change before the wreck. The divers were connected to an air supply by hoses, and the suits were bulky and difficult to work in, but they most definitely existed, and most importantly, they worked. So the technology to dive on the wreck and attach the crane's chains and slings wasn't a problem. That whole 'lifting it' thing, however,<i> was</i>.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The big, steam powered wrecking cranes that every railroads once had several of wouldn't be introduced until the mid 1880s. Steam powered, barge-mounted cranes may have been developed earlier...but they hadn't been developed yet. The big manual 'tread-wheel' cranes weren't portable or capable of being barge mounted. And the smaller manual derricks that <i>could</i> be barge mounted just wouldn't cut it. Trust me, it would have taken a <i>huge </i>crane to both break the locomotive free of it's muddy grave <i>and </i>lift it. So it's a good bet that it stayed on...and under...the bottom at least until one of the two new bridges was built.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Thing is, there was no record of it being removed before <i>either</i> bridge was built. I couldn't find a date on the second bridge, but I'm guessing it was built about the time the NY & NH became the New Haven...around the mid 1860s. No record of the locomotive being removed exists, and removing it may not have been necessary because it's very possible that the new swing span was simply installed on the old abutment. It's probably a good thing it likely <i>wasn't</i> necessary...lifting technology to get the thing out of the river still wasn't there quite yet.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">If it <i>was</i> removed, it's a good bet that it happened when the present bridge was built, in 1896. Both lifting and salvage technology had advanced to the point where salvaging what would have likely been a mass of rust by then would have been more than doable. Not <i>easy...</i>it wouldn't be easy<i> </i>today<i>...</i>but very definitely doable. HUGE steam cranes were in service by1896, both railcar mounted and barge mounted, and a barge mounted rig would have been the tool of choice. Again, though, there was no mention of it being done, and trust me on this, <i>someone</i> would have remembered it. It would have likely been a pretty big local news story, and I have a feeling that the Media would nave been all over it. Photography had become pretty well advanced by 1896, so you can bet that, if that rusted old hulk had been pulled out of the river, a news photographer or two would have recorded the event for visual posterity. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">But again, no such record exists. So that locomotive <i>could</i> still be down there. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And the second gorilla looks up from it's corner of the room and mugs at us. That channel's been dredged several times over the last century and change and, even more recently, numerous studies have been made in preparation for the construction of the <i>new </i>Walk Bridge (More on that a little further on)...and no sign of the locomotive's ever been found. Not even a rusty bolt.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So it may <i>remain </i>a mystery...or they may dig it up in some of the first clamshells full of muck as the construction of the new bridge and demolition of the old one begins.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I guess we'll just have to wait and see.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Almost every source I found while researching this post included the statement <i> 'The train was running at 50 MPH when it ran through the open draw, and the locomotive jumped the sixty foot channel and slammed into the abutment supporting the swing span before falling into the water'.</i> Definitely makes for a very dramatic mental image over morning coffee, and it's been repeated so often that it's become part of the 'legend' of the accident. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">There's one <i>big</i> problem, though. It absolutely <i>couldn't</i> have happened that way. The train absolutely <i>couldn't</i> have been moving that fast, and twenty or so ton locomotives (Or, indeed, twenty ton hunks of steel of <i>any</i> description) do <i>not</i> fly three times their own length without some serious mechanical assistance (Spell that 'ramp', or better yet, 'catapult')</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">That 50 MPH cruising speed's the easiest one of these two 'Known Facts' to refute. Grand Central Station (Only a couple of miles from Chambers Street, the site if NYC's first rail terminal) is just about 50 miles from Norwalk, according to Google maps,. So, if the train <i>had</i> been running fifty miles per hour, it should have crossed the Norwalk River...safely...at about 9AM, a good hour and a half before the bridge opened for the <i>Pacific</i>. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Problem is, of course, the accident happened between 10AM and 10:30 AM...two to two and a half hours after <i>The Boston Express</i> pulled out of the Chambers Street station...dropping the train's average speed between New York and Norwalk to between <i>20 and 25MPH...</i>half or a bit less than half of that claimed 50 MPH...</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i>BUT WAIT!!!!</i> I hear you guys yelling.<i> The train had other stops, so to average even 25 MPH it had to run forty or fifty some of the time...'</i></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And you'd have a point...except this was an <i>express</i> train, with very few stops between New York and Boston, all of them north /east of Norwalk. The <i>Boston Express </i>rolled past every station between New York and Norwalk without even slacking up.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i>'WHOA...it had to slow for other bridges!!' </i> You guys continue...and yes, there were a couple of other drawbridges between New York and Norwalk. We know of at least one...over the Harlem River...and there was possibly one over the Byram River...which is also the border between New York and Connecticut. There was almost definitely one over Cos Cobb Harbor as well as, possibly, another over Indian Harbor, just west of Cos Cobb. There also may have been one over Pelham Bay...so that's, maybe, five drawbridges between the train's departure point in New York, and it's wreck site in Norwalk.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">According to NY&NH regulations, trains were supposed to slow to between twelve and fifteen mph a mile before reaching any drawbridge. SO, lets say Ed Tucker actually <i>did</i> follow regulations for those five bridges, and slowed the Boston Express to 15 MPH. One mile at fifteen MPH takes four minutes, and you can bet that, as soon as he was on the bridge and saw that it was safe, he opened the throttle back up, and was rolling along at 25-30 mph very shortly thereafter.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Four minutes time five bridges is 20 minutes, and fifty miles-five miles (The mile they were at reduced speed before they reached each bridge) leaves about 45 miles to run in about an hour and a half...thirty miles per hour (Which, BTW is the actual speed listed for the train in the official investigation report on the accident.) </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">He <i>may</i> have gotten up to 40 in a couple of short bursts, but my bet is that he was running somewhere between 25 and 30 for most of the trip...and according to the official report, when the train rounded that curve just west of the bridge, and thundered onto the bridge itself, it was making, at most, 30 MPH. <i>Not </i>fifty<i>.</i></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Of course, if he didn't slow for <i>any </i>of the other bridges...and lets be honest here, given Ed Tucker's track record on following regulations, that's not beyond the realm of possibility at all...we're right back to a two to two and a half hour trip at around 25 or so mph. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">At any rate, the <i>Boston Express </i>never even came close to running fifty Miles Per Hour.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;">*</span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">NOW...how bout that amazing 60 foot jump. Simple...didn't happen. <i>Physics</i> wouldn't allow it to happen (And the recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fq0sylqX_s&ab_channel=WTFTime"><i>Mission Impossible VII </i>locomotive jump </a>pretty much proves it. Possibly the best timing for a YouTube video ever, BTW. It was posted...and I ran up on it...the morning I wrote this note.)</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">While American class locomotives of the early1850s were absolute lightweights compared to locomotives of even two or so decades later, they <i>still </i>weighed in at around 20-25 tons, and they had the aerodynamics of a brick. Or maybe a building. They absolutely <i>weren't </i> designed to fly, and they, well, <i>didn't. </i>There's this thing called 'Gravity' that, along with a few inviolable laws of Physics, pretty much assures that they wouldn't, won't, and didn't.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">When the locomotive heading up the <i>Boston Express </i>went off of the bridge<i>, </i>it<i> </i>would have behaved <i>exactly</i> the same way the locomotive in the <i>M.I.VII </i> clip did. As soon as the front end of the locomotive got far enough off of the bridge to over-balance it's own center of gravity...probably the instant the forward two driving wheels left the bridge...gravity would grab the front end of the locomotive and start pulling, and it's front end would've tilted down quickly and sharply.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> By the time the rear two drivers had cleared the end of the bridge, the locomotive was well on it's way into the river, it's front end probably tilted downward at a good 30 degree angle or better, and the pointed 'pilot'...often called the 'Cow-catcher' by kids of old.. ahead of the front set of wheels very likely already slashing into the river. The distance from the track to the surface of the river was about twenty feet...roughly the same or maybe a bit less then the length of the locomotive without it's tender...and that's also just about how far the locomotive <i>might</i> have stayed 'airborne'...arcing downward the whole time...before it hit the surface of the river so hard that the river cratered for an instant before erupting in a ginormous splash.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I'm purely speculating here, but I think that the locomotive may have twisted sideways as it went in the river. Then, when the pilot dug into the muddy bottom, momentum carried the back end of the locomotive up and over, 'pitch-poling' it (Flipping it end-over-end...this is also when the tender likely tore loose from the locomotive) so it landed on the river bottom on it's side, facing the direction from which it came, cab twenty or so feet from the abutment supporting the swing span. That twenty or so tons of weight had now turned into pure kinetic energy, better known as momentum, and that twenty tons of momentum <i>still</i> wasn't spent. When the locomotive slammed over on it's side, it was <i>still</i> moving eastward as well, and started sliding, throwing up clouds of mud as it dug a channel though the river bottom.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Did the locomotive actually hit that center abutment? Oh yeah it did...probably pretty hard at that. Remember all that unspent momentum? Neither that end over end flip, landing in the water, or digging into the bottom mud was enough to overcome all of it, and the locomotive was <i>still</i> sliding, digging it's own grave while it was at it, when it slammed <i>hard</i> into the abutment, likely crushing the cab when it did so. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Of course, no one, including Bill Harford, actually <i>saw</i> what happened to the locomotive as it went into he river...that giant splash and steam cloud hid it. But Harford definitely <i>felt</i> it when it slammed into the abutment. And, with the locomotive hard against the abutment, he very likely felt each car as it went into the river and slammed into the wreckage. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So, yeah, when the locomotive went into the river at 30 or so MPH, it was violent, cataclysmic, and visually spectacular in a truly horrific way. But, contrary to popular legend, it absolutely <i>didn't</i> fly 60 feet through the air when it came off of the bridge.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So, if the locomotive <i>didn't</i> fly through the air when it plummeted off the bridge, just exactly <i>how</i> did that part of the story get started.?</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">This falls in the category of 'Some Things Haven't Changed All That Much In 170 Years'...today, the more spectacular a story is, the more views it gets online. Same thing happened 170 years ago...just substitute 'Newspaper Sales' for 'Website/YouTube/Instagram views'. Even back then, the more spectacular a story was, the more newspapers it sold. And Bill Harford may have inadvertently both given the media a good, solidly spectacular 'Tag Line' for the article <b>(Fatal Train Jumps 60 feet Before Slamming Into Bridge Abutment!!)</b> <i>and </i>started the 'Flying Locomotive' legend.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">What do ya want to bet that, when he told the reporters interviewing him that 'The bridge shook when the train hit it', these same reporters took the ball, ran with it, and made up plays while they were at it. ' In their minds 'The Bridge Shook When The Train Hit It' <i>had </i>to mean that 'The Locomotive Flew Through The Air And Hit The Bridge'...and that's the way they reported it.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And the 'Flying Locomotive' became an unshakable...but impossible...part of the 'Norwalk Bridge Disaster' story.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr. Gurdon Russel was definitely the hero of the day,...at least in my opinion. After surviving the wreck uninjured, he organized rescue of the passengers in the wrecked half of the third coach, got the evacuation of the rest of the train going, then made his way off of bridge and onto the side of the overturned and partially sunken second coach and organized the rescue of the surviving passengers still trapped inside that coach. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">He then made sure all of those passengers were transported to the railroad depot, which had become what would be known on a modern scene as 'The Medical Sector'.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">In the midst of doing all of this, he very possibly saved a young girl's life, then made his way to the railroad depot and took charge of operations there...and from the sounds of things, he <i>may</i> have actually initiated a primitive form of Triage, many decades before 'Triage' was actually a thing.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Ok, it wasn't triage as we know it on emergency scenes and in E.R.s today (Hospital's wouldn't even <i>have</i> emergency rooms for nearly another century) but it's a pretty good bet that he separated the injured and uninjured, very possibly separated the 'Walking Wounded' from those who were more severely injured, then made sure that all of the injured were loaded aboard a special train that was dispatched from New York.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Lets look at Dr. Russel's activities at the railroad station in a tiny bit of detail. The <i>Boston Express </i>had 206 people aboard, and 48 of them were killed, leaving 158 survivors, all of whom ended up at the railroad station. According to a list I found of dead and injured, there were twenty four injuries, leaving 134 uninjured people milling around the Norwalk train station. (OK, 133 if you remove Dr. Russel from the equation)</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So, after arriving at the train station, Dr. Russel, with some help, had to corral those 133 people, and move them to one area of the station grounds so he'd have room for the injured (I'm betting the injured were moved inside to wait for the rescue train while the uninjured passengers were moved to the station platform.) While he was at it, he had to separate the uninjured passengers from the dozens of townspeople who were also showing up at the station, many of them there just to gawk.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Once he got <i>that</i> done...and and just getting the townspeople and uninjured passengers separated and corralled would have been a herculean task, trust me on this...treatment of the inured could begin in earnest. Of course, Dr. Russel had plenty of help actually <i>treating</i> the injured...remember, a good number of the <i>Boston Express' </i>passengers were physicians returning from the AMA convention. I can just about guarantee that several if not most of these gentlemen were put to work...in fact they likely dived right in. Of course, unfortunately they had no equipment because all of their medical bags were in the wrecked baggage car, on the bottom of the Norwalk River, but this didn't deter them from providing comfort to the injured, and treating them as best they could.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">We also, of course, have to realize that there was a caveat to the treatment of trauma patients (Or indeed, <i>any</i> patients) in the 1850s...much of the treatment and patient care standards that we take for granted today hadn't even been dreamed of in 1853, and this pretty much includes <i>any</i> kind of aggressive treatment of traumatic injury. There just wasn't that much these doctors could do but monitor these patients and keep them as comfortable as possible while arranging for their rapid (Or as rapid as possible) transport to the hospital. And 'arraigning rapid transport to the hospital' meant they </span><span style="font-family: times;">had to wait for the rescue train's arrival.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">But what of that train?</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">In later years, major railroad towns...the ones with yards and locomotive/rolling stock repair facilities... generally kept a couple of locomotives at the ready, with steam up...not that hard to do at all, as yards kept switch engines running 24-7 to shift rail cars around as needed...as well as several coaches and box cars, often already loaded with medical supplies and stretchers and other needed supplies, already coupled together on a siding, ready to roll. On top of that, railroads also kept 'wreck trains' at the ready, with a big, steam powered crane and other supplies, equipment, and apparatus needed to get the tracks cleared and open again. Full crews were kept on call for these trains, if needed, and a rescue train could be rolling in well under an hour.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">In the event of a major train wreck with multiple injuries, an on-call crew was called in to work, one of those ready locomotives was backed in and coupled to the ready-to-go rescue train, telegraph signals were sent up-line shunting all traffic between the scene and the yard to sidings, drawbridge tenders were ordered to keep their bridges closed until the rescue train had passed, the rescue train was given the 'highball' order, and it's engineer headed out of the yard, shoving the throttle wide open as soon as he hit the main line.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Then once it had arrived at the accident scene, the injured were loaded aboard, the rescue train headed back to it's home base, or the nearest town with a major hospital, whichever was closest, often backing until it reached a turning wye. Traffic was again shunted to sidings, drawbridges remained closed, and the rescue train had the highest possible priority. Once the rescue train was clear, the wreck train was dispatched to clear the line.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">This is how major train wrecks were handled by every railroad until the early years of the 20th Century. It became a highly organized, well oiled operation, and was, in fact, probably the very first organized effort to handle mass casualty incidents of any kind.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">None of this was in effect on May 6th, 1853, however, and railroads were still on the very bottom of the learning curve when it came to handling major train wrecks. The one advantage they <i>did</i> have, however, was the telegraph, and you can just about bet that telegraph wires between Norwalk, New York, and New Haven were humming almost before the huge splash thrown up by the plunging locomotive fell back into the river.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The problem was, of course, that once the report of the accident and request for assistance was received in New York, officials had to go into near panic-mode as they ran around searching for resources. We have to remember, there were no phones back then either...this search for a locomotive, and coaches, and crews was very much an 'In Person' search. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The telegraph could be used to inquire if stations between Norwalk and New York had any of the needed resources, but the most likely place to find a spare locomotive and a coach or two would be the yards or repair facilities in New York itself. The telegraph, again could be and probably was used to request resources from nearby facilities in New York.. Every railroad facility with a telegraph operator heard that initial call for help, and likely replied that they were either readying equipment or personnel to send, or were searching.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Once a locomotive and a couple of coaches were found, and a crew was rounded up, they had to get them on the way. If they were lucky, the locomotive already had steam up...if not, it could take from an hour or so, if the boiler was still warm, to four or more hours if it was dead cold, to get steam up, and get the boiler to operating pressure.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">They did have one thing going in their favor...they <i>knew</i> there wasn't any traffic between Norwalk and New York, so once the rescue train was ready to roll, it automatically had the highball signal. Orders to keep all drawbridges closed until the rescue train passed were probably sent to the stations nearest each bridge, then that message likely delivered to the bridge tenders by riders on fast horses. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">As telegraph operators were hammering out that message, the rescue train was pulling out of the station...or more likely the siding where it was 'made up'. The train's engineer had to take it easy as rolled through the various switches and tracks that made up the yard, but I can just about guarantee that he opened the throttle up as soon as he was on the main line. It's also a pretty good bet that he was authorized to ignore the 'Reduce Speed' rule as he approached the other drawbridges on the route. With the engineer's adrenaline pumping and the locomotive pulling only a couple of coaches, the rescue train very likely <i>did </i>touch 40 or maybe even 50 MPH on the run to Norwalk.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Once the train arrived in Norwalk, the injured were loaded aboard the coaches, and a couple of the doctors who were already on scene climbed aboard to continue treatment, such that it was, enroute to New York.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The Norwalk stationmaster likely telegraphed the road's HQ in New York that the train was enroute back to them, the same message was sent to the remaining bridge tenders to keep their bridges closed until the rescue train passed, and the train pulled out of Norwalk, <i>backing</i> towards New York. If there was a turning wye...a 'Y' shaped arrangement of tracks and switches that allowed trains to, in essence, do a three point turn to get turned around...somewhere between Norwalk and New York, they could get the train turned so the locomotive was at it's head end, where it was supposed to be. and make the rest of the run normally. If there wasn't, however, the rescue train would have to back all the way to New York.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">As the train was heading back to New York, the railroad officials gathered resources to transport the patients to hospitals...either horse drawn ambulances (Yes, there was, in fact, such a thing) or even just wagons, and with that being the case, it's a good bet that the train's engineer had been directed to bring the train to a freight station rather than the passenger station, as it would be far easier to load the patients onto whatever vehicles were used to transport them there.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Needless to say, response to major accidents and incidents of <i>all</i> kinds has come a long, <i>long</i> way since that May morning in 1853, but you have to hand it to Dr. Russel, his fellow physicians and passengers, as well as the crew of the <i>Pacific,</i> the townspeople of Norwalk, and the officials and personnel of the NY&NH Railroad. They dived right in, grabbed the bull by the horns, so to speak, and handled the incident with what they had available to them, doing a pretty decent job of it while they were at it.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">With the above note in mind, lets look at a quick comparison of
Fire/Rescue/EMS response today as compared to 1853.</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">Ok, Ok, that's actually a really unfair
comparison, because, well, there <i>was</i>
no fire/rescue response in Norwalk (Or many other places) in 1853.
Norwalk wouldn't have a fire department of any kind until 1858...five
years after the disaster...and EMS as we know it wouldn't be developed for another century and change.</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">The only
advantage that victims of the Norwalk disaster had going for them at
<i>all </i>was the fact that the train was loaded with doctors...and given
the technology of the time, that wasn't <i>that</i>
much of an advantage, especially considering the fact that all of
their medical bags were at the bottom of the Norwalk River.</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">It's
quite possible that a local physician or two may have responded to
the scene, and brought some supplies with them, but for the most
part, the response was <i>exactly</i>
what I detailed in the main body of the post. The crew of the
<i>Pacific, </i>the surviving
passengers, and the citizens of Norwalk, joined later by railroad
officials and the crew of the rescue train, was pretty much it.</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">I went
into considerable detail, speculation though it may have been, about
their actions in the main body of this, er, learned tome (Tongue
firmly in cheek here) so there's no need to rehash it here. I will
say however, without hesitation, that those who did respond to the
scene nailed it, especially given what they had to deal with, and
what equipment they had to work with.</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">**</span></div><span style="font-family: times;">
</span><p></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">Today
things have changed so much that, again, there is really no
comparison. First, safety tech. Modern radio communications allows a
train crew to know miles in advance whether a drawbridge is open,
track circuits light up red signals a mile so before the train
reaches the bridge, modern airbrakes can easily bring the train to a
stop with-in that mile or so and mechanical derailers, installed
several hundred feet short of the bridge, are designed to kick the train off
of the track if all else fails. (one thing that hasn't
changed...depending on the signal indication, speed limits are still
reduced with-in a mile or so of drawbridges). Automatic braking
systems have also been developed to prevent trains from plunging off
of drawbridges. So the probability of a train ending up in the
Norwalk River because the Walk Bridge, or it's soon-to-be replacement
is open is somewhere between 'Slim' and 'None'</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">But, if
in the most improbable of circumstances, Tones dropped in Norwalk's
five fire stations, and the dispatcher announced 'A train in the
river, (North or South) end of The Walk Bridge', Norwalk (And
Fairfield County) would be prepared to respond <i>BIG.</i></span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: small;">Norwalk Engine
3, quartered in a beautiful, classic old station on Van Zant Street,
almost within sight of the bridge, would be first due...but they
wouldn't respond on Engine 3...not to the bridge, anyway. They would
instead respond to Veteran's Park Marina, where they would man either
or both of Norwalk's fireboats, either the 24' <i>Harry G Brower (Marine 2)</i> or the newer 42' <i>Robert Bedell (Marine 1)</i>. Marine 2's
probably a bit faster and more maneuverable, Marine 1 has more
working space, and has a large, open after deck that divers can work
off of. Their pier is less than 2000 feet from the bridge. Both boats
would probably end up on scene. The Washington Street Bridge would
probably also be raised, if the Walk Bridge was open, so the boat(s)
response would be quick. </span>
</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, as
the fireboat carved a wake out of the marina, and screaming Federal
'Q' sirens and braying airhorns announced the arrival of units on the
accident side of the bridge, the on-duty Battalion Chief would be on
the radio, calling for more resources, and very likely implementing
the local disaster plan that was developed...and is very probably
practiced constantly...for situations just like this. </span>
</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">Tones would be
going off in a slew of Fairfield County fire stations.</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">Dive teams
would be enroute, additional Medic Units would be dispatched from
surrounding communities, additional heavy rescues would be rolling, a
big mobile command post would probably be enroute, and crews on scene
would already be pulling people out of the water.</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">Radio channels
would be designated for the incident, arriving Chief Officers would
be given a 'sector' (Rescue, Marine, Medical, etc) to handle, medical
helicopters would be called for, and landing zones established (And
additional engines assigned to cover the landing zones)</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">Hospitals would
be notified and would be implementing their own disaster plans, and
within ten or so minutes of the first desperate 9-1-1 call, the
first patient or two would very likely be enroute to a hospital, followed by
many more. The first patients would likely go to Norwalk Hospital, a
366 bed Level II trauma center just over a mile from the Walk Bridge.
If they get overwhelmed, Stamford Hospital's about 10 miles west
(South) on I-95, and Bridgeport has two major hospitals about 15
miles East (North) on '95.</span></p><p align="LEFT"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: small;">So yes, the
response to a similar incident today would be about as 180 degrees
away from the response to the Disaster as you can get. Hopefully,
though, we will never ever have to see just how well this plan works,
and the only time it's ever implemented is as a scenereo for a
disaster drill. </span>
</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><***></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Even if he <i>hadn't</i> been one of the heroes of one of the very first major land transportation accidents in U.S. history, Dr. Gurdon Wadsworth Russel would've had had a pretty eventful life.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM5qXg-KlZSzFG51dsMlonwjsR2_nnYG1XDJ8ubtgKvWcTCvApDZpyprvdKcRb-okFi8ib2YNEeCPSb8lJ8xVGf9qqRwQIcI9eIlWodvW7qq5YXf2ZjACYQggi-Asu343hsZFDr31JYcw/s730/Screenshot+%2528833%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="526" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM5qXg-KlZSzFG51dsMlonwjsR2_nnYG1XDJ8ubtgKvWcTCvApDZpyprvdKcRb-okFi8ib2YNEeCPSb8lJ8xVGf9qqRwQIcI9eIlWodvW7qq5YXf2ZjACYQggi-Asu343hsZFDr31JYcw/w289-h400/Screenshot+%2528833%2529.png" width="289" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr. Gurdon Russel, in a photo taken in 1897,<br />44 years after the Norwalk Disaster.<br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">He was 38 years old when he almost rode the the <i>Boston Express' </i>third coach into the Norwalk River, and was also a new dad...his daughter Elizabeth was born in January of 1853. Sadly she wouldn't live to see her third birthday. While this tragedy, without a doubt, devastated him, it didn't slow him down much at all.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr. Russel was elected president of the Connecticut State Medical Society in 1871, and was a founding member of the Hartford Medical Society...an organization of which he was a life-long member, serving as it's president from 1889-1893. Early on during his tenure with that crew, he was instrumental in the planning and building of Hartford's first hospital. Once the hospital opened, he served as the president of the Hospital Association, and the chief of the Medical and Surgical staff for many years.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">As if he wasn't busy enough, the Aetna Life Insurance Company signed him on as it's medical director in 1850...three years before the Norwalk disaster. He would serve Aetna in that capacity for 52 years, until 1902. During his long tenure at Aetna, he pioneered a field near and dear to all of our hearts...medical insurance underwriting. OH...he <i>also</i> served as the first Vice President of the Life Insurance Medical Directors Association of America, which was organized in 1893</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">While all of <i>this </i>was going on, he also wrote a several books about the history of the Russel family, and the history of Hartford, where he made his home for his entire life. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Dr Russel passed away in 1909, at the age of 93. He's buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery, in Hartford.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">One big question I've had about the Norwalk disaster...and specifically about the <i>Boston Express...</i>is just how many brakemen were actually aboard the train. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">There obviously had to be at least one, due to the primitive nature of railroad braking systems (And I user the term 'system' loosely, here) of that era. And this guy, if he was alone, had to do some serious hustling, even in normal braking situations. At least on a passenger train he wasn't exposed to the weather...or at least <i>as</i> exposed to the weather...and he didn't have to balance himself on a narrow, swaying, possibly icy catwalk. Mischievous boys tripping him as he ran through the cars...well that may be another story</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">A long freight train during that era may have had 30 cars, and these trains almost definitely had two brakemen...one riding the caboose bringing up the rear, and one riding in the locomotive cab with the engineer and fireman. When the engineer whistled for brakes the two brakemen started from the front and rear ends of the train, working towards the middle. Passenger trains, though, <i>may</i> have made do with a single brakeman.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I know, I know...I hinted that the <i>Boston Express</i> had two on board...but the truth is, I really don't know. I<i> do</i> believe that conductor Comstock did double duty as the brakeman/rear brakeman, and the fact that he escaped with relatively minor injuries lends at least a little credibility (IMHO) to that theory...he almost <i>had</i> to have been riding one of those last three coaches when the train went off of the bridge.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The train definitely had one brakeman who was working from the rear of the train towards the front...that's why the last three cars stayed on the bridge, even though one of them did break in two, with one half partially dropping into the water. The brakeman (Or rear brakeman if there <i>were</i> two) locked down the brakes on at least one car. He had to have...once the locomotive uncoupled from the train as it went in the river, those last three cars' momentum was actually spent pretty quickly, though it <i>still</i> took them about half a football field or so to get stopped. Of course, that was kind of the point...once the locomotive was out of the equation, the cars were unpowered, and all the brakes on the one car they got set on had to deal with was dying momentum.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> OH...being at the rear of the train, BTW, gave him an advantage, as I noted in the body of the post. He had an extra 400 or so feet...the approximate length of the train...to work with, which both gave him more time to set the brakes, <i>and</i> gave those last three coaches more stopping distance/distance to overcome the cars' forward momentum. It was still a near thing...the third coach breaking in two proves that...and I have a feeling that our rear brakeman was desperately spinning that brake wheel even as the first cars followed the locomotive off the bridge. His sigh of relief when the cars <i>finally</i> shuddered to a stop must've been epic.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">By the same token, if there <i>was</i> a front brakeman, he was doomed from the the instant the whistle screamed the signal for 'Down Brakes!'. If this guy existed, he probably tried to set the tender's brakes first, and though he <i>may</i> have gotten them set, it really didn't help...as in At All...because the locomotive was still dragging it...and the rest of the train...right to the point that it went off the bridge. Our front brakeman wasn't trying to fight against dying momentum...he was fighting the active kinetic energy provided by the locomotive. He didn't have a chance. The tender, smoking car, baggage car, and first two coaches never lost their forward momentum...or at least very little of it...as they went in the river. Our theoretical front brakeman very likely died when the train went off the bridge....he would have been either on the tender, or the front platform of the baggage car trying to get the brakes set when the train went in the river, and would have literally had almost then entire train on top of him before he could even think about trying to escape.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="text-align: center;">As I noted in the main body of this post, the CSX/Amtrak/Metro North tracks passing through Norwalk
follow just about the exact same right-of-way through town that the NY &
NH tracks were laid on in 1847, complete with a swing bridge over the Norwalk
River. </span>The NY & NH became the <i>New York, New Haven, & Hartford...</i>best known simply as the 'New Haven'...which, through decades of mergers and closures and acquisitions, ultimately became part of CSX. Amtrak came into the picture in 1971, and Metro North's commuter trains began crossing the bridge, well, <i>long</i> before the commuter line was known as Metro North, starting in the early part of the 20th Century.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> All, of course, have had to cross that swing bridge...or , at least, <i>one</i> of those swing bridges.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Three bridges have occupied the narrow strip of river that the <i>Boston Express</i> plunged into 167 years ago. The original bridge was replaced by an upgraded, widened, two track wooden span with a steel truss swing span about the time the NY & NH became the New Haven...and rail traffic <i>continued </i>to increase until the New Haven's two track main line was also over taxed<i>. </i></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx9A2KB8rdPxXbb9SHBn1tM7cB6b2jkuH4ps-8zv9-s9zTQwpS3fWWNrffA5zZGgTNmFAgioYmNkaDbXpICu6RywNHN6CKbxr9V7HUPHQdNj-NuyYAkUCnIAIkE7yKEt-26ou-tLAgg5I/s1080/81462703_2647645475312864_9185520071093841254_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="1080" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx9A2KB8rdPxXbb9SHBn1tM7cB6b2jkuH4ps-8zv9-s9zTQwpS3fWWNrffA5zZGgTNmFAgioYmNkaDbXpICu6RywNHN6CKbxr9V7HUPHQdNj-NuyYAkUCnIAIkE7yKEt-26ou-tLAgg5I/w640-h424/81462703_2647645475312864_9185520071093841254_n.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">The second Norwalk River Railroad Bridge...this one replaced the original bridge a decade or so after the disaster, about the time the NY&NH became the 'New Haven'...try as I might, I couldn't fins an exact date. The line was widened to two tracks, and the old swing span was replaced with what looks to be an all metal (Iron or steel) truss span.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">A</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-QR44RPsmFoQ1Ap6Sj5e7kvIuiLrEnnmBWLIsBRMtiKtH7Xc2DwfLU4Cc85IRgFqwbkDMEActwWCAFqnmF6dFdrfxkqSGsFv03vYdxXeS78Vdaw9f6zcATMXX-OpmJG3E0LZHXRWGBaA/s1033/95644704_2331206007183134_1981955985392193750_n+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="1033" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-QR44RPsmFoQ1Ap6Sj5e7kvIuiLrEnnmBWLIsBRMtiKtH7Xc2DwfLU4Cc85IRgFqwbkDMEActwWCAFqnmF6dFdrfxkqSGsFv03vYdxXeS78Vdaw9f6zcATMXX-OpmJG3E0LZHXRWGBaA/w640-h352/95644704_2331206007183134_1981955985392193750_n+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An early pic of the present-day Walk Bridge, taken in 1911, showing it open to allow a steamer to pass through. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: center;">T<span>his bridge was built in 1896, when the New Haven's main line was widened to 4 tracks</span> to</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span>accommodate</span><span> ever increasing rail traffic.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">If you look at this pic and think <i>'Hmmmm...Something's missing'</i> you're absolutely right! This pic was taken shortly before the rail line was electrified and the overhead catenaries that give the bridge it's familiar profile were added. </span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyUB-KOcG5qC5W-pnXzXyd6eFjJerTU5hSypXS0uYNZsTAWOvSRA5-4lHt_jiFU3e2zcL9SwTZO44Q7zF53V2thJyIhFANi71gJPHokj9PUkHMRrCWQb7KA4Mb4nZhXtOUz8qjBlBRpEA/s1869/Screenshot+%2528921%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1076" data-original-width="1869" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyUB-KOcG5qC5W-pnXzXyd6eFjJerTU5hSypXS0uYNZsTAWOvSRA5-4lHt_jiFU3e2zcL9SwTZO44Q7zF53V2thJyIhFANi71gJPHokj9PUkHMRrCWQb7KA4Mb4nZhXtOUz8qjBlBRpEA/w640-h368/Screenshot+%2528921%2529.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Google Street View image of The Walk Bridge as it appears today...view is from the Washington Street Bridge, just east of the Walk Bridge. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So, in 1896, the New Haven's main line through Connecticut was widened to four tracks and the wooden two track bridge was replaced with a huge, 4-track, all steel swing bridge. This new bridge was officially known as The Norwalk River Railroad Bridge, but that ponderous mouthful of a name was shortened early on by the good citizens of Norwalk to the name it's known by today...The Walk Bridge.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The Walk Bridge, of course, is a swing bridge just like it's predecessor, with one big...and I mean <i>big...</i>difference. The bridge's swing span is <i>far</i> bigger than either the original, or the two track swing span that it replaced.. The Walk Bridge's swing span is just over 200 feet long and 50 feet wide, and is also far, <i>far</i> heavier than either the original, or the two track swing span.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Also, while the original, and I believe the two track swing span, were both turned by steam engines, the Walk Bridge's swing span is turned using <i>big...</i>make that <i>huge...</i>electric motors, and those motors turn equally huge gears...and many of those gears and the accompanying hardware are, well, <i>old...</i>keep that 'Old' thing in mind, gang...it's about to become an issue.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">One final upgrade was made in 1911...15 years after the bridge was built. Much of this section of track was electrified that year, with overhead catenary lines providing power for big electric locomotives pulling the trains. This also added another complication to the whole 'swing bridge' concept...those four sets of catenary wires had to be retracted when the bridge opened, then reconnected when it closed.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Today, the bridge still carries 4 tracks across the Norwalk River, with dozens of CSX freights, Amtrak passenger trains, and Metro North commuter trains crossing the bridge daily...this has been going on for decades and decades, and for the most part it's operation was just as smooth as a just Zambonied skating rink...</span></div><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: times;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o3qMz7vQqIU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">Video of the Walk Bridge opening for a group of sailboats out-bound for Long Island Sound. Several Metro North trains are shown crossing the bridge at the beginning of the video. The bridge machinery worked the way it was supposed to...this time. This was a scheduled opening for a group of boats, a very common way of handling drawbridge openings the world over, and a procedure that anyone whose commute takes them over a major drawbridge is more than familiar with...checking for a scheduled bridge opening becomes as second nature as checking to make sure you have your wallet. This is a pretty long video, BTW...fifteen minutes...but it's also pretty interesting.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> ..Until it opens for a barge or group of fishing boats and, well <i>sticks</i> open. Remember that whole 'Old Machinery' thing I mentioned just above? These aging mechanicals have broken down fairly regularly in recent years, leading to the bridge sticking open...usually right in the middle of rush hour...more and more frequently over the last decade or so. And when <i>that </i>happens, it ends up stranding hundreds of commuters and snarling CSX and Amtrak traffic along the entire Northeast Corridor until dispatchers can get trains rerouted onto other lines and get it, well, <i>sort of</i> moving. This snarl/semi-snarl, of course, lasts until technicians and mechanics manage to get the thing fixed.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Oh...and every once in a while, the bridge will change things up, and stick <i>closed</i>...allowing trains to cross, but blocking the river to marine traffic, a real problem for a couple of businesses that transport products by barge...one time when this happened, back in 2014, the bridge was stuck closed for <i>weeks</i></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">If something like that happened once a year, it would be an inconvenience caused by a rare mechanical glitch. When it happens a couple of times...or more...a month, it becomes a problem.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The problem, of course, is that the bridge is a scosh over 120 years old, and while the motors, etc can be replaced and upgraded, a lot of the gearing and the rest of the mechanism, well, <i>can't. </i>And, trust me on this...the citizens of that end of Connecticut, most especially those who rely on Metro North for their daily commute to and from New York are getting <i>real </i>tired of sitting on a non-moving commuter train, and calling either their boss or their spouse, depending on which end of the work day they're stranded on, and saying 'Boss/Honey, the *&&$!! bridge's stuck again!!'</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">A fix is in, however...or at least in the works. CTDOT...Connecticut Department Of Transportation...began the process of replacing the bridge in 2014, doing studies, and soliciting bids for the design of the bridge. Once a design team was in place meetings were held, committees were formed, and midnight oil was likely burned by the tanker-load.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">See, while building the <i>new</i> bridge, they'd have to keep trains rolling on the <i>old</i> bridge, as well as keep river traffic moving. The design that was chosen was a 240' long, dual span vertical lift bridge. The design incorporates a pair of two track lift spans, side by side, that would be lifted together to allow river traffic to pass beneath the bridge.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9GaROpsSkl81dyaeoTkKpct_KQiDUvosSneiJtqkhkNcJIY3ALu-4LbFTt9c3UzWuxl-YVNGaWNUzFAAG3ks8ZMySes4oWvklAlOpZqu3oV6Kc452Vt6z2OJ-7QRrnDHc4M0JFVPJNUU/s2048/rawImage.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9GaROpsSkl81dyaeoTkKpct_KQiDUvosSneiJtqkhkNcJIY3ALu-4LbFTt9c3UzWuxl-YVNGaWNUzFAAG3ks8ZMySes4oWvklAlOpZqu3oV6Kc452Vt6z2OJ-7QRrnDHc4M0JFVPJNUU/w640-h360/rawImage.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">Artists rendition of what the new Walk Bridge will look like. The new bridge will be a double span vertical lift bridge, with twin, side by side lift spans, each span carrying two tracks. With this design, the bridge won't be out of service completely but one weekend...while the first lift span's installed...during construction,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">More importantly, it would be almost impossible for a stuck lift span to close the bridge...if one span went out of service, all traffic would be shifted to the two tracks of the other lift span. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">Construction is slated to start in Fall of 2021.</span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: times; text-align: center;">This design has a couple of advantages, both during construction and after the bridge is opened.</span></div><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> During construction, the new approaches and fixed bridges for one pair of tracks can be built next to the existing tracks, then the two towers can be built, straddling the existing bridge, allowing the swing span to remain operable. Then the lift spans are built off site.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The first lift span will be floated into place and installed next to the present swing span. While the new lift span's being floated in, the old Walk bridge is dismantled. Once the new span's installed and the old bridge is dismantled...a process that will take place over a long weekend... the new bridge is opened as a two track bridge. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The second set of approaches and fixed bridge will then be built next to their recently completed twins. Rail traffic won't be affected during this construction, and the first lift span will be operational, so the new lift span can be raised to allow river traffic to pass. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Once the second set of approaches and bridges are finished, and tied in with their twins structurally...about a year and a half after the first lift span goes in service...the second lift span will be floated in and installed, and the new bridge is in service.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The second big advantage of this design is the fact that a mechanical failure is unlikely to completely close the bridge. There are two lift spans, each with their own separate lift mechanisms, so if one lift span fails, the second is still operable, so rail traffic would always have at least two tracks.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Various impact studies, and other preparations for construction have been going on for several years, and construction is due to start in earnest in Fall of 2021.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And that frustrated phone call to the boss or the spouse will soon be a not-so-fondly remembered thing of the past.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Remember the <i>S.S. Pacific? </i>While she and her crew were celebrated by the residents of Norwalk as legitimate heroes...her crew saved several of the <i>Boston Express' </i>passengers from drowning...when her Captain called for 'All Engines Reverse Emergency!!', and ordered her lifeboats into the water, she wasn't long for the world.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I included a quick pocket history of the steamer in the body of the post, but lets review in a line or so...she was one of four sister ships, all big, fast, luxurious trans-Atlantic steamers owned by the Collins line, and built to upstage Collins' arch rival, Cunard. The <i>Pacific</i> proved to be the fastest of the four, winning the Blue Riband, awarded for the fastest cross-Atlantic run, on one of her first trips.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">She was fast, reliable, </span><span style="font-family: times;">popular, </span><span style="font-family: times;">comfortable...and doomed. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">She departed Liverpool for New York on January 23, 1856...less than three years after the Norwalk Bridge Disaster...with a crew of 141, and 45 passengers. She was last seen rounding what's today known as Fort Perch Rock, swinging West towards New York.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">She never arrived in New York. This was long before wireless communication was even dreamed of, so it was assumed, at first, that she'd suffered some kind of mechanical breakdown, and was possibly proceeding under sail. After a few more days, when she <i>still</i> didn't show up, ships were sent out to search for her.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">OK, again, there was no ship to shore communication of <i>any</i> kind back then, so her owners and the families of crew and passengers had to wait for these rescue ships to return for any news, and the news they returned with wasn't good. They found nothing...not even a floating spar. <i>S.S. Pacific</i> had been added to the list of ships that had disappeared without a trace. Not a single plank was ever found.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Ice had been bad that year, so many people...both officially and unofficially...had suspicions as to what had happened. Confirmation was found, on the west coast of one of the Hebrides Islands, in 1861, five years after she vanished. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">A bottle, sealed with a cork, was found with a tightly rolled up note inside. When the note was removed and read, this is what it said:</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: times;">On board the Pacific from Liverpool to N.Y. - Ship going down. Confusion on board - icebergs around us on every side. I know I cannot escape. I write the cause of our loss that friends may not live in suspense. The finder will please get it published. W.M. GRAHAM.</span></i></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: times;">A check of the <i>Pacific's</i> passenger list revealed that one of her passengers on that trip was a sea captain by the name of William Graham, who was enroute to New York to take command of another ship. The note was deemed to be legitimate, and, at least, they knew what had happened to her. They just didn't, of course, know <i>where.</i></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: times;">That mystery was supposedly solved in 1991, when divers found the sunken bow section of a ship of the same vintage and basic design of <i>Pacific...</i>and they declared her found. </span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: times;">One problem...this wreck was only about 60 miles west of Liverpool, still in the Irish Sea. In other words, this particular wreck hadn't even cleared the Isle of Mann yet, much less Ireland itself, and wasn't even close to being in the Atlantic.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">No explanation was given...or even attempted...of how Captain Graham's bottle had made it around the northern tip of Ireland, and then drifted (Against prevailing currents if I recall correctly) Northwest for 275 miles or so, before finally hitching a ride on a current that would take it to the west coast of one of the Hebrides. We won't even get into 'How Did An Iceberg Make It In to The Irish Sea'.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Needless to say, the wreck <i>wasn't</i> the <i>Pacific, </i>and she remains undiscovered to this day. My bet is she was several hundred miles west and slightly south of the Hebrides when she suffered the very same fate that <i>Titanic </i>would suffer 57 years later.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Finally, there was a connection between the loss of the <i>Pacific</i> and Dr. Russel...or at least his home town. One of the passengers aboard <i>Pacific</i> when she went down was Bishop Bernard O'Rielly, Bishop of the Diocese of Hartford, who was returning to Hartford from a European trip.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***> A Quick Look At A Nearly Identical Accident North Of The Border<***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: times;">The St. Hilaire Bridge Disaster</span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: times;">June 29, 1864</span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Imitation isn't <i>always</i> the sincerest form of flattery. Sometimes it's absolutely unintentional, and <i>sometimes </i>the event being 'imitated' is an incident that absolutely no one in their right mind would actually <i>want</i> to happen twice (Or even <i>once </i>for that matter). </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">But, when a Grand Trunk Railroad immigrant train hurtled through an open draw bridge just over eleven years after the Norwalk Bridge disaster, it created one of those <i>very </i>unwanted unintentional imitations. And, sadly, this accident was even deadlier than the Norwalk accident.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">We head 'North Of The Border' for this one, into the Canadian province of Quebec, about fifteen miles east of Montreal, to the present day town of Mont St Hilaire. The Richelieu River forms the town's western boundary, and the Canadian National Railroad sweeps in from the northeast, swings almost due north-south as it rounds a left-hand curve just about in the center of town, then sweeps into a long right-hand curve that swings it back east-west just before it crosses the river on a modern 900 or so foot long concrete and steel bridge. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Like the rail lines crossing the Norwalk River, the Canadian National's tracks follow just about the exact same right of way as one of it's ancestors, in this case the Grand Trunk Railroad. The Grand Trunk's tracks, of course, also crossed the Richelieu. In the 1860s, commercial traffic on the river, in the form of both steamboats and barges, was heavy, so the Grand Trunk crossed on a swing bridge.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The Grand Trunk was also heavily utilized, for both freight and passenger traffic, and also ran frequent special 'immigrant trains', carrying immigrants who caught trains heading for Montreal and other points west after entering the country via ship at the St Lawrence River port of Quebec City.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYYa-udpA1l9y6eVKnOleGjU_8a2OjlcKb_ym46mNTXJZ8orA6wKhAwA-k8dHw5Td42Y5MK20MVPV0EmefT_Nh1EjINJllyHsAXjoy6ft7fwCn6hDVPXSxu-Na9eowEv9n8cR3kFcjz5M/s1896/Screenshot+%2528844%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="921" data-original-width="1896" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYYa-udpA1l9y6eVKnOleGjU_8a2OjlcKb_ym46mNTXJZ8orA6wKhAwA-k8dHw5Td42Y5MK20MVPV0EmefT_Nh1EjINJllyHsAXjoy6ft7fwCn6hDVPXSxu-Na9eowEv9n8cR3kFcjz5M/w640-h310/Screenshot+%2528844%2529.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">A satellite view of present day Mont-Saint-Hilaire, known simply as St. Hilaire back when the wreck happened. I've indicated the Canadian National right-of-way as well as the immigrant train's direction of travel. The Canadian National follows the exact same right-of-0way occupied by the Grand Trunk in 1864, and interestingly, just like the Norwalk disaster, the line swept around a long, drawn out 'S' curve just before reaching the bridge. From the looks of things, engineer William Burnie had even less room to get stopped when he realized the bridge was open than Ed Tucker had in Norwalk eleven years earlier. This is a moot point, however...indications are that Burnie never even got the chance to whistle for brakes before he was on the bridge.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6T302sdT6F4Vx68QsqU5aIL97llyrVoiAwFP0joN0I7DcUOxi8J2StEYUvd1B239F_z-CZ9_fxJ1m-ihbCOtmJt1L_NqgPttarjTMQ25wWeaLwhoFgg1HnWsJKvjbLsdy0UXyG-bSTPI/s1915/Screenshot+%2528845%2529.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="927" data-original-width="1915" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6T302sdT6F4Vx68QsqU5aIL97llyrVoiAwFP0joN0I7DcUOxi8J2StEYUvd1B239F_z-CZ9_fxJ1m-ihbCOtmJt1L_NqgPttarjTMQ25wWeaLwhoFgg1HnWsJKvjbLsdy0UXyG-bSTPI/w640-h310/Screenshot+%2528845%2529.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;">The Richelieu River Railroad Bridge, now utilized by the Canadian National Railroad, as it appears today. By the time this bridge was built, commercial traffic on this end of the Richelieu had slowed to nothing, making a drawbridge unnecessary. This bridge is a fixed truss design.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You are looking towards the east in this pic. If a photographer had been in this exact spot on that Oh-Dark-Hundred June morning, the tug and barges would have been northbound on the river...approaching from the right side of the frame...and the immigrant train would have been westbound, crossing the bridge towards the photographer</div></span></div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">It was one of these immigrant trains that hurtled off of the bridge on that fateful June night.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Now, the two accidents had a lot in common...both trains, of course, ran through an open swing bridge, both engineers ignored a signal indicating the bridge was open, and both trains came out of a sharp curve just before they got to the bridge...but there were some important differences. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">One of the biggies was the signaling system. While the Norwalk bridge was protected by 'The Ball', the Richelieu River Bridge (actually known as the Beloeil Bridge) had a red light that was shown when the bridge was open. All of the sources I found noted the light was 'A mile from the bridge'...but I have a problem with that,. There were no electric lights yet in 1864, so there was no way to remotely turn on a red light a mile from the bridge.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Now, the swing span on the Beloeil bridge was built very similarly to the Norwalk River Bridge, right down to the tall tower and chains supporting the ends of the span. With that thought in mind, I'm going to do a little more of that speculating I tend to do...I have a feeling that the light was actually hoisted to the top of this tower, where it would be visible for up to a mile away (especially at night) from the cab of approaching trains. This should have given the engineer plenty of time to whistle for brakes, and the brakemen plenty of time to set the brakes and get the train stopped.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And, again, like Norwalk, this system worked fine...until about 1:20 AM on that June morning.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Sometime the day before the accident... the 28th...a ship from Hamburg, Germany made it's way up the St Lawrence River, docked in Quebec City, and disembarked several hundred German and Polish immigrants., These new arrivals, of course, had to be processed through the 1860's equivalent of customs before heading west, so it was probably around 9PM or so before they boarded an immigrant train, bound for Montreal, and other 'Points West'</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">OK, a quick word about immigrant trains of this era. The 'passenger cars' that these people boarded, well, <i>weren't. </i>Passenger coaches that is.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">What they <i>were</i> was converted box cars. Backless wooden benches were installed, and windows were cut into the sides...I have a sneaking suspicion that glass was <i>not</i> installed in these windows. The cars had no end platforms, no end doors, and no way to move from car to car, which meant that the brakemen had to run across the tops of the cars to set the brakes, just as they would have to on a freight train...these immigrant cars were, after all, converted box cars.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">So, sometime around 9PM, or a bit before, around 475 passengers boarded the eleven converted box cars that made up the train. The train probably pulled out of the Quebec City depot around 9:30 PM for the 150 or so mile trip, driven by engineer William Burnie, with Conductor Thomas Flynn in charge of the train.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">At the train's cruising speed of between 35 and 40 miles per hour, the trip to Montreal should take between between three hours and forty-five minutes and a little over four hours, and they were just about exactly on schedule when the train leaned into the first curve at about a quarter after one...two miles and four minutes or so before they reached the bridge..</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Maybe ten or fifteen minutes earlier, a tug, towing five barges blew for the bridge to be opened, and the unnamed bridge tender went through much the same procedure as Bill Harford had eleven years earlier, returning whistle signals, opening the bridge, lighting what was likely a fair sized Fresnel lens-equipped lantern, and hoisting it to the top of the bridge's support tower. And, like Bill Harford, he then sat back and waited for the tug and barges to clear the bridge.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And, also like Bill Harford, the Beloeil bridge's tender heard the immigrant train's chuffing exhaust, obviously at speed, and knew, with growing horror, that there was no way the train could get stopped. Seconds later, he watched, horrified, as the locomotive headlight swept around the second curve, and onto the bridge at a good 35 miles per hour, not even <i>beginning </i>to slack up.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Here the similarities between he two accidents begin to diverge...William Burnie never even had a chance to whistle for brakes</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Though Burnie may have finally seen the light and realized the bridge was open...<i>may</i> have, remember, it was 1:20 AM and dark...he never whistled for brakes, and the train never even tried to slow down. Also, in the Norwalk Disaster, the steamer...The <i>S S Pacific...</i>cleared the bridge before the <i>Boston Express</i> plunged off of it. In St Hilliare, however, the barges <i>weren't </i>clear...</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The locomotive heading the train (Probably yet another 4-4-0, or maybe a larger 4-6-0) plunged off of the bridge, arced down, slammed down onto the deck of the the one of the barges, skidded off the deck, and and caromed into the river, dragging it's tender along with it. All eleven coaches followed slamming into the deck of the barge, then each other in an unending bedlam of crushing, crunching, splashing sound.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> The cars nearer the head end of the train, along with their occupants, faired the worst as each plunging car crushed them a bit more, until the first several coaches were reduced to little more then kindling, with the more intact last two or three coaches balanced on the pile.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The crew of the tug likely felt the impact, in the form of a violent jerk, and immediately swung into action...like the <i>Pacific</i> in Norwalk, her captain likely sounded an emergency signal, then launched boats (Along with many St Hiliare citizens), and immediately began rescue operations.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">One of the first to be rescued was engineer William Burnie, who had ridden the locomotive down, managed to escape the sinking cab as it plunged into the river, and escaped all but uninjured. Neither his fireman, or Conductor Thomas Foley were as lucky...both died in the accident.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLe_ezdqIohpT8o3Dm9qG1gxlkC5MoXwyhCYhGNxP5LKATJbqsnsnqGUMdTCLVo-O5l3Qn4hAxnaPDJl2RjTB2-raEmPgFQfDL7zEEHglgYq7kwxYRI_-JXyoEnL1Sxt4rJLTykiWUpEI/s631/st-hilaire-train-disaster.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="631" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLe_ezdqIohpT8o3Dm9qG1gxlkC5MoXwyhCYhGNxP5LKATJbqsnsnqGUMdTCLVo-O5l3Qn4hAxnaPDJl2RjTB2-raEmPgFQfDL7zEEHglgYq7kwxYRI_-JXyoEnL1Sxt4rJLTykiWUpEI/w640-h444/st-hilaire-train-disaster.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">A photo taken of the scene the morning after the wreck...you're looking south here, the train would have been westbound, approaching from the left side of the frame. The swing span, now closed, is directly above the wreck One big difference between the St Hilaire and Norwalk accidents is visible in the river below the wrecked cars...Unlike the <i>Pacific </i>in Norwalk, all of the barges <i>didn't</i> make it clear before the immigrant train went off of the bridge and landed on a couple of them. You can see one of the barges in this photo...that's the tilted, light colored object that the cars are resting on top of.<br /><br />The fact that the barges didn't get clear, and remained mostly afloat after the train landed on it kept the accident from being even deadlier than it was, as it kept a couple of the cars form going in the river...note the more or less intact car leaning against the bridge abutment. The end of another intact car is visible to the right of that car. If the cars had gone in the river, dozens more people would have likely drowned.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh68IIGn-RX7Fr89HmIMKcQWFmhiswypvipEGkDyUy1vFOVz7twgpgKwen7uN447qQ2O-aDN_R1JPczb5PcF29RoVOztKCizmRIyiP-a753DV8G2SHRDNrR4tmSAqmSeEpauCLtYOSlC2Q/s1056/Beloeil_train_disaster_Illustrated_London_News_summer_of_1864.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1056" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh68IIGn-RX7Fr89HmIMKcQWFmhiswypvipEGkDyUy1vFOVz7twgpgKwen7uN447qQ2O-aDN_R1JPczb5PcF29RoVOztKCizmRIyiP-a753DV8G2SHRDNrR4tmSAqmSeEpauCLtYOSlC2Q/w640-h414/Beloeil_train_disaster_Illustrated_London_News_summer_of_1864.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;">A very detailed engraving of the scene, apparently from other side of the bridge...you're looking north here, and the abutment supporting the swing span's to the left of the wreck rather than to the right. Note the same barge that was visible in the photo above also visible below the coach that's being lifted from the river. You can also see that the swing span's construction is very similar to that of the Norwalk bridge, only bigger.<br /><br />This view is also a good bit earlier in the incident than the photo....the swing span's still open, there are more cars on top of the barge (Assuming the orientation of the cars is accurately represented here), and one of the cars is, apparently being lifted from the river.<br /><br />As there was a photographer on scene, who got a couple of shots of the scene, this <i>may</i> have been based on a photograph, though I haven't seen a photo from this angle.. Of course, it could well have been based on the artists observations and sketches...there were some <i>seriously</i> talented graphic artists working for publications back then!</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><br /></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The quickly thrown together rescue teams had their work cut out for them. The river was about ten feet deep at the accident site and the crushed, partially capsized barge was sinking, taking the crushed train cars...and their occupants...with it. There were between forty and forty-five people in each car, many or whom were trapped (Or injured <i>and</i> trapped) and rescuers had to use axes to chop their way into the sinking cars, then remove the trapped victims before the cars took them to the bottom of the river.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The occupants of the train's last few cars were more fortunate, as those cars remained relatively intact, but the first three or so cars behind the locomotive were death traps...that's very likely where all of the ninety-nine passengers who died in the accident were riding, along with a majority of the one hundred passengers who were injured.</span></p><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">It's a good bet that many, if not most, of those ninety-nine fatally injured passengers were crushed to death before they could drown as the cars they were riding in were crushed to splinters when the rest of the train crashed down on top of them.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Interestingly enough, most of the cars actually <i>didn't</i> sink. While the barge was severely damaged, partially capsized, and partially sunk, it never completely sank, and kept the majority of the cars...and the passengers...above the water. This fact saved the great majority of the passengers. While ninety-nine people died and another 100 were injured, around 275 people survived the accident relatively unscathed.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Still, I'm actually low-key amazed that nearly three hundred passengers came through uninjured...this was a brutally violent and destructive accident. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">An investigation was started even as crews removed wreckage, and bereaved families planned funerals. Engineer Bill Burnie was found to be completely at fault...the Grand Trunk apparently also had a policy that required engineers to stop before crossing a drawbridge, no matter what the signal indication was, and he very obviously, ignored that policy, as well as the red 'STOP' signal. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">The investigation also revealed yet another similarity between the Norwalk and St Hiliare disasters...Burnie was apparently newly hired, and this was his first or maybe second time driving a train on this route. He claimed that he didn't know the bridge was there, and that he didn't see the red signal at all. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I'm kind of skeptical about that whole 'Not knowing the bridge was there' thing, too. While technology has advanced in leaps and bound over the last 156 or so years, there was one thing that was done back then that is still done today, and will still be done in <i>another</i> 156 years. Train crews get a detailed briefing about hazards they might encounter on a given route as well as locations where certain rules and regulations would be in force before they drive a route for the first time.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> One of the hazards Bill Burnie would have been briefed...probably at length...about would have been the draw bridges he needed to be aware of, how their status was signaled, and where he needed to start looking for said signal.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I can come <i>way</i> closer to believing he was drowsy, and ran up on the bridge before he realized it, especially at nearly 1:30 AM. Trust me, I'm a denizen of Midnight shifts myself, and 1:30AM is about the time your body starts realizing that it's supposed to be asleep...if you don't get the proper rest before coming on duty, eyelids get heavy, and your alertness takes a nose-dive. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">And I think that just <i>may</i> be what happened to Bill Burnie that night. At any rate, those evil siblings Carelessness and Recklessness took 99 lives, and to this day this is still the deadliest train wreck in Canadian history.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br style="text-align: left;" /></span></div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"> <***>LINKS<***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***>NORWALK BRIDGE DISASTER<***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Often-times when you research an incident that happened nearly 17 decades in the past so you can, for example, say,, write a blog post about it, you don't find a whole lot of info to work with. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Thankfully, this was <i>not</i> one of those times. This was the first railroad bridge disaster, one of the very first major train wrecks of any kind, involved a train load of doctors, and was <i>the</i> major news story of it's day. On top of that, the wreck is very well known and pretty well documented in Norwalk, so finding information about it was actually pretty easy.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">There were plenty of links...enough so that this ended up being one of those posts that I could pick and choose a bit when deciding just which articles to use for my research...and a couple of those links were not only good, but outstanding.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">As always, I'm posting the best of the bunch:</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwalk_rail_accident" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwalk_rail_accident</a> The all but inevitable Wikipedia article on the disaster<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="http://www.gendisasters.com/connecticut/7197/norwalk-ct-train-wreck-may-1853" target="_blank">http://www.gendisasters.com/connecticut/7197/norwalk-ct-train-wreck-may-1853</a> And the Wiki article's kissin' cousin, the accident's Gen. Disasters page.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://www.structuremag.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/272002-C-HistoricStructures-Griggs.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.structuremag.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/272002-C-HistoricStructures-Griggs.pdf</a> This one is absolutely awesome on several levels. This particular article, from Structure Magazine, was one of my two luckiest finds. The article discusses both the bridge itself, as well as the disaster in some detail, and better yet, it's a PDF file, so it's downloadable. You need Adobe Reader or a similar app to read it (Or Windows 10, which comes with a built in PDF reader)</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100602140617/http://library.uchc.edu/hms/pdf/1853rail_lrg.pdf">https://web.archive.org/web/20100602140617/http://library.uchc.edu/hms/pdf/1853rail_lrg.pdf</a> Uber- Lucky find Numero Dos...A copy of a period newspaper article containing Dr Gurdon Russel's first-hand account of the accident. This one is also a downloadable PDF file. These two PDF files almost made any other articles about the disaster unnecessary. Almost.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="http://www.interment.net/data/train-wrecks/norwalk-railroad-accident.htm" target="_blank">http://www.interment.net/data/train-wrecks/norwalk-railroad-accident.htm</a> Article containing a list of the dead and injured. Note that this is <i>not</i> a comp0lete list of the deceased.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://connecticuthistory.org/misread-signal-leads-to-deadly-south-norwalk-train-wreck-who-knew/" target="_blank">https://connecticuthistory.org/misread-signal-leads-to-deadly-south-norwalk-train-wreck-who-knew/</a> An article from Connecticut History Dot Org about the disaster. Be warned, though...a good bit of the info in this one is in direct conflict with the known facts about the accident.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><a href="http://neversinkmuseum.org/articles/the-life-of-a-brakeman/" style="font-family: times;" target="_blank">http://neversinkmuseum.org/articles/the-life-of-a-brakeman/</a><span style="font-family: times;"> A very well written, very detailed article about what railroad brakemen had to endure in the pre airbrake era.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://www.iridetheharlemline.com/2015/01/01/bridges-of-metro-north-the-norwalk-river-bridge-part-1/" target="_blank">https://www.iridetheharlemline.com/2015/01/01/bridges-of-metro-north-the-norwalk-river-bridge-part-1/</a> One of several articles I found about the trials and tribulations Connecticut Dept. of Transportation officials endure while trying to keep the Walk Bridge both passable and operational. This was the best of the bunch, and includes some awesome pics of the bridge.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://www.walkbridgect.com/projects/norwalk.aspx" target="_blank">https://www.walkbridgect.com/projects/norwalk.aspx</a> CDOT page about the Walk Bridge replacement project.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/walkbridgect/" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/walkbridgect/</a> The Walk Bridge even has it's own Insta page! </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><***>ST. HILAIRE BRIDGE DISASTER LINKS<***></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">This one was all but the polar opposite of the Norwalk Bridge Disaster, info wise. Even though the St Hilaire accident was twice as deadly as the Norwalk disaster, there was comparatively little info online about it. I still managed to dig up a few articles about it, though...OK, so one was the Wiki page and the other was from Gen, Disasters... </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Hilaire_train_disaster" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Hilaire_train_disaster</a> The Inevitable Wiki Page.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Hilaire_train_disaster" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Hilaire_train_disaster</a> And the General Disasters Page<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://www.ancestry.com/contextux/historicalinsights/st-hilaire-train-disaster/persons/18793993499:1030:35391053" target="_blank">https://www.ancestry.com/contextux/historicalinsights/st-hilaire-train-disaster/persons/18793993499:1030:35391053</a> A brief, illustrated summary of the St Hilliare wreck from another genealogy site</span><br /></p></div></div><div id="hzImg" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: 5px; line-height: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 1845px; visibility: visible; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div><div id="hzImg" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: 5px; line-height: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 7402px; visibility: hidden; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div><div id="hzImg" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: -9000px; line-height: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: -9000px; visibility: visible; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div><div id="hzImg" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: 39px; line-height: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 33765px; visibility: visible; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div><div id="hzImg" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: 5px; line-height: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 45415px; visibility: visible; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div><div id="hzImg" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: 5px; line-height: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 42676px; visibility: visible; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div><div id="hzImg" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: 95px; line-height: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 40938px; visibility: visible; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-73974477965790022812021-02-05T12:49:00.004-05:002023-10-19T12:24:07.215-04:00New York's Twin Tenement Tragedies...The Tragedies That Gave Us Fire Escapes<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<b>New
York's Twin Tenement Tragedies</b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Feb 2nd
/March 28th, 1860</b><br />
<b>The Tragedies That Gave Us Fire Escapes</b></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><br /></b></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><br /></b></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><br /></b></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><***></b></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><br /></b></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">Normally, I don't kick a blog post off with any kind of 'Pre-note', but, as we all know, 2020 was anything but a normal year. The game plan was, originally, to have this one finished and posted around last April. Then we had a major personnel problem at work, and...well, lets just say '2020 Happened'. For about 8 months or so I barely got to even look at my blog, much less actually work on it. So, as a result, this became the second blog post that took over a year to complete, and 2020 (Somehow unsurprisingly) became what, hopefully, will be the only year without a post.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">But it's (Finally) finished now...hopefully. As always, I hope I made it enjoyable and informative. And now (FINALLY!!) on to how we got Fire Escapes.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">* * * * * * * *</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If you live or work in a
city, and frequent an area with lots of older, multi-story buildings, how
often do you notice...or even <i>care...</i><span style="font-style: normal;">whether
the buildings you are walking or driving past have fire escapes?
They're there, we </span><i>know</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
that they're there, we </span><i>see </i> them<span style="text-align: center;">...but we just </span><span style="text-align: center;">don't </span><i style="text-align: center;">notice </i><span style="text-align: center;"> them. </span><span style="text-align: center;">L</span><span style="text-align: center;">ike trees, telephone poles, and 7-11 Stores, they just kind of blend in with the scenery. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhenQbZWbn2p7RG-AXPJBJLfcyiORAHpr3pWAPvbaAGZbLsWUSkpUyX2eO-726o7vxKc94gSVkbulyzUDaJ32ZzfYHqjUCfXvYkCPc7dilOBLZJqr6X351Up2knKSdTC-75zKfyAzzXgeQ/s1600/building-fire-escapes-new-york-city-usa-building-fire-escapes-new-york-city-usa-119623848.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhenQbZWbn2p7RG-AXPJBJLfcyiORAHpr3pWAPvbaAGZbLsWUSkpUyX2eO-726o7vxKc94gSVkbulyzUDaJ32ZzfYHqjUCfXvYkCPc7dilOBLZJqr6X351Up2knKSdTC-75zKfyAzzXgeQ/s640/building-fire-escapes-new-york-city-usa-building-fire-escapes-new-york-city-usa-119623848.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font><span style="font-size: x-small;">They're there...but do we <i>see </i>them?</span><br /><br /><br /><br /></font></td></tr></tbody></table>
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span><span style="text-align: center;">Unnoticed
and ignored though they may be by the general public, fire escapes become
a huge part of life to those who live in the buildings they're
installed on. For well over a century they've been used as
patios, romantic meeting places, outside storage, clothes lines, and
a quick way for teenage couples and BFFs to get to and from each
other's apartments. The building residents are, however, <i>far</i> from the only people who've found uses for these iron stairways.</span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-align: center;">For well over a century </span>the criminal element has made good use of them, both as a means to gain access to an apartment where an unsavory deed is to be committed as well as a quick egress route if their diabolical deed goes undiscovered, and a quick escape route if they're caught in the act.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Hollywood has also made good use of fire escapes, making them</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> often iconic elements of both the big and small screen. </span><i>Rear
Window</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. </span><i>West Side
Story</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. </span><i>Breakfast At
Tiffany's, </i>a<span style="font-style: normal;">nd a score or so
</span><i>more</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> movies featured
iconic scenes filmed on a fire escape. On the Small Screen, meanwhile, numerous sit-com episodes...from a hilarious episode or two of </span><i>Friends</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
to the opening sequences of both </span><i>Boy Meets World </i><span style="font-style: normal;">and
it's Disney reboot</span><i> Girl Meets World..</i>.had
that iconic iron exterior stairway as a key element. On the dramatic side of TV, there have been <i>way</i> more than a few well choreographed and drama-filled police procedural chase scenes and gun fights filmed on fire escapes.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBn-LKuOtpmkDvxfbfg6kG0I8masn1vPqFb6gbVlAd-Wu7_6wy399hMSz8u7wLS_5lrLj3Tu0T6X76Zv1qkSATMbOd3JnZ9TU7CGSpyHBz4dtzc_sNFBgkowyJ9py6YllfvWurRydB6Fs/s1600/West-side-story-New-York-City-NYC-fire-escape-romance-scene-Upper-West-Side.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="1170" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBn-LKuOtpmkDvxfbfg6kG0I8masn1vPqFb6gbVlAd-Wu7_6wy399hMSz8u7wLS_5lrLj3Tu0T6X76Zv1qkSATMbOd3JnZ9TU7CGSpyHBz4dtzc_sNFBgkowyJ9py6YllfvWurRydB6Fs/s640/West-side-story-New-York-City-NYC-fire-escape-romance-scene-Upper-West-Side.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><font><span style="font-size: x-small;">Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood in their iconic fire escape scene from the equally iconic film, <i>West Side Story</i>. Fire escapes have played key roles in hundreds of movies and TV shows, and this particular scene is very likely the most famous and best known of the bunch</span><br /><br /><br /><br /></font></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Note that in none of these examples...real-life or cinematic...were these fire escapes actually being used as, well, a <i>fire</i> escape. You know, to escape from a fire. <span style="text-align: center;">Sometimes
I think people have actually forgotten that their original and primary
function was to allow the </span><span style="text-align: center;">upper floor occupants of a </span><span style="text-align: center;">multi-story building</span><span style="text-align: center;"> to exit quickly and safety in event of fire by
allowing them to bypass the fire floor as well as the heat and smoke filled hallways and stairways above the fire. Once fire escapes became a legislated part of multi-story building construction and took on the form that became so familiar to everyone, they generally did exactly what they were designed to do, saving more than a few lives...</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;">both civilians and firefighters...while they were at it. (Of course, they also had some drawbacks as well...we'll take a look at these, as well as some of the benefits when we discuss their history further along in this, er, 'learned tome')</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While pretty much every three to ten or so story building built the late 19th and early 20th century had a fire escape, the building most often associated with them is the classic New
York Tenement. Many people, in fact, think that the two were developed at
about the same time, but that's <i style="font-style: normal;">not </i> the way it happened. In
fact, the multi-story tenement predated the fire escape by about 40
years, with the first few multistory tenements going up in the mid 1820s.</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The <i style="font-style: normal;">first </i>major tenement building boom hit in
the 1840s and 1850s, a good decade or two before the first fire
escapes appeared on buildings. And...spoiler alert...when fire escapes <i>were </i>finally installed on tenements, building owners didn't install them out of the goodness of their
hearts and/or a desire to ensure the safety of their tenants. Surprising no one at all, 'cost' had <i>everything</i> to do with the lack of fire safety in these early apartment buildings, and as always when it became a question of cost versus safety, pulling a ticked off tiger's teeth would have been easier than getting building owners to spend the money to actually install fire escapes.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
All but inevitably, it took a
tragedy or two to cause those iron stairways to start growing on the
walls of multi-story, multi-family dwellings, and then only after they were legislated into existence. Interestingly, it took <i>far</i> longer than you might think for a major loss of life fire to occur in one of these buildings, but when one did occur...well that's just it. There wasn't just <i>one</i> major loss of life fire, there were two, about three miles and just a few days shy of two months apart. And to understand those two fires, we <i>first</i> have to look at a quick pocket history of the New York tenement<br />
<br />
The forerunners of those iconic tenements began popping up in the mid 1820s, but we can thank
a potato famine and the people who would bring us green beer, pizza and,
ultimately, Ferraris, for the huge influx of
immigrants that occurred during the 1840s and 1850s. Many of them came
from Ireland and Italy, and all of them had to be housed <i>some</i>where.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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Know that old
cartoon meme, where the pupils of a greedy character's eyes turn to
dollar signs? This is pretty much what happened with a lot of
New York City property owners as they watched this flood of immigrants fill New York City (Which, By The Way, included <i>only</i> Manhattan back then) from the Hudson River to the East River and from <span style="text-align: center;">Spuyten Duyvil Creek to</span><span style="text-align: center;"> The Battery.</span></div>
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So, they just built a bunch of
big apartment buildings and rented apartments out to these new
immigrants, right? Ahh, not so fast...see our budding landlords faced
a problem. When the original New York City street grid was laid out,
building lots were <i>also</i> laid out, with each lot
measuring 100' long by 25 feet wide, severely limiting the square footage of these new buildings (And of the apartments there with-in). It quickly became obvious to
land owners that, in order to maximize profits, they were going to
have to build <i>up</i> rather than out...so that's exactly
what they did.</div>
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The apartment buildings that
resulted were among the first tenements...but they <i>were nothing </i>
like the tenements we see in documentaries and movies set in the Big
Apple. These first tenements were wooden, three or four
stories tall, and generally nasty, They usually measured about fifteen by
thirty or so feet, with windows only at front and rear and from two to four <i>tiny</i> apartments per floor. Sanitary facilities consisted of a multi-hole outhouse at the
rear of the building. These very rudimentary toilet facilities, by the way, had a truly nasty tendency to overflow and send raw sewage streaming into the first floor of the building during
heavy rains. The odor wafting from the things on a hot, steamy summer day pretty much defies either description or imagination.</div>
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There was no heat, no
insulation, no plumbing, and stairways were generally only three feet
wide, feeding into hallways on each floor that were only only slightly wider. Those
stairways, BTW, provided the only exit from the building.</div>
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Within a few years some
improvements were made...but they were more to the
building <i>owner's</i> benefit rather than the tenants'
benefit. Brick exterior walls were substituted for wood, dimensions increased to 50
feet long by 25 feet wide, and a couple of stories were added to
their height, with many of them reaching five and six stories.
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The first floor of many of
these buildings was often occupied by some type of store (Then as now, a commercial occupancy would bring far higher rents than an<span style="font-style: normal;"> apartment, meaning even </span><i>more</i> profit for <span style="text-align: center;">the landlord</span><span style="text-align: center;">)</span><span style="text-align: center;">. Each floor above the
first floor had four two room apartments. The main room of each
apartment...a 12x12 or so multi-function room that served as living
room, kitchen, and dining room...had a window or two, looking out on
either the street or the rear yard (The rear apartments had a lovely
view of the communal out-house that was </span><i style="text-align: center;">still</i><span style="text-align: center;"> the building's sole...er...sanitary system). The single 10x8 foot bedroom was
windowless, and served as the entire family's sleeping
quarters, no matter </span><i style="text-align: center;">how</i><span style="text-align: center;"> many may have been in the family.</span></div>
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The main improvement, as I
noted above, was to the building owner's bank account as he could
stuff more families into each lot he owned. Several landlords
utilized as much of the 100 x 25 foot lot as possible by adding a
<i>rear </i>tenement, a second
building in the rear yard of the first, with exactly half the square
footage and the same number of floors as the original building. These
smaller 'rear tenements ' had two two room apartments per
floor...eight to twelve more sources of income on the same 100x25 foot lot, depending on the
height of the building.
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Though
these brick tenements may have looked a little better than the older wooden tenements,
living conditions in the tiny apartments were just as horrible. The
buildings were ovens in the summer and ice boxes in the winter. And, as for those outhouses, as
many as twenty four <span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">families</span><span style="text-align: center;">...thirty two if there was a rear tenement...had to share a single three or four hole
outhouse that quickly blew past nauseating and disgusting to become
putrid.</span></div>
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Fire
safety wasn't even given a passing glance. Stairways were still only
three feet wide, the interiors of the buildings were only slightly
less combustible than a cardboard box, lighting was provided by candles and
/or oil lamps, and fire escapes just plain long didn't exist. </div>
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Those narrow stairways and
hallways were unlighted, meaning they were shadowy caverns at best,
even on sunny days. At night, it was so dark that you had to inch your way up or down
steps, feeling for each step with your toes. We're
talking you can't see your hand in front of your face even if you were touching your nose
dark. Going down those steps would be dangerous under
normal conditions. Now imagine trying to descend them if
that same stairwell was chock-full of heat and smoke.</div>
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Conditions in these firetraps didn't improve <i>any</i>, despite several studies and newspaper articles meant to expose the deplorable conditions that the immigrants were living in. Those conditions were quickly coming to a head. By 1860, <span style="text-align: center;">New York City was
already the nation's most populous city and had snagged the 'Most
Crowded City In The Country' award without even breaking a sweat. As I noted above, before 1898, New York City consisted of </span><i style="text-align: center;">only</i><span style="text-align: center;"> Manhattan
Island, and as the 19th Century's
seventh decade kicked off, New York's population had swelled to just
shy of 815,000, all of them stuffed into Manhattan Island's 22.8
square miles, jamming nearly 35,690 people into every one of those
square miles. jamming
nearly 35,690 people into every one of those square miles. And
a <i>huge </i>percentage of those people lived in the
thousands of sub-par tenements that had been built over the past
decade and a half or so.<br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">These buildings were all but built to burn, so there had obviously been more than a few fires in them, and there had probably been some fatalities as well, but what really amazes me is the fact that a major loss of life... ten or more...had never occurred when one of these tender boxes lit off at Oh Dark Hundred. Apparently luck had been shining on the tenement dwellers of New York, fire-fatality wise at any rate, over the last two decades or so. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">Unfortunately, that good luck came to a sliding, screeching stop</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">in February and March of 1860,</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"> when at least thirty people died in a pair of tenement fires...and we're obviously here to take a look at those two fires, but first we need to take a look at the fire department that would have responded to them.</span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">As you can likely well imagine, the New York Fire Department of 1860...160 years ago...was nothing like the present day F.D.N.Y. For one thing, it was an all-volunteer department, and wouldn't become a paid department for another five years. The then New York Fire Department boasted fifty engine companies, sixty or so hose companies, and seventeen ladder companies. All but one of the</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">rigs were hand-pulled to incident scenes, and the great majority of the engines were hand-</span><i style="text-align: center;">pumped </i><span style="text-align: center;">rigs, though there were a few steamers in service by then. The steamers, BTW, were </span><i style="text-align: center;">also</i><span style="text-align: center;"> hand-drawn with a single exception, that exception being a single self propelled steamer. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">None of the ladder rigs had aerial ladders...the turn table mounted aerial ladder wouldn't become common for a bit over two decades. All of the ladders were hand raised, including the big 40 footers that were the longest ladders in the department. </span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">These 138 companies were loosely organized under a central commission with a salaried Chief Engineer (What we call the 'Chief of Department today) who was elected from the ranks of the department.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">The guys received alarms via citywide bells that rang the number of the fire district...there were eight districts...where the fire was located. I'm making an assumption here, but a citizen who discovered a fire had to run to the nearest bell tower or possibly fire or police station to turn in the alarm. There was a rudimentary telegraph system connecting the various bell towers, possibly the police stations, and a few of the fire stations.</span><br />
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The firehouses doubled as social clubs for their members, but most also had bunk rooms, and by 1860...and well before, in fact...duty crews slept at the stations most nights to ensure a quick turn-out on night calls. (We'll talk about this in a little bit in 'Notes)' The 'Bunking In' system actually worked fairly well, but there were problems. There were some...er...<i>spirited</i> rivalries between companies, and the occasional fight broke out on scene or enroute over who got to a hydrant first/ who would get first water on the fire, etc, to the oint that the actual reason they were there in the first place...that'd be the fire...kind of got forgotten in all of the excitement. Thing is, it often wasn't the firefighters themselves involved in these fights, but rather, the 'runners'...hangers-on who ran with the companies and who tended to be ruffians and hooligans and such...who caused the problems.<br />
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Don't let these problems give you the wrong idea...the firefighters of the old Volunteer Department were every bit as courageous and gung-ho as the modern firefighter is today, and they saved countless lives and, yes, saved a few buildings <i>if</i> they could get to the scene early and get water on the fire quickly...but there were also more then a few occasions where they lost entire blocks in a fire that would have been little more than a single alarm working fire involving a floor or two of a single building even ten years later, much less today.<br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The
problem (OK...<i>one</i> of the problems) was those hand-pulled, hand pumped engines. I'm not going to
call them primitive, because for their day, they really weren't.
There were actually pretty sophisticated as well as beautiful rigs.
There was just a very definite limit to their capacity. The biggest ones could flow between 300 and 400 gallons per minute, and that only for a
short period of time. Remember, their crew was providing the
motive power, and the 'motive power' quickly got tired, meaning crews
on the 'brakes', as the handles that operated the pumps were
called, had to be switched out often if they wanted to pump at
full capacity. This also meant that the engines required huge
crews. </span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Also there were very few of these big 3-400 GPM 'Class 1' pumpers.
Most were class 2 (around 200 gallons per minute ) or class 3 (Around
150 gallons per minute) rigs. Being smaller in capacity didn't make working them any less exhausting for the guys manning them. Their crews...usually ten men to a side
manning the brakes...also had to switch off frequently to pump
the rig at it's full capacity.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxa79mZOyl-Cdv224w4C6DmQCvVsLvQv2svYktXm7f4sw5ANY6mFSqx2xvGic5nUqt7eGoDBbooIEOVLUGOwhaJ25MBviP46fOnbR-Z8F6NZNUwQ1zkj4mEy7kxEiTRKUXwQzpV0y4-wc/s1600/New+York+Style+hand+tub.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxa79mZOyl-Cdv224w4C6DmQCvVsLvQv2svYktXm7f4sw5ANY6mFSqx2xvGic5nUqt7eGoDBbooIEOVLUGOwhaJ25MBviP46fOnbR-Z8F6NZNUwQ1zkj4mEy7kxEiTRKUXwQzpV0y4-wc/s640/New+York+Style+hand+tub.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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A restored New York style 'Hand Tub' from about 1855. The 'Brakes'...handles that operated the pump...were side-mounted on the New York style rigs. The brakes are shown here folded in the traveling position, once they arrive at a scene, the brakes would be folded down, and the crew...generally about ten men per side...would pump them up and down briskly...make that rapidly...to pump water through a hose line connected to the discharge on the side of the rig. The water was directed onto the fire through big, brass or nickel plated straight tip play-pipe-style nozzles....one can be seen mounted on this rig just above the rear wheels. Rigs such as these were capable of either drafting from a water source such as a pond or cistern, or being supplied by a hydrant...the intake is visible on the front of the rig. A good crew could get around 150 GPM out of a rig this size, but one twenty man crew couldn't keep that pace up but for a very few minutes. This meant that engines required <i>huge</i> crews so the twenty man crews manning the brakes could be switched out every few minutes in order to keep water flowing. OH...BTW...remember, these guys had to pump the rig <i>after</i> hand-pulling it to the fire.</font></div>
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Note the beautiful paintwork and striping, as well as the murals...Rigs during this era were elaborately decorated and beautifully detailed , and their crews took an immense amount of pride in both their rig's appearance and performance, and weekly work details (Usually on Saturdays) were held to keep the rigs maintained and the fire house clean. This tradition...both pride in the equipment and house, and work details to maintain and clean the rigs. equipment, and house...carries on in volunteer fire companies in the U.S. to this very day</font><font size="2">.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="2"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="2"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="2"><br /></font></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">There were a few steamers in service by 1860, all but one of them was also hand-pulled, and that one exception was a big self-propelled steamer that was said to be so slow and cumbersome that the hand engines could generally beat it to the scene. The steamers were about the same capacity as the class one hand pumpers...around 300-400 GPM...but the big difference, of course, was the fact that they could pump at full capacity as long as there was fuel for the firebox. This would make a big difference at both of the fires I'm writing about in this post.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">Almost all of the 'New York' style hand engines had hose reels with 200 feet of 2.5 inch hose on them, and almost every engine company also ran a small two wheeled 'jumper' hose reel that could be either hand pulled or hitched to a tow hook on the rear of the engine. These little rigs usually carried anywhere between 400 and 600 feet of hose, and were called 'Jumpers because their size and relatively light weight allowed them to be 'jumped' over curbs and obstacles. The reels on the engine and jumper allowed the engine companies to lay in to the scene...if the hydrant was close enough...and get at least a couple of lines in service as soon as they could get water without having to wait for a hose company to get on scene.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">The department, as noted above, also had 60 or so dedicated hose companies. </span>The hose wagons were generally four wheeled carts with a single hose reel carrying from 600-1000 feet of hose. All of the hose was 2 1/2 inch hose, and in 1860 all of it would have been riveted leather hose. <span style="text-align: center;">The members of the hose companies were likely tasked with stretching the attack lines and any additional lines that were needed., and I believe they also actually made the fire attack, assisted by the crews of the engines who weren't manning the 'brakes'.</span><br />
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A pair of hand drawn hose wagons from the NYFD Volunteer era (And yes, NYFD <i>is</i> the correct way to write it for the volunteer era. The FDNY, or the Fire Department of New York didn't come along until a few years after the salaried department took over)</font></div>
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Hose wagons were always hose reels during this era. The hose was made of leather, which couldn't be flat-packed like cotton jacketed rubber lined hose, which was introduced in the mid 1870s, and didn't gain wide acceptance until about the early to mid 1880s. These rigs are just as elaborately decorated as the engines. </font></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">Side view of a hand drawn hose wagon. The front of the rig is to the right of the frame, where the tongue is visible. The tactics used upon arriving at a scene were actually very similar to those used today. The crew of the hose wagon would pull the first section off of the reel and snub it around the barrel of the hydrant, the the crew would pull the rig forward, unreeling hose as they headed for the fire. At the fire building, some extra line would be pulled off, then it would be 'broken' at a coupling, and a nozzle would be attached. Meanwhile the engine would connect to the hydrant ('Take The Hydrant'), connect to the line off of the hose wagon, and pump water to the crew on the nozzle. This tactic is called a 'Straight Lay', and it's been around since the hydrant was invented, and will likely be around long after all of us are gone.</font></td></tr>
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A restored hand drawn ladder truck. These were very simple rigs...simply a long, open frame wagon with racks for several ladders, up to 40 feet in length, and hooks beneath the ladder racks, for buckets...The buckets carried by the New York volunteer era ladder companies were a throw back to the days when bucket brigades were the <i>only</i> way to put water on the fire. Ladder wagons were among the first wheeled fire rigs in use, BTW, and didn't change greatly until horse drawn rigs came along in the 1860s, changing further...and becoming closer in appearance and operation to their modern descendants...when turntable mounted aerial ladders were developed in the 1880s. </font></div>
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This actually a rear three quarter view. This rig's front end, with the tongue and tow-ropes is to the left of the frame. The 'tongue' visible on the right side of the frame is actually a tiller attached to the rear wheels, which are steerable, to assist in getting the rig around tight corners. This <i>exact</i> theory exists to this very day, with the tillerman steering the wheels of the trailer of that most exclusively American of fire rigs, the tractor-drawn aerial ladder, .</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="2"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="2"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="2"><br /></font></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"> Ladder rigs were long, open frame wagons carrying several ladders of various lengths. All of these rigs had a rear tiller...actually a second tongue attached to the also steerable rear axle...as well as the tongue and ropes at the front used to pull the rigs to the fire. The tiller, of course, was used to help steer the rig around corners on the narrow streets of the day, foreshadowing that most American of fire rigs, the tractor drawn aerial ladder.</span><br />
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Just shy of 2000 firefighters ran around 350 actual working fires every year, along with around 150 'other' alarms. (That's for the entire department, BTW...not for just any one single company.)</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIaqcWhbX_G_x_7ffdaswzRB2uBY9IgIS8kWAhi5Ctun61JfW9RS341jJAxj1QW30XSRMdpVd8cab63q249-l-NQVWbe_fmYL9q_2mYsIz1O-32kQyYZ8u4eFZ8iXQUeNSe6FHgxQhKKM/s2048/TENEMENT+FIRE+MAP+DETAIL.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1711" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIaqcWhbX_G_x_7ffdaswzRB2uBY9IgIS8kWAhi5Ctun61JfW9RS341jJAxj1QW30XSRMdpVd8cab63q249-l-NQVWbe_fmYL9q_2mYsIz1O-32kQyYZ8u4eFZ8iXQUeNSe6FHgxQhKKM/w534-h640/TENEMENT+FIRE+MAP+DETAIL.jpg" width="534" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">An 1860-vintage map of Manhattan, with the areas in the detail maps for the two fires marked. I wish I could have found a better map...this was the only one I could find that was large enough for street names, etc. to be readable, and covered enough of Manhattan to show both fire scene locations. This one was still close...it stops at 46th Street.<br /><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Note the railway lines indicated on the map. Most of not all of the rail lines in Manhattan were horse drawn street cars. Electric street railroads (Better known as Trolley cars) wouldn't appear for nearly three decades. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44F2G6iz9mPmrYUvoVTxKWavojB1JkfmLEdDZYiAOPwBnbaMjLNe-EGUV2giOScsfIr2zTLgPlHMh4fWUrzksV7w6dawoI0gKBgLh71pTCRib3c9Xj6TTl_pYrvDW5uQAZSDh6yONlzM/s1360/Elm+Street+Fire+2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="1360" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44F2G6iz9mPmrYUvoVTxKWavojB1JkfmLEdDZYiAOPwBnbaMjLNe-EGUV2giOScsfIr2zTLgPlHMh4fWUrzksV7w6dawoI0gKBgLh71pTCRib3c9Xj6TTl_pYrvDW5uQAZSDh6yONlzM/w640-h336/Elm+Street+Fire+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Detail map of the area surrounding the Elm Street fire scene, with the fire location and the locations of the companies mentioned in the post indicated. Lady Washington Engine 40 was literally right on top of the scene! the companies mentioned, and indicated on the map, were only a small fraction of the companies that actually responded to the scene.<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44F2G6iz9mPmrYUvoVTxKWavojB1JkfmLEdDZYiAOPwBnbaMjLNe-EGUV2giOScsfIr2zTLgPlHMh4fWUrzksV7w6dawoI0gKBgLh71pTCRib3c9Xj6TTl_pYrvDW5uQAZSDh6yONlzM/s1360/Elm+Street+Fire+2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This was the department protecting the citizens of New York City as the sun slid down behind the roof-tops on the cold night of February 2nd, 1860. By 7 PM that chilly Thursday evening, most of the city was winding down. The majority of businesses had closed for the day, families were beginning to turn in for the night, and in the volunteer fire houses in the city, the crews who were staying overnight were gathered in the station lounges discussing local and world events, telling war stories, playing cards, and generally killing time as they waited for an alarm. It wouldn't surprise me if a couple of the guys, with shiver-producing memories of fighting fires in cold weather running through their heads, commented that they hoped the bells stayed silent that evening.<br />
<br />
Gas streetlights had been on for a couple of hours by then, casting circles of soft orange light around their poles, while that same glow lit the windows of larger businesses and of residences in the more affluent areas of the city...but not of the six story brick tenement at 142 Elm Street (Today's Lafayette Street).<br />
<br />
That early in the evening there were likely a few candles burning in the twenty occupied apartments on the second through sixth floors, but no gas lights...as noted above gas lighting was <i>not </i>one of the amenities included with the apartments.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">The building wasn't entirely without heat...the apartments did have fireplaces in the front rooms, as well as cook stoves, and coal fires were likely burning in at least some of the fireplaces, </span><span style="text-align: center;"> pumping coal smoke through the common chimneys that served each stack of six </span><span style="text-align: center;">apartments and maybe barely warming the sharp chill inside the tiny flats.</span><span style="text-align: center;"> These fireplaces were far more effective at adding to the sulfurous cloud of coal smoke that hung over the city than they were at actually heating the iceboxes that the occupants called home.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhId51KQ2Tai5AOIB5uuSzJX4K-7641HG2TVCLU4g1L8qCvDo6ByLe6toKYdJkrPgY_CrqvEd7_W1BwjYA2ELMVQslQZAKYtTEza7of_VnXaVzPeJj4_muqsrry8GLVQLf2BMcF7wPQ0MM/s1600/Elm+Street+Tenement+Floor+Plan.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhId51KQ2Tai5AOIB5uuSzJX4K-7641HG2TVCLU4g1L8qCvDo6ByLe6toKYdJkrPgY_CrqvEd7_W1BwjYA2ELMVQslQZAKYtTEza7of_VnXaVzPeJj4_muqsrry8GLVQLf2BMcF7wPQ0MM/s640/Elm+Street+Tenement+Floor+Plan.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">This is similar to the way each floor of the Elm Street building was laid out...four two room apartments with the narrow public hallway and stairway in the center of the building. There was a fireplace in each of the combination sitting room-kitchens, and the entire family shared the single bedroom. These buildings were thrown up quick and cheap and were uninsulated, making them ovens in the summer, and freezers in the winter. The fireplaces and cook stoves provided the only source of heat. The was also no lighting other than candles or oil lamps, so the stairways were pitch black at night (And not much better during the day). As the residents of the building at 142 Elm Street discovered, these buildings were also fire traps.</font></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">All of these apartments were two room apartments with a single bedroom for the entire family, meaning that some of these bedrooms had ten people sleeping in them, often in a single bed. All of those people in a single bed </span><i style="text-align: center;">did</i><span style="text-align: center;"> help keep everyone warm in the all but unheated building, but</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><i style="text-align: center;">still</i><span style="text-align: center;"> couldn't have been fun. By 7:30 or so, m</span>ost of the kids had probably already gone to bed. There wasn't much to do in a barely lighted, barely heated apartment on a winter evening, and huddling in bed beneath a heavy comforter at least gave the impression of warming them up a little. But <i>some</i> of the building's occupants...parents and older kids...were still awake between 7:30 and 8:00 PM, when someone possibly said 'Mom...Dad...I think I smell smoke...'<br />
<br />
The first floor of the tenement was divided into a pair of stores...a small grocery on the south side, and a bakery on the north...with the public entrance for the stairway that led to the apartments between the two stores. The building also had a basement...also likely served by the public stairway... that was used as storage by both first floor businesses, and the bakery had a large supply of hay stored in it's section of the basement. Sometime between 7 PM and 8 PM that evening, a fire started in the bakery's basement and quickly extended to that hay, filling first the basement, then the public hallway with heavy smoke that rolled into the narrow stairway and surged upward as if it was going up a chimney.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
This was the smoke one of the older kids may have told their parents they smelled, and by the time they smelled it, it was already too late. Their parents may have even smelled the smoke themselves though they couldn't <i>see</i> it because of the lack of light in the apartments. But they <i>may</i> not have worried about it...at first. You have to remember all they had for light were candles and oil lamps, and<span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">between them and a draft occasionally </span>shoving some smoke into the room as it blew down the common chimney serving the apartments' fireplaces, seeing...or smelling...a bit of smoke hanging in the room wasn't at all unusual. </div>
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So no one was worried at first. Until <i>heavy</i> smoke pushed into the rooms, burning everyone's eyes and sending their lungs into spasm. One of the apartment's occupants may have opened the door to the hallway, and let hell into the room as heat and dark, toxic smoke instantly filled the room from floor to ceiling. By the time that happened, it was beyond too late.<br />
<br />
The stairwell was already stuffed with smoke <i>before </i>the fire really got rolling...hay is notorious for producing heavy smoke, especially when it's smoldering...but then the hay lit up, and flames quickly rose to the basement's wooden ceiling...actually the underside of the first floor's flooring...and started rolling across it, heating everything in the room until it flashed over, sending flames surging up the stairs into the both the public hallway and the stairwell, cutting off escape well before most of the occupants even knew the building was on fire.<br />
<br />
The heavy smoke would have quickly filled the building from the top down, surging up the stairwell and spreading across the upper part of the building, first rolling into the sixth floor apartments almost before the occupants could react, then 'mushrooming' and spreading <i>downward, </i> quickly charging the entire building with smoke. As this was happening, flames burned through the floor of the bakery, rising to and rolling across the ceiling and heating the interior of the small store until it, too, flashed over, blowing the bakery's<span style="text-align: center;"> front windows out and allowing flames to bend upward into the night sky, lighting Elm Street up like noontime.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZSz0ddAjiZh2_94VZYglHG2GNFUU_kIuq5StLvlLZFyaQvAz5EbS1XG836Ey1WbI4pbGdrIqO3YbLpwp4ZZxjpjnJ80kM3aeLtXjsjK02eAsQTcwWDhMafsBYiOzQY7o_2sXw3DajvU/s1600/IMG_8434.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1305" data-original-width="1600" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZSz0ddAjiZh2_94VZYglHG2GNFUU_kIuq5StLvlLZFyaQvAz5EbS1XG836Ey1WbI4pbGdrIqO3YbLpwp4ZZxjpjnJ80kM3aeLtXjsjK02eAsQTcwWDhMafsBYiOzQY7o_2sXw3DajvU/s640/IMG_8434.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">An engraving of the Elm Street Fire, from '<i>Our Firemen:The History Of The New York Fire Departments From 1609 to 1887. </i>I believe this same engraving appeared in the <i>New York Times. </i>This isn't entirely accurate, but it's still a good representation. People had already started jumping before fire department arrived on scene, but firefighters <i>still</i> managed to make some pretty spectacular rescues in the fire's early stages. Sadly, they weren't able to rescue at least 20 residents.</font></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span><br /><br />
Most of the occupants of those sixth floor apartments may have died almost before they knew anything was wrong, suffocating in their beds as the smoke mushroomed across the top of the building, but a few woke up to find their apartments filling with smoke. They stumbled out into the hallway to find they couldn't make it down the stairs and...somehow...climbed a ladder up to a roof scuttle, and dragged themselves out onto the roof. The problem was, <span style="text-align: center;">142 Elm was unusual as it wasn't built in a row of tenements...it was a single six story building in the middle of a block of two and three story storefronts. </span><span style="text-align: center;"> Once they got to the roof, they had no way down, other than to jump.</span><br />
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The occupants of the lower floors had time to either escape or die horrible deaths as they tried to. The stairwell was already stuffed with smoke and flames when one of them gathered their family and tried to make it out the door and down, only to be chased back inside as a dark, noxious, hot wall of poisonous death boiled into the room. The ones who didn't breath in a lung full of super heated air and collapse to the floor in agony did the only thing they <i>could</i> do...they headed for the windows and threw the sashes open. But they faced the exact same problem as the sixth floor residents who were now trapped on the roof...they had no way out of the building now other than jumping from the windows.<br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;"> Most of the building's second floor residents would make it out by doing just that. A</span><span style="text-align: center;"> family of five named Wise would be the sad exception. The Wises lived in one of the front second floor apartments...probably the one over the grocery store...and the fire was probably well advanced when they became aware of it, because only the father and a 3 year old child made it out.</span><br />
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Wise may, in fact, have been one of the first people to become aware of the fire, but it was already too late when he and his family sprung out of bed as their apartment filled with thick, nasty smelling smoke. They didn't have time to dress, so they bolted from the bedroom still wearing their night clothes. Mr. Wise scooped up his youngest child...a three year old boy...and they ran for the door to the hallway, yanking it open, then cowering back as a storm surge of dark, super-heated smoke rolled in on top of them. Fire rolled in through the door and started running the ceiling as he turned and ran for the front window, yelling for the rest of the family to follow him as he threw it open.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">When Wise threw the window open it created a draft that pulled the </span><span style="text-align: center;">flames already rolling across the ceiling towards it, giving the five Wises only seconds to make it out. Wise held his son against him tightly as he looked out of the open window and down at the sidewalk twenty or so feet below him. Smoke was eddying around his body and his back felt like a slab of bacon in a frying pan as he climbed over the windowsill, only to find that it was just as bad there. Their
apartment was above the grocery, but the entire first floor was
charged with smoke...in fact, fire had likely cooked through the
wooden floors of <i>both</i> stores by then...and smoke was
pushing from around the store's front door and streaming upward. He
was coughing and hacking on the smoke, and his son was crying...<br /></span>
<br />
I don't know if he dropped his son, or landed on him, but Wise couldn't stay astride the windowsill...he pulled his other leg across, turned himself so he was sort of sitting on the sill (This may have been when he dropped his son)...and pushed off. That twenty foot or so drop felt more like twenty stories as he fell, the second or so he was in mid-air seeming to last forever, and then his feet slammed into the sidewalk and his knees bent, and he may have even clocked himself with a knee as he tumbled, but he sprang up, bruised but otherwise unhurt, and looked around for his son, who he could hear crying. He quickly found him, lying nearer the street, one leg turned and bent unnaturally. The child wailed in agony as his broken leg dangled when his dad picked him up, but he <i>had </i>to get away from the building. Fire was boiling out of the front window of the bakery, only feet away,, and standing on the sidewalk in front of the building was like standing just inside the open door of a furnace. Wise turned and jogged out into the street and away from the building.<br />
<br />
Someone came running up behind him as he moved away from the building, calling out and asking if all of his family had made it out. There was a sudden flaring glare above them as Wise turned to reply...he instead looked up, horrified, to see fire <span style="text-align: center;">rolling up and out of the window he'd just bailed out of, cascading up and across the front window of the third floor apartment above his. By saving himself and his young son, he'd cut the rest of his family off from escape. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">Even as he looked up, tears running down his face, the nearby district 5 fire bell began banging out the alarm...five bongs, a pause, then five more, repeated over and over, the distinct and unique tones of the fire bell crisp and clear in the cold night air, as the city's other bells joined in. Someone...either another occupant who'd made it out, or a neighbor...had run to the nearest police station or </span><span style="text-align: center;">maybe the bell tower itself or, even more likely,</span><span style="text-align: center;"> Lady Washington Engine 40's fire house just a short block or so away at 173 Elm Street, to turn in the alarm, but it was far, </span><i style="text-align: center;">far</i><span style="text-align: center;"> too late.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">The alarm could well have been turned in by one of the seven member White family, six of whom were home when the fire broke out. Another one of them may have been the person comforting Wise as he stared at the flames rolling from his apartment window. Issac White and his boisterous and energetic brood lived in the other front second floor apartment...above the bakery where the fire started... and had also been chased out of bed as smoke filled their apartment, but there were very likely two differences in their escape, and one of them was a <i>biggie</i></span><i><br /></i>
<span style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">First, they smelled smoke and realized the danger earlier...a couple of them may have been awake, and, being over the bakery, smoke was probably pushing through the floorboards, alerting them to the fire sooner than the Wises across the hallway. They likely also tried to make it out through the hallway, and also got a face-full of heat and smoke as Issac White opened the apartment's door...but instead of leaving the door open as they retreated towards the window, he slammed it closed, and ordered his family to the front windows.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">All
six of the seven who were home...seventeen year old Gustave was
absent that night...were coughing violently as Issac White shoved the
window open. Smoke was pushing <i>hard </i>from around the
bakery's front door, and likely pushing from around the window frame
as well, streaming up the front of the building, and the window that
the Whites were escaping from was directly in the path of all that
smoke. White first helped his wife climb over the sill
and, knowing they had only minutes, told her to 'Bend your knees when
you land'...I'll drop Pauline (Their youngest) and Louis to
you'...then watched as she pushed off of the window sill...he waited
just long enough to see her land and leap up..</span></span></p>
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">It was probably about then that eleven year old Louis possibly called 'DAD!!' and he looked back to see the faint outlines of two of his children...seven year old Pauline and eighteen year old Esther...crumpled on the floor, coughing violently.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
'Grab Esther!!' He told his other kids as he scooped little Pauline up and bolted for the window. It was getting HOT in the apartment. Louis, along with his twenty year old sister Eliza, helped Esther to her feet. In White's arms, Pauline croaked 'Daddy?? 'Shhh, honey, don't be scared, I'm gonna drop you...Mommy's gonna catch you.' White possibly told her. Then he called down to his wife that he had Pauline and to get ready to catch her.<br />
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'Hurry up! For God's sake, Zack,, Hurry up!' What Issac White couldn't see, his wife <i>could...</i>flames were rolling along the ceiling of the bakery. He held Pauline out of the window, and let go...he didn't have time to aim, but his wife sidestepped beneath the window and managed to catch Pauline...going down and landing hard on her backside as she did, but Pauline...who grabbed her mom tightly and sobbed in terror...was safe.<br />
<br />
Issac got ready to pass Louis...who, at eleven, was pushing being as tall as his dad, and was already taller then both of his older sisters...out the window, but he handed the still semi-conscious Esther off to his dad. 'I can jump Dad' Louis told his dad between violent coughs. " 'Liza and I can help Esther down..." He looked over at his 20 year old sister Eliza. 'Sis, you go first..."<br />
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Issac looked towards the apartments door. The crack beneath the door was glowing bright orange, the apartment was so packed with smoke he could hardly see his kids only a couple of feet away.<br />
<br />
" 'Liza, can you make it? He asked his daughter, helping her over the sill.. 'Yeah...' she answered, quickly gauged the distance to the sidewalk, then let go, her nightgown billowing and hair flying as she fell. Louis was already climbing over the window sill as Eliza landed perfectly, then rolled towards the street to get out of the way. He pushed off even as he climbed over the sill...out of the corner of his eye, he saw something fall, then saw their cross-the-hall neighbor going out of the window of the other 2nd floor front apartment. Louis landed hard but un-hurt, as his mom ran to help Mr Wise.<br />
<br />
The temperature in the apartment suddenly spiked <i>hard...</i>Fire had burned through the upper part of the door, and was beginning to roll across the living room ceiling, reaching hungrily for the open window. Issac knew they only had a few seconds to escape. 'Esther, Honey, are you ready? He asked her even as he helped her over the sill. He didn't have time to get fancy...he turned her so she was facing the window, even as she nodded, coughing. White glanced down and let her go.<br />
<br />
Issac pulled himself through the window and out into the cold night air even as he saw Luis and Eliza break Esther's fall, then drag her towards the street. He heard glass breaking as his feet pounded <i>hard</i> against the sidewalk, ...his knees bent and he went down on his right hip and side even as a quick, blast-furnace hot gust of air washed over him along with an orange flare that lit the sidewalk up...the front window of the bakery had blown, and fire was rolling up and over him. Issac crab-walked backwards frantically, hearing his wife and kids all calling for him.<br />
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After a couple of seconds that felt like the intake orientation class in Hell, he stood and jogged to the middle of the street, where Mr Wise and his terrified little boy had joined the rest of the White clan. His family was soot stained and dirty, and Esther was doubled over, retching from the smoke she'd 'eaten' inside the apartment...but all of them were alive. Little Pauline was trying to comfort the tiny Wise boy, whose dad had tear tracks running through the soot staining his face.<br />
<br />
Flames were blowing out of the bakery and cascading up the building's front wall, joining with the fire now blowing out of the window that the Wises had just escaped from to reach as high as the fourth floor. The fire rolling out of the Wise apartment flared through the smoke pushing out of the grocery below it. Heavy smoke was boiling from the upper part of the building to roll upward into the night sky, bending northward as it did so. Even as they watched, the front window of the grocery blew out, and more fire boiled into the night. The street was lit up like noon-time, and even fifty or so feet away from the building, the little group had all but forgotten that it was cold outside.<br />
<br />
The city's fire bells peeled in the background, and Issac couldn't help but think 'The boys won't have any trouble finding <i>this</i> one' as he asked 'Are we the only ones who made it out?'<br />
<br />
"I think so..." He heard Mr Wise croak tearfully "Oh, my God, I think so..."<br />
<br />
Though it wouldn't have mattered to him much at all...he'd just lost most of his family...Mr Wise was wrong. In the rear second floor apartment above the bakery, George Boedner had also discovered the fire fairly early as smoke filled his apartment, and had possibly, like Issac White, opened the door to the hallway to get a face-full of heat and smoke, then slammed the door and ordered his family to one of the living room windows, which looked out onto the rear yard of the tenement. They had an advantage that the occupants of the front apartments <i>didn't</i> have...a shed of some kind (Possibly the communal out-house) was hard by the rear of the building on that side, and he, his wife Frederica, and his sixteen year old son Henry (Very likely and almost inevitably called 'Hank') could just step out of the window onto the shed roof, then jump to the ground. His youngest child...tiny four year old Caroline...probably couldn't even <i>see</i> out of the windows, with their high-off-the floor sills, much less climb out of it, but he could just hand her out to one of the older kids.<br />
<br />
The apartment was filling with smoke <i>fast</i>, and...like Mr White...he could see a flaring orange stripe beneath the hallway door. He shoved the window open and looked at his family.<br />
<br />
'Hank, climb out onto the shed...Caroline come here honey...' He picked his daughter up as Hank quickly pulled himself through the window and stood on the sloping tin roof of the shed. 'Here...' he started to hand Caroline out to him '...Get your sis...<i>WHOA!!!!'</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
The shed's tin roof rang like a bell, bouncing Hank Boedner off of his feet, as something...no some <i>one</i>...hit the roof hard and bounced, and only then did George see the clothesline rope hanging against the wall...the rope started swaying and swinging, and he heard someone above him, crying 'Francine...Oh My God, Francine...' Still holding Caroline, George leaned out of the window and looked up to see Bill Vopel, who lived in the fifth floor rear apartment above the bakery, climbing down the rope, hand over hand. His wife was lying on the roof on her side moaning. Hank, who'd missed being taken out by the plummeting Francine Vopel by less than a yard, was temporarily out of the ball game as he half sat, half leaned back on his hands, shaking his head back and forth as he tried to get the world to stop spinning in two or more different directions at once.<br />
<br />
'Honey, I'm going to let you down on the roof' George told his daughter, then lowered her gently to the roof. 'Go over there' he pointed towards the end of the shed. She scampered in that direction only to be bounced off of her feet onto her bottom as Vopel dropped onto the roof. Hank, now recovered, looked at his dad, who said 'Go check your sister, I'll get your mom...' then turned to see fire cooking through the top of the hallway door and running the ceiling. Frederica, overcome by smoke, was on the floor, under the flames, her nightgown beginning to smoke. George crab-walked to her...<i>God </i>it was hot!...and grabbed her hands, back scooting across the floor, coughing, retching as the smoke thickened...then someone said 'I've got you' and hands grabbed his shoulders a someone else grabbed his wife and started dragging her towards the window.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Many of the members of New York's volunteer fire companies 'Bunked In' at their stations overnight, to give them a quicker response time, and Lady Washington Engine Company 40 was no exception. Their firehouse was located just over five hundred feet from the tenement, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the very first notification of the fire came in the form of frantic pounding at their front door.<br />
<br />
Lady Washington's house...and indeed, the majority of New York's volunteer houses in 1860...enjoyed all of the bells and whistles that the tenements lacked. They very likely had gas lighting, and heat, and spacious, comfortable lounges and day rooms, and it's a good bet that, at 7:30 PM, that the duty crew was awake and playing cards or discussing whatever was discussed in a 1860 New York firehouse when they were interrupted by loud frantic pounding at the station's front door.<br />
<br />
A couple of Engine 40's guys...or possibly a couple of the company 'runners' who were hanging out in the cheerful warmth of the lounge...were sent downstairs to see what all the noise was about...they yanked open the 'man door (As opposed to the rig's 'Exit Door') to have a couple or more people yelling 'Oh My God, they're still inside!!!' and "It's on fire!!' while pointing up Elm Street towards the burning tenement. One of the members or runners looked up Elm Street to see the sun rising twelve hours early in the wrong direction. I can just about bet the words 'Oh S***!!!' were yelled loudly even as their eyes went huge as they turned to yell up the stairs..<br />
<br />
"Let's GO!!! We got one in full bloom right up Elm Street!!!!<br />
<br />
Shoes clattered on steps as firefighters and runners bailed out of the lounge and down the stairs. There was no telegraph alarm system back then, but there <i>was</i> a telegraph system connecting the bell towers, and some of the stations also had a telegraph key. I don't know if Lady Washington's house was one of them or not...but if it was, one of the crew who was trained on using it immediately started pounding out a message to the bell towers.<br />
<br />
As one of their number frantically pounded on the telegraph key, a couple of the crew pushed the big exit doors open as other members, along with runners, grabbed the twin tow ropes strung to either side of their rig's tongue, and started dragging the big white, blue, and gold leaf painted crane-neck style side-stroke hand engine out onto the street. Their firehouse was north of the burning tenement, on the opposite side of the street, so they swung out and to the left as they left the house. Even as their foreman shouted 'Start her lively, Boys!!!' they heard the District 5 fire bell's first sharp, clear 'BONG!!' as it began banging out the alarm.<br />
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A beautifully detailed drawing of Lady Washington's rig, from Kenneth Holcomb Dunshee's 1939 book '<i>Enjine! Enjine!</i>, which described in detail the development of hand-pumped fire engines in New York. The rig was known as a 'Crane Neck' engine because of the way the frame curved upward behind the front wheels...this allowed the wheels to pass beneath the frame and turn 90 degrees, which allowed the engine to be turned around in it's own length. The reel mounted ropes just ahead of the front wheels were the tow ropes the crew grabbed hold of to pull the rig...the tongue was used more for steering and for pushing the rig backwards than for pulling. </font></div>
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The red cylindrical structure with the company number painted on it houses the air chamber, which filled with water. forcing air into the top of the chamber. As the crew pumped, this trapped air would push additional water into the hose line on each stroke, which created a steady, solid stream of water rather than 'spurts' or a ragged stream. Air cylinders were, and indeed, still are, an integral part of all piston type pumpers...be they hand, stream, gasoline or Diesel operated.</font></div>
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The rig was built in 1856 by a company named James Smith, and had twin 8.5 inch diameter pump cylinders with 9 inch strokes, giving it a capacity of 265 GPM @ 60 strokes per minute. Of course, the faster the crew on the 'brakes' pumped, the more water they could move, so at, say, 80 strokes per minute, they could get 350 GPM out of the rig...but only for as long as the crew could keep that pace up. This is why engine companies of this era needed huge crews...as many as 40 to 60 guys (Not all actual members of the fire company...we'll get to that in Notes, too) would be queuing up to take their turns at the Brakes as the guys pumping them tired out.</font></div>
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The cylinder bearing the company number above the front wheels is the rig's hose reel, which carried 200 feet of 2.5 inch hose. The hose on the reels was primarily used when multiple engines were used to relay water from a distant water source to the fire. The engine on the water source...be it hydrant, cistern, or river...would hook up to the hydrant/drop it's suction hose into the water source, then pull all of it hose off of the reel, connecting to to their pumpers discharge. The next arriving engine would connect the line to their intake, then pull <i style="text-align: left;">their </i><span style="text-align: left;">hose off of and lay it out for the next engine,...the process would be repeated until they got water to the fire.</span></font><span> There were stories of as many as thirty engines being involved in relay operations a full mile in length. Politics sometimes made this operation even </span><i>more</i><span> complicated...we'll get to that in 'Notes'.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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Another advantage of having a hose reel on the engine, of course is that it allowed the company to go in service as soon as they got to the scene if there was a hydrant close enough to the fire building for them to do so. Lady Washington's guys were able to get water on the fire with-in only minutes of arriving on scene on Elm Street because of a close-by hydrant, but the fire was already beyond the control of a single hose line. Even so, Engine 40 firefighter Danial Scully rescued/assisted in rescuing at least six people trapped in the second and third floor rear apartments.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1"><br /></font></div>
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Most engine companies also ran a small two wheel '<span>Jumper</span>' style hose <span>reel</span> that carried an additional 400 feet or so of hose...two or three men would grab this small rig and follow (Or sometimes, lead) the engine to the fire, giving them around 600 feet of hose before the hose companies rolled in. This allowed them to have a <span>couple</span> of lines in service, or start setting up a relay operation before the hose companies got to the scene.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1"><br /></font></div>
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An immaculately restored 1853 James Smith and Co hand tub just about identical in design to Lady Washington Engine 40's rig, right down to the front mounted hose reel. This rig is owned by the Fire Museum of Maryland, and was built for the Brooklyn Fire Department in 1853. The Storm Engine Company, of Babylon, New York bought it used and placed it in service in 1881. I'm not sure when the Fire Museum of Md. purchased, but it was pictured in the 1939 book <i>Enjine! Enjine!,</i> referenced above, as a museum display. It's absolutely awesome, IMHO, that this rig has been maintained all these years...and yes, she's fully functional to this day.<br />
<br />
There were pretty capable rigs for the day, capable of pumping around 265-350 or so GPM with a full crew working the brakes at full tilt, which would be around 60-80 strokes per minute. The problem was the crew could only keep that rate up for between five and ten minutes at best, even less if they were pumping harder. .This is why engine companies from this era required huge crews, so a fresh crew was ready to take over when the working crew grew tired and needed a break. Also, the crews usually didn't take breaks as a group...each person on the brakes would drop off as he became tired, to be replaced by one of the fresh men waiting their turn</font><font size="2">.</font></div>
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Most New York engine companies also ran a two wheeled 'jumper' hose cart that carried an additional 400-600 feet of hose. This small, light weight rig could be pulled by two or three men, or hooked to a tow-hook on the rear of the engine, and pulled along with the engine itself. This, along with the reel...or, in some cases, reels...on the engine gave the crew a bit more flexibility and allowed them to operate independently of hose companies if the need arose.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> These rigs got the nick-name 'Jumpers' because their light weight allowed them to be 'jumped' across curbs and other obstacles</span>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
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Two or three other men grabbed the tow bar of the company's small, two wheeled hose cart...known as a 'jumper'...and followed the engine's crew out of the house. The blazing tenement was only a block or so south of them, so they were on scene in two or so minutes, despite the fact that they were on foot, pulling the engine and jumper behind them.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> The front windows of both first floor stores had probably blown by then, and fire was rolling out and up, lighting Elm Street up like Mardi Gras, but <i>that</i> wasn't the sight that sent cold chills down their spines. It seemed that every window that <i>wasn't</i> puking fire and smoke had at least one person leaning out of it, screaming for help as smoke pushed from the window, eddying and rolling around them as it did so. As if <i>that</i> wasn't bad enough, five or six <i>more</i> people were on the roof, silhouetted in the flame-glare kicking back off of the smoke.<br />
<br />
<i>Today, </i>the Officer In Charge of the first in engine company, seeing trapped residents hanging from the windows of a well involved multi story, multi family dwelling as he rolled up, would break out into a cold sweat even if he was riding right seat on a brand new example of the newest, most advanced pumper on the road, with an equally new, equally advanced 110 foot tower ladder rolling in right behind them, and the rest of a full first alarm commercial/multifamily dwelling assignment only minutes away. Needless to say, the foreman and crew of Lady Washington Engine 40 had it far, <i>far</i> worse than that modern fire officer.<br />
<br />
While they <i>did</i> have hose...almost every N.Y.F.D. engine carried a reel with 200 feet of 2.5 inch hose and a couple of play pipes and nozzles, plus they had another four hundred feet of hose on the jumper, along with another playpipe...they didn't carry water on board (Booster tanks on fire apparatus weren't even a concept yet, and wouldn't become common for nearly 70 years.) and they didn't carry any more hose or any ladders. Hose Companies were separate companies, with their own houses, as were ladder companies.<br />
<br />
The nearest hose company...Atlantic Hose Co 14...was quartered about a half mile east at at 3 Elizabeth Street, and the nearest hook and ladder company...Eagle Hook and Ladder # 4...was an equal distance away to the southeast at 22 Eldridge Street. Both companies were a good seven or eight minutes away with the crew running hard, feet pounding on cobblestones as they dragged the rigs behind them, and neither had the advantage of having the fire staring them in the face as they came out of their stations. They had to 'Chase the glow' to find the fire's location. Lady Washington's guys would be on their own for a long, <i>long</i> eight minutes or so.<br />
<br />
Lady Washington's crew <i>did </i> have a hydrant though, at Elm and Grand Streets, just north of the fire. Lady Washington's crew started scrambling. Their foreman shouted up to the people trapped in the building to hang on, that help was on the way, then, over the rumbling crackle of flames, and peeling of the fire bells, started barking orders to his crew.<br />
<br />
"Lets get on that hydrant and get a line in service!!" Then to the crew on the jumper...' Get some more line off for a second line!!' This taken care of, he looked at two of his firefighters...Danial Scully and one other firefighter.. "Dan...you two haul ass around back and see what we've got on the backside of this thing...<br />
<br />
The two firefighters disappeared down an ally between a pair of storefronts as the hose reel sang, spinning fast as the crew dragged all 200 feet off of it. One member cut it at the first coupling, grabbed a hydrant wrench out of the engine's tool box, and dragged the female end towards the hydrant as another grabbed the male end and quickly spun the coupling onto the rigs's intake. Another crew coupled the rest of the line to one of the pumper's two discharges and screwed a playpipe and nozzle to the line's business end, while the rest of Lady Washington's guys unfolded the brakes from the 'traveling' position, pulling them down and out to the rig's sides.<br />
<br />
"Ready for water!!" The hydrant man slapped the hydrant wrench onto the operating nut on top of the hydrant and spun it, water surged through the hose line, swelling it as it rushed into rig's tank as twenty guys...ten on each side...grabbed hold of the brakes, waiting for the water to fill the tank so they could prime the pump.<br />
<br />
"OK...Work her boys!!!" The rig started rocking as the crew slammed the brakes up and down, shoving water through the attack line, then a half inch stream of water spurted from the nozzle and blasted into the flames roaring from the bakery windows...<br />
<br />
As the first stream bored into the fire, the jumper's reel sang as a second line was pulled, cut at a coupling, and connected to the engine's second discharge. Another playpipe was spun onto that line's business end, and the call 'Ready for water on the second line!! was called back to the engine. A firefighter at the rig spun the discharge valve open and a second stream bored into the flames.<br />
<br />
With the guys on the brakes going all out, they may have been pumping as many as 80 or so strokes per minute, or about 350 GPM from the pump's twin 8.5 inch diameter by 9 inch stroke cylinders, or about 175 GPM from each of the two lines. They may have even darkened the fire in the two stores down a little bit, giving the very false impression for a hopeful minute that they were getting ahead of it...but the fire was already <i>way </i>ahead of them, and they knew it. The stairwell and public halls were fully involved on all six floors, and the fire had rolled into apartments on at least three floors.<br />
<br />
Around on the backside of the building, fire had cooked through several sixth floor rear windows already, and smoke was pushing from several other windows as Dan Scully and the other fire fighter ran up to the rear of the burning tenement. The communal outhouse was hard by the north side of the rear wall, and several people were on it's roof, but even worse, there were people leaning out of a third floor window on the south side of the building, smoke billowing around them as they screamed for help.<br />
<br />
'Give me a boost up on that roof, then haul ass back around front and tell 'em we need men and ladders back here!' Scully said, then yelled up...to both the people on the shed roof and the ones at the window... "Hang on!!'<br />
<br />
Scully's partner made a stirrup with his hands and boosted him upward as he pulled himself over the edge of the roof, looking at the four people standing, and in one case, lying on the tin. One, a boy of about sixteen or so was holding a little girl. A couple of feet away from the kids a man was kneeling next to a woman who was lying on her side, moaning in pain. A clothesline was swaying in the breeze...which was blowing towards the front of the building...as it led upward to a fifth floor window that was just beginning to show fire.<br />
<br />
'My Mom and dad are still in there!' the teenager yelled, pointing at an open second floor window The smoke rolling from the window was tinted orange. Scully knew what his next move <i>had</i> to be. 'I've got 'em' he told the youth, then ran across the roof and looked through the window. He could see the garish orange glow of flames through the smoke, which was banked down to within two feet of the floor, boiling out of the window like it was being pushed by a pump. He could see movement...<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Dan Scully took a deep
breath and pulled himself through the window, rolling onto the floor
of a reasonable facsimile of Hell. Sweat instantly broke out as the
heat of a thousand summer days enveloped him like a malignant cloak.
The air near the floor was still breathable, but barely. A few feet
ahead of him, he could see a man in pajamas and a robe dragging a
badly burned woman in a smoldering nightgown towards him. He scuttled
forward on hands and knees and grabbed the man.</div>
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'I've got you!' Scully told
Mr. Boedner, even as he felt a hand on <i>his </i>shoulder...glanced
around just long enough to see a helmet front plate with a big white
'14' on it. 'Atlantic Hose is on scene Danny Boy...' The helmet's owner told him. '...Four-Truck's right
behind us. This 'f***ing place is getting ready to light up'</div>
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<br /></div>
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Even as the Hose 15
firefighter told him this, they were scuttling towards the window.
"Get her!' Scully told him, indicating Mrs. Boedner. The Hose 14
firefighter got her beneath her arms and started dragging her towards
the window, Dan Scully close behind, urging Mr. Boedner on as well.
The smoke was almost down to the floor now, the heat horrendous. He
sensed more than saw the Hose 14 guy pass Mrs Boedner out of the
window to someone else on the roof before half climbing, half diving
out himself, heard the boy yell 'Mom! even as Mr. Boedner reached the
window and was all but yanked outside.</div>
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<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
'Get the hell outa there
Danny!!' Dan Scully didn't have to be convinced. He couldn't see and,
even scooting along the floor on hands and knees as close to the
floor as he could get he could barely breathe...he felt along the
wall, felt upward, found the windowsill, and reached up, grabbing
it and boosting himself up and out of the window, landing astride the
sill, jackknifed across it on his belly. Smoke was boiling out of the
window, that pulsing, rolling smoke that today's firefighters call
'chunky smoke'. He started pulling himself the rest of the way out of
the window even as the Hose 14 firefighter who'd assisted with the
rescue helped drag him out onto the out-house roof.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The rear yard of the
tenement was a madhouse of sound and light, Flames were blowing from
every sixth floor window. as well as several fifth and fourth floor
windows, with a crackling roar, lighting the rear yard up like mid-day. He heard someone yell 'I've got one on the floor' even as he
glanced at the window of the other rear second floor apartment to see
a firefighter disappearing into the smoke rolling from it as he
climbed off of a ladder (Good, he thought, Four-Truck's here).
Desperate, terrified screaming was coming from above him, and he
looked up at the third floor apartment, above the apartment the Ladder 4 firefighter had just entered, where the trapped family he'd seen
earlier...The four members of the McCarrick family...were pleading
desperately for help.</div>
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Oh, shit!!! ' He likely
thought to himself as he stared up at the man and woman leaning out
of the apartment's rear windows as smoke billowed around them. The
thought 'Why isn't anyone going after them' formed in his head at the
same instant he spotted a crew from Hook and Ladder 4 manhandling a
big 40 foot ladder down the rear ally.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Firefighters from Hose 14,
Ladder 4, and a couple of other just arriving companies were helping
the Boedners and the Vopel's off of the outhouse roof as the Ladder 4
guys turned the big ladder, on its side, dug one of the feet into the
yard's dirt, and started walking it upward. As they raised it, the firefighter who had shouted
something about 'One on the floor' was just emerging from the second floor window he'd entered, handing
off a badly burned man to another firefighter on the ladder at that
window. The trapped family that Ladder 4's guys were going after was above that second floor apartment.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They didn't have <i>near </i>enough
time to bring the trapped third floor residents down one by one. But
Scully had an idea. Each apartment had two windows. The ladder at the
second floor window was beneath the window closest to the outhouse.
The family on the third floor was leaning out of the third floor
window nearest to the corner of the building..</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Scully slid off of the roof
on his butt, landing on his feet, and calling out to one of the
Ladder 4 guys he knew. 'Keep some one on that ladder!' He
yelled, pointing to the ladder beneath the second floor window. 'And
get someone on the shed roof!' The ladder smacked against the
building's wall, beneath the third floor window. Scully started up
the ladder, saying 'One of you guys come up behind me about six or
eight feet under me', then, as he climbed, outlined what he wanted to
do. It only took him a couple of seconds to scramble up the ladder.
Heavy, dark smoke, thick and hot, boiled from the window. As heavy as
the smoke was, Scully could <i>still</i> make out a vague
orange glow...fire had cooked through the hallway door. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
'Thank God, Thank God!!!' The
trapped father called out. Scully could see two small heads behind
the parents. 'Hand me the kids first' Scully told him...Mr. McCarrick
handed the first kid...a young boy of about six. dressed in night
clothes...out of the window...Scully twisted around, grabbing the
child by his hands and swinging him down and around, lowering
him quickly to where the firefighter below him could reach up and
grab him. Scully was already turning around to grab the second
child...another boy, about a year or so older...to repeat the process.
Below him, the firefighter on the other ladder grabbed the first
child as he was swung across and immediately turned and handed him
to a firefighter on the shed roof.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The four firefighters
quickly transferred the second child to the shed roof as well. Even
as they were being lowered to the ground, Scully was saying 'Your turn,
m'lady' as he helped Mrs. McCarrick out of the window. 'I'm gonna
swing you onto the ladder behind me, the guy below us...' I got it!
The woman, who was quick on the uptake, told him. 'Better hurry up!
he heard from the other ladder...a quick glance showed flames
beginning to belch from that second floor window.<br />
<br />
Mrs McCarrick wasn't a tiny
woman, but thankfully she wasn't huge either....Scully swung her
around behind him, yelling for Mr. McCarrick to climb out onto the
ladder. Scully then turned and helped McCarrick out of the
window as, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the firefighter on
the ladder next to them grab his wife, almost over balancing as he
did so. Rather than swinging her onto the roof he helped her
find her footing on the ladder in front of him, then guided her
down as he climbed down the ladder.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
'Think you can make it
down?' Scully asked Mr. McCarrick, to get an 'Oh <i>hell</i> yeah...lets
get the hell outa here!' The two men climbed down the ladder as
flames began bending out of the window he'd just exited, painting the
smoke rolling from that same window orange. Once he hit the ground,
McCarrick quickly found his wife and kids, gathering them in a huge
hug, tears running down their faces. Scully breathed out satisfied
sigh, leaning a hand against the ladder as he did so.<br />
<br />
Even as Dan Scully and his crew, along with Ladder 4's crew, were getting the Boedners and the McCarricks out of the building, more companies were rolling in. As the hose companies arrived, their crews laid <span style="font-family: "times new roman";">lines from more distant hydrants, meaning that as the engines were dragged on scene, their crews had to set up relay operations to get water to the scene. As many as three or four engines would be lined up 200 feet apart, pumping into the next engine's intake, each relay supplying a single stream. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Twenty man crews manned the brakes on each engine while anywhere from thirty to sixty men on each waited their turn to take over for two to three minutes at a pop...that was as long as anyone could last pumping the rigs before they needed to rest for a few minutes. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">As many as six or eight streams were probably playing on the fire, but sadly all of this effort was all but futile, as the only effect those multiple streams seemed to be having on the fire was to annoy it a bit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Meanwhile more ladder companies...the city had 17 of them at the time and at least three or four responded to the scene...rolled in behind Ladder 4. Ev</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">en as the more streams were placed in service, 'Truckies' slid the heavy wooden ground ladders out of their racks on the long, hand-pulled ladder rigs, and hustled them to where they were needed on the front and rear of the building. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">It was a hectic, boisterous, and active scene, and </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">the noise </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">was horrendous. Disjointed calls of 'Pump! Pump! Pump! at each engine, timing the rocking 'CLANK-CLANK! of the brakes, were overshadowed by shouted orders, screams for help, and the rumble of flames.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><br />
<br />
These later arriving companies were making another desperate rescue on the front side of the building even as Dan Scully and his crew raced against time to get the McCarricks out of their rear apartment. Bill North, his wife, and their three kids lived in the third floor apartment directly above the Wise apartment and the grocery, and now the couple was leaning out of a smoke-puking third floor window, yelling for help, their kids cowering behind them.<br />
<br />
Several firefighters quickly sized up the problem, a plan very similar to the one Dan Scully came up with was hatched on the fly, and orders were shouted. Several firefighters ran into the building hard by the south side of the burning tenement and up the steps, quickly finding their way to a front second story window. Another crew began setting another forty footer against the wall of the tenement as the Norths begged them to please hurry. The top of the ladder slapped bricks just below and to the left of the window the Norths were hanging from, between it and the corner of the building.<br />
<br />
A firefighter leaned out of the window of the building next door as two other firefighters quick-climbed the ladder, making it bounce as they bailed up the rungs. Fire was rolling from the window Mr Wise had escaped from and cascading upward, across the window next to the one the Norths were framed in while the window directly below them was painted a livid, flaring orange...only Divine Intervention, luck, or a little of both had kept it from blowing, the same elements apparently keeping the fire in the hallway from cooking through the Norths' hallway door.<br />
<br />
'Give me the kids first!' the firefighter at the top of the ladder called to the Norths. He could feel the heat radiating through the orange-tinted second floor window directly below the trapped family. He looked below and to his left 'You guys ready?!?, getting a 'Yeah, go!!' The first child was handed out, the firefighter at the top of the ladder turned and handed him down to the firefighter below him, then twisted back around the grab the second child. As he was doing this, the second firefighter swung the first child over the the firefighter leaning from the second floor window of the building next door, who quickly pulled him inside the window. This process was repeated twice more, with all three firefighters hustling, the firefighter in the building next door telling each child to wait behind him as he pulled them in the window.<br />
<br />
Mrs North was next....she climbed out onto the ladder...unlike the kids, she was too big to swing across. There was a cracking next to them, and fire boiled from one pane of the other window in the Wise apartment. The firefighters nearest the top of the ladder had 'leg-locked' the ladder, passing one leg around a rung and hooking that foot beneath the rung below it so he could use his arms to swing the kids over the firefighter next door. He kept the leg lock in place and had her climb down to him, then grasped her around the waist, twisted, and passed her down to the firefighter below him, who quickly started carrying her down the ladder.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI7VdtGSRLJoXhdCbw_YUJTcseJraM3MQx88KEpa8iH0rbHfQ65nBr82AkMYiYC5v06gBdrkYLQnZB2jEI-7doWZ4cfw3b5uEugfoKD7sLxDclVCa9xzJSyxkgSiip85VdD-CEYvYlfz4/s1600/leg_lock.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI7VdtGSRLJoXhdCbw_YUJTcseJraM3MQx88KEpa8iH0rbHfQ65nBr82AkMYiYC5v06gBdrkYLQnZB2jEI-7doWZ4cfw3b5uEugfoKD7sLxDclVCa9xzJSyxkgSiip85VdD-CEYvYlfz4/s320/leg_lock.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="1">A firefighter applying a leg lock to a ladder. This allowed him to have his hands free so he could handle hose and tools and make rescues. There are actually a couple of ways to apply a leg lock...the firefighter can also lock his foot beneath a rung rather than the beam of the ladder, which is the method I've seen used most often.</font></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Mr. North was already climbing out of the window, even as the firefighter released the leg lock...as he pulled his leg back up and over the rung, more glass fell from the window of the Wise apartment, and more flames rolled into the night, causing him the forget that this was a <i>Winter</i> night. Unknowingly parroting Dan Scully, he asked Mr. North if he could make it down, to get an enthusiastic 'Yes!, even as Mr. North all but climbed over him...the two men scampered down the ladder. Just before they made it to the sidewalk, the entire building shuddered as if someone had tapped it with a giant sledgehammer, and fire blew from the second floor windows of the building next door...a sight that filled him with dread until he saw the three kids hugging their mom as the two firefighters who'd been in the building next door led them across the street. Both windows of the Wise apartment were vomiting fire and, as if in sympathy, the smoke boiling from the North apartment turned orange as flames rolled from those windows as well. The Norths were likely the last people to get out of the building alive.<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> Even as the Norths were rescued, Foremen (Lieutenants in modern rank structure) were looking up at the tenement roof, where possibly as many as a dozen sixth floor residents were trapped. More shouted orders were bellowed through speaking trumpets as another desperate operation was set in motion to rescue the residents trapped on the building's roof. This one, unfortunately, wouldn't be as successful.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">S</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">everal firefighters laddered the steeply pitched roof of the building next door to the tenement's north wall, then pulled another of the big 40 foot ladders up to the lower building's roof. Then, working as quickly as the roof pitch would allow, they dragged the ladder up to the roof's peak, and set it against the wall of the tenement. If they could have set it straight up and down it </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">might</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> would have barely reached. But to be climbable, of course, it had to be at an angle...</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">so
when the ladder was raised, even at the steepest angle possible to
climb, it was a good ten feet short of the tenement roof.</span><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">At least half a dozen, and possibly as many as a dozen desperate sixth floor residents were watching hopefully as the ladder was raised, their hope turning to despair as it came up short. The roof consisted of a wood deck covered with pitch-covered canvas and gravel, and fire had already cooked through it over the stairwell. Heavy smoke was pushing from the edges of the roof, and fire rolling from sixth floor windows was overlapping the roof's front and rear edges. The trapped residents were beyond desperate. A couple of them decided to try to reach the ladder.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Even as the firefighters on the roof begged them not to, one or two people climbed over the edge of the tenement's roof, hanging on to the shallow parapet wall as they peered downward at the ladder, trying to aim. They were doomed before they even let go of the wall.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">One of them hit the ladder and bounced, then hit the lower roof and rolled to the edge before anyone could stop him...he tumbled off of the roof and hit the sidewalk below. A second man missed the ladder entirely, bounced off of the lower roof and fell into the building's rear yard.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Even as the firefighter on the lower roof watched the men fall, someone shouted up to them to 'Get off the roof!!!!' Smoke had started pushing from between the bricks a few feet below the tenement roof as more fire popped through the roof itself. and then, the guys on the roof </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">could only watch helplessly as they </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">got a front row view of possibly the most horrible instant in a night full of horror. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The roof's support beams had burned through to the point they were unable to support the roof's load anymore, and it collapsed inward in a long, raged 'V'. from front to rear, dumping the trapped residents who hadn't jumped back into the flames. Even as the roof collapsed, it shoved at the tenement's sidewalls, kicking them outward.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The guys on the lower roof were suddenly too busy to be terrified as they scrambled onto the roof of the next building down, diving across just ahead of a slab of sidewall and burning wood that took out the 40 foot ladder as it slammed into and through the roof they were just standing on with a horrific crunching crash and a light show of sparks and burning embers. The second floor windows of the lower building blew out in a twinkling shower of glass as flames rolled through the two story building's now devastated roof. </span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The devastation was mirrored on the other side of the building as a chunk of wall and burning wood the size of a freight wagon crashed through the roof of the building on the south side of the burning tenement just seconds after the three North children were carried out of the front door.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>On the street, several firefighters moved the ladder that that had been used to access the </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">two story building's </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>roof down one building so the roof crew could get back down. In the background the city's fire bells began tolling continuously, pounding out a general alarm</span><span style="font-size: small;">. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Their problems had increased exponentially in the space of only two or so seconds. The tenement was fully involved now, with f</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">lames boiling from every front window and through the roof. Even worse, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">fire was moving in both direction on the west side of Elm Street and, across the street, window frames on a large factory building began smoldering as radiant heat reached across the street </span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">No more rescues would be made after the roof collapsed, and the firefighters who had avoided becoming victims by a matter of feet and seconds simply stared up at the now roofless tenement for several seconds, then at the fire-gushing hole in the roof they had just vacated, the horror of what they had just witnessed replaying in an endless loop, overlaying their sudden shivering reaction to their near death as it did so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span> The crews dropped all efforts to extinguish the tenement...it was both beyond saving and extinguishing it was beyond the capabilities of their equipment. Instead, they began concentrating on stopping the fire from taking the rest of the block. The second floors of both 140 and 144 Elm Street were now well involved, with fire blowing through the roof of both buildings while small flames were flickering from the window frames on multiple floors of the factory building across the street. </span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span> Orders, amplified by speaking trumpets, were shouted to turn a couple of streams on the factory windows, taking care of that problem, which would crop up a couple of more times before the night was over. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The crews on hose lines were divided, with half on the south side of the tenement, and half on the north side, tasked with keeping the fire from taking any more structures. I have a feeling that the roofs of the buildings at 138 and 146 Elm were laddered, with hose lines taken to their roofs as well, but 146 Elm was a frame building, and fire quickly took hold of it as well, chasing the guys on that roof over to 148 Elm. </span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>With the crews on the pumpers working their guts out, helped along by their company runners and possibly spectators, crews made twin stands at 138 and 148 Elm, and from what little I could find, they kicked butt. They actually knocked the fire in 146 Elm down before it could cause more than 200 dollars worth of damage (Still not insignificant...that's about 6200 dollars in 2019 money), and held the fire in 140 and 144 Elm to the second floor of both buildings.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>Unfortunately, the second floors of <i>both </i>buildings contained several apartments, which meant those families were also burned out...but at least they were all alive and uninjured...all of them, knowing it was a pretty good bet that the fire would extend to their buildings as well, had evacuated early in the fire.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>The fight to save the block <i>may</i> have been helped along by the Exempt Engine Company...an engine company comprised of semi-retired firefighters which was equipped with not one but <i>two</i> steamers, one of which was a big self-propelled rig with a capacity of around 800 GPM. The Exempts only responded on general alarms, and it's a good bet that at least one of these steamers responded to Elm Street when the general alarm was called for. </span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>Of course with this rig's cold-molasses-like top speed of between two and five miles per hour, it could have taken as as long as 40 minutes to make the mile and a third between The Exempt's firehouse at #4 Centre Street and the fire scene. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-weight: normal;">When they finally got on scene, they may have taken over the hydrant Lady Washington Engine 40 had been on (If Lady Washington's guys </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-weight: normal;">let</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-weight: normal;"> them...more on the weird politics of those early volunteers in 'Notes'). </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-weight: normal;">But if the steamer </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-weight: normal;">did</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-weight: normal;"> respond, and if they <i>were</i></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;"> allowed to take a hydrant and flow water, they would've been able to supply multiple lines all night long if necessary, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">and most of the battle to save the block would have been won.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVmUQQ5MPVlI90xxYnV142kwQUX9IEEhHhjLf_eSQbwccffSyan4jb-QieCUZ9l2utmvMeDiU70Zp5vawQoXtCnO_NbtDP0__5wBjuDNvHi0IcBPPjrpiP8onDeTcSQ8IdiPYdgGGrW2w/s1600/Lee+and+Larned+Self+Propeller.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1246" data-original-width="1280" height="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVmUQQ5MPVlI90xxYnV142kwQUX9IEEhHhjLf_eSQbwccffSyan4jb-QieCUZ9l2utmvMeDiU70Zp5vawQoXtCnO_NbtDP0__5wBjuDNvHi0IcBPPjrpiP8onDeTcSQ8IdiPYdgGGrW2w/s640/Lee+and+Larned+Self+Propeller.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><font><span style="font-size: x-small;">A drawing of a big Lee and Larned Self Propelled steamer of the type that Exempt Engine had in service and possibly responded to the Elm Street fire with on the general alarm. This thing was a <i>beast!</i><i> </i>It weighed 11,000 pounds and was capable of pumping 800 GPM as long as it had fuel. The rig didn't require horses or men to get it to the scene or pump it...but it was also said to be slower than frozen molasses running up-hill.<br />
<br />
The rig's rotary gear pump was rear mounted...note the air chamber just behind the fellow in the rear of the rig. This guy would have been the rig's engineer, who was in charge of operating both the steam engine and the pump...oh, and the brakes.<br />
<br />
Yep...you read right...driving this behemoth was a two man operation. The driver steered, while the engineer handled the brakes...getting stopped required planning and team work. The Exempt rig's slow speed helped a bit there, but getting to a scene more than a mile or so away could be a half hour or longer trip. On the night of the Elm Street fire, the rig was responding from the Exempt's fire house at #4 Centre Street, about a mile and a third north of the scene, so at it's blazing top speed of between two and five miles per hour, it would have taken anywhere from fifteen to about forty minutes to get to the scene. That being said, if the rig <i>did</i> respond to Elm Street, it probably saved the block.<br /></span><br /><br /><br /></font></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>The tenement was on the ground by about 11 PM, and probably burned a good portion of the night as the crews continued to throw water on it, but then the steamer would have been a true Godsend, able to pour water into the flaming, smoldering ruins for hours on end without breaking a sweat.</span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>The steamer (Again, <i>if</i> it actually responded) didn't entirely eliminate the grunt work, or even come close, though. Someone still had to hang on to the long play-pipes and straight tip nozzles that were the go-to water application tools of the era. Large-capacity deluge sets and water towers/ladder pipes were...at the least...a bit over two decades away, so crews on the hand lines had to switch out as other firefighters with pike poles pulled the ruins apart as much as possible so they could get to the stubborn, smoldering flames buried beneath fallen walls and floors.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">It's called overhaul, and it's what happens after</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">the rescues are made and </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">the fire's knocked down. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">It's tough, gritty, hard work that hasn't changed all that much in a couple of hundred years, and </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">can be every bit as dangerous as fighting the fire. Even with all of the modern technology that's been developed and implemented over the last couple of centuries, getting to that last bit of hidden fire to ensure that it doesn't flare back up a few hours later still requires back-breaking effort.</span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Keep in mind that the tenement wasn't the only damaged building they had to overhaul. There were at least four other structures damaged. It's a pretty good bet that there were crews there for most of the night. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The investigation and search for bodies didn't start in earnest until the next morning. Portable lights powerful enough to illuminate an entire scene were still a couple of decades away at best (And lights both portable enough and powerful enough to be taken into nooks and crannies while searching along with generators portable enough to be taken to scenes, were even further in the future). They also had to wait for the building's ruins to cool down enough for them to begin digging.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">It very likely took at least a couple of days for investigators to locate and remove all of the bodies (If they, indeed, did find all of them), but it was obvious before they started, just from the number of missing, that the death toll was bad. The New York Times published a pretty sensationalized article the very next morning estimating the death toll at 30 (Which I think is actually more accurate than the official death toll of 20...more on that in Notes) and the public took immediate notice</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Several articles had been published over the last couple of years decrying the unsafe and horrible living conditions residents of these early tenements faced, and a horrific fire such as this had been predicted for years.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">A
Coroners Jury was impaneled, and came to some immediate conclusions
about the fire. While an actual cause was never determined,
it </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>was</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> determined
that the building's poor design and lack of fire safety contributed
directly to the loss of life. Building owner Edward Waring was found
to be directly responsible for the building's poor condition, but I
could find no record of what, if any action, was taken against him.</span></span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">It's
a good bet, however, that </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>no</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> action
was taken against him at all. Waring was likely fairly prominent and
more that a little wealthy, and wealthy building owners very
frequently skated on charges of negligence and worse in multiple
fatality fires back in that era, an outcome that occurred well into
the 20th century, as I've already recounted in a couple of posts. On
top of that, Waring's building, sadly, was not only far from being an
isolated case, it was actually the </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>norm</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> for
tenements of the day.</span></span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span></span></span></p></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman";">I </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>did</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> find,
however, that the Coroner's Jury made several strong recommendations
to the city's governing body, all of them involving fire safety. This
wasn't anything new...Articles and editorials had both decried
the conditions that immigrants had to live in and predicted just
such a tragedy for over a decade, and now that that tragedy
had occurred, the public and the press went slam </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>off, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">With
the Coroner's Jury opinion and suggestions backing them up</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>, </i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">the
public demanded action from the city, but local governments had
(And to this day still </span><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><i>have) </i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">a
tendency to react at the approximate speed of a turtle going
uphill. You know the drill. While some discussion very
likely </span><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><i>did</i></span> <span style="font-family: "times new roman";">take
place concerning a fix for the city's overabundance of firetraps, nothing was actually <i>done. See, t</i>he city's Common Council (What we'd call 'City Council' today) found they had a problem...they weren't authorized by state law to enact any kind of fire safety ordinances. </span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">This, of course, meant that the Common Council had to get the </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>state</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> government
involved. This caused things to move just as 'quickly' as you might
think it would've. On February 10th...eight days after the fire....a
bill was introduced to the State Legislature that would
empower the city's 'Common Council' (What cities big and small call the 'City
Council' today) to draw up, enact, and
enforce ordinances. </span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br />While
awaiting passage of that law, New York's Common Council appointed a committee </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">to look into the problem and suggest solutions. Then</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> the Council studied and discussed the various suggestions that the committee came up with, and drew up some some pretty ground-breaking ordinances requiring all tenements to be equipped with fireproof stair towers and/or
fireproof exit stairways accessible from each and every apartment. Aaaaand, nearly two months after the Elm Street fire, that's <i>all</i> that had been done.</span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span>The problem was, of course, that until the law authorizing the common council to enact and enforce them was passed, the new ordinances weren't even worth the paper they were written on. Again, they had to wait for the State Legislature to give them legal authorization to enact the ordinaces, and waiting for the state to act on <i>anything</i> was like taking cold molasses, putting it the freezer, then trying to get it to flow uphill. </p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Unfortunately both NYC's Common Council and the State Legislature were about to get some unwelcome incentive to kick their efforts into a higher gear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> Unknown to anyone (And to everyone's ultimate horror), the February 2nd fire was just the </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">first</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> horrific tenement fire that would occur during the cold winter of 1860. OK...the second one was actually during the early Spring...March 28th to be exact, a week shy of two months after the Elm Street fire.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The winter of 1860 was likely beginning to wind down along with the month of March on the evening of March 27th, and as Tuesday the 27th became Wednesday the 28th, everyone in the four story wooden tenement at 90 West 45th Street, about three and a half miles north of the fire scene on Elm Street, was curled up in their beds, asleep.</span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The
tenement at 90 West 45th Street was, if possible, even </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>more</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> of
a fire trap than the building on Elm Street. It was one of four flat
roofed, wood frame four story tenements...84-90 W 45th Street...that
were thrown up quick and cheap in 1853. The four tenements were just
shy of twenty feet wide by forty or so feet long. A</span> <span style="font-family: "times new roman";">combination
grocery/liquor store was located on the first floor of 90 West
45th...the fire building...while a pair of three room apartments</span> <span style="font-family: "times new roman";">were
located on that building's second, third, and forth floors. The
buildings at 84-88 W 45th had apartments on all four floors
rather than a first floor store. </span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br />Each
apartment in the fire building featured a main
living/cooking/dining room with a fireplace. and a pair
of </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>tiny</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> bedrooms</span></span></span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPNqK-9FEHvHlHTN6vGavvz_MbM9p84VsVHseQstnHGpASNUQLzFIifnGIhMXsbjMokOQA56g6kHnG5UWaUz3Kv4CYi03qlH7dHiaYoPkbcMrH7pE8nE3wGcg_2TcZjzX6tmlkoHCt1Lo/s1600/145th+street+tenement.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPNqK-9FEHvHlHTN6vGavvz_MbM9p84VsVHseQstnHGpASNUQLzFIifnGIhMXsbjMokOQA56g6kHnG5UWaUz3Kv4CYi03qlH7dHiaYoPkbcMrH7pE8nE3wGcg_2TcZjzX6tmlkoHCt1Lo/s640/145th+street+tenement.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">
A good approximation of the floor plan of each of the 45th Street tenement's floors. Each floor had a pair of three room apartments, with the public hall and stairway on the right side of the building. The dotted square next to the stairway is the possible location of the roof scuttle, though it could well have been more towards either the front or rear of the building.</font></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><font size="1"><br /></font></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">
Like the Elm Street tenement, that hallway would have been pitch black at night even when it wasn't stuffed full of smoke...these buildings were the absolute definition of 'Fire Trap'.</font></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /><br /><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPHBeQ9ZotZiF9eimpt2V0mq0CN6MUsMqoMowDH403xAoBeuU2U-qYWW_UIWvYgzGxD3DW2QDEO7KP_v779eNycbiZgNNEzAJw_byR5U72qW0GBQU0c9Me-_9FUZ1a5qb6bqzEfKvBFAY/s681/45th+Street+Fire+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="681" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPHBeQ9ZotZiF9eimpt2V0mq0CN6MUsMqoMowDH403xAoBeuU2U-qYWW_UIWvYgzGxD3DW2QDEO7KP_v779eNycbiZgNNEzAJw_byR5U72qW0GBQU0c9Me-_9FUZ1a5qb6bqzEfKvBFAY/w640-h412/45th+Street+Fire+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Detail map of the area surrounding the W. 45th Street fire scene. Unfortunately the map stopped at 46th Street, so I couldn't mark the exact locations of H&L 8, Hose 31, or Engine 1.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Much like the tenement on Elm Street, the buildings had wood frame roofs covered by wood decking, then a layer of canvas covered by pitch (Tar), and then a layer described as a 'sprinkling of small stones', pretty much making it an all but perfect avenue for horizontal fire spread (This is what's known as foreshadowing, gang). Not only were there no firewalls between the buildings...they wouldn't come along for a few decades yet...I have a sneaking suspicion that the walls between buildings were 'Party Walls', meaning that two buildings shared the bearing wall separating them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Each of the four tenements had a public entrance toward the right side of the building (Separate from the store entrance on the fire building)) and a single three foot wide stairway that opened into a public hall on each residential floor. The first floor public hallways in the buildings at 84-88 W 45th likely also had back doors opening into the rear yard. Again, like the Elm Street tenement, there were absolutely no nods of any kind given to fire safety.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">There were scuttles leading to the roofs of the buildings, but only one building...88 West 45th...had a ladder that allowed access to the roof through the scuttle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Five of the six apartments in the fire building were occupied, all by large families. Timothy Nolan and his wife and four kids called the 2nd floor rear apartment home, while a widower named Kearney lived in the 2nd floor front apartment with his two children. On the third floor we had the six members of William Irving's family in the front apartment and Thomas Bennett, his wife, and four kids in the rear apartment. In the Bennett apartment, Mrs. Bennett's sister Jane McNalley was visiting, and was staying overnight.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The front 4th floor apartment was unoccupied, while Andrew Wheeler, his wife, and their four kids lived in the rear 4th floor apartment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Several of the fathers worked for New York's Sixth Street Railroad Company, and two of them...Thomas Bennett and Andrew Wheeler...were working a midnight shift, meaning that they weren't at home and that their families were slumbering peacefully in their absence when, sometime around 1 AM, someone slipped into the unlocked public entrance of 90 W.45th, opened up a closet beneath the stairs, set the contents of the closet on fire, then slipped back out into the night. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">If the arsonist meant for the fire to take the whole building...and it's a good bet he did...he probably left the closet door open, but even in the unlikely event that he closed it, it wouldn't have taken long for the flames to have cooked through both the flimsy door and the steps themselves, and then, just as it did on Elm Street nearly two months earlier, the stairwell acted just like a chimney, drawing heat and smoke upward to the forth floor, where it immediately started mushrooming. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">What happened next was a near-repeat of the Elm Street fire, as smoke and heat filled the cock loft (Space between top floor ceiling and roof) and fourth floor chock-full in only minutes even as flames stair-climbed the wooden staircase. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Of course,</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">all</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> of the heat and smoke didn't go up the stairwell, as the fire would have rolled across the hallway ceilings on each floor as well. Keep in mind that these were</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">narrow</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> little hallways...about five feet wide, and the stairwell, which was filled with first heat and smoke, and only minutes later, flames, took up three of those feet. Fast rising flames would have lapped over into the hallways and started running the ceilings as soon as the flames themselves reached each floor, and</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">this</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> would have happened from the bottom up, only a minute or so after the heat and smoke reached the fourth floor hallway and started mushrooming. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">This would have blocked</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">any</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> possibility of escaping down the stairs</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">long</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> before any of the occupants discovered the fire. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The
lower floor apartments themselves would have stayed smoke free
for a few...a </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>very</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> few...minutes
as smoke and heat 'mushroomed', filling the building from the top
down to meet up with the flames climbing the stairs. It was a toss-up
as to who discovered the fire first...the Wheelers on the 4th floor,
or either the Nolans, or Mr. Kearney and his kids on the second floor,
but my bet's on the Wheelers, and the reason why is also the
reason that this fire was a </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>near</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> repeat
of Elm Street.</span></span></span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The
fire started in the first floor hallway...next to the
apartments...rather than the basement, beneath them, as it had on Elm
Street, so for the first few minutes of the fire all of the heat and
smoke went straight up the stairwell rather than pushing up
through the floors and walls. This kept the second floor
apartments from filling with smoke for just a </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>little</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> longer
than had happened two months earlier, allowing the Nolans and
Kearneys to sleep in innocent and ignorant bliss for a
few minutes even as the Wheelers were discovering, to their
horror, that their apartment was filling with smoke.</span></span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span></span></span></p></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The Wheelers were possibly awakened...</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">if
they indeed </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>did</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> wake
up...when they started coughing violently as they breathed in a
lungful of smoke, and if they </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>did</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> wake
up, Mrs Wheeler probably yelled for her kids to run for the front
door, where she joined them, threw it open...and found the hallway
packed with heat and smoke, making it totally impassable.. Then they</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">may</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> have looked for a ladder to try to get out of the roof scuttle...but I doubt it. There was no way anyone could have lived for more than a couple of minutes in that hallway by then. More than likely they were chased back inside the apartment and Mrs Wheeler then probably herded her kids to the windows, which looked out into the tenement's back yard, to find themselves trapped. </span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Of course, there is another, even more likely scenereo that would have been more merciful if no less horrible. Mrs Wheeler and her kids could have also suffocated in their sleep, never realizing the horror that overtook and killed them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">If
the Wheelers </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>did </i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">wake
up and try to make it out</span>, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Thomas Bennett's wife, her sister, and the Bennett children were possibly awakened a</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> floor below them, in the rear third floor apartment, by what sounded like a thundering herd pounding across the floor above them as the Wheelers ran out of, then back into their apartment. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">It's even possible that the Bennett apartment hadn't filled with smoke as thickly as the Wheeler's top floor apartment yet, but there was still smoke hanging, evil and malignant, when the Bennetts woke up, heavy enough to snap all of them wide awake and send them, like the Wheelers in the apartment above, tumbling and rushing for the door. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Mushrooming smoke had banked down enough to fill the third floor hallway by the time the Bennetts woke up, and when Mrs. Bennett yanked the door open, she was met with a fast thickening wall of smoke and heat that rushed into the apartment like a vaporous tidal wave, filling the tiny living room before she could slam the door on it. I<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">'m
of two minds as to whether she </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>did</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> get
it closed or not...but we'll get to why in a second. Whatever
happened in the Bennett apartment, we know for sure that
they </span><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><i>did </i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">wake
up, because Mrs. Bennetts sister would make it out...which is also why
I wonder about the front door.</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">In the front third floor apartment, William Irving and his family likely woke up in much the same way as the Wheelers and Bennetts, coughing and hacking and wheezing on the smoke pushing into their apartment. And, also like the other two families, they rushed to the front windows when they found the hallway blocked by smoke and flames. They shoved the windows open and looked down at the sidewalk...thirty or so feet below them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">When
they looked down they very possibly saw Mr. Kearney lowering his two
kids out of a front window of his second floor apartment...he
probably leaned out of the window, stretching his arms downward as he
held each child's hands, trying to get them as close to the ground as
possible, before he let them drop. Once he was sure they were
safe, while yelling at them to '</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>Stay
right There!!. </i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">he
climbed out of that same window and dropped to the sidewalk in
front of the building, gathering his two kids and getting them away
from the fire. We know for sure that the Kearneys as well as the
Nolans in the second floor rear apartment made it out uninjured, and
likely did so fairly early in the incident. My bet is that the
Irvings called to Mr. Kearny to help them, or to call the fire
department or just screamed 'Oh, God, please help us!!!, but whatever
actually happened, Mr Kearny quickly realized that there were people
trapped in the building.</span></span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span></span></span></p></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">In the rear apartment, The Nolans likely also realized that they were trapped in the building the exact same way that all the other families in both fires had...by opening the door to a wall of heat, smoke, and fire, and quickly slamming it closed. Their apartment faced the rear yard, and they may...or may not...have had the communal outhouse to climb out on. Mr. and Mrs. Nolan quickly corralled their four kids and dropped them out of the windows, probably lowering the oldest kids first so they could catch the younger ones, before climbing out of the windows </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">and dropping to the ground </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">themselves. Then they worked their way through the backyard to the ally, than a cross ally, and out to 45th street. Or maybe they went in the back door of one of the other tenements</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">...remember they had apartments on the first floor...and out
of the front. If<i> that's</i> what they did, it's more than possible that they also started waking up that building's residents as they cut through.</span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Or,
maybe some of the occupants of 88 W 45th...the tenement next door to
the fire building...were awakened by the commotion and, realizing
that the building next door was burning like a torch, evacuated
their own building. And if </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>that's</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> what
happened, it's a good bet that some of them</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> started going through the other two tenements and getting people out.
We'll never know for sure just how the the residents of the other three tenements found out
about the fire, but we </span><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><i>do</i></span> <span style="font-family: "times new roman";">know
that everyone in those three buildings made it out without even breaking a
sweat.</span></span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Of course, as residents made it out of the buildings, they had another problem on their hands...Unlike Elm Street, there was no fire station near the scene on 45th street, so someone also had to haul ass to either a police station or the bell tower to report the fire, which had been burning for as much as ten or fifteen minutes before the citywide fire bells began banging out the alarm. </p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Volunteer firefighters who were pulling duty at the stations rolled out of bed, pulled clothes on, and tumbled down stairs. Other firefighters unlocked the big exit doors and pushed them open, as even more firefighters and runners, coming from home, joined them at the tow-ropes, and the crews dragged rigs out of the exit doors, looking for a tell-tale glow or column of smoke..</p></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The fire likely wasn't hard to spot. The building was all frame, and frame buildings tend to burn hot, fast, and bright. Fire had likely cooked through the building's fourth floor windows, and very possibly the windows of the Bennett apartment on the rear of the third floor. On top of that, fire had likely cooked through the roof, ignited the pitch-soaked canvas roof covering, and started advancing across the roof like a brush fire, quickly spreading southward to the roof of 88 W. 45th, next door.</span><br />
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Engraving of the 45th Street fire that appeared in the New York Times. The fire building's fully involved, and the fire is spreading southward...to the left...into 88, 86, and 84 W 45th. Ten people died at this fire.</font></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><font size="1"><br /></font></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">
Engine 46's steamer is shown on scene...but the rig pictured looks <i>nothing</i> like 46's Lee and Larned rig, leading me to wonder just how accurate the rest of the engraving is. If anything, the steamer in the engraving looks like Exempt Engine's self propeller, which didn't respond to the scene as far as I know. </font></div>
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<span><font size="1"><br /></font></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">
Engine 46's Lee and Larned 300 GPM steamer was instrumental in stopping the fire from taking most of the block, and confining the fire to the upper floor or two and roof of 84-88 W 45th.</font></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">At 8th Ave and 48th Street, about a half mile north and slightly east of the fire, Hook and Ladder 8's crew quickly spotted the orange-tinted smoke column urging skyward to their south, and started dragging their big open frame ladder truck down 8th Ave, with Hose 31...quartered right around the corner and therefore directly behind Ladder 8's quarters...and Hudson Engine Co 1, whose house was a half a block up 48th Street, right behind them.</span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> Another half mile or so south </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">and West</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">, at 138 W 37th Street, Mt Vernon Engine/Hose 46's guys spotted that same smoke column to their north. They may have waited a couple of minutes for more of their members and runners to show up, because their rig was a bit heavier than many of the engines...they had a brand new hand-pulled Lee and Larnard steam-powered rotary gear pumper, her brass work gleaming.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">As they waited for a full crew to show up, the rig's engineer took a lighted taper from the stove and shoved it into the tinder and kindling laid on top and around the coal in the fire box, lighting it off. The ten or so minute run to the scene would be just about enough time to get steam up in the boiler.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">As soon as enough men to pull the steamer showed up, they took their places at the tow ropes of both the steamer and the four wheeled hose wagon and dragged the rigs out of the station, the hose wagon leading the way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Even
as the crews of Ladder 8, Hose 31, Engine 1, Engine and Hose 46, and several other
companies ran their rigs towards the fire, someone (A part of
me wonders of it was the actual arsonist, but it could also have been
one of the occupants of any of the four buildings as </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>many</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> of
the men were employed by the railroad.) ran into the Sixth Ave
Railway shops and shouted that 'The house at 90 West 45th was on
fire!!!' </span></span></span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Andy Wheeler and Tom Bennett likely looked at each other, shouted near simultaneous 'Oh My God!!'s, and took off at a dead run. The fire was likely already lighting up the night sky by then, filling them with dread as they ran through the empty streets. The city fire bells began tolling even as they ran, as if to confirm what they were seeing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Whoever
ran into the shops and notified them did so early enough that the two
men beat the rigs to the fire...they could see flames rolling from
the upper floor windows for a couple of blocks as they ran up 45th
street, and </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>both </i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> of
them tried to make it into the first floor public hallway when
they got there. One of them yanked the door open (Probably burning
his hand as he did so) to be met by a face-full of fire and a
furnace-blast of heat as flames rolled out of the doorway and
bent up and out, reaching to the third floor In that instant they saw
that the hallway was burning from top to bottom, the stairs nothing
more than a flaming framework, and knew that they couldn't get to
their families.</span></span></span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Above them, the Irvings were hanging out of the windows of the third floor front apartment, yelling for help, and this gave Tom Bennett a little bit of hope. If the Irvings were still alive, maybe...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">...But
his hopes had already been dashed. In the third floor rear apartment,
even as the two men ran up, the Bennetts were beyond
desperation, into something beyond terror as flames roared into the
apartment from the hallway. From the little I could find out (And
trust me on this, it was </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>very</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> little)
I think Mrs. Bennett was startled by the wall of smoke that rolled in
to the apartment, and she and her sister grabbed the kids and left
the door open as they ran to the windows, shoving one or maybe
both of them open. This created a draft, that pulled the fire right
on top of them as it rolled towards the open windows.</span></span></span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">All five of them cowered from the flames, leaning out of the two rear windows until their night clothes began scorching. One of the kids started screaming as his shirt caught on fire. And in desperation, Jane McNalley climbed over the window sill and, as her sister and nieces and nephews screamed in pain and terror, jumped, injuring herself horrifically as she slammed into the backyard's packed earth. William Holden, who lived behind the burning tenement, on 46th Street, had been awakened by the screams of terror coming from the building (He would state later that he thought some of the husbands were beating their wives again (?!?!) ) and looked out of his window just in time to see her jump. He quickly dragged on some clothes, rushed downstairs and out of the back door of his own building, and reached the injured woman about the same time as as several neighbors (Among them Andrew Wheeler) along with some firefighters from the first arriving companies. They quickly carried her away from the building, to a near-by Police precinct. From there she was taken to the hospital with severe burns as well as a broken femur.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">She probably jumped only a few minutes before the first rigs rolled onto the scene. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Ladder 8's crew wasn't the </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">first</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> rig on scene, but they weren't far behind the first arriving engine and hose companies, and they </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">were</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> the first arriving ladder company. The glow became progressively brighter and larger as they neared the scene, and when they swung left onto W 45th, it looked like the sun was rising about five hours too early. The entire upper part of 90 W. 45th was a seething, crackling mass of flames rolling twenty or more feet above the burning roof, and flames had spread across the roofs of at least two of the other tenements, and possibly all three. They could look up, through the fourth floor windows of 84, 86, and 88 W 45th and see burning, melting tar dripping downward into the fourth floor, the top floor windows of 88 were likely already glowing orange. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">On top of that, flames could also be seen in the third floor windows of #88...fire had burned through the party wall between the two buildings. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Their was probably a hydrant fairly close to the scene, and the first engine had probably taken it, and gone in service, so there was at least one stream flowing water as Ladder 8 rolled up, but that one stream was all but pointless. Hose 32 and Engine 1 possibly laid in from a second hydrant on the way in...'Bringing their own water'....or they may have taken water from an earlier arriving engine, and another stream or two was soon boring into the flame. Even as the crews of Ladder 8, Engine 1, and Hose 32 rolled in and went to work, they took one look at the building, and at the flames walking across the roof and showing in the windows of #88...and someone very likely said something to the effect of 'We're gonna lose this whole f***ing block!'.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Fire had spread from first floor to roof in the stairwell of the original fire building, and heavy, boiling smoke was pushing from between the siding boards and churning from the front third floor windows, all but hiding the terrified people hanging out of them. Ladder 8's crew saw them through the billows of smoke, could hear them calling for help, and swung into action. They pulled a wooden ladder (Probably a 35 footer) from the rig and quickly raised it to the third floor window that the Irvings were hanging from...and that's where things went south.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Several
firefighters quickly climbed the ladder, trying to reach the
Irvings...</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>too</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> many
of them, as it turned out, and the ladder fell (The NY Times article
says it broke, I'm wondering of the bottom simply kicked out, but in
either case...) the firefighters tumbled to the sidewalk, and the
Irvings let out a collective groan of despair.</span></span></span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Thankfully the firefighters weren't injured, and quickly regrouped. They may have started to re-raise the ladder, but up on the third floor, John Irving came up with a new game plan...he first lowered his son, John Jr, then one of the boy's younger sisters down as far as he could reach, dropping them to the waiting firefighters who caught them and deposited them on the sidewalk...and then his wife screamed that two of the kids had run back to the bedroom and she couldn't get to them because of the smoke. Mr Irving told her to get out of the building, he'd go look for them. She refused, screaming that she wouldn't leave her kids even as her husband bodily dragged her to the window, and dropped her to the waiting firefighters as well, yelling down that he had to find his other two kids.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Ladder 8's guys were already raising another ladder, (Or re-raising the original one), yelling at him to get out of the building, that they'd go after them as they did so. I don't know for sure if Mr Irving jumped as well, or went down the ladder...The article says jumped, and I tend to agree, if for no other reason so he wouldn't delay the firefighters who quickly raised the ladder to the window. Two of them quickly scrambled up, and pulled themselves through the smoke-puking opening.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Keep
in mind that this was </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>long</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> before
any kind of breathing apparatus had even been </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>thought</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> of,
so the best they could do was to stay low, crawling across the floor,
breathing the tiny layer of breathable air next to the floor as they
crawled to the first bedroom...the rooms were probably laid out
'railroad' style, one behind the other, with connecting doors, and
the firefighters probably found the two kids cowering in that first
room. </span></span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Did
I mention it was getting </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>hot</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> in
there as well, and that fire may have burned through the front door
as they were carrying the kids back to the ladder? As they
reached the window...the smoke was likely churning by now as fire
rolled across the ceiling, and they only had a minute or so to make
it out...the first firefighter to reach the window handed a child out
to a comrade waiting on the ladder, that firefighter started down,
carrying the terrified child. Then the firefighter at the window
climbed out onto the ladder, took the second child, and started down,
even as his partner bailed out onto the ladder right behind him. They
likely hadn't reached the ground good when fire boiled out of the
window they had just exited through. Ladder 8 had barely been on scene
for ten minutes.</span></span></span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">No more occupants would be rescued from the tenement, which was likely in 'Full Bloom' by now with fire rolling from every front window and through the roof. On top of that, the fire had extended across the roofs of all four tenements, flames were showing from the front windows of the third and fourth floors of 88 W 45th, and smoke was beginning to push from the eaves of the brick building at 92 W 45th, on the other side of the original fire building...things weren't lookin' good for the home team....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The scene was controlled bedlam as the Irving children were reunited with their parents...the rumbling crackle of flames overlaying the rocking clanking and shouted cadence of pumpers working, while several streams hissed into the fire, but it was obvious that the original fire building...and very likely 88 W 45th as well...were doomed. The crews pretty much 'X'ed off those two buildings and moved lines in place...front and rear,,,of 86 and 84 W 45th to try and stop it. They were about to get some much-needed help. Hose and Engine 46 (Possibly one of the very few 'two piece' companies in the city). made their way north on 7th Ave with the lighter hose wagon in the lead by a good half a block, their crews watching the ever-expanding orange glow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">They made the turn onto 45th and found the street lit up like noon-time, with flames rolling from just about every window of #90 as ladder 8 reunited the Irving children with their parents. The guys on the hose wagon wrapped a hydrant and laid the first of 46's lines in to the scene as the Steamer's crew made the turn, a cloud of smoke pushing from the rig's stack and following them up the street. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
'How many lines can you guys pump??' A foreman asked Hose 46's crew as they spun a nozzle onto the end of the first line, getting a 'Two!!' in reply as a couple of the guys grabbed the female coupling on the end of the hose load, and started hand-jacking the second line back to the steamer...<br />
<br />
At the hydrant, the crew nosed the engine in to plug, grabbed the suction hose, and made the connection (That front intake was <i>way</i> ahead of it's time BTW...modern pumpers have featured front intakes for decades because it makes 'hitting the plug' and connecting to the hydrant so much easier), spun the couplings of the two hand lines onto the pair of discharges just above and to the left of the intake, and waited for the call to 'Charge the lines!!'<br />
<br />
When that call came minutes later, the steamer's engineer opened his throttle, then twisted the discharge valves open, and the lines jerked and swelled with water. The air became full of a new sound and sight that, would soon become common at fire scenes...the rapid, staccato 'CHF-CHF-CHF-CHF-CHF-CHF-CHF-' of a steam pumper running wide open as it punched a column of smoke skyward..<br />
<br />
At the scene, the crews on the steamer's lines very likely started working on the fire on the top floor of 84 W 45th, maybe (I'll even go with 'probably' ) taking one line around to the rear of the building and hitting the fire from two sides...a basic tactic, popularly known as 'surround and drown', that's used to this very day. Remember these were actually small buildings, and Mt Vernon's steamer was probably a 500 GPM pumper, so it could supply a pair of 2 1/2 inch lines flowing 250 GPM apiece. They probably made quick work of the fire on the fourth floor and roof of 84 W 45th, then moved to 86 as lines from the other engines also bore into the fire. One big difference though...As long as they had coal, Mt. Vernon's steamer could pump all night long without slacking up.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFgHlt24LdoCaXixUEzrH5Xqu_djp0UCpTJKxBq4TXimEHUEsHWMtEmxAyc7d7saJo_Itls032E-1cuBTj53OUrKxG3adidt9Mq4l8NpDa5l_ywCZrDaz_CB9ey5xj8nXBHhXqPUFpPQ/s1600/Lee+and+Larnard+Steamer.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="1000" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFgHlt24LdoCaXixUEzrH5Xqu_djp0UCpTJKxBq4TXimEHUEsHWMtEmxAyc7d7saJo_Itls032E-1cuBTj53OUrKxG3adidt9Mq4l8NpDa5l_ywCZrDaz_CB9ey5xj8nXBHhXqPUFpPQ/s640/Lee+and+Larnard+Steamer.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A drawing of a Lee and Larned hand pulled 300 GPM steamer much like that used by Mount Vernon Engine 46. This was a rotary-style pump, powered by a innovative rotary style steam engine (Almost a very early version of a steam turbine) but it still utilized an air chamber to smooth out the fire stream, as the stream of water flowing from the nozzle's called. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHB4vdSwVLLbOSGUb0yqNb5wm9dmu2LC1RTel7jzLRLBPMqQibXmfcutjiHLn0-rsb1iUySMv14TZpppaMUzljACKUNVO5Fvow-DCNTbux2hIaS2XIUNFoIsI0RDWNWO3gKN2y9hV-47E/s1600/Readinghosesteamer-L.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="800" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHB4vdSwVLLbOSGUb0yqNb5wm9dmu2LC1RTel7jzLRLBPMqQibXmfcutjiHLn0-rsb1iUySMv14TZpppaMUzljACKUNVO5Fvow-DCNTbux2hIaS2XIUNFoIsI0RDWNWO3gKN2y9hV-47E/s640/Readinghosesteamer-L.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Photo of Lee and Larned steamer very similar to Mount Vernon Engine 46's rig. This pic shows the relative size of these small steamers...they still weighed in at around 5000 pounds, making them just light enough for a large crew to hand-pull to the scene. This one was owned by the Reading Hose Company #1, of Reading, Pa.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Note the interesting way the suction hoses ('Hard Sleeves' in fire service vernacular) are mounted vertically at the rear of the rig rather than the usual practice of mounting them on horizontal brackets on the sides. </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
While 46's crew worked their way back towards the original fire building, I have a feeling that a combined crew from several other companies went in 92 W 45th and up to the top floor where they used hooks (What we call 'Pike Poles' today) to pull ceilings so they could get to the fire in that building's attic...they stopped the fire there before it did more than about $500 damage, (Still not insignificant, though...that's <i>still</i> around $15,500 in today's money.) They managed to stop the fire before it got much beyond the four tenements, and, from the impression I got from the single newspaper article I found, they actually left at least the shells of all four buildings standing. Enough was left standing, in fact (Again, from the impression I got) for investigators to enter the original fire building and expend far less effort locating and removing bodies than that same task required on Elm Street.<br />
<br />
Firefighters still had that same long night of overhaul and investigators had the same wait to get inside to look for bodies they had to deal with on Elm Street two months earlier. Andy Wheeler and Tom Bennett, meanwhile, spent a long, heart-wrenching night searching desperately for their families, hoping against hope that they had, somehow, made it out of the building. <br />
<br />Just to make an already heartbreaking situation even sadder, Andrew Wheeler was given a huge dose of false hope when he was told that his entire family had escaped. Sadly, Both mens' hopes were dashed the next morning when police and firefighters entered the tenement and began removing bodies. Ten bodies were found, all burned and crushed beyond any hope of recognition, and all ten were taken to the police precinct and placed in the rear yard, where they were covered by canvas sheets. All of the residents of the building with the exception of the Bennetts and the Wheelers had been accounted for, so it was a matter of letting Thomas Bennett and Andrew Wheeler identify the remains of their families.<br />
<br />
That sounds so simple and clinical, but it was far, far from that simple, either practically or psychologically. First off the bodies were not only charred beyond recognition, they weren't all intact.. From the descriptions of the bodies published in the New York Times...and they were graphic...I'm pretty sure that there was, in fact, a partial collapse of the third and fourth floors both because of the random way portions of some bodies were preserved, and because some of the damage was traumatic rather than thermal (I.E. being crushed by a falling floor beam rather than burned). At any rate, the bodies were entirely unrecognizable, forcing both men to use jewelry and the little bit of hair and clothing that remained to attempt to identify their wives and children.<br />
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It was a soul-crushingly sad task. The only <i>possibly</i> positive ID that could be made was Andrew Wheeler's wife, who he identified through a ring on one of her fingers. (This is another clue that the building did indeed collapse. Had the floors remained intact, the bodies would have been found in their respective apartments.)<br />
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No indication of exactly how the two men chose what bodies to bury were made, and that is a thought process that, IMHO, was just too sad and private to even <i>try</i> to evaluate...it would, in fact, be all but ghoulishly invasive to even think about doing so, so I'll leave the mourning process carried out by Thomas Bennett and Andrew Wheeler to history and let the two men and their families rest in peace.<br />
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But, back in 1860, the good citizens of New York weren't so inclined to allow the incident...or, in fact, <i>incidents</i>...to rest. They were horrified, and demanded some type of action be taken to protect residents of the city's tenements from suffering similar fates. It actually seemed, for once, that quick and decisive action <i>was</i> going to be taken. On April 17th...19 days after the second fire...the state legislature passed the bill that had been introduced back in February, giving the City of New York the power to enact and enforce fire codes. The ball was then kicked back to the City. The Common Council had apparently been burning midnight oil, because they already had a pretty detailed ordinance requiring that a means of egress be provided for residents of tenements, ready to go...all they needed was for the State Legislature to pass the aforementioned bill. The ordinance was enacted almost before the ink on the Governor's signature was dry. </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The ordinance stated that:<br />
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<b>In all dwelling-houses which are built for the residence of more than eight families, there shall be a fire-proof stairs, in a brick or stone, or fire-proof building, attached to the exterior walls, and all the rooms on every story, must communicate by doors, or if the fire-proof stairs are not built as above, then there must be fire-proof balconies on each story on the outside of the building connected by fire-proof stairs, and all rooms on every story, must communicate by doors. If the buildings are not built with either stairs or balconies as above specified, then they must be built fire-proof throughout. All ladders or stairs from upper stories to scuttles or roofs of any building, shall if movable, be of iron, and if not movable may be of wood; and all scuttles shall be not less then three feet by two feet.</b><br />
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The new building code also retroactive, meaning that whichever option the building owners decided on had to be retrofitted to existing buildings as well as being incorporated into new construction. And yes, you read that right...sixty years before they started becoming common in new construction, enclosed fire stairs were, theoretically, <i>required</i> to be <i>retrofitted</i> to all tenements.<br />
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Retrofitting existing buildings with fire proof stairway enclosures and completely fireproof construction in new buildings was an awesome idea that was decades ahead of it's time, but there was also absolutely no way that the city's building owners were going to spend <i>big</i> bucks retrofitting their buildings with fireproof stairway enclosures...it just wasn't going to happen.<i> </i>The city fathers very likely knew this from the start, and this is why the law provided the option of fireproof exterior stairways.<br />
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So iron stairways immediately began sprouting on the front and rear walls of New York tenements like crab grass in summer, right? <i>Right???</i><br />
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Er...wrong. <br />
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Absolutely <i>no</i> one who owned a building liked <i>any</i> part of the new building code at all. Tenement owners...who got an average of about 7-10 dollars a month in rent for each apartment, or about $215-$310 today, ( S<i>till</i> a bargain compared to most apartment rentals today, <i>especially</i> in Mid-Town Manhattan!) took a look at the cost of installing an iron fire escape stairway...which would include design, as such structures didn't actually exist yet...calculated just how much of their monthly rent income would get eaten by those costs, and absolutely refused to even consider installing iron fire escapes.. (What...profit coming before safety?!?!? Say it ain't <i>so</i>!!!)<br />
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Owners of hotels and other large commercial buildings could well afford to install a fire escape or two...but refused because they were, well, <i>ugly. </i>Can't have an ugly old iron stairway hanging onto the outside of their expensive building, and marring it's beautiful lines now could they? Or reminding hotel guests that the building they were paying their hard earned money to stay in might, Oh I don't know, catch on fire. The very <i>sight</i> of those iron stairways hanging on the wall of the hotel would scare potential guests away!!!! (Much better to have them unafraid and unprotected...profit-wise at any rate)<br />
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The wealthy building and business owners, immediately bent the ears of their respective Common Council members, and they apparently bent them <i>hard</i>, because by the time the new ordinance was enacted it had been watered down like a fast food soft drink. When the city actually wrote the new code, the refinements noted above, from what I could gather, had become mere suggestions and 'Means of Egress' wasn't actually defined, even though it, well, <i>was. </i>As in 'We <i>really</i> want you to do this, and you really should, but we're not going to <i>make</i> you do it. And so this awesome new building code that <i>should</i> have made living in a tenement in New York City a <i>little</i> safer had it's teeth effectively pulled almost before it was even enacted. )n top of this, when it was enacted, there was almost<i> no</i> effort made to enforce it.<br />
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This problem was made even worse in 1862 when the Common Council tried to put a bit more bite into the code by amending it to state:<br />
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<b>That every dwelling over forty feet high occupied by more </b><b>than six families above the first floor and all dwellings occupied by more than eight families above the first floor ―shall have placed thereupon a practical fireproof fire escape that shall be approved of by the Department for the Survey and Inspection of Buildings.‖Any dwelling of thoroughly fireproof construction or sited alongside a structure of the same height, both with flat roofs, was exempt from the regulations</b><br />
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Notice something missing? Like any actual definition of just what a 'Practical Fireproof Fire Escape' <i>was? </i>The Common Council removed <i>any</i> definition of 'Fire Escape', thereby leaving the Building/business owners of the city free to interpret it anyway they liked. And 'Any Way They Liked' inevitably meant 'The Way That Costs The Least Money'.<br />
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So both tenement owners and business owners often circumvented the new regulation...if they worried about complying with them at all...by equipping each apartment, room, or office with a rope ladder, or in some cases just a rope, that was secured to the floor or wall on the interior end and could be tossed out of the window in event of fire. Just climb out and climb down.<br />
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Yeah, <i>right.</i>. Just try climbing down a rope ladder...or a rope...at Oh Dark Hundred in driving or, better yet, freezing rain while wearing the flimsy, voluminous night clothes popular in that era. Keep in mind that the building's burning down around you. And you're also trying to get your family out.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnHNPai2bhas12CNJOLdlx_zJGC2UXQs4GWWXaZmCMflL4f2m2DN7J5LxxVssjuWdeB3bLBw_IoTvZ7r9myXjrSyXaLEdFPX4pfmV4aU3TGuWdLzQNIa_kPtxlebb5_xCR0UwwmL1M84/s1600/Slide18.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="980" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnHNPai2bhas12CNJOLdlx_zJGC2UXQs4GWWXaZmCMflL4f2m2DN7J5LxxVssjuWdeB3bLBw_IoTvZ7r9myXjrSyXaLEdFPX4pfmV4aU3TGuWdLzQNIa_kPtxlebb5_xCR0UwwmL1M84/s640/Slide18.png" width="494" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">One of several designs for a rope ladder fire escape design that were embraced by building owners due to their low cost. Imagine, if you would, trying to get out of a smoke-puking window, get your feet onto those spinning, twisting foot-pegs as you try to get yourself onto that swaying, swinging rope as other rope ladders are tossed out of windows above you. Now imagine trying to climb <i>down </i> the thing without falling. <i>Now</i> imagine you're trying to do all of the above in freezing rain or sleet. <i>OH...</i> yeah. You're trying to get your family out at the same time. </font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1"><br /></font></div><span style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">Thankfully, this design didn't really catch on.<br /></font></span><br /><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
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While an escape rope in each apartment did offer the advantage of, well, every apartment having it's own escape device, the difficulty of climbing down the things over-rode <i>that</i> minuscule advantage quickly, especially when you consider the fact that everyone above you would be tossing their own escape ladder or rope down as well. I have a feeling that the <i>only</i> thing these escape ropes or rope ladders helped with was assisting terrified building occupants in falling to their deaths.<br />
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A few building owners installed a vertical iron ladder on the front and rear wall of the building, but this didn't really help either. The ladder was probably in the center of the front and rear wall in 4-apartment-per-floor building such as the one on Elm Street, and on the stairway-side of two-apartment-per-floor buildings like the tenements on 45th Street, but occupants <i>still</i> had a big problem. To get out, you had to climb out onto the window ledge, and reach and step to the side, put a foot on a rung as you grabbed the ladder's beam, and pull yourself over onto the ladder.<br />
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This would be a trick for a healthy adult to pull off during a fire, especially in nasty or freezing weather. A small child...or an unusually small adult for that matter....wouldn't be able to pull it off at all. The elderly would likewise be unable to access the ladders. And, again, <i>everyone</i> would be trying to get on that same ladder at the same time.<br />
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I'll let you guys' imagination toy with the absolute and tragic cluster <i>that </i>situation would create, even on a warm, pleasant spring or fall evening. <i>NOW...</i>again...imagine that our theoretical fire's in mid-January, and a nice freezing drizzle or freezing rain's falling at the time, coating those iron rungs with about a quarter inch of ice. <i>Not </i>a pleasant prospect at all.<br />
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Newer designs of the vertical ladder fire escape included a balcony on each floor, accessible from each front apartment, with the ladder passing through a well in the balcony, but that only solved the problem of accessing the ladder. It still didn't help the very young, very old, or infirm climb down the thing. Nor did it thaw out the coating of ice a good freezing rain would apply to it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">
I</font><font size="1">f you look closely enough, you can still find some true relics around, such as this vertical ladder style fire escape...this one has been restored, and is very likely on a commercial rather than residential building. At least this one has balconies, making it a <i>little </i>easier to access, as well as giving the occupants of each floor a 'staging area', if you will, to access the ladder from. The balconies, however didn't even come <i>close</i> to fixing the worst problems these vertical ladder escapes were saddled with.</font></div>
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One problem with vertical ladder escapes was the difficulty that the very young and the elderly would have accessing and descending them. Another problem would be the difficulty residents of lower floors would have getting on that ladder if it was already crowded with residents from the floors above them. Oh...and we're still talking about using the things on a nice, warm Spring evening. A little bit of freezing rain on a 28 or so degree night would quickly coat that ladder with a quarter inch or more of ice, turning it into a death trap for panicked residents trying to escape the building.</font></div>
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Sadly, it took decades for these vertical ladder escapes to actually be outlawed They were still allowed on new construction until the 'New Law' was passed in 1901, and the ones already installed were grandfathered until an ordinance passed in 1929 mandated that they be replaced with more conventional stairway-type fire escapes. But guess what...all of them <i>weren't</i> replaced, and can <i>still</i> be found here and there on 'Old Law' tenements. In fact, in 2008, a NYU student fell from one she and a friend were hanging out on, severing her spine, and making her a paraplegic. She sued the building owner, winning a 29 million dollar settlement.</font></div>
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When building owners were confronted about these ineffective, and down-right <i>dangerous</i> escape devices (If building officials even bothered to try and enforce them) they simply simply pointed out that all that was required was a 'Means of escape'. They had indeed provided a means of escape. And they would also point out that the Building Department had apparently approved them, because, well, they were <i>there</i> <i> </i>And the sad thing is, of course, that they were absolutely <i>right.</i><br />
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In 1867 The Common Council made a good try at fixing that problem, along with several others by passing the <i>Tenement House Act of 1867, </i>and the very <i>first</i> issue that set of ordinances fixed was actually defining a 'tenement' Oh...Didn't I mention that just what a tenement actually <i>was</i> hadn't been defined yet? Well...it hadn't. While the term had been used in all of the past ordinances dealing with multi-family dwellings, the actual, official definition of<i> 'Tenement'</i> had never even been discussed.<br />
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Unfortunately, the new ordinances didn't do any better job at defining 'Fire Escape' than the old one. It simply mandated that all' tenement houses' <i>must</i> have a fire escape or 'safe and effective means of egress during a fire'. Again, just what constituted a 'Safe and effective means of egress' was left up to the creativity and imagination of the building's owner, who inevitably added 'Least Expensive' to the definition.<br />
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The balconies we're so familiar with...or at least an early version of them...began to appear on the front walls of tenements, but unfortunately the iron stairways connecting them were <i>far</i> less common. Those same vertical iron ladders that I mentioned earlier were far more common than the iron stairways. On top of that the balconies were fairly regularly floored with<i> wood</i> rather than iron.<br />
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Some building owners didn't even hint at an effort to provide a way for occupants to get directly from the balconies to the ground. The balconies would, instead, be 'Party Wall Fire Escapes', installed so they straddled the wall separating two buildings, making them accessible from an apartment in each building. Again, there was <i>no </i>way to get to the ground from the balcony itself...the occupants of an apartment in the fire building had to climb out onto the balcony, make there way across to the next building, get the attention of the occupant of <i>that</i> apartment, and hope he or she would open their window and allow them to make their way through the apartment so they could use the stairway in <i>that</i> building to get out.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="1"><span style="text-align: left;">A pair of party wall fire escapes. There was no access directly from the balcony to the floor below or the ground. Each balcony actually straddles the party wall separating two buildings. If there was a fire in one building, the fire escape allowed that building 's occupants to climb onto the balcony and move horizontally to the uninvolved building next door, then use it's stairway to get to the street...provided that an occupant of </span><i style="text-align: left;">that</i><span style="text-align: left;"> building was available to open the window and let them in.</span></font></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">
Some of these relics are still around...The remains of an ancient party wall fire escape, re-purposed to support a pair of heat pumps. This re-purposed fire escape has now likely become another kind of hazard...you just know that it wasn't designed to take a continuous static load as heavy as these two heat pumps If the building owner didn't reinforce the balcony before he installed them, it's a collapse waiting to happen</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="2"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="2"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="2"><br /></font></div>
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Property owners also argued that the fire escapes, not exactly being overly attractive, destroyed the looks of the buildings and killed property values. With these arguments in mind, many building owners installed fire escapes on the rear walls only. These rear fire escapes often emptied into a tiny, fenced in yard that wasn't big enough to hold all of the building's occupants, leaving them far too close to the fire building, with no readily apparent way to get out of the fenced in yard, once they made it to the ground, .</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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Fire escapes weren't the only issue that the <i>Tenement House Act</i> tried...and failed...to fix.<br />
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The <i>Tenement House Act </i>also mandated that <i>every</i> room would have a window in it, theoretically putting a window in those dark, cave-like bedrooms in the usually three room apartments...and building owners did <i>indeed</i> install windows. Of course, as these buildings all had party walls...two buildings sharing a single sidewall...there was no way to actually install an exterior window in the bedrooms, so building owners simply installed Interior windows, opening either out to the kitchen, or into the public hallway. This provided no more light or air what so ever, but <i>did</i> provided another pathway for fire to extend from the public hallway into apartments and from room to room..<br />
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The first attempt to fix the mess that the <i>Tenement House Act </i>had become was made in 1871, when the Common Council pretty much nixed requirements for fireproof interior stairways and strengthened the requirements for exterior fire escapes. While they were at it, amendments to the ordinances prohibited building occupants from placing any encumbrances or obstructions on fire escape balconies (A problem that would<i> never </i>be entirely remedied, I might add.)<br />
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Then in 1879, a major amendment to the <i>Tenement House Act</i> required every room in every apartment in new construction to have a window opening directly to the outside, an amendment that would give birth to a major New York City icon...the dumbbell tenement, or as it's better known, the 'Old Law' tenement. And, wouldn't ya know it, this new amendment managed to create a major fire hazard...we'll get to that in a minute. Lets take a look at the <i>other</i> problems this new amendment created while trying to give everyone a window to look out of (And get fresh air through)<br />
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These new buildings were, like their predecessors, built on 25 foot by 100 foot lots and were constructed in a 'dumbbell' shape, with the center of the building narrower than the front and rear by about three feet...eighteen inches or so on either side, When these buildings were built side by side, this created an air shaft between the buildings that was about three feet wide. Windows in the bedrooms opened onto this air shaft, technically satisfying the requirement for all rooms to have windows that opened to the outside.<br />
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Problem was the only bedrooms that got <i>any </i>light <i>or</i> air were the ones on the top floor...the rooms on lower floors were just as dark and airless as those in older tenements. Worse yet, occupants soon realized that the air shafts were perfect places to dump all kinds of trash and garbage (Including human waste from chamber pots.). These air shafts were <i>not</i> intended or designed to be trash chutes, and no provision had been made what so ever to remove trash from them, meaning that anything thrown into them stayed there, and rotted. And stank. Really <i>really</i> stank.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpi-HNJ6TgyV368a1RizcbQwSyDFRWkoX_hqXlyVysvnLb97FIbjVy5VOPdfYaqQ9nanbjrGZJI_HjXokh5QlRwYxKxSPV3bwqrzJ39fT0KSlsuVxIrQgwDXi_6GUKXTLoCJFCJfqlbs4/s1600/Old+Law+Tenement+Floor+Plan+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpi-HNJ6TgyV368a1RizcbQwSyDFRWkoX_hqXlyVysvnLb97FIbjVy5VOPdfYaqQ9nanbjrGZJI_HjXokh5QlRwYxKxSPV3bwqrzJ39fT0KSlsuVxIrQgwDXi_6GUKXTLoCJFCJfqlbs4/s640/Old+Law+Tenement+Floor+Plan+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="1">
An 1879 amendment to the <i>Tenement House Act</i> required every room in every apartment in newly constricted tenements to have a window opening to the outside. Problem...none of the bedrooms in tenements, as presently designed, faced an outside wall. This meant that an outside wall would have to be created, which resulted in a New York City icon...the 'Dumb Bell' tenement, with a floor plan such as the one seen here. The buildings were 'pinched' in the middle, creating an air shaft between buildings, with the bedroom windows opening onto the air shafts. <i>Great</i> idea in theory, didn't work out all that well in practice for a variety of reasons that I'll take a look at in the captions of the illustrations below this one.</font></div>
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The front apartments are bigger...two bedrooms as opposed to one bedroom...than the rear apartments, and were more expensive as a result, but that doesn't mean that <i>any</i> of the apartments in the new buildings were that much nicer than those in the older buildings by any means. Oh, they were a bit bigger, and theoretically better ventilated and airier (<span style="text-align: center;">They</span> were actually often neither) but they were still not much nicer, The kitchens were very much multi-purpose rooms still, and generally included the bathtub as one of the 'appliances'...yes, you could get a hot bath while watching supper being cooked. There was <i>no</i> counter or cabinet space (<i>Still</i> a problem in older apartments in NYC). The big coal cook stove turned the entire apartment into even more of an oven than it already was in summer, and was often the only heat source in winter. The bedrooms in all but the top floor apartments were still airless caves. And trash/garbage/chamber pot contents thrown into the air shaft created a stench that was indescribably putrid</font></div>
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At least this particular building featured inside toilets...two toilets on each floor opposite the stairwell. All of the occupants of four apartments had to share two toilets, but it was <i>still</i> far better than all of the occupants of the building having to navigate the stairs at night to make their way out to the rear yard and share a single four hole outhouse!</font></div>
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Good detailed overhead drawing of a row of dumb bell tenements, showing just how they were laid out, along with a cut-away view of one of the apartments (Which, BTW, is not laid out exactly like the floor plan in the image above this one.) The only apartments that benefited from the light shaft were the top floor apartments. the apartments on the lower floors got little or any light <i>or</i> air...the building next door blocked both. The apartments on the cross street side of corner buildings had the best deal, as seen here...the shaft windows actually opened onto the street, rather than a shaft, so <i>those</i> apartments actually <i>did</i> benefit from having shaft windows. It wouldn't surprise me at all if landlords charged higher rents for the street-side apartments in corner buildings for this very reason.</font></div>
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Also, people tended to throw trash and garbage into the shafts, and it would pile up at the bottom of the shaft. These air shafts weren't designed to be accessible, so there was no way to remove the accumulated trash and garbage, which piled up, rotted, and stank. On a hot summer day, the smell would literally drive people out of their apartments, if the heat hadn't done so already. Even worse, as inaccessible to <i>people</i> as the bottoms of the shafts may have been, rats still managed to find the garbage at the bottom of the shaft, and make it their feeding and breeding ground, also making it a hot-bed of disease.</font></div>
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By far, the worst (IMHO, anyway) hazard that the light shafts created was adding a huge fire hazard. Once a fire on a lower floor blew out a light shaft window, the shaft became a giant chimney, and fire would roll out and up, auto-extending from floor to floor (Fire rolling out of a lower floor window popping the windows of apartments above it and spreading <i>in</i> through the windows) merrily. The shafts were seldom more than five or so feet wide, so fire would also spread to the building next door regularly. </font></div>
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Roof view of a light shaft, taken in the early part of the 20th Century. Note how everything below the top floor is in deep shadow. This pretty much illustrates the lack of light provided by these 'light shafts' Ventilation was just as poor.</font></div>
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The kids on the roof illustrate another danger the shafts posed. Tenement roof tops were playgrounds for the kids living in the buildings, and more than a few kids have fallen into light shafts over the years. The outcome in such an incident is never good</font><font size="2">.</font></div>
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I</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">nside view of a light shaft. There are still literally thousands of these dumb bell tenements in New York, though most of them have been greatly upgraded and modernized, with central air (or at least window units) and modern lighting taking care of the light/ventilation, and access doors in the hallway allowing any trash in the shaft to be removed. This building has pretty obviously been upgraded...note the modern windows. Modern plumbing and HVAC systems have been installed, most if not all have actual bathrooms in every apartment, modern (If miniature) kitchen appliances have been installed, and rents have been jacked up to the point of 'Outrageous'. This being said you <i>still</i> find apartments with bath tubs in the kitchen and tiny, old fashioned toilet rooms in New York. And, even with all of the modernization that <i>has</i> been done, there is one problem that still that hasn't been solved...that of fire spread through the light shafts. Fires in these buildings regularly go to multiple alarms, and often involve two adjacent buildings. And, sadly, also fairly regularly involve fatalities.</span></div><div style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: left;"><br /></div>
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It got even worse. Remember the major fire hazard I mentioned above? These shaft were only a few feet wide...occupants of neighboring buildings could reach across and shake hands without even having to stretch...and made perfect flues, as in chimneys. So if a fire got going on, lets say, the second floor of a building, and blew a window in the air shaft, it would create a draft that spread it upward from floor to floor, <i>quickly. </i>Not only would it spread it upward in the original fire building...it would<i> also</i> extend to the building next door<i>.</i><br />
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Literally thousands of these Old Law tenements were built between 1879 and 1901, and many still exist today, greatly upgraded, with the 'garbage shaft' problem taken care of...but the fire spread issue is <i>still</i> an issue if a fire gets going in one of these buildings. Of course, modern fire fighting equipment is hundreds of times better than equipment available in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but the basic tactic used to fight these fires...knock the fire down in the apartment of origin <i>quickly</i> while getting lines in place above the fire and inside the exposure building to cut it off...hasn't changed in nearly a century and a half.<br />
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Of course, more than a few Old Law tenement fires were beyond effective employment of that tactic by the time the fire was called in, and there have been hundreds of fires in these things over the decades that have gone to multiple alarms. And more than a few people have still died in those fires...then and now.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIFg1i38CQSn5pn4oayW_XdHG2snMhON_jx14yRc92PQVBPxTiaFI8AV_eYn90MjngVbGGALvOdqnddZJ09kU_HeAYXytHXDjSCjs5H7FL5SD8QWqJFSt6a3PAmdU-wX_4fYh-THpKNs/s1600/Tenement_Map_And_Fire+%25282%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1556" data-original-width="1025" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIFg1i38CQSn5pn4oayW_XdHG2snMhON_jx14yRc92PQVBPxTiaFI8AV_eYn90MjngVbGGALvOdqnddZJ09kU_HeAYXytHXDjSCjs5H7FL5SD8QWqJFSt6a3PAmdU-wX_4fYh-THpKNs/s640/Tenement_Map_And_Fire+%25282%2529.png" width="420" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A very common sight in New York City as multiple fire companies battle a tenement fire. Looks like this on either started on the first floor or in the basement, and extended up the stairs to all floors, ultimately extending to the attic. This pic was taken in the thirties, but make that wooden (Spring-raised!!) aerial ladder a modern Tower Ladder and make the mid '20s American Lafrance pumper a modern Seagrave while giving the fire fighters modern gear, and the same scene has played out...and will play out...regularly in New York.</span></td></tr></tbody></table>
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Which brings me back to the actual subject of this post...the fire escape. Even though fire escapes were now required on most tenements, people were <i>still</i> dying in tenement fires. A family of five died in an 1885 fire in a building that fell through the cracks because, while the building was five stories tall, it only had a single apartment on each floor. The family...who lived on either the fourth or fifth floor...was trapped, and those who didn't die in the fire, were forced to jump. None of them survived the fall.<br />
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Enforcement of the code was still spotty, at best, and this problem was made even worse when the City Fathers bounced enforcement responsibilities around among the various city departments like a soccer ball during a grudge match. The responsibility pin-balled between The Department Of Health, the Fire Department, and the Department Of Buildings over the last two decades of the 19th Century. While some progress was made...The definition of just what a fire escape actually <i>was</i> was tightened up a bit, building owners were required to keep fire escapes painted and in 'good repair', and an 1885 amendment to the code required fire escape manufacturers to affix metal plates to the fire escapes with raised letters warning of possible jail time and $10 fines ($265 today) for obstructing fire escapes...enforcement of these new amendments to the code were still spotty at best. The right amount of money changing hands at the right time could and routinely <i>did</i> cause violations of the code to be missed during an inspection.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="1">One the actual signs, warning of the ten dollar fine that could be levied against anyone who obstructed a fire escape, that an 1885 law required to be affixed to every fire escape in New York City. This one was for sale on Ebay...you don't even want to <i>know</i> how much it sold for!</font></td></tr>
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It took the combination of an author with an agenda and public outrage to finally get a fix in. The public was aware that conditions on the city's slums were bad, and various organizations, such as the American Red Cross and the Women's Temperance League, made localized attempts to address the issues, and every election campaign offered a political fix to the problem (You know political fixes...those things that never work even when they are actually attempted) but the middle and upper classes in the city had absolutely no idea just <i>how</i> squalid the city's slums actually <i>were.</i><br />
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Enter photojournalist Jacob Riis. Riis was a Danish Immigrant who experienced life in New York's tenements first-hand...he grew up living in them. He managed to get out of the slums, make a life for himself, and became, first, a Police Beat reporter for the New York Tribune, then a photojournalist who made his mission improving life for those who lived in New York City's slums.<br />
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He did a pretty decent job of it. Probably his best known work was an article in <i>Scribner's Magazine, </i>entitled '<i>How The Other Half Lives, </i>illustrated with seventeen of his own photographs of conditions in the infamous Mulburry Street/Five Points area of Manhattan...then one of the worst slums in the U.S. He also gave a series of lectures based on the article, using a slide show of the same photos used in the article.<br />
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The article and lecture series had a huge impact, which was enhanced even more when he expanded the article to a full book of the same name, which was published in 1890. The book was successful both critically and popularly, and would have nationwide impact. In New York City the combination of the book and the article/lecture series set off a firestorm of public criticism of both the living conditions suffered by the poor, and the city government that allowed those conditions to flourish.<br />
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It also resulted in the formation of The Tenement House Committee in 1894 to study the problem in depth and report on possible solutions. This crew went in hard and went to work, with an amendment to the act banning rear tenements, which were likely one of the biggest fire hazards to ever occupy a building lot, passing within the year.<br />
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A major overhaul of the city government took place over the next half decade or so even as the committee worked on needed reforms, reforms that would result in the <i>Revised Tenement House Act of 1901.</i><br />
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The new law was a <i>major</i> improvement. Among other things, minimum lot size was increased and a requirement was added mandating that all newly constructed tenements were to be built using a 'courtyard' type layout that provided light and ventilation to all apartments with-in a building while also providing access to the courtyard for trash removal.<br />
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Installation of openable interior windows in a wall facing a room with a street or rear yard facing window was required in all 'Pre-law' tenements such as the one on Elm Street. These new interior window had to be of at least a minimum size.<br />
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The minimum square footage of apartments in new construction was increased, toilet facilities ('Water Closets') were required in <i>all </i>new<i> </i>apartments while running water and communal water closets were required to be installed in older buildings. (The latter provision of this one took a while to be implemented in all tenements, citywide...there were older tenements still utilizing outhouses at least into the late 1910s. And no, interior toilet facilities had not previously been a requirement, though some Old Law tenements actually <i>were</i> built with communal water closets on each floor prior to the new law.).<br />
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<i>Most </i>important,, at least for our purposes...the law <i>finally </i>defined and codified just what was required in the construction of fire escapes, in both old and new construction. Those requirements are listed below:<br />
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<b> All newly-constructed tenement houses exceeding six stories in height shall be fireproof.</b><br />
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<b> All newly-constructed, non-fireproof tenement houses shall have fire escapes.</b><br />
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<b> Fire escapes shall be located at the front and rear of the building at each story above ground level or on any apartment that does not have a rear or front facing window.</b><br />
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<b> Fire escapes must be constructed with open iron balconies and stairways; stairways will be angled at not more than sixty degrees; treads will be not less than six inches wide and twenty inches long with a rise of nine inches.</b><br />
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<b> A gooseneck ladder should extend from upper balcony to roof.</b><br />
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<b> Balconies should be at least three feet wide, taking in at least one window of each apartment at each floor above ground level; they shall be not more than one foot below the windowsill and extend at least nine inches beyond each window; a landing of a least twenty-four inches on each side should be provided at the foot of each stairs; well-holes should be of sufficient size for headroom.</b><br />
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<b> Balcony floors shall be wrought iron or steel slats of at least one and one half inches by three-eighths inches in size and placed not more than one-quarter inch apart; slats will be secured and riveted to iron battens on one and one half inches by three-eighths inches, not over three feet apart.</b><br />
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<b> Balconies should carry a load of at least eighty pounds per square foot.</b><br />
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<b> The outside top rails shall extend around the entire platform and be properly secured into the wall with nuts four-inches square and washers at least three-eighths inches thick; top rails shall be one and three-quarters inches by one-and-one-half inches of wrought iron or one-and-one-half inch angle iron one-quarter inch thick.</b><br />
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<b> The outside bottom rails shall be one-and-one-half inches by three-eighths inches wrought iron or one-and-one-half inches angle iron one-quarter inch thick, well secured into the wall.</b><br />
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<b> Standards of filling-in bars shall be at least one-half inch round or square and securely riveted to top and bottom rails and platform frame, placed at not more than six inch centers and secured at intervals by outside brackets.</b><br />
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<b> Stairways shall hold no less than one hundred pounds per step, and treads must hold at least two hundred pounds.</b><br />
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<b> Treads shall be flat, not less than six inches wide with a rise of no more than nine inches.</b><br />
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<b> Stringers shall not be less than three-inch channels of iron or steel and shall rest upon and be secured to a bracket that is secured to the wall and secured to balcony at the top.</b><br />
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<b> Steps shall be double bolted or riveted to stringers.</b><br />
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<b> Three-quarter inch handrails for steps, well braced.</b><br />
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<b> Brackets shall be at least one-and-one-half inches by three-quarter inches wrought iron or one-and-three-quarter inch angle iron one-quarter inch thick, well braced; they shall not be more than four feet apart; brackets should go through walls.</b><br />
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<b> Drop ladders are required from lowest balcony; not less than fifteen inches wide, with strings not less than one-half inch by two inches and rungs not less than five-eights inches in diameter, placed not more than one foot apart and properly riveted to the strings.</b><br />
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<b> When lowest platform is more than fourteen feet above ground, a landing platform shall be provided not more than ten feet above ground and connected via a stairway; the platform should be at least three by four feet wide with proper railings and a drop ladder to the ground.</b><br />
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<b> At least two coats of paint shall be applied, one in the shop and one after erection.</b><br />
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<b> Encumbrance plates shall be placed conspicuously on all fire escapes.</b><br />
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<b> Vertical ladders will no longer be permitted upon new buildings.</b><br />
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<b>Extant structures:</b><br />
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<b> All currently existing, non-fireproof tenements without proper escapes shall have them erected according to provisions previously stated.</b><br />
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<b> Fire escapes in air shafts and courtyards to not count toward required escapes.</b><br />
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<b> Party wall fire escapes, connecting adjoining buildings are acceptable only when a fireproof wall separates the two buildings.</b><br />
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<b> All wooden platforms shall be replaced by proper iron slats or floors.</b><br />
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<b> No wooden balcony or stairs acceptable.</b><br />
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<b> Fire escapes placed on wooden tenements shall be secured to wall through a wrought iron or steel plate and span at least two studs.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>New tenements built to the new code all but inevitably came to be called 'New Law Tenements', terminology that has lasted to this very day. When the new codes went into effect they were <i>strictly</i> enforced, with a deadline for owners of existing buildings to bring them up to code, and this time those iconic iron stairways <i>did</i> begin sprouting on the walls of tenements throughout the city.<br />
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City governments through-out the country had been following the goings on in New York closely. Philadelphia was passing a very similar code, very likely based on New York's 'New Law,' during the same time period, and other cities began codifying fire escapes very shortly there-after. By the middle of the 20th Century's first decade, the fire escape had become an entrenched part of urban life, most especially in the city where they were born. SO it's more than a little ironic that the technology that would ultimately make them all but obsolete was already on the horizon.</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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Enclosed interior stairways had been suggested for decades...as you may recall, they were actually supposed to be part of the original ordinance passed after the two tenement fires, but were deleted from the code. Then, sometime during the 20th Century's second decade, as buildings got larger and taller, enclosed, fire rated interior stairways were mandated in new construction over a certain height. This time the fire code had real teeth...if the plans for your new building didn't include fire stairs, the Department of Buildings wouldn't issue a building permit. And if a building owner tried to bypass the building code during construction, that same department wouldn't approve the building for occupancy. </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">By 1920, almost all new multi-story apartment and business buildings had an enclosed stairway or two or three. Fire Escapes were still installed on new buildings...particularly factories and hotels (But not without a fight...more on that in 'Notes') but by the 1930s installation of new fire escapes had dropped to a trickle. Finally, a law in 1968 forbade their installation on new construction in New York City. Of course, at that point, you could probably count the number of new fire escapes installed in any given year on one hand, with change left over.</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But the fire escape was still here to stay...there were literally tens of thousands of apartment buildings in New York alone that had fire escapes, and millions of buildings nation-wide. And tens of millions of people live and work in buildings that still have a fire escape. And, as I noted at the beginning of this post, many of those same people have all but forgotten that escaping from a fire is what they were actually designed for. (Until a fire beaks out in their building...then they tend to remember pretty quickly.)</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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Ahhhh...but that brings us to the problems with fire escapes, and there are many. While they were far, <i>far</i> better than nothing, they were most definitely also far from perfect. Lets just look at at a theoretical fire in a tenement for a moment. ANd lets say that this fire breaks out in an 'Old Law' tenement at, say, 1:30AM. While we're at it, we're going to pretend that our fire escape is unobstructed, despite the fact that many urban apartment dwellers use those iron fire escape balconies as, well, a <i>balcony</i>, complete with furniture.<br />
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If the building's residents discover the building's on fire early in the incident and remain calm, everyone's probably going to get out safely. Most if not all tenements have a front and rear fire escape, giving every apartment a fire escape window, so it would just be a matter of everyone climbing out of the fire escape window and walking down the fire escape to the street.</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">. But...what if our theoretical fire is on a lower floor and is well advanced by the time the majority of the residents wake up to find their apartment filling with smoke. And what it's s blown a window or two by the time these residents begin clamoring down the fire escapes?</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>Then</i> we have a problem or two, and they're biggies.<br />
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At the very least the fire will be blowing out of a window right next to the fire escape, creating a major hazard that would make descending that iron stairway all but impossible. Our residents would have to pass within a couple of feet feet of the flames roaring from the window. Clothes will be smoking, hair singing, and the fire escape will be getting <i>hot. </i>Anyone passing by those flames will get burned... possibly severely<i>...</i>and it's a good possibility that the people on the fire escape above the fire will refuse to pass the flames and have to be rescued over ladders, trapping anyone above them while they're at it.<br />
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Now...what if our fire blows a fire escape window? If <i>that</i> should happen...and it did and does, regularly... flames would be rolling up and through the fire escape's open grill work, essentially turning the metal stairs and balconies into a giant bar-b-que grill. Not only would anyone trying to descend the fire escape be trapped by the fire, anyone on the balconies a floor or two above our fire-spewing window would be directly <i>exposed</i> to it. Tragically, people have burned to death on fire escapes in full view of spectators and firefighters...this, in fact, happened at the Iroquois Theater Fire.<br />
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You wouldn't even have to be close to the fire to be injured by it. Flames impinging on the fire escape's metalwork would, literally, roast anyone on the fire escape. Just grabbing the handrail could, would, and often did...and does...result in severe and painful burns.<br />
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Also, remember, flames tend to soften and weaken metal structures, so if the flames impinge on the fire escape structure for long enough, it would warp in to the point of no longer being able to hold even it's own weight, much less the weight of dozens of terrified building occupants. So they would not only risk being burned to death with-in sight of safety...they would also run the risk of being caught in a collapse of the fire escape structure itself.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXJoAj0Qw6DG1Bm4DA-hMeXu20Ucnqo0Xn5olQBOAufZS6i4P5ttCg5WQB4ZzJaLkMfwYAPL1LbP6wxrFrm5iO67fFAvK6el-C-QkcXLj-e3r-CCkQSDW-C1Jwg20PlJET0IqpWRnVasg/s1600/23244246_1498184830259058_5405175082004077784_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="610" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXJoAj0Qw6DG1Bm4DA-hMeXu20Ucnqo0Xn5olQBOAufZS6i4P5ttCg5WQB4ZzJaLkMfwYAPL1LbP6wxrFrm5iO67fFAvK6el-C-QkcXLj-e3r-CCkQSDW-C1Jwg20PlJET0IqpWRnVasg/s640/23244246_1498184830259058_5405175082004077784_n.jpg" width="406" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="1">One big problem with fire escapes is illustrated in spectacular fashion here...fire blowing out of a window beneath a fire escape landing can and absolutely <i>will</i> block the landing above it, trapping anyone unlucky enough to be on the section of fire escape above the window. And yes...people have burned to death on fire escape landings. </font></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH5th1WG7c9Ch3VqRUmrccyR0rmC_tS-hqyn7hmXOr4VZAeCAx8-eyIpXJmmHMBpQABc3VCVXpxWH3I0RdCfGn43VdQmr0SdsajtzhjrztxoMJOXv4LeugnerWDHas-OZBgfzZbKdIu38/s1600/fall+through+on+rusted+firee+escape+platform.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="600" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH5th1WG7c9Ch3VqRUmrccyR0rmC_tS-hqyn7hmXOr4VZAeCAx8-eyIpXJmmHMBpQABc3VCVXpxWH3I0RdCfGn43VdQmr0SdsajtzhjrztxoMJOXv4LeugnerWDHas-OZBgfzZbKdIu38/s640/fall+through+on+rusted+firee+escape+platform.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lack of proper maintenance is another ongoing issue with fire escapes. Here a firefighter's leg has actually punched through the grating on a rust-weakened fire escape landing. Luckily the rest of his crew was right on top of the situation, pulling him back out and onto a sturdier section of the stairway. Look closely at the fire escape...you can <i>see</i> the rust!</span><br /><br /><br /><br /></font></td></tr>
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<br />Ok, lets say our building's occupants have made it onto the fire escape, and it's the original scenereo, where the fire was discovered fairly early. So our theoretical occupants have passed the fire apartment , get to the lower balcony, go to lower the drop ladder...and it won't budge. It's rust-frozen in the 'up' position, trapping all of our occupants on the fire escape. This could be anything from an uncomfortable inconvenience, as the fire department knocks down the small fire and frees the escape ladder, to a death trap as a fast-developing fire flashes over and blows a fire escape window, immolating a dozen or so people within sight of safety...and in full view of onlookers and fire-fighters..</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Which brings us to maintenance of the things...or lack there-of. OK, the new laws required that fire escapes be kept in good repair, and early on most were, but as time wore on, poor maintenance once again became an issue. Not all building owners or 'supers' were worried about keeping the fire escapes ...or for that matter, the buildings they were attached to...in good repair, especially in the poorer areas of New York, such as the infamous South Bronx of the Sixties and Seventies. </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">While no new fire escapes have been installed in New York (And, very likely, any other city of any size) in over fifty years, untold thousands of them still exist today, the great majority of them installed in the early 20th Century, meaning they are pushing the century-old mark. </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Fire escapes were, basically, bolted to the buildings, and as the attachments corroded, their ability to carry a load decreased to the point that they couldn't hold their own weight. And they often didn't wait for a fire to collapse...just the live load of people hanging out on them would occasionally send them...and their occupants...crashing to the street.<br />
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The bolts and brackets which attached the fire escapes to their buildings' walls weren't the only parts of the structure that rusted, of course...the railings and landings also rusted, which resulted in just as big a hazard for firefighters using the fire escapes for access as it did to residents...more than a few firefighters have had a railing or the grill-work of a landing collapse beneath them. The majority of these guys, thankfully, manage to grab hold of a more solid portion of the fire escapes to prevent a serious and potentially fatal fall, or have a fellow fire fighter grab them and assist them in getting back up through the new hole in the balcony that they created as they fell through. Sadly, though, the things do cause a number of injuries and, sometimes, Line Of Duty Deaths in any given year.</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Also, like the apartment dwellers of times-past, the tenants of those century old buildings often use their fire escape balcony as a patio, complete with patio furniture and hanging plants, despite the fact that doing so is still illegal. Of course, all of this 'fire escape furniture' adds yet <i>another</i> hazard as the fire escapes age...one that doesn't need a fire to injure or kill someone. The weight of all of the knick knacks and pieces of patio furniture add weight to the potentially corrosion weakened fire escape. So the weight of our apartment dwellers, hanging out on the fire escape balcony, grilling burgers (Also illegal, BTW, for obvious reasons), and sitting on trendy metal patio chairs, could potentially be the back-breaking straw or two that pulls the fire escape free of the wall, dumping fires escape, furniture, burgers, and occupants on the ground. </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In 1968, as I noted above, New York's city fathers finally prohibited the installation of new fire escapes on any new construction but they didn't, and couldn't, go as far as demanding that they be removed from older buildings. Lets be honest here, even with their problems, fire escapes <i>still</i> provided the best means for the residents of older tenements to, well, escape from a fire.<br />
<br />Interestingly enough, dozens of fire escapes <i>have</i> been removed from these older tenements...and <i>not</i> because of a legal mandate. Instead, architects had them removed when buildings were remodeled and upgraded...and this often lead to a conflict with the building residents and, sometimes, organizations dedicated to the preservation of historical buildings.<br />
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Often, BTW, one of the arguments that tenants use to push for preserving fire escapes is that they give them peace of mind because they know they have a way to get out should their building light off....but that peace of mind just might ring false, because, unfortunately, things have come full circle, safety-wise.</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Maintenance of fire escapes is expensive...reconditioning a six or seven story iron balcony fire escape can cost upwards of sixty thousand dollars, while the cost of replacing one...if it's even allowed...can reach well up into the low six figures.</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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Because of this huge expense, a lot of these older fire escapes have been neglected over recent decades...building owners, as always, just don't want to spend the money. Oh, They may have spent a couple of thousand dollars to have one painted...often to hide corrosion and rust...but actually repairing those same corrosion issues very often hasn't even been given even a nanosecond's consideration, or worse and even more likely, has been intentionally ignored. So, that bright, pretty new paint often hides old corrosion.<br />
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Of course this has caused problems. I bet that fully half of the bottom fire escape ladders on existing residential fire escapes are frozen due to corrosion, making them all but useless should a fire actually occur. Also, pedestrians have been injured and killed when a piece of stairway or balcony iron work finally gave up it's hold on the building's wall and plummeted to the ground. (And the owners of those buildings realized, belatedly, that the sixty or so grand to repair the fire escape would have been <i>far</i> cheaper than the damages awarded to the injured party or their family). Of course, if the fire escape is in bad enough shape, the entire structure could collapse under it's own weight, much less the weight of anyone who might be on it. A railing or landing could give way partially due to the weight of someone leaning or stepping on it, creating a hazard to residents and...as noted above...firefighters alike.<br />
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Add these very real hazards to the fact that fire escape balconies are still often obstructed...despite the fact that obstructing them is still illegal...and that peace of mind quickly becomes a false sense of security. (Of course, many argue that even an <i>unobstructed</i> fire escape lends a false sense of security, for all of the reasons already noted.)<br />
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Preservation groups in New York and many other cities, on the other hand, argue that fire escapes are part of the city's heritage and are pushing to have them designated as historic landmarks...an argument that stretches back at least thirty or so years, most especially in The Big Apple. While the great majority of fire escapes are utilitarian, black or red painted iron stairways that don't blend with the building's architecture in the least, others use decorative ironwork...some of it intricately detailed...that adds to the building's appearance.<br />
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In some parts of New York...specifically certain parts of Tribecca...many of these more decorative fire escapes as well as those of the more utilitarian variety, <i>have</i> been granted historic landmark status, and are therefore protected. Sadly, that doesn't mean that they are necessarily maintained<br />
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Even fire escapes that <i>haven't </i>been declared historic landmarks will be around for decades to come, not only in New York, but in cities, large and small, across the country. People will hang out on them, and socialize on them, and turn them into patios, without a clue just how the iron balcony they are standing on came to be.<br />
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Probably the <i>only</i> people who are remotely aware of the two fires that, almost 160 years ago, kicked off the legislation game that birthed the classic iron fire escape are die-hard fire service history buffs and architecture aficionados. The Elm Street and 45th Street fires have all but fallen completely off of the radar. The last living person who was directly involved with either of the fires very likely passed away nearly a century ago themselves, while any of their descendants who are living would be three to four times removed (ie: Great,great,great grandchild.) at the very least. It's highly unlikely that the story of their ancestor's demise is at all well known or often discussed.<br />
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And, while these fires were tragic, and are an interesting, and yes important, footnote in architectural and fire service history, they are just that...foot notes. There's not even anything left in the neighborhoods where the tenements once stood to either commemorate or remind passers-by of the fires. The block where the Elm Street tenement was located is now packed with multi-story commercial buildings, while 90 West 45th Street, as well as a good sized hunk of <i>that</i> block, is now home to the Capitol One building in Manhattan. The last 'Pre-Law' tenements from that era still standing anywhere in the city were torn down in the late 1920s.<br />
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No marked monuments exist for the thirty-plus who died on Elm Street and West 45th Street, but monuments of a sort to those who died in those two fires are standing...by the thousands....<br />
nationwide, in the form of the countless fire escapes hanging on to the front and rear walls of an equal number of aging apartment and commercial buildings. And, while the block of Lafayette Street...formally Elm Street...where the tenement once stood is now taken over completely by commercial buildings, if you walk just a couple of short blocks, to the block once occupied by Lady Washington Engine 40's firehouse, you'll find a whole row of classic restored Old Law tenements, complete with fire escapes, standing as a legacy for the twenty-plus residents who died less than a quarter mile away.<br />
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<b><***> NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF </b><b><***></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> For some misguided reason or the other I figured this one would be a nice, quick, uncomplicated couple of weeks worth of work. ::Sigh:: I know, I know...I should really, really know better by now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I was behind the eight-ball <i>big-</i>time
on this one before I even typed the first term in the Ol' Google
machine. The fires happened 160 years ago, they aren't particularly historic or noteworthy unless you're a die-hard
fire service or architectural historian...or maybe a history blogger
who <i>likes</i> looking for
hard to find stuff..., and
absolutely <i>nothing</i> was
left to memorialize the fires' victims. One of the street names has even changed since the fires occurred. So finding any info about the fires was going to be a major challenge</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Then</i>
it became real obvious real quick that this was going to be a
multi-faceted post. It would have to be. <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>I
couldn't just write about the two tenement fires, and not mention the
history spawned by them.. After all, one of the biggest
cultural icons of the 20th Century</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>...the
iron balcony fire escape...was legislated into existence because of
them.</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>If</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>I
wrote about the</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span><i>fires, </i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>I </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span><i>also</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>had
to write about the</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>history</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>of
the fire escape along with the politics</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>and
legislation that created them. </span></span></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Then
we had the tenements themselves...the history of the iron balcony
fire escape and the history of the tenement apartment building, as
well as the evolution of the laws and codes governing them are so
interconnected that it's impossible to write about one without
writing about the other.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">And,
in the blink of an eye, I had a major, multi-layered bit of research
ahead of me.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> Lets take a quick look at researching the fires themselves first. Sure, they were </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">big </i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">news</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> when they occurred, but they weren't </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">huge</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> news. They weren't an Iroquois Theater, or a </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">Titanic</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">, or, even closer to home, a Brooklyn Theater</span><b style="font-family: "times new roman";">. </b><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> They were just a pair of tragic tenement fires that just happened to occur two months apart. They were very likely referenced </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">in the New York papers</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">every time new legislation concerning tenements and/or fire escapes was in the news...at least up until about 1901,when the 'New Law' went into effect....and then they pretty much dropped off the radar.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">When
the New Law went into effect, it meant that... as far as the
media of the era was concerned at any rate...the
tenement fires weren't relevant any more. By the end of the 20th
Century's first decade, as new tenement/fire escape legislation
became unnecessary and other, far </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>far</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> bigger
news stories took center stage, the Elm Street and 45th Street
tenement fires had dropped out of the news cycle entirely,
remembered only by the people who had survived them and/or lost loved
ones in them and the aging former volunteer firefighters who fought
them. </span></span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Now, 160 years later, both fires have dropped so completely off the radar it's almost as if they never happened at all. That made researching them one of the most difficult pieces of research I've had to undertake since I started this blog. </p></span></div>
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After putting every combination of 'Tenement Fires', 'New York', and '1860' I could think of into Google and a couple of it's cousins, I managed to find exactly two period newspaper articles...one about each fire... in a New York Times archive, and that was it. Oh, the fires...or at least the Elm Street Fire...was <i>mentioned</i> numerous times, but that was <i>it</i>...when I say mentioned, I mean just that. A line or two was written about it stating that it happened, that either twenty or thirty people died in the fire, depending on the source, (I actually think the latter figure is probably more accurate, more on that further along in 'Notes') and that they resulted in laws requiring fire escapes being passed (As if those laws were passed and went into effect immediately after the fires occurred.).<br />
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On top of that, only <i>one </i>of the two fires is generally even remembered at all. The two New York Times articles are the <i>only </i>source that mentioned the 45th Street fire. It was pretty much completely ignored in literally<i> every</i> other source (If you can call two or three lines a 'source') that I managed to find.<br />
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Thankfully, the two articles I<i> did</i> find were both lengthy, graphic, and pretty rich in details, up to and including names of victims and which apartments they had occupied as well as the names/numbers of several of the responding fire companies. Better yet, a couple of members of said fire companies were also identified. Not only were they identified, they were praised for making rescues. </div>
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Unfortunately, not a single mention was made of just exactly what tactics the guys manning those fire companies used in making those rescues and fighting the fires, or even of exactly which residents each firefighter rescued, so I also knew that, when I described the fire scenes, I was going to be doing a bit...OK, a bunch...OK a <i>lot</i> of speculating. And trust me, there was a <i>lot</i> of speculating on this one.<br />
<br />
Full disclosure here, gang...just about <i>all </i>of the fire ground description in this post is of the 'This Is What I <i>Think</i> Happened' variety. This made writing it even more enjoyable than usual, as it gave me a <i>lot</i> of leeway, but that was tempered by the knowledge that, again, I wrote it as I thought it probably happened, without knowing just how accurate I was in doing so. With that being said, I hope that I was at least in the ball-park.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And, <i>speaking</i> of those fire scene descriptions...I also felt I had to throw in a pocket description of the old New York Volunteer Fire department as it existed in 1860...trust me , it was nothing like the FDNY of even 10 years later, or even the FDNY's immediate predecessor, The Metropolitan Fire Department, which was the salaried department that replaced the volunteers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO, I had even <i>more</i> research to do.<br />
<br />Thankfully, I managed to score a very useful quartet of bits of good luck, and I ran up on the first one as I perused yet another list of tenement fire search results. I happened across a link, on Amazon, for a reprint of a little tome entitled '<i>Our Firemen: The History of the New York Fire Departments from 1609 to 1887. </i><br />
<br />
<i></i>Hmmmm...<i>this</i> could be interesting.<br />
<br />
Originally written and published in 1887 by Augustine Costello<i>, </i>this huge...over a thousand pages... and seriously awesome book chronicles the history of firefighting in New York City from the very beginnings in 1609 to The State of The Art in firefighting as it existed when the book was published. The history starts, of course, at the very founding of New York, but the most important chapters, at least as far as I was concerned, were those dealing with New York's many volunteer fire companies, which were actually organized into the storied legend known as the New York Volunteer Fire Department, or usually, just the New York Fire Department.<br />
<br />
The book chronicles every volunteer fire company, many well known fire fighters, and a slew of major fires (A couple of which found their way into my ever-growing list of blog-post topics), and yes, one of the fires mentioned was the Elm Street fire. (But, as happened so frequently, the 45th Street fire two months later was <i>not</i> mentioned).<br />
<br />
Better yet this treasure trove of research info set me back only eight bucks and change...on Amazon, natch...and arrived three days after I clicked 'Add To Cart', in beautiful shape, with only a tiny, barely noticeable tear on the dust cover attesting to it's 'Used' status. I spent the better part of two weeks with my nose buried in it while jotting down a couple of legal size pages worth of notes as to where various bits and pieces of info could be found.<br />
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This modern reprint was published in 1997...110 years after the original...and is a <i>real</i> bargain, BTW. O<i>riginal </i>copies in good shape <i>do </i>exist, but they are nowhere near as budget friendly. I went looking for the heck of it, and saw one on EBay...for around $450. The wild thing is, though, if all you want to do is <i>read</i> the original, you don't actually have to pay <i>anything</i>, because every original page, word and engraving is archived on line and<a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t66425b2z&view=1up&seq=7"> viewable digitally.</a></div><div style="text-align: left;">
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The <i>second</i> bit of luck runs hand in hand with my life-long love of fire-fighting. I'm a member of several Facebook pages dedicated to the history of firefighting, all of which enjoy a huge and diverse membership. One of the members of several groups dealing with fire apparatus is an amazingly talented apparatus photographer from 'Across The Pond' by the name of Johnny Floyd II, who maintains a huge...no, make that gi-nor-mous...collection of historic fire apparatus photos. Two of the hundreds he had on display just happened to be an immaculately restored hand tub of nearly the exact same design as Lady Washington Engine 40's rig, and an equally beautifully restored ladder truck of the design used by New York's Volunteers.<br />
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Better yet, Mr Floyd graciously allowed me to use both pics for this post. If any of you guys are just as obsessed with fire apparatus as I am, BTW, he has CDs for sale featuring literally thousands of apparatus and fire scene photos, all equal in quality to the two I posted above...I'll link to 'em in, well, links!<br />
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As I noted above, writing about these fires also meant writing about the history of the fire escape and the tenement building. There is actually...and thankfully...a <i> huge</i> volume of information about both subjects online, and doing a decent job of researching them could well have involved tons of munchies consumed while reading dozens of articles and risking terminal carpel tunnel as I either typed or jotted a volume or two worth of notes...face it, that's how research is <i>done</i>. I think it may actually be the Webster's definition of <i>'Research'.</i><br />
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And this is where my <i>third</i> bit of Good Luck came in. Back in 2006, a graduate student by the name of Mary Elizabeth Andre, who was studying for her Masters of Science specializing in Historic Preservation, at the University of Vermont, wrote an excellent, lengthy, and highly detailed thesis on the History of The Fire Escape. And...just like this post...the history of the fire escape included the history of the tenement. That Thesis was made available online by the University if Vermont. In PDF. Making it downloadable.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And suddenly my research just got a <i>little</i> less complicated. And yes, Ms. Andres's thesis (She better have gotten an 'A' on it!) became my major source of information for the fire escape/tenement history portion of this post.<br />
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Then, finally, there is my <i>fourth </i>fortuitous little bit of luck, when I ran up on a link for a PDF copy of a 1939 book, <i>Enjine! Enjine! by </i>Kenneth Holcomb Dunshee...yet another beautifully illustrated tome dealing with the history of New York City's early volunteer fire companies and their rigs.<br />
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Needless to say, I'm indebted to all of these people and publications. While doing the research is half or more of the fun of writing these posts, finding a source or two that consolidates all of your research into a couple of sites and/or documents is still 'hitting the mother lode', so to speak.<br />
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OK...I've rambled along and made the intro to the notes far too long, and I'm also indebted to any of my readers who've hung on this far. Before we get into the actual notes and such. they, like the post itself, are going to be written in two parts.<br />
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The first set of notes will be about the tenement fires and the volunteers of the old New York Fire Department. The second set of notes will dig into the history of the fire escape and the tenement a little more deeply.<br />
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As always, I hope I made this post entertaining and informative. On to the Notes!</div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The
New York Volunteer Fire Department's Men and Rigs.</b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">To
kick this first section of 'Notes' off, we're going to take a look at
the rigs...in particular, the engines...that the N.Y.F.D's crews ran
at the time of the fires.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">First
a <i>real</i> quick pocket history of the hand pumped fire
engine. Hand-powered pumpers existed in ancient Rome. Now, we're not
sure exactly what form these rigs took. Many scholars think they
were like big syringes while others have unearthed evidence suggesting that they
weren't all that different, in concept at any rate, from the rigs
used by volunteers in New York as well as other American cities </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">from the early 1700s right on up to the introduction of the steamer.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> Whatever type of rigs Roman firefighters were using, they
were organized into companies, and ran out of stations, the remains
of at least one of which still exists.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">What
ever firefighting technology was employed by the ancient Roman fire
brigades was lost to history, and fire fighting reverted to the use
of bucket brigades until hand pumpers were developed...or redeveloped...in the mid or
late 1600s in England. Suffice it to say these rigs were only
slightly better then a bucket brigade themselves. All of them
discharged water in 'spurts' rather than in a solid stream, and were
pushing it to discharge thirty or so gallons per minute (A
bucket brigade could actually apply more water per minute...it just
couldn't do it effectively.). Such things as the air chamber, which
allowed the piston pumps that nearly all 'Hand Tubs' utilized
to discharge a solid stream of water, had to be discovered (Or
possibly <i>re</i>discovered as there is evidence that some
ancient Roman pumpers utilized a type of air chamber). Sturdier
valves and more efficient, higher capacity pumps would be helpful. too.
Wheels would be nice...yes, many very early rigs were
hand <i>carried</i> rather than pulled. Oh...and <i>hose. </i>Lets
not forget hose. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">I</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">n the early 18th Century, a button maker named Richard Newsham developed, designed, and built the first truly effective fire engine. His engine was one of the first rigs equipped with an air chamber, making it capable of discharging a steady, solid stream of water. The rig was around six feet long by about twenty inches wide, and two
feet high at the main deck, with an air chamber box about two feet
high at the rear, giving an overall height of about 4 feet. It was a
side-stroke engine...with the 'brakes' at the sides of the rig...and
could be pumped by about six to eight men, who could get around one
hundred gallons per minute out of it's twin 5" diameter pump
cylinders (Couldn't find the stroke, but it had to have been around
eight or so inches) as long as the crew could keep up a rate of 80 or
so strokes per minute.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Really
good hose hadn't been invented when these rigs were developed, so
water was discharged through a long nozzle that was attached to a
swivel pipe on top of the air chamber box...a fire fighter sat on top
of the box, to direct the stream...so yes, the very first efficient
fire engine also had what was, in essence, the first deck pipe. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The rigs weren't perfect by any means...they were limited in capacity, heavy, weren't capable of drafting from a water source (Pond, river, or cistern) and the stream they flowed was often little better than a garden hose on steroids, but, w</span></span>ith
all of their limitations, these little rigs were <i>still</i> the
first word in fire fighting apparatus in, say, 1720. The rigs were also a <i>huge</i> hit...once Newsham
demonstrated one of them publicly, so much interest was shown in them that he
abandoned button-making, formed a company, and started building them,
to order, in several sizes. And, like fire rigs (And all vehicles of
any kind) from the dawn of wheeled transportation, there was a long list of options that buyers could choose from when they ordered the
rigs...'Checking The Boxes' when ordering a new piece of fire apparatus is far <i>far</i> from
being a new thing!</div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The
new colonies across the Pond (That'd be us) took a huge interest in
this new technology as well when ads and flyers heralding the effectiveness and features of the Newshams appeared in various publications, and soon American cities were ordering
them...including New York.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">New
York ordered two of the rigs in 1731..both the largest size
Newsham built, known as a 'Sixth Size' engine. The rigs were 6'8"
long by 22" wide by 25" high over the main deck with a 30"
high air chamber box, giving it an overall height of about 5 feet.
The tank had a capacity of 170 gallons (Which the rig could empty in
about a minute and a half with the crew going full tilt), and like all Newshams, it was filled via
bucket brigade and discharged the fire stream through that early deck
pipe on top of the air chamber..</span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdQoQkOF30d1jGGm-io8-ocCtOIUlDmdF-ECLvox-kLZp9zOHLAXHPvPv9eElix1Q9NpoWGGZ0iOXalKrSbTjvbm88QYxPfQ76ONFqKW0JMIKn4h9mk_CSimJn7diTARoK6wS5YyV7Gs/s1600/Screenshot+%25281535%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdQoQkOF30d1jGGm-io8-ocCtOIUlDmdF-ECLvox-kLZp9zOHLAXHPvPv9eElix1Q9NpoWGGZ0iOXalKrSbTjvbm88QYxPfQ76ONFqKW0JMIKn4h9mk_CSimJn7diTARoK6wS5YyV7Gs/s640/Screenshot+%25281535%2529.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span>A drawing of a Newsham engine. The largest rigs, such as the two ordered by New York City, were just shy of seven feet long by about 22" wide by five feet high over the air chamber box. You could literally store one in a modern bedroom...in fact it would make it out of a standard size door. They packed</span><span> a bit of a punch, though...the largest rigs could pump around 100 GPM as long as the guys on the brakes and foot treadles could maintain about 80 strokes per minute.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span>The air chamber box was at the rear of the rig, it was pulled from the other end. OH...the wheels </span><i>didn't</i><span> steer, so you had to lift and turn it to get around corners.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A firefighter would sit on the air chamber box and direct the stream that was being pumped through the long, brass playpipe on top of the air chamber. The playpipe...the great great grandfather of the modern 'Deck Pipe'...was mounted on a swivel connection, allowing it to be rotated 360 degrees.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsqE-eHQuBvZptfKj7ywMPj499hC8mS2ux7luMSCj-4-MKZZD482U_3kbUDNXRe7GZAbNSg8Kis8Ho18TNYdGCahyphenhyphen22GtUJQwfy2UpCKqGXQq4BTTSNBqNViUFNLaoi5LkafRUhjkZ014/s1600/fire_newsham_wood-pumper.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="628" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsqE-eHQuBvZptfKj7ywMPj499hC8mS2ux7luMSCj-4-MKZZD482U_3kbUDNXRe7GZAbNSg8Kis8Ho18TNYdGCahyphenhyphen22GtUJQwfy2UpCKqGXQq4BTTSNBqNViUFNLaoi5LkafRUhjkZ014/s640/fire_newsham_wood-pumper.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A restored Newsham engine just like the opens used by the city of New York. The front of the rig's to the right of the frame, the open box with what appears to be a strainer on one side is the water fill box. Citizens on a bucket brigade would empty their buckets into this box to fill the rig's tank even as firefighters manning the 'brakes' pumped water out of the tank. Needless to say, the amount of water the firefighters could pump onto the fire was completely dependent on just how much water the bucket brigade could dump into the tank.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The tank took up the entire main body of the rig, BTW...the pump was actually submerged in it. This was also why these rigs...and in fact <i>all </i>hand tubs...ran with empty tanks. 170 gallons of water weighs roughly 1400 pounds...a full tank would have made the rig all but impossible to pull.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The brakes, which operate the pump, are the long poles mounted on the diagonal metal beams, these beams are attached to a pair of 'Rocking Beams, which are connected to the pump pistons with connecting rods. Men on the brakes pump them up and down rapidly,, swiveling the 'Rocking Beams' to operate the pump. The foot treadles are below the brakes...you can see the one on the far side of the rig more </span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">clearly, it appears as a long horizontal board...and are also connected to the rocking beams with a closed-link chain much like a bicycle chain. Two or three guys could stand on them and 'Walk' them in concert with the men operating the brakes, to add more power to the pump. The long, horizontal poles at the top of the rig. attached to the air chamber box at one end and the rocking beam supports at the other, are hand rails for the guys operating the foot treadles to hang on to.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWi2vUKfpzS8t4gabk-Xo1IL0ZjmfW_GyAoF4rkj1XPWeicFeTclqDRSAFIFBoBs7gFOc8fE7-fJy8BXmgNRfx5oW8q6xuFuW3eQ65Z9mm77aQTblotgk1oBsl6aefb2YrJr0P2rXwpPg/s1600/Newsham+Engine+Foot+Treadles.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWi2vUKfpzS8t4gabk-Xo1IL0ZjmfW_GyAoF4rkj1XPWeicFeTclqDRSAFIFBoBs7gFOc8fE7-fJy8BXmgNRfx5oW8q6xuFuW3eQ65Z9mm77aQTblotgk1oBsl6aefb2YrJr0P2rXwpPg/s640/Newsham+Engine+Foot+Treadles.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">End view of the Newsham engine pictured above with the various operating components labeled.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">About
eight to ten men...four to five to a side...pumped the brakes,
but the rigs were also equipped with one of the afore mentioned
options...foot treadles on the main deck that were connected to the
brakes. The foot treadles were connected to a 'rocking beam' that was
also connected to the 'brakes' by a closed link chain (Much like a
bicycle chain). Two or three men could stand on the foot treadles and 'walk' them, moving them up and down </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">to assist the crew manning the brakes</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> (This likely took some </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">real</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> teamwork
so they stayed 'in rhythm' with the crew on the brakes!). A pair of hand rails were provided for the guys
manning the foot treadles, to hang on to as they 'Walked The
Treadles'.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The
pump was located down inside the tank at the rear of the rig, hard by the air chamber...a
similar rocking beam on that end of the rig, which was also connected
to the foot treadles, was connected to the pump pistons by connecting
rods.</span></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">As
small and primitive as these rigs were, they were far, <i>far</i> better
than nothing and gave their crews at least a fighting chance of
controlling a fire...or at least keeping it from taking more than one
building. But they still had problems, and these problems started before they even got to the scene.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The first problem the crews ran into actually had nothing to do with the rigs...not directly, anyway... and the problem's name was response time. There were only two of these pumpers for all of Manhattan...the developed area of New York was <i>way</i> smaller in 1731 than it was even a century later, and the crews only had to drag the rigs, at the most, a mile or so, but, still, hand dragging a heavy, cumbersome, hard to maneuver piece of equipment a mile would take at <i>least </i>15-20 minutes. This is after an alarm is turned in, and the fire alarm system was beyond primitive in 1731...it basically consisted of watchmen ringing church bells and a few strategically located, fire alarm dedicated tower bells.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Once the church bells and tower bells started banging out an alarm, a crew had to be formed up, informed of where they were going, and then they had to head for the scene. The fire had likely been burning at <i>least</i> ten or fifteen minutes before the rigs' wheels even turned, so by the time the rigs rolled it probably wasn't real hard to find the fire...either the column of smoke during the day, or the glow at night would be pretty easy to spot...but that glow or smoke column only gave them the general direction and area. They still had to hunt for the actual location of the fire...or be informed of it's exact location.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Lets say that whoever turned in the alarm also ran to one of the sheds where the rigs were housed and assisted in pulling it to the fire, so they were able to go directly to the scene (I have a feeling this <i>may</i> have actually happened fairly frequently, actually)<br /></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">SO they finally get on scene, and the little rigs go in service, throwing a pair of streams on the fire...</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Except it didn't happen anywhere <i>near</i> that quickly <i>or</i> smoothly.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The rig had a 170 gallon water tank, and t</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">he pump was actually set down inside of the tank so that it literally drafted from it's own tank....a design feature that pretty much </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">all</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> hand tubs used for the next nearly 150 years,...so once they got on scene, that 170 gallons was </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">enough for a good minute and a half or so of firefighting while a water supply was being established, except for one problem. Unlike modern engines, the tank had to be </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">filled</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> before they could even start pumping... Newsham's engines, as well as every hand tub ever built, ran with the tank dry until they reached the fire scene.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>Ok, you may ask, just <i>why</i> didn't the crews keep the tanks full so they could start pumping as soon as they reached the scene? That just makes <i>sense</i>, right. I mean that's the way they do it <i>today...</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Yeah, but it <i>wasn't</i> today.. Part of the reason...and it's a <i>big</i> reason...that these rigs ran with dry tanks until they reached a fire scene was weight. The water tanks on the Newsham rigs were lined with lead, making the rigs insanely heavy and hard to maneuver. To make matters even worse, the wheels weren't steerable. To turn a corner, the crew had to literally lift the rig and turn it (Or as they became more familiar and comfortable with it, likely lift the front end and pivot it.) The rigs weighed around 700 pounds empty, a hundred and seventy gallons of water would add 1450 or so extra pounds to the weight of the rig, making it literally impossible to either pull or maneuver. (Some purely <i>political</i> reasons for running dry tanks reared their ugly heads later as more fire companies were organized, but we'll take a look at them a bit later.)</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
then we hit problem Number Three, before the first drop of water is
put on the fire. There were no hydrants...they wouldn't come along
until the early years of the next century...and <span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Newsham's
rigs weren't equipped with suction intakes...rigs wouldn't be
equipped with suctions for nearly a century...so, they couldn't draft
from a water source such as a river, pond, or cistern. And the tanks
were still dry, so no one's fighting </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>any</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> fire
just yet.</span></span></span></span></p></div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">This meant, of course, that the rigs' tanks had to be </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">filled either by a bucket
brigade or a public pump, if one was available, through funnel-like
water feeder boxes at either end the rig. If a bucket brigade was
used, full buckets of water were, of course, just dumped into the
feeder box. If they were lucky enough to have a public pump hard by
the fire scene, the little rig would be backed in so the feeder box
was directly beneath the pump's spout, and a couple of guys would be
assigned to pump like mad to keep the tank filled as the crew on the
'brakes' pumped just as enthusiastically to put water on the fire.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Of
course there were definite disadvantages to both methods. If they were using a bucket brigade, t</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">he crew had to wait for the bucket
brigade to actually get organized and start passing full buckets to
fill the tank before they could even start fighting fire. And it
could take some </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">serious</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> time to get a bucket brigade
set up, especially if the water source was some distance from the
fire scene.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The bucket brigade's point of supply was usually one of the public pumps mentioned above,
and there weren't that many of them, so the dual lines...one of men
passing full buckets to the rig, another of the ladies and kids
passing the empty ones back to the water source...would often
be <i>long, </i>and would take awhile to get organized and
get rolling. Then, once full buckets started coming down the line, it
would take a good minute or two to fill the tank to the point that
the pump could draft from it. We could well be <i>another</i> ten or so minutes in to the operation before the first gallon of water flows through that play-pipe.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The
problems didn't end once they started pumping, either.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> Like every pumper ever built, in order for the rig to flow it's full
capacity, it had to be </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>supplied</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">with
the same amount of water it was discharging. Which means that, once</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> the crew
on the engine started flowing water, the bucket brigade had to keep
up with them, hustling to keep the tank filled as the pump tried to
empty it. And trust me, they </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">really</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> had to
hustle!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> The buckets held about three gallons apiece, and
we can bet some of it was spilled as the buckets were passed, so if
the crew on the pumper was pumping full tilt...lets say flowing 100 GPM...thirty-three of those three gallon buckets would have to be dumped into the fill box
every minute. That's under perfect conditions, BTW, with every bucket still full when it reached the
feeder box. Problem was, of course most of them weren't, so it probably took closer
to 40 buckets per minute to keep the rig's tank filled.. One every
two to three or so seconds. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">My
bet is that didn't happen, meaning that just how much water the crew
could put on the fire was limited by just how much water the
bucket brigade could supply. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">So, while the rig was, theoretically, capable of flowing 100 GPM, it's a pretty good bet it seldom was able to actually flow that much.. Between 50 and 75 GPM is likely a more realistic figure.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">(Even though water supply at a fire
scene is a thousand times more complicated and sophisticated now than
it was back then, available water supply BTW, is </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">still</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> the
limiting factor,...you absolutely can </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">not</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> pump more
water per minute </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">out</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> than you're being supplied
with, no matter </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">how</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> new and sophisticated your rig
is, or </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">what</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> your water source is.). </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Now,
if they could back the rig in beneath the public pump's spout, and
supply it directly from the pump, part of the problem was licked. As
long as it was a good cistern with a well maintained pump, and they
had a couple of good, fit guys acting as the 'Water Supply Officers',
slamming the pump's handle up and down like mad, they could
probably keep the engine supplied. But there were very <i>very</i> few
times they could actually supply the rig directly from one of those public pumps.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Remember they didn't have hose
yet, so that long nozzle mounted on the air chamber was their only
way of putting water on the fire. Now the rigs were good for a stream
of about 135 feet horizontally (Probably less for a truly effective
stream...this was a <i>small</i> nozzle, likely with only
about a half inch tip, if that) so the fire building had to be no more than about 75-100 feet from the pump for the engine to be directly supplied from it.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The problems didn't end with getting a water supply set up either. As noted above, t</span></span>hese rigs could theoretically throw a 135 or so foot horizontal stream through a 1/2" or so inch
nozzle, but that wasn't necessarily an <i>effective</i> 135 foot stream, especially if there was any wind blowing...it wouldn't
take much of a breeze at all to break that small, fairly low pressure
stream up into spray <i>long</i> before it reached that 135 foot mark. My bet is that, to ensure that they actually got water on
the fire, these little rigs were usually spotted <i>far</i> closer
than 135 feet from the fire building...at least until radiant heat
forced the crew to pull back. And I seriously suspect that happened <i>often</i> in those days. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Then once they actually got The Wet
Stuff applied to The Red Stuff, it often just didn't do that much good.
There is an old <i>old</i> fire service saying RE:
inadequate fire streams that states 'If your GPMs don't exceed your
BTUs, you are SOL...in other words, if you are not flowing enough
water to absorb all of the heat being generated by the fire, you
are <i>not</i> going to extinguish it. Unfortunately, our
early firefighters were <i>regularly</i> 'SOL' in this
manner from the minute the first 'BONG! of a fire bell split the air, and it had absolutely nothing to do with lack of courage, or lack of
aggressiveness, or lack of skill. The equipment they had just wasn't
up to the job at hand. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Building construction back then was
predominantly wood frame, and wood frame buildings burn fast
and <i>hot. </i>No matter how competent and aggressive the
crew of one of these Newshams, or many of it's immediate descendants for that matter, may have been, if they rolled in on a
big, fully involved wood-frame building, the only thing that hundred
or so Gallons Per Minute (And keep in mind that flow is under
absolutely ideal conditions,) is going to do is annoy the fire a
bit. Trust me, it wont even slow it down, and they are <i>not</i> going
to save that building. They are going to be lucky, in fact, to save
much of the <i>block</i>. This is one of a slew of reasons
that fire-fighting back in that era was mostly a defensive operation,
with the firefighters working to keep the fire from spreading to
other structures rather than trying to save the original fire
building. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
Another problem had to do with the lack
of hose...they couldn't always put the water where it was actually
needed, With that early 'Deck Pipe', all they could really do is
spray water in the general direction of the fire, putting the stream
through a window if they were close enough...not much good if fires
blowing out of, say, eight or ten windows on two floors. And this takes us
right back to the issue we discussed above. While they were far
better than nothing, even a <i>pair</i> of these little
rigs were no match for a working structure fire that had really
gotten rolling before firefighters arrived and went to work, which
was the majority of fires back then.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The very basic design of the
hand-pumped piston fire pumper stayed the same for nearly two hundred
years (Hand pumped rigs...far, </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">far</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> more efficient
ones...were built right on up to the early 20th century!) but the rigs that were on scene at the tenement fires bore as much resemblance to the early Newshams as a modern Ford Focus does to a Model 'T'. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The
rigs were improved as the years and decades passed, and new
developments were incorporated, such as...<i>hose. </i>Hard as
is to believe, fire hose was developed well after the fire
engine...as noted above, the first New York City engines pumped water
onto the fire through engine mounted play-pipes, and the first rigs
equipped with discharges and capable of pumping through hose didn't
appear until around the mid or late 18th century. Many of these rigs were still
of the same 'gooseneck' design...so called because of the design of
the playpipe...as the original Newsham engines. The hose was
connected to the same pipe, on top of the air chamber, that the
playpipe could be coupled to. These rigs couldn't supply but one line, and
multiple side or end mounted discharges wouldn't appear until the 1830s. By
the time steamers began appearing in the late 1850s, the larger hand
tubs were capable of pumping 300-400 GPM and supplying as many as three lines, flowing around
100-125gpm through each...as long as their crews could keep up the pace
required to do so.</span></span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Fire
hose was originally made of leather,...sewn originally, then
riveted after about 1807. A 50 foot section of riveted leather 2.5
inch fire hose weighed in at around 85
pounds...That's </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>without</i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> couplings
BTW. On top of that, leather hose was extremely maintenance
intensive, and had to be dried and treated with beef tallow or
Neetsfoot Oil after each use or it would dry, harden and crack.
Treating the hose was </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>absolutely</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">necessary,
and many hours were expended getting the hose and rigs back in
service after a working fire, but I don't even want to </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>think</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">of
what six or seven hundred feet of just treated hose, dripping beef
tallow, would have smelled like on a hot summer day!</span></span></span></p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">BTW,
in the 'The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same'
department...Though the rigs and tools are a thousand times more
advanced now than they were at the turn of the 19th century, getting
the rigs back in service, cleaning and maintaining tools, and washing
hose after a working fire is <i>still</i> an hours long,
labor intensive job.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Now lets take a look at the pumps.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">All positive displacement pumps, such as the piston pumps almost all hand tubs were equipped with, are not only
capable of drafting water from a pond or cistern, they do an
outstanding job of it. But for them to be able to draft, the rig they
are installed in has to be <i>equipped</i> to draft. In
other words the pump has to have a suction intake. Oh...before a suction intake could be developed, specialized
hose, reinforced with coiled wire so it wouldn't collapse under vacuum, also
had to be developed. The first New York rigs equipped with suction
intakes went in service in 1819 (And the older rigs were modernized,
so to speak, by having suctions installed on them.)</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Interestingly enough, hydrants started showing up on New York's street corners a couple of years <i>before</i> rigs were equipped with suction intakes. (And, BTW, these early suction intakes had <i>nothing</i> to do with being supplied by a hydrant...we'll get to that in a minute.). </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">For
years the rigs were still supplied by either bucket brigades or public pumps, with all the problems detailed above, until water mains
and hydrants began appearing in the early 19th century. The first hydrant was installed at William and Liberty Streets in 1808, and by 1817 or
so, cast iron fire hydrants that are very much recognizable as
ancestors of modern hydrants were sprouting all over the city.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Here's
the thing...fire apparatus design didn't catch up for awhile. Even
after rigs were equipped with suction inlets, at first the rigs
couldn't connect to hydrants...suction intakes were designed to allow pumps to draft..or, well, <i>suck...</i>water from a water source. The pumps would create negative pressure...suction...at the intake, and draw the water into the pump. And it absolutely <i>wasn't</i>, however, capable of handling water coming into the pump under <i>positive</i> pressure, which is what happens when you connect to a hydrant...whatever pressure the hydrant is flowing is the pressure that the crew would be working against to operate the pump. If a line from a hydrant was connected to a rig's suction intake, the incoming water pressure would
overcome the crews' efforts and lock the pump up.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> SO how did the
hydrant actually supply the rigs?</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Keep
in mind that under normal operation...when not drafting from a
pond or river...the pump simply drafted from the rig's own tank, which was
filled by a bucket brigade before water mains and hydrants were developed and installed. When a hydrant was
being used, the 'Butt End' of the line coming off the hydrant was
simply placed inside the same water collector box that bucket
brigades dumped water into and a couple of guys would be assigned to hold it
in place as the hydrant was opened and the tank started filling. They'd then have to either hold the supply line's butt end inside the tank for the duration of the operation, or come up with a way to secure it in place. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">This
exact same tactic was used when multiple engines were pumping in-line
to relay water. If the water source...be it pond, cistern, or hydrant...was distant from the fire, a relay would have to be set up, pumping water from engine to engine, until they got water to the fire. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> The engine at the water source dropped it's suction
hose in the water source (Or put the hydrant in service as described above) and stretched a line from their discharge to the next engine in line. The crew of </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">that </i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">engine used the exact same 'Hold the
butt of the hose in the collector box' method to supply their engine,
which then pumped to the </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">next</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> engine in line...rinse and repeat . Ten or twelve rigs
relayed water regularly using this method, and on one
occasion, </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman";">thirty</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> engines relayed water almost a
mile.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">This
method of relaying water also sometimes resulted in 'Washing' a
rig...overflowing the tank...which we'll take a closer look at when
we discuss the politics of the old department.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Ultimately
some unnamed firefighter, tired of freezing/ roasting/getting drenched while holding the butt end of a supply line in place for hours on end, looked at his company's rig, rubbed his chin, said
'What if we just install a suction inlet...not connected to the
pump...in the side of the tank, so we can connect the supply line to
it, and fill the tank off the hydrant...' And so, it came to be.
And word spread, and other companies did the same, and </span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">finally</span></i></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">,
rigs had intakes. Sort of.. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">These intakes were actually what we'd call 'Tank Fills' today. They still just filled the tank so the
pump could draft from it, basically performing the same job that, first, the bucket brigades, and later, the guys holding the butt end
of the supply line had performed for years. The new intakes just did so far more efficiently, freeing up a firefighter or two from each engine company while they were at it.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Of course, the rigs were still running with dry tanks, which meant that when the rig was connected to the hydrant, they still had to wait for the tank to fill before they could start pumping. But just spinning the supply line's coupling onto an intake and calling back to 'Charge the supply line!!!' was </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><i>still</i></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> far
better and more efficient than <i>either</i> of the old </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">methods
of getting water to the pump. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> Once the rigs were equipped with intakes, relays were also far easier to set up, of
course, as the crew of each rig in line no longer had to hold the 'butt' end of the supply line inside their rig's tank...they just connected the incoming supply line to their intake. Of course, as this new, far more efficient method of supplying water to the rigs still simply filled the tank, the receiving rigs in relays could </span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">still</span></i></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> get
'washed'.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background: transparent;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background: transparent;">Engines</span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="background: transparent;"> </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background: transparent;">continued
to be improved and become more efficient, until there were a few hand
tubs that could flow nearly 350 GPM...closer to 400 GPM if the crew
'Over-pumped' the rig, pumping at 120-170 strokes per minute,
pumping a vertical stream of water over 120 feet in the air. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">One
rig, run by Engine 42, and known as 'The Mankiller', actually out
pumped one of the first steamers tested by New York...for a few
minutes. Of course, when the crew dropped from exhaustion, the
steamer just kept pumping and pumping...</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><b>The Steamer Comes On The Scene</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">The
first steam-powered fire engine was actually put in service in London
in 1830, beating us to the punch by 23 years...the first U.S.
steamer was tested (In New York, at that) in 1842, but a U.S. steamer didn't actually go into service until 1853, in </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Cincinnati, Ohio...the same year that the Cincinnati Fire Dept. became the first salaried department in the U.S.</span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Cincinnati's steamer was ground breaking, revolutionary, and a game changer. Problem was, it took the game a few years to actually change. American fire departments were slow to embrace the new technology at first. Volunteers hated the
new rigs , feeling that the steamers would replace them, but
ultimately the fact that they were far </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><i>far</i></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">more
efficient than hand tubs, began to win departments, and most
importantly, the volunteers, over.</span></span></p></div>
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<p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">None the less, several cities had steamers by the late 1850s, and New York was one of the last cities to actually put one service. </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; text-align: center;">The
first steamer to go in service in New York was a Lee and Larned</span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> steamer, gifted to the city by the fire insurance companies, in 1859.
The rig, named </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Manhattan, </i></span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">went
in service at Engine 8, on Ludlow Street, near the
southern tip of Manhattan. There is some evidence, BTW, that it was
<i>this</i> rig, rather than The Exempt's self-propeller, that responded to
the Elm Street fire, not the least prominent</span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1860/05/31/archives/the-steam-fireengine-the-machine-of-messrs-lee-larned-the-fourth.html" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> an
editorial</span></a><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">refuting
some less than complementary words written about the L&L
steamers. Of course, it's not at all unlikely that </span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>both</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">steamers
were on scene.</span></span></span></p><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">AT
first, as in other cities where steamers started replacing the hand
tubs, the members of New York's fire companies were </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><i>not</i></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"> </span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">amused
by the new rig, to the point of refusing to take it's water or supply
it at scenes. Ultimately, firefighters saw just how versatile and
efficient the new rig was, and realized that it often made
a </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><i>huge</i></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"> </span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">difference
in whether a block...and sometimes the fire building, itself...was
saved or not. Again, just take a look at both of the fires profiled
in this post...steamers likely helped prevent both of these fires
from becoming multi-block conflagrations.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Before
long, other fire companies petitioned the Common Council for purchase
of steamers, and by the night of the Elm Street fire, several were in
service, with more to come. As noted in the discussion of the Elm
Street fire, the Exempt Engine Company had </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><i>two</i></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"> </span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">steamers
by then, one of them a big Lee and Larnard Self Propeller that very
possibly responded to the scene.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
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<span><span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Lee
and Larned deserves a special mention here, because so many of New
York's early steamers were made by this firm, including Engine 46's
rig, the workhorse of the 45th Street fire. The company made
it's first baby-steps in 1854, when a very inventive gent by the name
of Joseph Larned became acquainted with another enterprising fellow
by the name of Wellington Lee, who just happened to be (A) a fire
buff, and (B) working on a design for a steam fire engine. His
design was unique, ambitious, and maybe just a </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><i>bit</i></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">ahead
of it's time...rather than a piston pump, the rig utilized a rotary
gear pump, but it was the steam engine itself that was even </span><i>more</i><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"> revolutionary. The Lee and larned steam engines were <i>rotary </i>steam engines...the great grandfathers of steam turbines...that turned a crankshaft which, in turn, spun the pumps gears, likely through a gear box. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Joe
Larned liked what he saw, thought the idea had huge potential, and
entered into a partnership with Wells Lee, and the two entered into
partnership with the well-known New York Boiler builder and
iron-working firm, Novelty Ironworks. They demonstrated their first
steamer in 1856, continuously improved their rigs (And demonstrated
the improved steamers) and ultimately began selling the rigs, not
only in New York, but nationally and internationally. One of
the first to go in service was Exempt Engine's big self propeller </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">at
about the same time </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><i>The Manhattan</i></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">went
in service at Engine 8, with a smaller hand-drawn steamer much like
Engine 8's rig going in service with the Exempts a year or so later.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">All
of the L&Ls used the rotary engine/rotary gear pump mentioned above, and all of the New York rigs, with the exception of The Exempt's self-propeller, were</span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> small, hand drawn rigs, capable of pumping between
350 and 500 GPM and weighing in at about 3700 pounds. These rigs
cost about $3000 apiece...just north of $93,000 in 2020 dollars.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Lee
and Larned would sell at least a dozen of their rigs before the
company went out of business in 1863, at least five of them to New
York.. Joe Larned's career would continue, though he left fire
apparatus manufacture behind to become Inspector of Ironclads for the
U. S. Navy. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Several
other companies, Amoskaeg and Silsby chief among them, supplied the
New York Volunteer companies with steamers during their last
half-decade or so of existence, and by the time the paid department
took over in 1865, the steamer was not only well accepted, steamers
outnumbered the hand tubs in the volunteer fire companies...they had
thirty-one of them in service, almost all of which were pressed into service by the new paid department.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><***></span></b></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">And as an interesting little side note, Novelty Ironworks, builder of the Lee and Larned steamers, would also build the boilers for a little ship called the <i>'U.S.S. Monitor'.</i> I can't help but wonder if Joe Larned, being Inspector of Ironclads, had something to do with that bid being accepted!</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><b><***></b></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Back in this era the only way to alert the volunteers that they had a run was the city's bell system, which was lacking on several levels, the first of which was it's inability to pin down a specific location...or, really, even get the crews any closer than than the general vicinity of the call. </span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">New York was divided into eight districts, and, just as today, the engine, hose, and ladder companies were assigned the district they responded in (Probably their home district and one adjoining district,...remember, these guys were dragging the rigs by hand). When an alarm was dispatched,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> t</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, times new roman, serif;">he bells would bang out the district number, but, again, </span><i style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">all</i><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"> that gave the responding companies was the general direction in which to head. What it <i>didn't</i> do was give them the address, or even the street, much less the block, the alarm was located on. A couple of sources noted that at some point, each district was divided into quarters, so an alarm would bang out the district number, then the zone within the district ('Bong-Bong...Bong-Bong-Bong, for example would be district 2, zone 3) and this was a </span></span><i style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">little</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> better...but not much. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The crews generally had to look for the smoke or glow, and were possibly met near the scene by police officers to guide them in, but I have a feeling an inordinate amount of time was actually spent looking for the location. The early telegraph system, which went in service in 1851, helped some...but not as much as you might think. Telegraph keys were located in all of the bell towers and, I believe, police stations and some of the fire houses. When an alarm was received at a bell tower the bell ringer would set his mechanical bell ringer in motion, (If they had them by then), then notify the other towers of the location using the telegraph key. It's possible that the fire companies that had telegraphs would 'answer up' on the telegraph, and be given the location...if they had someone trained on using the telegraph. But that last is, at best, a 'definite maybe', as they say.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At it's very best, this system was still clumsy and cumbersome, with built-in response delays that were often the reason a building...or multiple buildings....were lost. Things wouldn't improve until the modern telegraph alarm system, with fire alarm boxes throughout the city, was installed. This system was actually developed in the early 1850s, with the first system of alarm boxes installed in Boston in 1853, and several cities had street boxes by 1860. . New York didn't get a city-wide telegraph system until around 1870, five years after the salaried 'Metropolitan Fire Department' replaced the volunteers, so yep...the first paid firefighters were actually dispatched using the old system for five full years.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">There was yet another problem with the early volunteer system (One that wouldn't be entirely solved for volunteers in rural communities until volunteers started owning cars many decades later). Unless they lived<i> real </i>close to the firehouse, they would have a long run from home before they could get the rig on the street.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">New York's fire companies (And, I have a feeling, those in many other cities and larger towns) came up with a solution to that one...they had crews 'Bunk In' nightly. New York's volunteers had some pretty elaborate fire houses, and almost all of them included a bunk room. Duty rosters would be set up, with each night having a set crew of, maybe, ten men, Several of the company's 'runners' would also bunk in with them, to assist in pulling the rig to the scene (Among other...er...tasks these guys would perform for the fire company.) This way when the alarm hit, the rig or rigs could hit the street quickly. (They </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">had</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> to run down the stairs though...the fire pole wouldn't come along until 1878, in Chicago).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> The rest of the company's volunteers would either respond to the station</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">, if they lived close enough, and assist in pulling the rig to the scene and manning it, or, if they were to far away to make it to the station before the rig left quarters, make their way to the scene. (Pretty much the way things</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> are </span><i style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">still</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> done in volunteer fire companies the world over...just replace 'Help pull the rig' with 'Catch</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> the first out/second out engine/ladder, or grab the brush truck/tanker/rescue')</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">'Bunking In' is till done today. Almost all volunteer rescue squads use duty crews, as well as many volunteer fire companies...in fact, in many 'Combination Departments' (Fire departments that have both salaried and volunteer firefighters) the all-volunteer companies aren't even dispatched unless they have a duty crew in quarters and 'Marked Up'</span></span></div>
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Volunteer fire companies can and often do have more internal politics than some small unstable countries....I was a long-time member of both a volunteer fire company, and a volunteer rescue squad and, trust me on this, the monthly meetings could get down-right contentious over such minor issues as whether or not to buy a new printer. The yearly elections of officers...<i>especially</i> in the squad I was a member of...involved campaigns just as hard fought and sometimes cut-throat as any Presidential campaign you've ever had to suffer through...<br />
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That being said, the politics of the New York's volunteer companies made any modern fire company's politics look downright amateurish, not to mention far, <i>far</i> less dangerous to both citizens and firefighters.<br />
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Many of New York's early volunteer fire companies were formed in heavily ethnic immigrant communities, and the rivalries between these ethnic groups was the basis for both politics and rivalries between companies, And these were <i>bitter </i>rivalries...we're not talking about the kind of more or less good natured rivalries fought out on high school and college gridirons every fall weekend here...we're talking about bitter feuds, rivaling the feuds between modern street gangs, that often led to very literal combat between fire companies. Feuds, complete with violence that often erupted over such seemingly mundane issues as getting water on the fire.<br />
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'Wait...' You may ask. '...Getting water on the <i>fire</i>'...isn't that kinda the basic reason they're <i>there??</i><br />
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Oh yeah...and yes, pitched battles would take place over this very basic issue, and the early fire insurance companies kicked this battle off in the late 18th century by awarding a monetary prize to the first company to get water on any property that they insured. It doesn't take much imagination to see what kind of mayhem and chaos <i>that</i> could result in if two fire companies rolled up on a scene at the same time, especially if those two companies didn't particularly like each other.<br />
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If two companies rolled up at the same time, and a bucket brigade was being set up, fights would often break out over just <i>which</i> company got water first...and these fights often...<i>usually</i>, in fact...involved more than just fists. Axes make for <i>very</i> effective offensive weapons.<br />
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Once hose was developed, our competing companies had yet <i>another</i> way to delay the first in company from getting water on the fire...they'd cut their hose. Often it wasn't the firefighters themselves engaging in the worst of this behavior, but crews of 'runners', who were sort of auxiliary members of the fire company. While they generally weren't voted in as members, they were allowed to hang around the station and enjoyed many of the same privileges as regular members. and they <i>did </i>provide useful service both enroute and on the fire ground by assisting with 'dragging' the rigs and working the 'brakes' on the engines, freeing up firefighters to actually fight fire, as well as assisting with water supply....<br />
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....Ahhh, assisting with water supply!! Not only did they assist with <i>obtaining</i> water for their own company...they became experts at <i>denying</i> water to incoming companies, by whatever means were required.<br />
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The monetary prizes for first water had pretty much dried up by the the second decade of the 19th century, but the rivalries hadn't. And when hydrants were installed, if a pair of bitter rivals were rolling in to the same incident, some of their 'runners' would run ahead to the scene to guard the closest hydrant. There were stories of 'Runners' using barrels to hide hydrants, but I have a problem believing this simply because, even back then, having a good idea of where hydrants were in your district was just common sense...you didn't want to be running around trying to find a hydrant when a building was puking fire and smoke. which meant if some dude was sitting on a barrel that had magically appeared at a street corner, it's a good bet that (A) <i>someone </i>in the first-in company<i> </i>knew that there was a hydrant under that barrel, and (B) even if they <i>didn't,</i> an otherwise useless barrel with a dude sitting on it or leaning against it, in the immediate vicinity of a burning building, was almost as good an indication of a hydrant as a bright red sign. Means of persuading the barrel-sitter to, well, <i>un</i>sit the barrel would be deployed.<br />
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More than likely a group of runners would simply guard the hydrant, denying it's use...or at least <i>attempting</i> to do so...until their company arrived. And if more than one company's runners arrived at the scene at the same time? In that not at all rare situation, a general brouhaha would result as they battled for the honor of guarding the hydrant. Then when the companies arrived, <i>they</i> would join in the fray trying to get water. This would fairly regularly devolve into a general battle where the actual reason for the fight was forgotten, along with the reason they were there in the first place. And as for the involved building...it fairly regularly burned to the ground while firefighters battled each other rather than the fire.<br />
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This habit of dispatching a group of toughs to guard the hydrant for their own company even gave birth to a term that you still hear used occasionally...plug ugly. Back in the day, of course, plug ugly was the name given to the toughs guarding the plug...hydrant...for their own company. The name's meaning evolved to mean any hooligans hired to intimidate a group for political gain, and has today evolved...or maybe devolved...to mean <i>any</i> truly mean and ugly hooligan.<br />
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This race to get first water on the fire also led to <i>just</i> that...races, that is. As fire companies neared the scene and ended up on the same street, side by side, the crews would go all out to pass each other, becoming reckless while they were at it, and even pulling their rigs on the sidewalk (Lady Washington's volunteer's were called out by the Common Council for that little stunt any number of times.). These races sometimes also involved one crew actually trying...and succeeding...in wrecking a rival crews rig, which would inevitably lead to a multi-company street brawl, fought as the building burned.<br />
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While we're on the subject of water supply-influenced fights, remember me mentioning engines getting 'washed' while relay pumping form distant water sources? To review, it happened when the crew pumping one engine couldn't pump as much or more water <i>out</i> of it's tank than the engine supplying it was pumping <i>in. </i>When this occurred, water overflowed from the tank, possibly damaging the rig's paintwork and murals, which did <i>not</i> come cheap. This was pretty humiliating for the washed company, but it also wasn't uncommon, especially if you had a big class 1 engine pumping into a smaller class 2 or 3 rig, and this probably happened fairly frequently when you had three or more rigs in a line relaying water. <i>Most</i> of the time it was likely just considered part of the job, though the 'washed' crew wasn't happy about it. They just kept working the brakes, trying to keep up and redeem themselves. Note I said <i>most</i> of the time.<br />
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However if the two companies involved were bitter rivals or even bitter enemies, the 'washing' would be an excuse for yet another street brawl. And yes, the water supply...and therefore the firefighting...would indeed be interrupted as the two companies hashed...or rather, pounded...out their differences.<br />
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Sometimes one company would actually refuse to supply water to a rival company (And conversely, one company would sometimes refuse to <i>take</i> a rival company's water)...again interrupting firefighting efforts, and this would lead to shouting matches, which would, again, lead to (Lets all say it together) yet another street brawl.<br />
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More than a few companies were forcibly disbanded by the Common Council for fighting, several of them to reorganize under another name later on, Engine 40 (Lady Washington) among them.<br />
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To be fair, situations <i>this</i> extreme weren't <i>that</i> common...but they were still common enough to cause a push for salaried, professional fire departments, not just in New York, but nationwide. (New York was actually late in the game...Cincinnati had the first salaried department in 1853, and several cities, my adopted home town of Richmond, Va, among them, had salaried firefighters by the time New York went paid in 1865.). This trend continued through the mid and late 19th century, until all of the nations's major cities were served by salaried fire departments.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
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When steamers first started replacing hand tubs, there was a <i>huge</i> amount of opposition. Volunteer firefighters thought...with more than a little justification...that the same steamers that were replacing their beloved hand engines would ultimately replace <i>them</i> as well. And the usual methods of showing their distaste for another company, such as overturning their rig or refusing them water, didn't really work. The steamers were <i>far</i> too heavy for them to overturn , and the steamer's crew could find their <i>own</i> hydrant...or other water source...and merrily pump at full capacity through four or five hundred feet of hose without even breaking a sweat. These small steamers may have only been about 350 GPM pumpers, but they could pump at far higher pressures than the hand engines, allowing one steamer to do the work of five or six hand tubs in a relay. And, better yet, they could do it for hours and hours at a time.<br />
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At first this added efficiency didn't impress the majority of the volunteers...they just knew they didn't like, nor trust these new-fangled contraptions, and they <i>sure</i> as hell weren't going to be <i>replaced</i> by them if they could help it! The members of the hand tub companies addressed this issue by cutting the line the steamer was pumping...fairly regularly at first. And this would, of course, often lead to one of the aforementioned spirited street brawls.</div>
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Thankfully, it didn't take long for firefighters to realize the huge advantage steamers offered, from two steamers taking the place of twenty hand tubs in a relay operation to the fact that the steamer could pump at full capacity all night long, as long as there was coal in the fire box and water in the boiler. The fact that a single steamer freed up twenty or thirty fire fighters...at a minimum...to do something other than 'work the brakes' was a tremendous advantage as well. For this reason, the Volunteers of New York's fire department not only ultimately accepted the steamer, they put thirty one of them in service before the paid department replaced the volunteers in October of 1865.<br />
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While we're talking about New York's first steamers. we need to take a look at a minor mystery...just which steamer...or maybe <i>steamers...</i>actually responded to the Elm Street fire?<br />
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I know, I know...I thought I addressed this one, too...it was the Exempts' big self propeller. The thing is, the city's very first steamer...Manhattan Engine 8...was actually quartered closer to Elm Street, and I've found at least two sources that have it responding to Elm Street.<br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Manhattan Engine 8 put the city's first steamer in service in their house on Ludlow Street, a mile or so north of Manhattan's southern tip, and just shy of a mile east and slightly north of the scene of the Elm Street fire, almost a year before the two tenement fires.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Take note of both that location, and the distance from the fire scene, gang...Engine 8's steamer was a good third of a mile closer to the scene than The Exempt's big...and excruciatingly slow...self propeller, though it would still take #8's crew a good 15-20 minutes to hand pull their steamer to the scene. OF course, if their engineer (Pump operator) was on the ball, which I have a sneaking suspicion he was, he already had kindling and fuel in the firebox, ready to light off when an alarm hit, so they would have steam up when they arrived on scene. Manhattan #8 and her crew were very likely ready to rock and roll as soon as they got a water supply and got lines stretched.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Of course the next two questions...and they're are not only related to each other, but kind of intertwined with each other...is did Manhattan #8 even actually respond, and if so, when.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#1d2129" face="">OK, the answers to these two questions are, at best, semi-educated guesses on my part because I have no real written documentation, save the editorial I linked above to go on, but I can just about bet that The Manhattans did indeed respond, and their steamer did indeed flow water on Elm Street. </font></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#1d2129" face=""><br /></font></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#1d2129" face="">They were closer to the scene, and may well been on what passed as the initial running assignment. If they didn't go on 'The Initial', they just about definitely responded when the General Alarm was struck (The above-linked editorial actually alludes to this scenereo), very likely along with The Exempts' big self propeller. They also very likely beat the Exempts in by several minutes, at least, and had water flowing before the Exempts, but that's no biggie.</font></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#1d2129" face=""><br /></font></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#1d2129" face="">If <i>both</i> steamers responded...and I have no doubt in my mind that they very likely did...the battle to save the block was won . The crew of one of the steamers could have been assigned to stop the fire's spread south of the original fire building, and the other could have been assigned to do the same on the north side. And, with the two steamers able to flow around 1150-1200 GPM between them, they could easily hold the fire in check, and, in fact, knock it down. And the crews of the hand tubs...at least the guys on the brakes...could finally take a break.</font></span></span></span></div>
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When the salaried Metropolitan Fire Department replaced the volunteers in October, 1865, they made liberal use of both the former volunteer companies' rigs and, most importantly for this note's subject matter, fire houses. Almost all of MFD's original 35 Engine and 14 Hook and Ladder companies moved into the former quarters of volunteer companies.<br />
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Then, when the Metropolitan Fire Department was reorganized five years later, in 1870, to become the FDNY, the MFD company numbers were retained to become FDNY company numbers. This <i>should </i>make tracking just which MFD/FDNY company was quartered in which former volunteer house a breeze...except for one minor problem. Those MFD/FDNY company numbers bear no relationship what so ever to the old Volunteer department company numbers.</div>
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When the Metro Fire Dept was formed, the new companies were numbered in chronological order according to their date of organization, completely wiping out the old volunteer numbering system with the singular exception of Volunteer Hook and Ladder 1, which was replaced by MFD/FDNY Ladder 1. This made tracking just which new paid company replaced which old volunteer company difficult to borderline impossible nearly 160 years later...unless you had access to a list showing that very information.</div>
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Happily, I have access to just such a list...actually <i>anyone </i> willing to part with just shy of nine bucks or so can have access to that list. It's the main focus of one of the chapters of '<i>Our Firemen: The History of the New York Fire Departments from 1609 to 1887, </i>the book I mentioned at the beginning of 'Notes'. Even better, I also ran up on a PDF copy of a table listing <i>all</i> of the street addresses of <i>all </i>of the quarters of <i>every</i> FDNY fire company ever organized, going all the way back to the original locations of all of the original MFD fire companies.<br />
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That's right, the original street addresses of all of the original 35 MFD engines and 14 ladders, along with relocation history and the street addresses of their new houses...if they <i>got</i> new houses.<br />
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News flash. Several of them are still at their original street address, and <i>one </i>of the companies still at their original address...still, in fact, in the original if much remodeled volunteer house...is one of the companies that figured prominently in of one of the two tenement fires. (Not gonna tell ya which one just <i>yet</i>. That'd take some of the fun out of it!)<br />
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SO with those two lists, and the power of the interwebs at my very fingertips, listing the companies that replaced volunteer engines 40, 46, and 8, the Exempts, ladders 4 and 8, and Hose 15 should be a cinch right?<br />
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Not necessarily. While the lists made finding that information, generally, a pretty cut, dried, and quick process, in <i>one</i> case it created more questions than it answered...by far.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Lets take a look at the engine company that was first due on Elm Street...Lady Washington Engine 40, located just a block or so from the scene. Annnnd...things get complicated right off the bat. According to '<i>Our Firemen</i>', when the paid Metropolitan Fire Department replaced the Volunteers, MFD Ladder 10 moved into Lady Washington's quarters...except they didn't.</div><div style="text-align: left;">
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<i>Our Firemen</i> has Ladder 10 moving into Lady Washington <i>Hose</i> 40's quarters, at 28 Ann Street on the far south end of Manhattan Island, four fifths of a mile or so southeast of Lady Washington <i>Engine</i> 40's actual quarters. Which brings us to another pretty insurmountable problem...there <i>was</i> no 'Lady Washington Hose 40'.<br />
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The actual Hose 40 was known as 'Empire Hose Co 40', and their quarters at 70 Barrow Street (Which still exists, BTW) was about the same distance...four fifths of a mile or so...northeast of Engine 40's Elm Street house. This would put Empire Hose 40 nearly two full miles northeast of our mystery company, AKA Not Hose 40, at 28 Ann Street. Empire Hose 40 was quartered at their Barrow Street house right on up to October 1865, when the Metropolitan Fire Department replaced the volunteers, and their house was never occupied by any of the MFD companies.<br />
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There was a Lady Washington Hose <i>49</i>, at 126 Cedar Street, about a quarter mile southwest of 28 Ann Street as the crow flies, maybe a half mile by road 160 or so years back, long before one way streets lengthened driving routes. OK, maybe the Author glanced at the map and mistook Cedar Street for Anne Street...except for one problem.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ann Street and Cedar Street, IMHO, just aren't close enough together to mistake one for the other. Cedar Street and Ann Street don't connect...they run parallel to each other, with Cedar Street, as previously noted, a quarter mile or so south of Ann Street. I could see mistaking one for the other while glancing at a map if the two streets were parallel and only a block apart, but they were separated by</div><div style="text-align: left;">a quarter mile and several other streets, making such a mistake far less likely.<br />
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SO just how did this pretty obvious error occur? While there's no way to say for sure just what happened, I have a sneakin' suspicion that <i>'Our Firemen'</i>s author did what every one of us has done at one time or the other while trying to do too many things at once...he looked at one thing while writing another. He probably looked at the wrong place in his own handwritten notes as he was transcribing the list of which MFD companies moved into which former volunteer houses into the book's manuscript, and wrote down '<i>Lady Washington # 40'</i> instead of the actual name and number of our unnamed company at 28 Ann Street, even though the company in the Ann Street house was a <i>hose</i> company rather than an engine. It didn't help, of course that Lady Washington <i>hose </i>also had a company number whose 1st digit was '4' (49). The very kind of error that an author might make if he's been working on something all day, then overlook when he proofreads it.<br />
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And that error went uncaught and uncorrected every time a new edition of <i>Our Firemen</i> was printed, and is included in every reprint of this still remarkable tome. Of course that <i>still</i> leaves us with a mystery...just which company <i>did </i>MFD/FDNY Ladder 10 replace when they moved into 28 Ann Street?<br />
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My bet is it was Humane Hose <i>20. </i>Their house was at <i>30</i> Ann Street, right next door to 28, and I could find no other company quartered on Ann Street.<br />
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Thankfully the rest of our list is pretty straightforward.<br />
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<b>The Exempts: </b>MFD/FDNY Engine 1 took over the Exempt's house at 1 Centre Street on July 31st, 1865, only to be disbanded three years later, in 1868...there's no record of what happened to The Exempt's big Lee and Larned self propeller but we know that Engine 1 never used it...they went in service with a brand new Amoskeag steamer. Their old house at 1 Centre street is <i>long</i> gone<br />
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In 1873, Engine 1 was reorganized, going in service in Fire Patrol 3's (Insurance patrol, AKA salvage company), old house at 165 W.29th Street on February 17th of that year. Engine 1's old W 29th street house has a <a href="https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2018/02/engine-company-no-1-165-west-29th-street.html">pretty fascinating history itself</a>, almost burning down itself once, and being completely remodeled twice before Engine 1 left it for good in 1946 to move in to their new quarters at 142 W. 31st Street, where they are still quartered, along with Ladder 24, today. This house has also been remodeled once, back in 2004.<br />
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<b>Lady Washington Engine 40: </b>OK, lets see what happened to the <i>actual</i> Lady Washington Engine 40, as opposed to 'Not Lady Washington Engine 40' mentioned above. Lady Washington Engine 40's house at 173 Elm Street (Now Lafayette Street), which is long gone, was never occupied by a MFD/FDNY company. Engine 31 is likely the MFD/FDNY company that took over at least part of their 1st due area, and while they were at it, they occupied the former quarters of another volunteer company that had <i>just</i> moved into a brand new house. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">
MFD Engine 31 went in service at 116 Leonard Street...the former quarters of Fulton Engine 21...on October 20, 1865, utilizing Fulton's 1862 A.B.Taylor and Son's steamer. Fulton's boys had just moved into this house...about eight tenths of of a mile or so north of their old house on Temple street...the year before. The paint barely had time to dry on the walls before they had to move out.<br />
<br />Fulton Engine 21's old house on Temple was a good mile and a half south of the Elm Street fire, so they probably didn't respond to Elm Street until the General Alarm if at all. 116 Leonard, however, is at Leonard and Elm, about seven tenths of a mile south of the site of the Elm Street fire, which would have put the site of the Elm Street fire in MFD/FDNY Engine 31's 1st or 2nd due area, even back in the era of horse drawn apparatus. This house, along with the entire block, was replaced by commercial buildings decades ago.<br />
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Engine 31, BTW, relocated to a brand new house a tenth of a mile or so north, at Elm and White Streets, in 1896, where they stayed until they were disbanded in November of 1972. This house is considered one of the most beautiful fire houses ever built, anywhere, by many fire service <i>and</i> architectural aficionados, and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building's present owners...the Downtown Television Center...have restored the exterior to it's former glory, complete with the company IDs over the old bay doors, while upgrading the interior.. This house, BTW, <a href="http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2010/05/napoleon-le-bruns-fantastic-french.html">has a pretty interesting history, too. </a><br />
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<b>Manhattan Engine 8: </b>Manhattan Engine 8...owner of the very first steamer to go in service in New York...was quartered at 91 Ludlow Street, and their old house became the quarters of MFD Engine 17 on September 17, 1865. Interestingly, while Engine 17 didn't utilize Manhattan Engine 8's Lee and Larnard steamer, they <i>did</i> go in service with a former volunteer rig...an 1861 Portland steamer. No mention, unfortunately, was made of what volunteer company originally ran this steamer.<br />
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Engine 17 moved out of Manhattan Engine 8's old house temporarily in August of 1879, and moved to an unrecorded location while brand new quarters were built on the same site...they moved into the new house in March 1880, and stayed there until May 1, 1939, when they once again moved into new quarters with Ladder 18, at 185 Broome Street. They stayed on Broome Street for only 34 years, until both companies once again moved into a new house at 25 Pitt Street. Engine 17 was in the Pitt Street house until they were disbanded on Jan 3, 1973, the victims of budget cuts.<br />
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While there are several buildings of the correct vintage to be Engine 17's 'New' house on Ludlow Street, 91 is now the site of an ally entrance. Their Broome Street house was replaced by a small park. The Pitt Street house is still an active firehouse.<br />
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The story doesn't end there, though. Ladder 18 had the Pitt Street house all to themselves until November 19, 2001, when Engine 15 moved from their old house on Henry Street to the Pitt Street house, where they and Ladder 18 are still quartered.<br />
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Engine 15 is notable simply because of the Volunteer company they replaced...their original house at 269 Henry Street was the home of Americus Engine 6, and Americus Engine 6 was the home of one Boss Tweed, who went on to become one of the most corrupt politicians in New York history. His infamous emblem...the Tammany Tiger...was originally Americus Engine 6's emblem.<br />
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Engine 15 got a new house on Henry Street in 1884, replacing Americus old house. The 'new' 1884 house still exists, converted to a community center, and is in beautiful shape<br />
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For more on Boss Tweed, take a look-see two notes down.<br />
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<b>Valley Forge Engine 46: </b>Now for a treat! <b> </b>MFD/FDNY Engine 26 moved into Valley Forge Engine 46's former quarters at 138 W 37th Street on Oct 16, 1865, going in service with Valley Forge's 1859 Lee and Larnard streamer, which was converted to horse drawn.<br />
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Annnd...there they stayed. While their station has been remodeled and modernized no fewer then three times...1881, 1894, and 2001...this is still the very same house that Valley Forge Engine 46's volunteers rolled from on March 28. 1860. OH...thouht the building and location are exactly the same, the street address changed...it's now 220 W 37th Street.<br />
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Engine 26's guys call their house 'The Batcave', and it's much beloved by both the members of the company and the community. Engine 26's house, BTW, is the oldest still-active firehouse in New York City.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRlMPC_8UJGfJbg5BNIvAUnyNm74Jm4NvYcoqlSJuMN4qpwTuo__BbrvQ3oxr_gbaWWHAdFfxBkbKfjCplefXMpbo8OcfOzKK5ofzy7KTbHghy9Yd6_gYYPyzQjLah5tCefYsv74CxbU8/s907/Screenshot+%2528247%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="823" data-original-width="907" height="503" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRlMPC_8UJGfJbg5BNIvAUnyNm74Jm4NvYcoqlSJuMN4qpwTuo__BbrvQ3oxr_gbaWWHAdFfxBkbKfjCplefXMpbo8OcfOzKK5ofzy7KTbHghy9Yd6_gYYPyzQjLah5tCefYsv74CxbU8/w555-h503/Screenshot+%2528247%2529.png" width="555" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">FDNY Engine 26's </span> <span style="font-size: xx-small;">several-times-remodeled house, originally built as Valley Forge Engine 46's fire house. This is the oldest active firehouse in New York</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<b>Empire Hook And Ladder Co 8: </b>MFD/FDNY<b> </b>Ladder 4 moved into Empire Hook and Ladder 8's house at 8th Ave and 48th Street on September 18th, 1865. Hose 32 was quartered right around the corner from...and therefore behind... Empire's house, and was left vacant when MFD replaced the vollies....well sort of. No <i>people</i> moved in, anyway. MFD Ladder 4's rig was, of course, horse drawn, and Empire's former house had no stable facilities, nor room for any. So the city simply converted Hose 32's old quarters into stables for Ladder 4's horses.<br />
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I'm pretty sure that horse stalls were ultimately built at the rear of Ladder 4's apparatus floor (Even though the house wasn't listed as being refurbished or remodeled any time during it's 87 years as a MFD/FDNY firehouse) Needless to say, Hose 32's old house is <i>long</i> lost to history.<br />
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Interestingly, Ladder 4 and Hose 32 weren't the only volunteer companies on that block...Hudson Engine 1 was quartered on 48th Street near 8th. I can just about bet that these three companies regularly rolled together. (Just how cohesive a unit they were is, of course, open to speculation) as they very likely did the night of the 45th street fire. Hudson Engine 1's old house, like Hose 32's, is long gone.<br />
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MFD/FDNY Ladder 4 stayed in Empire's old house, all by their lonesome, until March 28th, 1972. On that date they moved in with Engine 23 at 215 W. 58th street, where they would stay for about 18 months, while a a new house was built on the site of their old quarters.<br />
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They finally moved into the new house, also at 8th Ave and 48th Street, on March 15th, 1974. The new house was built to accommodate both an engine and a truck...Engine Co. 54 moved out of their old quarters at 304 W. 47th Street (Built in 1888 and remodeled in 1915) and moved in with Ladder 4, also on March 15th 1974.<br />
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Ironically, Engine 54 moved in with Ladder 4 for ten days or so back in 1915, while their house on W 47th street was being remodeled (Must not have been much of a remodel!). Engine 54's old house on W 47th still exists, BTW, restored to it's former glory and occupied by offices.<br />
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Ladder 4 and Engine 54 are both still running out of the 1974-built house at 8th Ave and 48th Street, along with Battalion 9.<br />
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<b>Ladder 4 and Hose 15: </b>Neither of these companies' houses were ever occupied by MFD/FDNY companies, and both houses are now long gone. On top of that, Ladder 4 was disbanded in 1864, four years after the amazing rescues it's crew made on Elm Street, and just one year before the salaried Metropolitan Fire Department replaced the volunteers.<br />
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<b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The one still extant newspaper article about the Elm Street fire has the headline 'Thirty Persons <i>Supposed</i> To Have Perished In Fire' (Italics mine), yet the official death toll is listed as '20'. Kinda makes ya wonder just how that discrepancy....and not a small discrepancy at that...occurred.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">OK, I admit that this isn't one of those mysteries that keeps historians (And history bloggers) awake at night, pondering on the issue...in fact I may well be the only person who's given more than a passing thought in the last decade or three to wondering (A) just what the actual, accurate death toll was, and (B) just how said discrepancy occurred. It's <i>still, </i>imho, an interesting little mystery to try and unravel.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">First off, as to the How Many Actually Died...we'll probably never know for sure. Twenty's been the official and accepted death toll since 1860, and it's unlikely that,160 years later, anyone's working very hard to rectify said discrepancy <i>or</i> figure out how it occurred in the first place, but, Spoiler alert...it's a good bet that it occurred because of a problem that still exists today, and has probably gotten worse. But we'll get to that in a minute.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The headline reads 'Thirty Persons <i>Supposed</i> To Have Perished In Fire'. We know that <i>at least</i> twenty people died in the fire, but what of those other ten? And how many actually died? It's actually fairly easy to 'count bodies' just by reading this same article, but that <i>still</i> won't necessarily gives us an accurate count. We can still give it a try though. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div>Lets take a look at the sixth floor first. Unlike the other four occupied floors, no records exist as to how many people lived on the sixth floor of the building, but the figure 'About a dozen' has become accepted over the decades. It's believed that, sadly, all of those dozen or so residents died in the fire, either killed in their beds by the smoke or killed when the roof collapsed. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO we'll call it an even dozen so far. 12 deaths.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Then we have the known deaths on the lower floors. Mr. Wise's wife and two of his kids died in their 2nd floor apartment (The only deaths on the 2nd floor). We're up to 15.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There was another family of eight on the third floor (Their names were never noted) who were all believed to have perished with the exception of one child. We're up to 22, already two more than the official toll. Then we had the four members of the Walkes family, in one of the rear third floor apartments, none of whom could be accounted for after the fire. Up to 26. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">On the fourth floor we have <i>three</i> families unaccounted for. The three members of the Armstrong family, the four-member Starks clan, and the four member Rebecco family. Hmmm...that's <i>eleven</i> right there. We're up to thirty seven deaths...seven <i>more</i> than the article reported and <i>seventeen</i> more than the official death toll.. It gets worse. There was <i>another</i> un-named family of four on the fourth floor who remained unaccounted for.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We're up to 41...twice as many as the official death toll, and eleven more than reported in the article.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Then we have the Tismeyer family on the fifth floor...only Mr. Tismeyer escaped, by jumping from their front fifth floor apartment, his wife and two children are believed to have perished in the fire. Mr Tismeyer was also severely injured, and we don't know if he survived.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Annnd we're up to 44, possibly 45 deaths. So how do you have as many as one hundred percent and change more deaths than originally reported? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">OK, first, the names of the people on the sixth floor weren't available to reporters, and I have a feeling that investigators had to guestimate the number of people on the top floor as well. Record-keeping apparently wasn't a huge priority for the building owner (Bet he still got his rent every month, though) All that we can be fairly certain about on the sixth floor is that everyone on that floor died. What we <i> don't </i> know is how many actually lived...and died...on that floor. They will be our unknown variable. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As for those we know lived in the building, but weren't accounted for, they weren't accounted for at the time the article was published. Reporters likely asked other residents who made it out about their neighbors...both names and if they made it out...and based the article on that information. And lets be honest here, the people being interviewed had just lived through the most terrifying ordeal of their lives. They weren't exactly thinking clearly, and the information they gave the reporters wasn't necessarily entirely accurate. But it's what the reporters had to run with.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Then as now, papers had deadlines, and articles had to be finished and edited by that deadline to be included in the morning paper (And getting an article type-set and the paper printed was a bit more time consuming and difficult in 1860 than it was even in 1960, much less today). The New York Times article was in the next morning's...Feb 3...paper, so the reporters on scene had to go with the possibly inaccurate information they had gotten at the scene to meet the deadline. 'Thirty' was likely picked as the possible number of deaths because the editors suspected that the information <i>was</i> inaccurate. At that point no one knew for sure <i>how</i> many people had died. (Aaannnd there's our reason for the discrepancy. The media. Back then 'Media' and 'Newspaper' were synonymous, but there was more than one paper, and each wanted to be the first to publish the story. The New York Times managed to print the story in the first or maybe second edition of the morning paper, barely 12 hours after the fire was reported. Units were probably still on scene overhauling when the presses started rolling. To do this, they had to go with the information they had at deadline. (And this is also why that 'Supposed to have' was added to he headline, so they weren't actually reporting a hard number. That way the error in reporting wasn't as extreme, in their eyes at any rate, because their death toll was simply an estimate based in the information their reporters managed to get while on scene.) We'll take a look at why this is still going on today in the next note.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But what about the apparent error in the official death toll? The official death toll was arrived at days later after bodies had been counted and identified, and people who were 'Unaccounted For' the night of the fire turned up alive. I have a feeling several of them either made it out alive, or weren't in the building when the fire started in the first place. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Even with that fact, though, the confirmed and possibly confirmed deaths still exceed the 'official' death toll. That's not unusual though...the actual death toll for just about <i>all</i> of the high loss of life fires through-out history varies depending on the source you're referencing, though it's a bit harder to understand with a smaller death toll. The official death toll of 'twenty' was probably, literally, the number of bodies that were recovered and counted. Which makes perfect sense...but it still still didn't match up with the number of people missing. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A couple of things make this discrepancy a little bit more understandable when you start digging into it a little. First, there was just no way to know for sure how many people died on the sixth floor, which means there was really no way that officials could tally a truly accurate death toll. Even worse, several bodies were probably never found at all because they were entirely consumed...the building burned literally all night. So there were very likely missing people who would <i>never</i> be found, and who, conceivably, could have jst as well gotten out of the building, and just left the scene. Those missing people couldn't be listed as confirmed deaths because, well, they <i>weren't. </i> They would remain forever 'missing'. Their relatives and friends would probably always wonder, even though they were likely pretty sure their loved ones had died in the fire. Officials, meanwhile, had to go with what they had, and what they had was twenty confirmed bodies.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I think that the true death toll was likely closer to the New York Times reported number than to the official death toll. There were just too many people who were unaccounted for, and back in 1860, there weren't many reasons for a family at this income level...these were not wealthy citizens...to be away from home on a week night. (Or <i>any </i>night for that matter.)<i> </i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And we'll never know. The fire's too far back in the annuls of history, any relevant records are <i>long</i> gone, and no one's really looking in the first place. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ahhh, the problem that just keeps on giving...inaccurate media reporting. The rush to get information out to the general newspaper-buying public ( And 'scoop' all the other papers while they were at it) has led to inaccurate reporting since the beginnings of printed newspapers. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And as technology evolved, the problem got worse. With newspapers, there was a window of several hours to get information collected, confirmed (This step sometimes kinda got left out), collated and arranged into an article, edited, type-set, and printed. So there was a chance that an error could be caught and corrected (And this did happen, especially back in the hey-day of the newspaper...the mid 1930s to about the late 1940s.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Then, came radio, and in the late 40s, TV, and live news reports soon followed, and reporters started giving their own take on what was happening, interviews got edited for brevity (Often unintentionally cutting out an important word or phrase) and, as time wore on, agenda (Often<i> intentionally</i> cutting out an important word or phrase). And inaccurate reporting became, well, more common.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And that brings us to today, with The Internet, and Social Media, and Instant News. And not only is news instant, <i>everything </i>is potentially national and even international news. Incidents that would've barely made the local news a few decades ago are now broadcast nationwide...heck, often <i>world wide ...</i>even as they are happening. The actual media is often playing catch-up because the incident they are reporting has <i>already</i> been uploaded to a dozen or so Instagram pages and YouTube sites.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And when the Broadcast media does report it, they tend to sensationalize it, going for ratings, as well as views on their <i>own</i> Social Media accounts. Ratings and views, as well as 'Scooping' the other media outlets, sadly, overshadows immediate accuracy. You can always go back and make a correction, but you <i>can't</i> go back and be the first with the story if you, well, <i>weren't.</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">And, sadly, accurate reporting has not only taken a back seat to ratings and being first to report the story...there are times I think it's been kicked to the curb altogether.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***> </b><b><br /></b>
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If we're going to talk about politics as it related to New York's volunteers, we gotta talk about the <i>real</i> politics that the department...or at least one of it's best known members...influenced.</div>
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First, you have to understand that being a member of one of New York's volunteer fire companies was a major status symbol for the men of New York. This, of course, meant that the department boasted a <i>slew</i> of socially prominent and powerful men among it's 3000 or so members, which also meant that those 3000 members formed a powerful and influential voting block.<br />
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I know, I know...three thousand voters is <i>still</i> a very small fraction of a population of 835,000 or so, but you also have to realize that a good number of those 3000 men had the ears...and support...of dozens of other<i> equally</i> socially and politically prominent citizens. And <i>those</i> guys could, in turn, influence the decisions...and votes...of dozens of <i>other</i> citizens. So, if you were running for office, and had the members of the fire department behind you, you had a <i>very</i> good chance of being a front-runner in any city-wide election.</div>
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And if one of those 3000 or so members...or even <i>former</i> members...was the one running for office...<br />
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Enter one William Magear Tweed, far better known as 'Boss' Tweed, who was the Head Honcho of New York's Democratic headquarters...better known as 'Tammany Hall...from 1858 to 1873. Tweed was, and is, notoriously considered to be one of the most corrupt politicians in New York City's long, storied and often corrupt political history. The symbol and logo of NYC's democratic party during the Tweed era was a snarling Bengal tiger, and thanks to that tiger, Tweed's runaway corruption has an unbreakable connection with New York's early volunteer fire companies, with one of them in particular.<br />
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Several entire <i>books</i> have been written about Boss Tweed's political antics, so it's no way I can even <i>begin</i> to cover all of them here, but we can most definitely hit the high points. Tweed was born to third generation Scottish immigrants in April of 1823, and grew up at 1 Cherry Street, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. His dad was a chair maker...a pretty successful one at that...and Tweed left school at eleven to learn his dad's trade. The first quarter century or so of his life was pretty normal. He learned a couple of other trades, got married in 1844, and, at the urging of a couple of his friends, joined a volunteer fire company, Engine Company 12 to be precise. While at #12, he met fellow member John J Reilly, and a couple of years after he joined the fire company, Tweed, Reilly, and several others formed Americus Engine Company 6, on Henry Street...<br />
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Let the shenanigans begin.<br />
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Americus Engine 6...also known as 'Big Six' because of the size of their pumper, a big double deck end stroke First Class rig...chose the image of a snarling Bengal tiger as it's logo, painting the head of said big cat on the sides of the company's lavishly decorated rig. Bill Tweed was elected First Assistant Foremen, then Foreman of the company.<br />
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Engine 6 became well known for their aggressive tactics...both on and off the fire ground,...and formed bitter rivalries with several other engine companies. Bill Tweed...he hadn't yet gained the moniker 'Boss'...became known for his skillful use of an ax in battles between #6 and their rivals. The fights became so brutal, and Tweed's antics so violent that the department's Chief Engineer, Alfred Carlson, pressured the fire company to kick him out. It took him awhile, but Carlson was ultimately successful...<br />
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...And, being guilty of several felonious assaults and possibly even attempted murder, Tweed was sent to 'The Big House' for a long stretch...No. Ya know that didn't happen. Lets be real here...if it <i>had, </i>I wouldn't be writing this 'Note'.<br />
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What <i>did</i> happen is that Tweed came to the attention of the members of the city's Democratic party. Back in that era, the Democratic Party dominated NYC politics, and apparently the party's big whigs considered a tendency towards violence a virtue in a potential candidate, because they convinced Tweed to run as a candidate for Alderman for the city's seventh ward. He lost the first election, in 1850, but won when he ran again the next year. Immediately after being sworn in, he allied himself with a loose crew of corrupt politicians known as 'The Forty Thieves'. That particular bunch, up to that point in time, were the most corrupt bunch the city had ever seen. Tweed would study hard and learn well.<br />
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The party then nominated him to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, which he also won...but did nothing notable in his two year term. Except maybe observe. And take notes. And learn. No, his rise to fame...or infamy...came when he returned to New York and immediately ran for a position on the New York County (Manhattan) Board Of Supervisors, which he won handily (If not necessarily honestly). And, the wholesale graft and corruption began.<br />
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Vendors were charged a surcharge to even <i>think</i> about doing business with the city. As this was going on, one of his cronies certified him as a lawyer, despite the fact that he never attended Law School, or ever took, much less passed, the Bar exam. Tweed immediately opened a law office, giving him an excuse, illegal though it may have been. to charge legal fees if he so much as burped in the direction of anyone he or the city was doing business with.<br />
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...And the shenanigans continue!<br />
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His rise to power was astronomically swift as he first became chairman, then overall head of the city's Democratic General Committee. This is when he took on the nickname 'Boss'. He also adopted the logo of his former fire company...Americus Engine 6's tiger...as his and Tammany Hall's logo, and forever-more, the Americus Tiger was known as the Tammany Tiger.<br />
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As head of New York's Democratic Committee , Tweed ruled the city with an iron hand, despite the fact that he wasn't the mayor. Graft and corruption of any and all kinds became rampant. He had himself appointed Deputy Street Commissioner, which gave him access to the city's contact and bid process, also allowing him to engage in such lucrative...for him...practices as issuing fake invoices, then collecting payment from the city on those same invoices. He also bought himself a printing company, made it the city's official printer, and then overcharged for pretty much every printing job he did for the city.<br />
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He also saw to it that his cronies were elected to positions of power through use of election fraud on a massive scale. Some citizens voted as many as <i>twenty</i> times, many of the city's deceased cast ballots from beyond the grave, and not everyone who cast a ballot was necessarily an actual U.S. citizen when they voted. Once his crew was in office (They became known as 'The Tweed Ring) identical election tactics were used at each election to see to it that they <i>stayed</i> in office.<br />
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The former mayor, who was a Tweed supporter, was elected Governor (Think Maybe Tweed had a hand in that as well?), and then, with the help of bribes, passed a new City Charter and had it signed into law...this charter mandated new elections that gave Tammany Hall full control of the city government (As if they didn't pretty much already have it already...the new charter just made it official.).<br />
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As if this wasn't enough, he was also elected to the New York State Senate, where he served from 1868-1873, there-by elevating his corruption to a state as well as local level (As if getting his own personal governor hadn't already accomplished that ). More than a few votes were bought during that five year time frame.<br />
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During this period, through means that are far beyond the scope of this post, Tweed and his cronies stole somewhere between 50 million and 200 million dollars from the city. (That's in 1870 dollars BTW..that same range would translate to anywhere from just south of one billion dollars to just shy of four billion dollars today)<br />
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What did he use all of his ill-gotten cash for? Real Estate...he became one of the biggest property holders in the city (Bet having <i>him</i> as a landlord was an absolute freaking <i>blast...</i>not)<br />
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Tweed and the democratic party also had control of <i>most</i> of the press...note I said <i>most</i>. The <i>New York Times </i>wasn't having it. Nor was legendary political cartoonist Thomas Nast, of <i>Harpers Weekly</i> magazine. The two publications started a campaign against Tweed in 1869 or thereabouts, keeping a full court press on him, The nasty editorials in the <i>Times</i> didn't bother him as much as Nast's cartoons....referring to Nast's cartoons, he actually commented: "Stop them damned pictures. I don't care so much what the papers say about me. My constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures!"<br />
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Tweed's ultimate downfall was brought on in large part by his and Tammany Hall's being blamed for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Riots">The Orange Riots </a>that occurred during the summer of 1871. The prior year Irish Catholic protesters attacked a parade being held by Irish protestants celebrating a Protestant victory over Catholicism...eight died in the riot.<br />
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When permits for the same parade were applied for in 1871, the Police Commissioner denied them, with backing from Tweed and Tammany Hall. Pressure from the Protestant community and newspapers caused the ban to be rescinded by no less than N.Y. Governor Hoffman (Also a Tweed Crony). So, the city reversed course and allowed the parade...again with backing from Tweed. (One of the great ironies here is that many of the institutions that were campaigning against Tweed <i>also</i> protested the ban against the parade ).<br />
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Tweed's assured both the city government and the citizens that he could keep 'His People' (A <i>huge</i> part of his constituency was Irish Cathodic) in check, and just to ensure that the parade remained peaceful, the parade route was protected by both NYPD <i>and </i>the State Militia (The forerunners of The National Guard). Despite all of this the parade was <i>again</i> attacked by Irish Catholic protesters, resulting in an even bigger riot, this time with a death toll of sixty.<br />
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This reflected poorly on Tweed, Tammany Hall, and The Tweed Ring, as they had ensured the citizens of New York that they could control their constituency and allow for a peaceful march. They obviously could not. Before the second riot, The New York Times and Thomas Nast's campaign against Tweed had little traction. An 'Audit' of the city's much-cooked books by a 'Blue Ribbon Panel' headed by one of Tweed's cronies, had shown the books to be 'In Good Order' only months before the riots, somewhat defusing the campaign against Tweed, but the riot caused the good citizens of New York to take a long, hard look at their city's government. They had tolerated Tammany Hall and Tweed because he was apparently able to keep the city's huge Irish population in check. The riot, again, proved that he could not.<br />
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The Times and Nast's campaign gained more traction, helped along by the City's Sheriff providing the New York Times with incriminating evidence of graft and embezzlement (This, BTW, was after an attempt by said Sheriff to blackmail Tweed failed). When this happened, it was like a dam broke, and information started flooding into the Times, to be published daily. This expose' had several effects, one of which was a lack of confidence in the city's ability to meet their debts...to use more modern terms, it sank NYC's credit rating on bonds into negative numbers. Total collapse of the city's credit would have caused a devastating domino effect, bringing down every bank in the city as it collapsed.</div><div style="text-align: left;">
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Again, the details of what happened next are beyond the scope of this blog, but when the citizens of New York found out what had been going on with their money, there was a general taxpayer revolt which cut off the city's funding, and <i>this </i>led to city employees demanding to be paid, and all of this ultimately led to an investigation that discovered monies meant for the city going, instead, directly into Tweed's pocket.<br />
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Tweed was arrested, released on bail...and, for the moment, kept his position and was actually elected as a State senator (Even as members of the Tweed Ring fled overseas), but then, after further investigation he was <i>re</i>arrested, forced to resign his positions on city and state government,...and again released on an 8 million dollar bond (That'd be a <i>172</i> million dollar bond today, folks!!!).</div><div style="text-align: left;">
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His first trial, in January 1873, resulted in a mistrial, his second in a conviction on 204 of 220 counts, netting him a 12 year sentence (Reduced to one year) and a fine of $12,750 ($270,000 today). And after his year in prison (Actually served in NYC's infamous 'The Tombs') he was sued by the city in an effort to recover embezzled funds. Unable to cover the amount awarded to the city, Tweed was rearrested, incarcerated in the city's Ludlow Street Jail, and granted home visits. And, on one of these visits, on Dec. 4, 1875, he promptly escaped, fled to Spain, and became a common sailor on a Spanish merchant ship.<br />
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The U.S. Government went a-lookin' discovered his whereabouts and were waiting for him at one of his ships port-calls. He was <i>again</i> arrested, transported back to New York aboard the U.S.S. Franklin, arriving back in the city on November 23, 1876, and re-incarcerated. In a bid to gain his release, he agreed to testify to a Blue Ribbon committee about the workings of The Tweed Ring, but after doing so, the State of New York reneged on their agreement, and returned him to the Ludlow Street jail, where he died on April 12, 1878. He was buried in Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Fire Escape Notes</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This post has been pretty much dedicated to fire escapes on residential buildings, but while tenements, and their occupants, were the main focus of fire escape legislation, tenement residents were far from the only occupants of multistory buildings who were endangered by fire.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The 'Build up not out' philosophy of building design had been around for decades when the Elm Street and 45th Street fires occurred, and commercial buildings from hotels to theaters to factories to schools, and everything in between had been built with two or more floors. And if you think tenement owners fought tooth and nail against fire escape legislation, you ain't seen <i>nothing</i> yet. Business owners all but went to war with the various local and state governments over installing those iron stairways on their buildings.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Lets take a quick look at some of these businesses and just how reluctant their owners were to give their employees and guests a way to escape if the places lit off.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Hotels</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div>
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<img id="hzDownscaled" style="position: absolute; top: -10000px;" />Hotel owners absolutely did <i>not</i> want to install fire escapes, and they used every tactic employed by tenement owners to avoid doing so, and then some. Fire escape legislation for publics buildings, such as hotels, lagged behind residential fire escape legislation by several years, and wasn't addressed until 1871, when a building code add-on required the installation of fire escapes in 'All hotels and boarding houses...' Interestingly this near-toothless legislation was prompted by an 1870 blaze at the Spotswood Hotel, in my adopted home town of Richmond, Va. And, wouldn't ya know it, when this legislation was passed, 'Fire Escape' wasn't defined. And the legislation wasn't particularly effective. Less than a year after the legislation was passed, eleven servant girls died in a fire at The Fifth Avenue Hotel, in New York, because their top floor servants' quarters wasn't served by any kind of fire escape. Inspections of numerous hotels in New York revealed that this was <i>not</i> an isolated problem. <div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div><div>Inspectors had regularly suggested iron balcony fire escapes, to no avail. Hotel owners didn't want fire escapes installed on their buildings for a variety of reasons, the biggest, of course, being the expense of installing them They regularly utilized another two-pronged argument as well...fire escapes ruined the appearance of their buildings, and reminded their potential guests that the hotel might, well, burn (Which they did, pretty regularly). Hotel owners fought against the legislation tooth and nail, and, to be honest, the city's inspectors, not having a firm guide line to go by, didn't push back too hard...yet.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then came a string of fatal hotel fires in the mid 1870s, most particularly a huge blaze at the Southern Hotel in St Louis, Missouri on April 11, 1876. Twenty-two guests died in the fire, and the graphic newspaper articles of the day instilled horror and fear from coast to coast. </div><div><br /></div><div>Many cities, New York among them, and Cincinnati, Ohio most particularly, passed sweeping fire escape legislation. Cincinnati required iron balcony fire escapes on all factories, hotels, places of amusement, and tenement houses, though I don't know just how effective this ordinance was. </div><div><br /></div><div>As for New York, legislation that actually had not only teeth, but the means to bite with them, didn't pass until 1883. But this was some serious legislation, allowing the FDNY to bring suit against any recalcitrant hotel owners and force the installation of fire escapes. The owner of the Sturtevant House Hotel was the first to discover that the city could <i>indeed</i> force him to install fire escapes, and by the end of 1883, thirty-eight other hotels had fire escapes installed, very much against the wishes and wills of their owners.</div><div><br /></div><div>And fire escapes were installed and everyone was safe, and all was well with the world...Oh, come on, you know better than that! First problem...while fire escapes were indeed installed on 39 New York City hotels, there were <i>way</i> more than 39 hotels in the city. Second problem...the State Government got involved with trying to fix the problem.</div><div><br /></div><div>Remember those fire escape ropes that didn't catch on as Tenement fire escapes? Well, twenty years later, a guy named Erwin pushed a bill through the New York State legislature that would require a fire escape rope in every room of a hotel.</div><div><br /></div><div>I can't think of anything <i>less</i> useful in a major hotel fire, particularly if the trapped guests are above about the forth floor. I noted all the reasons that multiple fire escape ropes at a major fire would be a disaster in the main body of the post, but lets just say fire fighters, and hotel industry big-whigs argued against the legislation, and for once both sides were in agreement...unless the entire hotel was occupied by gymnasts, fire escape ropes would lead to <i>more, </i>rather then less loss of life. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ironically, potential guests <i>agreed</i> with the legislation, feeling that it gave them a means of escape should a hotel they were staying in light off at Oh Dark Hundred. The actual mechanics of having to climb down a fifty or sixty foot rope that was tangled in other fifty or sixty foot ropes, all occupied by panicking guests, possibly during inclement weather, at night, just didn't occur to them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Their voices were heard and the protests of the bill's detractors were ignored, and the bill passed, going into effect on July 1, 1887. Even though actual enforcement was, at best, spotty, several hotels <i>did </i>comply, installing the ropes in every room above the second floor. It didn't take long for the bill's many opponents to be proven right.</div><div><br /></div><div>During the 1890s, there were several major hotel fires in New York State, and all of them featured trapped guests plummeting to their death after loosing their grip on an escape rope. The worst was the Windsor Hotel, in New York City, where at least sixteen died, many after just such a fall. The public went nuts. Editorials were written, letters were sent to the papers and the State legislature, and the fire escape ropes were nixed,</div><div><br /></div><div>And the State Legislature kind of went the <i>other</i> way for a bit, requiring that <i>every</i> room of hotels with accommodations for more than 10 guests have direct access from all rooms to a fire escape balcony. Subsequent bills were added even more requirements to the 'All Rooms Must Have Access' bill, essentially requiring the owners of large hotels to all but enclose their buildings in a iron cage formed by balconies and ladders. The hotel owners were having none of it, and arguued...this time with some small amount justification, IMHO...that the current legislation, if properly enacted and enforced, should be sufficient.</div><div><br /></div><div>Problem was, it <i>wasn't</i> being enforced, to the point that some inspectors were filing false reports, reporting that buildings were in full compliance when, in actuality, they didn't have <i>any </i>fire escapes...a problem that caused the termination and arrest of a few inspectors, and the doubling down on enforcement by the city's Department of Buildings. </div><div><br /></div><div>The combination of the new (And more than a little over-board) new legislation and the ramping up of enforcement prompted hotel owners to, once again, protest against <i>any</i> fire escapes, citing their lack of aesthetic appeal (OK, ugliness). They also used the argument that a combustible building ringed by 'iron ladders' was no safer than that same building with no fire escapes.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Windsor Hotel, while proving how useless rope fire escapes were, also proved the hotel owners' argument false, as dozens of guest and employees <i>did</i> make their way out of the building using iron balcony fire escapes. Guests and employess...to the dismay of hotel owners...were actually all for fire escapes because they actually provided them with, well, a way to get out of the building in a fire.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hotel owners continued to fight the installation of fire escapes on their buildings tooth and nail, to the point that a 1902 New York Times editorial decried both the lack of fire escapes on a good number of the city's hotels as well as the combustible nature of the buildings themselves...this despite a number of pieces of legislation that required their installation.. This, BTW, wasn't a problem specific to New York. Building departments and fire marshal's offices nation wide wrestled with this exact same issue at the turn of the last century.</div><div><br /></div><div>Similar editorials, coupled with the rash of fatal hotel fires during the 1890s, along with a dash of new city ordinances led to more rigid enforcement during the very early years of the 20th Century...to the point that the Fire Department would, and on one or two occasions actually <i>did</i> close down businesses that weren't in compliance, not allowing them to reopen until they <i>were</i> in compliance.</div><div><br /></div><div>My bet is that didn't have to happen more than once or twice for the word to get around. The cost of installing fire escapes was <i>far</i> lower than the cost of a month or two of lost business. and by the middle of the century's first decade, it appeared that the battle to get fire escapes installed on hotels in New York was over, with (Finally) a high level of compliance.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">While most hotel owners fought the installation of fire escapes tooth and nail, several of them <i>did</i> comply, and a few of them met the challenges head on...both that of installing the fire escapes, and of not marring their building's aesthetics. These owners actually hired an architect to design the fire escapes to blend in with the building's design while still remaining functional. This resulted in some seriously pretty iron grillwork, some of which still exists today on buildings preserved as historical landmarks.</div><div>
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<img id="hzDownscaled" style="position: absolute; top: -10000px;" /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv04iz8auLMpaAopwJV2mwsNwHLWI-ZEr_zFNRbBAmOYbZL6n0tpMKEmo74oUBGq_1AgwS25UXmvhv5nJTmHDzEG9W8H9G3KWT4hXbFpWENKpCGkYsJy6HB-0EfG90N2j14tGz3DHSTfQ/s746/murray+hill+hotel+1935+abbott.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="746" data-original-width="588" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv04iz8auLMpaAopwJV2mwsNwHLWI-ZEr_zFNRbBAmOYbZL6n0tpMKEmo74oUBGq_1AgwS25UXmvhv5nJTmHDzEG9W8H9G3KWT4hXbFpWENKpCGkYsJy6HB-0EfG90N2j14tGz3DHSTfQ/w315-h400/murray+hill+hotel+1935+abbott.jpg" width="315" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span>Decorative circular iron fire escape installed on the </span><span>lavish Murray Hill Hotel, on Park Avenue, at the turn</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: left;">of the 20th Century. Sadly, this beautiful old hotel was not one of the ones that was preserved as a historical landmark...it was</div><div style="text-align: left;">razed in 1948 to make way for a high rise office building.</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Theaters</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I touched on theater fire safety in my previous posts about<a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-brooklyn-theater-fire-brooklyn-ny.html"> The Brooklyn Theater Fire </a>and <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-iroquois-theater-fire-fireproof.html">The Iroquois Theater Fire</a>, but to quickly summarize the problem, you have a large number of people stuffed into a comparatively small area that is loaded with combustible materials, and if those materials light off, you need to get all of those people out of the building before smoke and heat renders that comparatively small area uninhabitable...and unsurvivable.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Both of the aforementioned theater fires caused cataclysmic losses of life...294 for the Brooklyn Theater fire and 602 for the Iroquois, which to this day is the deadliest structure fire in U.S.history. Ordinances requiring fire escapes in public buildings had already been passed when the Brooklyn Theater burned in December 1878, but they were toothless, and the Brooklyn theater didn't have exterior fire escapes (And barely had fire exits at all.).</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The public went ballistic after the Brooklyn Theater Fire, and cities nationwide inspected their theaters and other public buildings, 'Strongly recommending' their owners to install exterior fire escapes as well as safety equipment such as masonry fire walls, and asbestos curtains...Ahhh, if it had really been that simple! These were expensive modifications, and the theater owners fought them tooth and nail, a battle I covered in way more detail in the fire's post. Most of these fire safety recommendations were just that...recommendations, and the theater owners hemmed and hawed and delayed until the Brooklyn Theater Fire, as all news stories do, faded into the past. As several years passed without a major theater fire in the U.S., the public sort of forgot about the issue. And Theater owners and their accountants breathed a sigh of relief. And many theaters remained fire traps. </p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And then the Ring Theater in Vienna, Austria burned, killing 1,300 people...and everyone world-wide again, freaked.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In New York, as well as many other major cities, theaters were inspected, recommendations became ordinance and law, and owners were forced to upgrade their theaters, under threat of closure if certain modifications weren't made. And the public was at least given the impression that these laws and ordinances were being forcefully and vigorously enforced, and maybe they <i>were</i> because we didn't have another major loss of life theater fire until...</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The Iroquois Theater fire in 1903, and it's horrendous loss of life. Even worse, the theater was <i>supposed</i> to be the safest theater in the country, possibly even the world. </p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Hmmm...maybe those laws and ordinances weren't being enforced all that vigorously at all.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Once again, enforcement was stepped up nationwide, even as New York City theater owners swore up and down that their theaters were so safe that such a disaster could <i>never</i> happen there. The fire Marshal's office said 'Well Let's see' and found scores of fire safety problems...not necessarily lack of exits and fire escapes, but <i>blocked </i> exits, locked exits, and difficult to access exterior fire escapes... problems that were either resolved, or else the theater would be closed.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Interestingly, exterior fire escapes had been added to the majority if the theaters to allow emergency egress from the balconies...compared to many of the other modifications that were required, an iron fire escape was comparatively inexpensive, and the need for ticket holders in a balcony to be able to reach the outside quickly and safely was obvious even to the building owners. The problem often wasn't lack of exterior fire escapes...it was lack of maintenance.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This occurred as more and better fire safety technology was developed and installed. As both inspectors and theater owners concentrated on other modifications, such as firewalls, interior stair towers, smoke vents, and sprinkler systems, fire escape maintenance was all but forgotten, and many fire escapes became almost as hazardous as the fires they, theoretically at any rate, allowed the building occupants to escape from.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Around 1911, New York City's Fire Marshal's office again stepped up enforcement, this time concentration hard on exterior fire escapes, forcing building owners to bring them up to code (And forcing the removal of old escapes and installation of new ones in a couple of extreme cases, such as the time when a building inspector fell partially through a rust-rotted fire escape landing.) By the end of the 1910s, theater fire safety had been improved drastically, and has remained so. And to this day, iron fire escapes are a part of the fire safety technology in many modern theaters.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b>Schools</b></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">You'd
think that doing what ever it took to make school buildings as safe as
possible for the kids who attend them would have been an absolute
no-brainer. Sadly, however, that wasn't the case. And while budgetary
issues had a good bit to do with the fact that hundreds of school
buildings were absolute fire traps, some of the problem was ego,
especially in New York.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Schools
were actually covered by the exact same 1871 law that required fire
escapes on all public buildings in New York, and schools, hospitals
and asylums were mentioned specifically because the occupants of
those facilities...children, the sick, and the infirm...would face
even more difficulty in escape from a fire than able-bodied adults. </span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">So
the good intentions were there but sadly, good intentions don't
necessarily get anything done. This was made dangerously clear two
years after the new ordinance went into effect, when an inspection of
the city's schools showed that all of the them needed immediate
attention, and that a slew of them had absolutely <i>no</i> way
to get the kids out quickly and safely in an emergency.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Now,
school buildings built in this era...like pretty much all other
buildings...were pretty much fire traps anyway. Most were what's now called 'Ordinary Construction...m</span></span>asonry exterior walls with wood frame construction. And when I say 'Wood Frame, I mean <i>everything</i> other than the exterior walls were constructed of wood. Add to this narrow
stairways and hallways, wing partitions making those hallways even
narrower, and as noted before, absolutely <i>no</i> emergency
egress capability at all...yeah, New York City's schools were pretty much the definition of 'Fire Trap'</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Some
efforts were made to correct this situation, but a fire at Our Church
Of The Holy Redeemer Catholic school in February 1883 showed that not a whole lot
of progress had been made. That fire killed 16 kids, and even worse,
almost all of the deaths were the result of panic...A small fire in
the basement filled the building with smoke, and the deaths were
caused by a crush of kids trying to descend a narrow, winding
stairway busting through a handrail, sending dozens of them crashing
to the floor, twenty or more feet below. </span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Granted,
Our Holy Redeemer was a parochial school rather than a city school,
but it still fell under the new ordinance, and had indeed been
inspected a month or so before the fire. That inspector, however, dropped the
ball in a big way by stating that the school was safe and no cause
for concern, despite it's obvious problems. There was no mention of what, if any, action was taken against the inspector, but the fire scared the
city's Board of Education enough to cause them to call a special meeting for the sole purpose of discussing fire safety in the city's
school buildings.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">And
the ball was dropped yet again, when the board's head honcho
announced that all of the city's schools featured broad hallways and
stairways and masonry construction , and were, therefore, immune to
the kind of tragedy that occurred at Our Holy Redeemer.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">He
was, of course, delusional, because many of the city's buildings were
in even <i>worse</i> shape than Our Holy Redeemer, and many
if not most still had <i>no</i> fire escapes. Oh,
a <i>few</i> schools had fire escapes, but most if not all
of them were of the old 'Vertical Ladder' style, which were
notoriously difficult for small children to descend, even on a warm spring day during a (Sadly, rare) fire drill. Now try to imagine a</span></span> fire<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> roaring up the stairwells, blocking them, as </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">several hundred terrified, crying children </span></span>literally try to climb over each other on that ladder in panicked flight from the fire on a snowy 15 degree January day. <i>Not </i>a pretty picture...in such a situation, those 'Fire escapes' would
very likely cause as many deaths as the fire itself.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The
city's Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Children made their
own investigation of Gotham school fire safety. and wrote a letter to
the city's building commission and Board of education, listing 53
schools that had either no or inadequate fire escapes, with a copy
sent to the New York Times editorial desk. I have a feeling
that the Times editorial, when read by a few thousand parents, had
more of an effect than the letters to city departments
because...allegedly, anyway...new balcony style fire escapes were
installed on a number of schools, and 'Other Safety improvements'
were made.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">By
1893 the situation had improved some but it was a slow, tedious
process. While the complaints and protests against fire escapes in
hotels and theaters weren't voiced in the case of schools...after
all, the lives of children were at stake....</span></span>budget problems reared their ugly heads. The ego
problem noted earlier also got in the way of safety improvements...many commissioners felt that the city's
schools were as safe as possible already, and that spending more
money was a waste of time and resources.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Some
new schools were built in the early 1890s, and these buildings were
built with fire escapes as well as more interior fire proofing, but these were still primarily wood frame
buildings with open stairwells. And while improvements were made to
older buildings...including <i>some</i> fire
escapes...there was still a lot of improvements needed.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">SO, despite
new, stricter legislation dictating otherwise, many, and maybe even
most, New York City Schools were without fire escapes. Compounding
the problem were inspectors who...likely under orders... rubber
stamped school inspections, turning a blind eye towards grossly
unsafe conditions while they were at it. The city fathers could show
anyone who had concerns about the safety of the city schools these
perfect inspection reports, and say 'See...our schools are among the
safest in the nation'. And this, of course, is <i>exactly</i> what
they did. This, of course, was also the excuse they used to avoid spending money to install fire escapes and make other safety improvements.</span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The school board tried. In
1901 a request for 130,000 dollars...just north of four million
dollars today...was made for the installation of fire escapes
on <i>all</i> of the schools not already so equipped, but
the request was rejected, with prior mismanagement of funds cited as
the cause for the rejection.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Then,
on March 27th, 1908, a tragedy that <i>should</i> have, pun
intended, lit a fire under the collective asses of the New York City
Government shocked and horrified the nation. On that morning, a
fairly new school building in Collinwood, Ohio...just outside
of Cleveland...burned, killing over 170 children who were trapped
just inside the rear door in a classic panic-induced crush.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Most
school districts big and small jumped to check their own buildings,
jumping through hoops to make improvements that would allow their
cities' kids to safely exit a burring school. Cleveland went as far
as installing enclosed metal spiral fire escape stairs to all of it's
school buildings, and several states threatened to close any schools
that were not up to code, fire safety wise.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">And
New York still claimed that their schools were as safe as possible, a
lie that was bolstered when around 2500 students evacuated one of the
city's schools in slightly over a minute when a small fire occurred.
No other info was available to me, other than the fact that it was an older school, and did have fire
escapes. My bet, however, is that it was a high school, that there wasn't much fire, and even less smoke. Also, we do know that that particular school carried out regular fire drills, so when
the fire alarm sounded, the kids knew exactly what to do. And, with
(Again, my assumption here) little or no smoke in the halls, it was
basically another fire drill. Had the fire been </span></span>in an older elementary school, and had it really gotten rolling before being discovered, and had the kids rushed out into
smoke and heat packed hallways, they would have
had <i>another</i> Collinwood School on their hands...even
with fire drills. The added smoke, heat, and low/no visibility make a
huge and deadly difference. Collinwood school also carried out fire
drills.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">But
the minds of the New York Board of Education, and the other city
fathers didn't work that way. Instead of a wake up call, they
considered it proof...<i>proof</i> I tell you...that <i>all</i> of
the city's schools could be evacuated in a minute or so. The
Commissioner claimed that there was absolutely <i>no </i>need
to install fire escapes on any more city schools because, after all,
the buildings could be evacuated in a minute or two, at most. This
despite the fact that the evacuated school building not
only <i>did</i> have fire escapes, it had high end,
steel mesh enclosed fire escapes with stairs opening off of the sides
of the balconies rather than descending down well holes in the
balconies. Few of the other school buildings that had fire escapes were so equipped.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The
Fire Marshal's office followed this up by issuing over 500 citations
for fire safety violations in schools while also recommending the
immediate closing of 13 unsafe school buildings. Things hadn't
changed much for the better four years later when a special committee
on school safety issued a report that illustrated how unsafe many of
the city's schools <i>still</i> were. The superintendent of
schools strongly disagreed with this report, replying (<i>Again!</i>) that
the city's schools were as safe as they could possibly be. This was
followed up by the Fire Commissioner issuing over 800 violations. The
same attitude prevailed three years later when yet another fatal
school fire...this one killing 21 children, in Peabody, Mass...again had cities and towns looking at the fire safety of their
schools.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Things
finally started to get better in New York as the 1920s dawned, and
several new, fire proof schools were built in the city while some
upgrades were, apparently, made to older buildings. Either it worked,
or the city got lucky. Forty-four fires were reported in school
buildings in 1921, and all of these buildings were evacuated without
major injury to any of the students. These successful evacuations
were attributed to both the new fireproof construction/upgrades, and
the regular fire drills as well as early detection of most if not all
of the fires.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">It
was also at about this time that a push was being made, nationwide,
for fireproof construction of new school buildings (This was about
when the glazed 'firebrick' </span></span></span>that many of us my age and older remember began to appear in school hallways) as well
as the addition of sprinkler systems and enclosed, fire proof
stairwells.</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">That's
a battle that's still being fought today...while fireproof and fire
resistant, steel framed masonry construction has been standard in
new school buildings for three quarters of a century or so,
sprinklers in school buildings only became common in the last quarter
century. (My alma mater, Thomas Dale High School in Chesterfield
County, Va, underwent a massive remodel about twenty years ago, and
in a recent YouTube tour of the building it was easy to tell when the
kids giving the tour passed from the new section of the building...Built around the year 2000...to the old section...Built in 1964. The new section is sprinklered, while the old
section isn't). Enclosed stairwells in schools are still a rarity, because the great majority of two and three story school buildings were built before enclosed stairways became a code requirement...a huge majority of new school buildings are single story.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">But
back to the early portion of the last century...it was noted that
fire escapes in schools were a bit of a different issue than they
were in other buildings because all of the kids on a given floor
might not have access to them. Most opened off of a classroom window,
which would mean you had to get a hundred or more kids out of their
classrooms, into the room with the fire escape, and then <i>onto</i> the
fire escape. This could be tricky during a drill. It could become impossible...and deadly...during a well developed fire that was
filling the building with heat and smoke.</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">School
systems tended to rely on fireproof constriction to slow the spread
of a fire, and early detection, alarm systems, and regular fire
drills to get the kids out before the conditions in the building
became untenable., and that's still where things stand today.. All of
those items are just as essential today as they were seventy or eighty, or
even a hundred years ago. With that being said, fire escapes became
somewhat of a 'Last Resort'. </span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Two
things should be noted here. First, fire escapes were available
in <i>both</i> of the worst school fires in U.S.
history...Collinwood school, which we've already discussed briefly,
and Our Lady Of Angels fifty years later, in 1958. And in both cases
the fire escapes allowed the occupants of a single classroom....the
one that opened onto the fire escape...to get out of the building.
Conditions in the hallway made accessing the fire escapes from any
other classroom impossible early in both fires, and both fires
resulted in catastrophic loss of life.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Second,
while hundreds of new, fire safe schools have been built built since
the midpoint of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, 'Fire Trap' schools
<i>still </i>existed well into the middle of the last century, and
some...especially in smaller towns...were never brought up to code
before they were replaced, some as late as the 1970s. Only sheer luck
kept us from having another Collinwood or Our Lady Of Angels in one
of these schools.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b>Factories</b></span></span></p></div>
<img id="hzDownscaled" style="position: absolute; top: -10000px;" /><img id="hzDownscaled" style="position: absolute; top: -10000px;" /><br /><br /><br />Fire escape and fire safety technology in general, developed a little differently and a lot more slowly in industrial settings than it did in any of the other occupancies I've covered in this post. Getting factory owners to spend money on anything not directly related to making a profit was (And still is!) like pulling the proverbial teeth, and it took (And still takes) a near act of congress and a literal passage of laws to remind them that Safety is indeed related to profit.</div><div><br /></div><div>Oh, it's far, <i>far</i> better today than it was 150 or so years back. Now you have organizations such as OSHA keeping a close eye on all things safety, and you have labor unions watching out for the workers, and the companies themselves have far more of a safety-oriented frame of mind (Though I'm pretty sure that avoiding fines, litigation, and higher insurance premiums has more to do with this new frame of mind than actual concern for safety). Also technology wise, modern buildings are on an entirely different planet than factories built in the mid 19th Century, while the 'safety' culture of the Victorian era was just about 180 degrees away from that of today.</div><div><br /></div><div>Factory buildings built from the mid 19th century to the early 20th century were generally huge, multi-story masonry-walled structures with wooden floors, framed by gigantic wooden timbers. Beams, girders, and floor and roof joists were generally no smaller than 10 x 6, and were often considerably larger. The interior of each floor was wide open and packed with machinery, with only one or two exit stairways serving each floor.</div><div><br /></div><div>These buildings were often as large as 300'-400' by 200', with wooden floors that quickly became oil soaked. If the plant was, say, a textile mill or similar occupancy, you had flammable products and raw materials. Once a fire got going in one of these places it moved fast, burned hot, and and regularly killed and injured workers who became trapped.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fire safety for these workers wasn't even a fleeting thought to the building owners...but <i>theft</i> prevention was. The few available exits were often locked to deter theft, and to make matters worse, many of the factory workers were young women and children...this was <i>long</i> before any kind of labor laws existed.</div><div><br /></div><div>The original New York ordinance of 1871 requiring fire escapes on public buildings didn't cover factories...they weren't <i>public</i> buildings...and when the ordinance was tweaked so industrial buildings <i>were </i>covered, the city pulled it's usual trick of making the new ordinance far too vague. All it required was 'ample and appropriate means of exiting the building in case of fire'.</div><div><br /></div><div>Several factory fires brought the horrible conditions that these workers were subjected to to light...in particular an 1872 factory fire on Center Street in New York (I could find <i>no</i> other details) which is probably the one that brought the discrepancy in fire escape laws to light. There were few fatalities in this one, and FDNY apparently made a pretty good stop on it, but reporters got a look at conditions inside and were quick to report that there was only one stairway and a single 'Rickety fire escape' for several hundred workers.</div><div><br /></div><div>New York building and fire officials 'strongly suggested' that factory owners and managers hold regular fire drills, install adequate fire escapes, add enclosed stairways, stop locking doors, and install automatic sprinklers. But the problem was they only <i>suggested</i> these changes...they <i>didn't</i> require them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once the fire escape regulations were changed, enforcement was at least attempted...but, again, the ordinance was so vague as to be all but unenforceable. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some incentive to make factories safer was provided by the September, 1874 Fall River, Mass. Granite Mills# 1 fire, which killed 23 and injured around 80. Company executives stated that the exits in the structure were completely legal and adequate, which was pretty much the boilerplate statement in such situations.</div><div><br /></div><div> Even more incentive to improve fire safety was added in 1877, when the Hale and Company Piano Company's huge factory in New York burned, taking 80 more buildings with it...by some miracle all of the plant's workers made it out of the building, but the public was enraged, and all but screaming for improvements in fire safety (As much to preserve their own neighborhoods as to protect the factory workers.) Again, Hale and Company's bigwigs stated that the building (Which, keep in mind, was at that point a smoking crater in the middle of a couple of square blocks of devastation) was completely up to code and legal.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again, the public was enraged, stating that laws that allowed a firetrap such as Hale's building to exist were all but useless. So laws were tweaked, women and children were mentioned specifically,...and the laws <i>still</i> only stated that 'Adequate fire escapes <i>must</i> be installed on all buildings over two stories in height...' without specifying just exactly <i>what</i> 'adequate' actually meant. </div><div><br /></div><div>The...literal...fatal flaw of this particular bit of legislation was demonstrated in August of 1888 at a factory fire on Chrystie Street in New York, where 20 factory workers lost their lives despite the fact that the building had fire escapes on both the front and rear of the building. Problem was these fire escapes were a hundred or more feet away from many of the workers, who had to make their way through heat and quickly thickening smoke to get to either of them. </div><div><br /></div><div>Also, <i>many</i> of the fire escapes that were installed on factories were the old 'Vertical ladder' style (They were cheaper than the iron balcony and stairway style), making them difficult to use once they <i>were </i>accessed. I'm not at all sure, however, if that was the case with the Chrystie Street fire. At any rate, a push for better laws and better fire safety (along with better general working conditions) was made. These demands for change were the fetal beginnings of the labor movement, and factory workers had a long way to go, but some improvements <i>were </i>made.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Chrystie Street fire showed a need for revamped laws covering fire escapes in large buildings housing an equally large number of workers, and such legislation was passed and enforced...in 1889, over 100 factories were ordered to install more fire escapes, while only twenty or so were so ordered the next year.</div><div><br /></div><div>But don't think that this fixed the problem...an 1893 factory fire in Rochester, New York killed twenty workers, this in a building that was 'legal and up to code' despite the fact that those twenty workers were unable to get to either of the building's two fire escapes.</div><div><br /></div><div>The next year the State of New York passed a law requiring factory buildings to be licensed, one of the requirements of licensing being the strict compliance with fire safety laws...but I have to ask, if inadequate exits and fire escapes were still legal, did this do any good. Nonetheless, this is seen as the true beginning of the labor reform movement, but it was a very weak beginning...years and a major tragedy would pass before workers in factories would see true advances in fire safety.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then we have to look at the inspection process...the agency that was responsible for inspecting buildings and enforcing fire escape ordinances and laws was chronically under staffed, and more than a few building inspections were rubber stamped...a fact that was revealed in a 1909 factory fire that killed 10. The building had no fire escapes, and not even a passing nod to any kind of fire safety, yet an inspector had visited the building not long before the fire and passed it. This, sadly, was not a rare occurrence.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York was also up to code...there was a fire escape as well as an enclosed interior stairway. That stairway was said to be pitifully narrow, but that was a moot point on March 26, 1911, when a fire got going on the 8th floor of the building, extended to the 9th, and trapped dozens of young female workers on both floors. The doors to the stairway were locked, to prevent the girls from leaving early and prevent theft of merchandise, and the single fire escape, at the rear of the building, was an ancient, unmaintained vertical ladder fire escape. The fire escape pulled free of the wall under the weight of the girls trying to use it and dumped well over a dozen of them into the concrete court yard. Another two dozen or more jumped to their deaths, and over 140 were killed.</div><div><br /></div><div>The girls working there had tried a strike to force better working conditions, only to be fired for their efforts. FDNY Chief Croker had tried to force factory owners to install sufficient balcony fire escapes, fire doors, and automatic sprinklers, only to have the powerful manufacturers Associations flat refuse to do so. The tragedy was pretty much inevitable.</div><div><br /></div><div>This fire requires it's own post, but suffice it to say that it was a wake-up call that called many practices of both factory owners and the Building Department into question. The ordinances were still far too vague, requiring only 'such good and sufficient fire escapes, stairways, or other means of egress', with the definition of 'Good and Sufficient' left up to the factory owners. Needless to say, they defined 'Good and Sufficient' as 'Cheap and Inexpensive', and inspectors had a bad habit of passing them anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was the beginning of a change in that attitude, as lawmakers strived to prevent a tragedy of that magnitude from ever happening again. Among the things that were looked at in New York (State as well as City)...and hotly contested as fingers were pointed...was consolidating state and city laws and inspection procedures. Meanwhile workers...most especially women...organized and fought for better and safer working conditions.</div><div><br /></div><div>One effect of this effort was legislation that <i>finally</i> required proper fire escapes on all office and factory buildings, with specific criteria as to how these fire escapes were to be constructed and maintained. (Almost identical to...and in some ways even tougher than...the criteria for tenement fire escapes specified in the 'New Law', only about a decade after <i>that</i> law was passed.). </div><div><br /></div><div>Sadly, though, this legislation didn't save over forty people...mostly young women...who died in a clothing factory fire in Binghamton, New York in July 1913. It's said that when the fire alarm sounded, many of the workers thought it was another fire drill, and ignored it, until they realized that the building was quickly filling with smoke. By then, of course, it was too late And in a tragic repeat of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, many of the victims jumped to escape the flames, falling to their deaths.</div><div><br /></div><div>When the fire was investigated, it was found that the fire escapes were inadequate, and not constructed up to the standards required by state law...the inspection process apparently still had some flaws. It was this fire that ultimately resulted in legislation requiring enclosed, fireproof interior stairways in office and factory buildings. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even though exterior iron balcony style fire escapes were required now, there was a problem with exterior iron fire escapes on factory buildings because of the way these buildings were built. Factories tended to have wide open, uncompartmented floors packed with combustibles. A fire could quickly involve most of a floor, roll out of the windows, and block the fire escapes, blocking anyone above the fire from using the fire escape...or even worse, trapping them on it. As noted earlier in this post, people have burned to death on fire escapes. It would take more than exterior fire escapes to make factory buildings fire safe.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even though fire escape requirements were again strengthened in 1916, it was realized that the best way to protect factory workers were fireproof interior stairways, firewalls with openings protected by automatic fire doors, and automatic sprinkler systems, all of which were ultimately required in industrial buildings.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Interestingly, the National Fire Protection Association and the fire service and insurance industry in general had recognized the many faults of exterior fire escapes on <i>all </i>buildings by the 1920s, and recommended they only be used as secondary means of escape. As noted immediately above, fireproof interior fire stairs, firewalls, and sprinkler systems were viewed as the best way to safeguard building occupants against fire in business buildings. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The same held true for new residential construction...all new mid and high rise apartment buildings were equipped with fireproof interior stairways by the 1920s. The exterior fire escape will never completely disappear...there are just too many of them, literally millions of them installed on buildings through out the U.S....but by the beginning of the 1930s, the exterior fire escape had pretty much been rendered obsolete.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">What about firewalls and sprinklers in residential buildings. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">To this day, it's hit and miss. More modern townhouse style apartments were and are built with firewalls between apartments or groups of apartments (Anywhere from between every apartment to every third or fourth apartment, depending on local fire code) and garden apartments often have firewalls separating attached buildings...but I've seen many garden style apartment buildings that <i>don't </i>have firewalls, particularly the modern style that often utilizes an exterior stairwell with four apartments per floor...two on either side of the stairwell. These buildings are often frame construction, and fire can and will reach the attic quickly and burn the roof off of them. Thankfully that wide, concrete floored exterior stairwell generally allows the occupants to get out of the building pretty easily.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As for sprinklers in apartments, again it's hit and miss and dependent on local fire code...but thankfully, sprinklers are becoming more common in new multi-family construction. A sprinkler system pretty much removes both the life hazard and fire damage problem as it will extinguish an incipient fire before it gets large enough to endanger the building's residents. While it's at it, most sprinkler systems also sound a building wide alarm and notify a monitoring company, who'll in turn notify the fire department while the sprinkler system knocks the fire down, almost always limiting fire damage to the area of origin. Detractors of such systems point out the water damage they can cause, but my reply to them is any water damage caused by the sprinklers will still be far <i>far</i> less severe than the destruction caused by a working fire. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>The Companies that sold fire escapes.</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Building owners may have fought ordinances requiring fire escapes tooth and nail, but <i>other</i> business owners took full advantage of the new laws in order to turn a profit. Fire escapes didn't just appear as if by magic...they had to be designed and built. And, as requirements for the proper design and construction of iron balcony fire escapes were tweaked and finalized, a dozen or more companies added 'design and erection of fire escapes' to their menu of services.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">All of theses companies already specialized in structural ironwork of one kind or the other, so adding fire escapes to their list of products wasn't that difficult an undertaking, and a few New York City and vicinity based firms took advantage of the new laws and ordinances early in the ball game.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Several of the companies were actually in either New Haven or Hartford Connecticut...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-weight: 700;"></span><b>Hartford Construction Company: architectural and ornamental ironworks; fire escapes, stairs and beam work a specialty </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><span style="font-weight: 700;">New Haven Fence and Fire Escape Company</span><b>: structural and ornamental iron work for buildings, beams, channels, anchors, plates, and stirrups </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><span style="font-weight: 700;"></span><b>Robert Wilson and Son of New Haven: dealers and manufacturers structural and ornamental ironwork, including fire escapes </b></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="font-weight: bold;"> Thomas Dimond of New York City: iron work for buildings; manufacture and repair of iron guards, doors, shutters, railings and fire escapes </div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160629214742/http://www.past-inc.org/bibco/history.htm">Berlin Construction Company </a>of Berlin, CT, New York City and Springfield, Massachusetts: all kinds of steel work for buildings, including fire escapes, balconies and ladders </div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"> Central Iron Works of New York City: fire escapes and exterior stairs .</div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></div><div>It's notable that only two of these companies are actually located in New York City. </div><div><br /></div><div>Dozens more companies joined the game as Fire Escape legislation went national and almost every city adopted ordinances and laws requiring iron balcony fire escapes. By the early 20th Century, pretty much every company that specialized in iron structural fabrication had added 'Fire Escapes' to their catalogs, and companies would ship the unassembled fire escapes to the sites where they were to be erected, along with a crew to handle the building of the escapes.</div><div><br /></div><div>It would be impossible to list every company that sold and erected fire escapes during that era, but a couple of them deserve special mention.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://glassian.org/Prism/Barnum/index.html">E.T. Barnum Wire And Iron Works,</a> of Detroit, Mi., was one of the most notable companies dealing in Fire Escapes. E.T. Barnum had a huge plant in Detroit and an equally large sales network. They distributed a large, richly illustrated catalog yearly, and sold everything from fire escapes to jail cells to weather vanes, and everything in between...as long as it could be fabricated out of iron.</div><div><br /></div><div>The last catalog I could find was printed in 1931, not sure what happened to the company after that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another even more notable company was Union Steel Screen Company, out of Battle Creek, Michigan. If their name sounds familiar, it should. They ultimately dropped 'Screen' from their name and became Union Steel...one of the largest such companies in the world at one time. Union Steel was in business until 1995</div><div><br /></div><div>A couple of the early companies also had long histories, and one of them is still around...sort of. The Berlin Construction Company, which got it's start as the Corrugated Iron Company, is still in business as Berlin Steel. While in their early years they fabricated all kinds of structural iron for buildings, fire escapes included, the products they were best known for were iron (And later steel) truss bridges. The company built well over 1,000 bridges throughout the eastern and southern U.S, though most of them were built in the Northeast. Needless to say Berlin Steel went out of the fire escape fabrication business more decades ago than most of us will live.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the NYC-based companies...Central Iron Works...also survived into the 21st Century, though in it's last several decades it was more of a dealer of scrap iron than a structural fabrication company. It's last remaining vestige...a huge and somewhat iconic scrap yard bounded by 27th and 28th Streets and 10th and 11th Avenues in Manhattan...was emptied, graded, and replaced by Condos back in 2013 </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><***></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>LINKS</b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>As I noted in the main body of this epic tome, there was next to nothing on line about the two tenement fires...in fact, the articles I found in the in the New York Times archive were <i>it. </i>I mean, there wasn't even a Wiki article!</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>There were far more links pertaining to early New York Fire Department and FDNY history, as well as Fire Escape lore and tenement history, and as always I'll post the best several as well as a link to Ms. Andre's thesis.</div><div><br /></div><div>So without further ado, on to the Links...</div><div><br /></div><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1860/02/03/news/calamitous-fire-tenement-house-elm-street-destroyed-thirty-persons-supposed-have.html" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/1860/02/03/news/calamitous-fire-tenement-house-elm-street-destroyed-thirty-persons-supposed-have.html</a> Archived New York Times article about the Elm Street Fire.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1860/03/29/news/destructive-fires-four-tenement-houses-destroyed-two-mothers-eight-children.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/1860/03/29/news/destructive-fires-four-tenement-houses-destroyed-two-</a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1860/03/29/news/destructive-fires-four-tenement-houses-destroyed-two-mothers-eight-children.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">mothers-eight-children.html?pagewanted=all</a> Archived New York Times article about the 45th Street Fire.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.uvm.edu/histpres/HPJ/AndreThesis.pdf ">https://www.uvm.edu/histpres/HPJ/AndreThesis.pdf </a> Mary Elizabeth Andre's thesis on the history of the fire escape. It's in PDF format, so it's downloadable. As I commented above, she better have gotten an 'A' on it!</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t66425b2z&view=1up&seq=7">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t66425b2z&view=1up&seq=7</a> As promised, the full, original text of 'Our Firemen'. This is a <i>huge</i> file...a shade over 1200 pages...so it may take a couple of minutes to load. Worth the wait, though!</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Our-Firemen-History-Departments-Volunteer/dp/1577150139">https://www.amazon.com/Our-Firemen-History-Departments-Volunteer/dp/1577150139</a> And for anyone who wants a modern copy of the book, here's the Amazon link. This one's pretty much a 'Must Have' for any fire buff or Fire Service historian.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/enjineenjin00duns/page/n9/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/enjineenjin00duns/page/n9/mode/2up</a> The full, original text of the 1939 book 'Enjine, Enjine...another must-read for Fire Service aficionados! </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://noidea.dog/fires ">https://noidea.dog/fires </a> A quick, capsule history of the fire escape, complete with some illustrations of a few early designs for 'fire escapes'. Trust me on this, there's a reason I put 'Fire Escapes' in quotes. Some of these designs redefined ludicrous.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/how-the-fire-escape-became-an-ornament/554174/">https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/how-the-fire-escape-became-an-ornament/554174/</a> Another article on the history and social impact of the fire escape. <br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.nypl.org/blog/2018/06/07/tenement-homes-new-york-history-cramped-apartments">https://www.nypl.org/blog/2018/06/07/tenement-homes-new-york-history-cramped-apartments</a> A very in-depth article on the history of the tenement, published by the New York Public Library.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/tenements">https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/tenements</a> History Channel article on the history of the classic New York Tenement.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://tenement-museum.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-room-with-legally-mandated-view.html">http://tenement-museum.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-room-with-legally-mandated-view.html</a> Post on the Tenement Museum 's blog discussing the old and new laws governing tenements, as well as the differences between pre-law, New Law, and Old Law tenements. This organization has actually restored a couple of tenements to their original appearance...inside and out.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.6sqft.com/a-short-history-of-new-york-citys-foul-air-shafts/">https://www.6sqft.com/a-short-history-of-new-york-citys-foul-air-shafts/</a> The history of the 'Dumb bell' Tenement...and most particularly, the air shaft.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>
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<b>Rhoads
Opera House Fire</b></div>
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<b>Jan. 13, 1908</b></div>
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<b>Fatal Slide Show</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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If, like me, you grew up in the late
1950s and early 1960s you're probably familiar with a near sacred
rite that occurred immediately after any major milestone in any
family's life...or, for that matter, any time a large number of
family/friends/neighbors gathered at your home for a cook-out or
similar social gathering.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The Slide Show.</div>
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<br /></div>
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You guys know the drill. Dad gathers
everyone together, and herds them into the slide-showing room of
choice...usually a darkened living room or family room...where the
blinds are already closed and shades already down, throwing the room
into shadow. The screen has already been set up, and a big old Argus
or Bell And Howell slide projector is already sitting on a chair
mid-room, plugged in and running, the fan motor roaring subtly, the
projector bulb throwing a bright white square against the screen, at
the same time painting a crosshatched light pattern against the
ceiling through the fan's exhaust grill.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The latest vacation or birthday, or
pick-an-occasion slides would be shown, and everyone would at least
fake amazement as slightly out-of-focus images of toddlers playing in
their birthday cakes and kids posing next to historic monuments
popped up on the screen while the projector's fan roared and pumped
that distinctive smell of hot metal and glass into the room.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Those family and neighbor slide
presentations were quick social gatherings that didn't...and
really <i>couldn't...</i>harm a soul. The only possible
ill effects they could have were boredom, Dad exposing children to
new and exciting vocabulary when he realized he had a slide in upside
down and/or backwards, and the occasional burned fingers incurred
while changing out a burned out bulb.</div>
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<br /></div>
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So, if slide shows are basically
harmless, there's absolutely no <i>way</i> that a rig that
was the great grand-dad of these iconic home slide projectors could
have been the indirect cause of one of the worst fires in U.S.
history, right?</div>
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<br /></div>
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Right? <i>Right?? </i>Er...wrong.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Trust me gang...not only is it
possible, it really did happen...a slide show kicked off the events
that caused a fire that resulted in the deaths of 170 people. To make
it a bit more interesting, the slide show didn't actually <i>start</i> the
fire<i>. </i>But it <i>did</i> cause the fire to
start.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Confused yet? Read on...</div>
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<br /></div>
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We're going back 111 years or so, to
January, 1908 for this one, and heading for the heart of Pennsylvania
Dutch country to visit the small town of Boyertown, Pennsylvania,
located in a then far more rural Berks County, P-A about 16 miles due
east of Reading, which was (and is) the County Seat, and about 40 or
so miles northwest of Philadelphia. Back in 1908 Boyertown boasted a
population of around 2200 or so, as well as the title of 'town', as
in the town farmers were referencing when they said they were going
into town for supplies. The town was booming 111 years ago, with
several cigar factories and...ironically as it would turn out... one
of the nations largest casket manufacturers calling it home.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Satellite
view of present day Boyertown, with the area detailed below
outlined in red.</span></div><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="360" name="graphics2" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5bUK83_22r1PbbsmVlLMwhhTaibgKyWDkpd9XnIk09zQyhoCXyaeXbrf7dODMGE5kSfoAFVdZsa_it7pJcxQKD2orzY3slmXg6mSxj847DiwMxEU1lQko5nHk5440WRcM2FJEG5Bx7uA/s640/Screenshot+%2528618%2529.png" width="640" /></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Detail
of the area surrounding the intersection of East Philadelphia Ave
and Washington Street...the location of The Rhoads Opera House...
in Boyertown. You can see how close Dr. Rhoads' house was to the
scene, as well as Keystone and Friendship Fire Companies...both
were only blocks, and under normal circumstances only a couple of
minutes, away from the fire. That night ended up being
anything <i>but</i> normal. The building to the
immediate left of the 'New' Rhoads Building, labeled 'The Other
Farm' didn't exist in 1908...the Alley occupied that area. The
building next to that building, however, <i>did</i> exist
back then, as The Mansion House Hotel.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Several
other important sites are also labeled for reference. Note the
accident site, directly in front of Dr Rhoads house. One of the
deaths attributed to the fire was actually a Keystone
fire-fighter who died when their hose wagon struck a tree at that
location.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Boyertown was a boisterous, thriving,
growing town that was also a pretty decent place for early 20th
Century families to live and raise kids, and as 1907 became 1908, a
mainstay of small town life was in the works. The members of a local
church were putting on a play.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A church-sponsored play <i>usually</i> means
that one of the major religious holidays is around the corner, with
Christmas and Easter being the big ones, but this was to be a
stand-alone play....and, rarer still for a church sponsored play, it
was intended to turn a profit.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The producer of the play was a
Washington, DC resident by the name of Harriet Earhart Monroe, who
was also a well known author, lecturer, and religious playwright. One
of her plays, <i>The Scottish Reformation, </i>about Mary,
The Queen Of Scots was written sometime before 1894, and had
been performed throughout the Northeastern U.S., with several dozen
performances prior to January, 1908, when playwright and play both
rolled into Boyertown.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The way Harriet Monroe worked it was
simple and efficient. She provided all of the sets and costumes for
the play while the sponsoring organization provided the cast, stage
crew, and performance venue. Tickets were sold for a dime apiece,
with the profits split 85/15...yep, you read that right. Eighty-five
percent to Harriet Monroe, fifteen percent to the sponsoring
organization, which in this case was Boyertown's St, John's Lutheran
Church.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now, with a church being the sponsor,
you'd think the performance venue might be the church fellowship
hall, but you'd be wrong...St. Johns didn't have a fellowship Hall as
such, and in fact, I believe fellowship halls as we know them are a
much more recent development in church design. Even if the
church <i>did </i> have a fellowship hall, it would
have likely been too small to host one of Ms Monroe's productions.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Boyertown <i>did</i> have a
performance venue though. Around 1885 Boyertown physician and banker
Thomas J.B. Rhoads bought a lot at the corner of Philadelphia Ave and
Washington Street, where he had a big three story brick commercial
structure built, primarily to serve as the new home of Farmer's
National Bank, which he was founder and president of. The bank took
up half of the first floor, with a hardware store occupying the other
half at the time of the fire, while offices and meeting rooms took up
the third floor. It's the <i>second</i> floor we're
interested in here, though.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The building's second floor
is what gave the building it's official name...'Rhoads Opera
House'...though, truth be known, children's singing recitals are
likely the closest thing to an 'opera' ever performed there. What
it <i>was</i> though was a theater...in miniature, but a
theater none the less.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The auditorium measured 70 ft by 42 ft,
meaning that the entire set-up would have probably fit on the
stage/backstage area of either the<a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-brooklyn-theater-fire-brooklyn-ny.html"> Brooklyn
Theater</a> or <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-iroquois-theater-fire-fireproof.html">The
Iroquois Theater</a> without breaking a sweat.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not only was the venue far smaller than
either the Brooklyn or Iroquois theater, it was also far simpler. A
pair of small insurance agencies had offices at the front of the
second floor, flanking the stairway. That stairway only served the second
floor, and opened directly out to Philadelphia ave.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Up at the top of those steps,
when you stepped off of the stairs, you were looking at the back of
the last row of seats, not that there were that many rows. One
hundred and eight permanent, probably school auditorium-style seats
were stuffed into the center of the room. Those permanent seats were
flanked by open space until they needed more than 108 seats. When
that happened, that open space allowed for room to set up another two
hundred or so folding chairs...fourteen or so rows of seven folding
chairs on each side, separated from the permanent seating by a pair
of four foot wide aisles. I have a feeling that it wasn't at all
unusual for those aisles to be partially blocked by the folding
chairs when they were set up.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A small stage took up the rear of the second floor,
with a another stairway off of the left rear corner (The
'Charley-Bravo corner' in modern fire service speak) of the building.
There were three exterior fire escapes, two of which were accessible
from the second floor, one on either side of the building. One
of them emptied onto Washington Street, which paralleled the
building's south wall, and the second dumped into an ally that ran
between the Roads Building and The Mansion House Hotel on building's
north side. There was also a fire escape on the front of the building
that emptied onto the roof of the building's front porch. That same porch roof was accessible from the second floor...but only if you had keys to one of the two offices that flanked the stairs at the front of the building.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">A
hand-drawn illustration of the floor plan of the Rhoads
Building's second floor auditorium as it was set up on the night
of the fire. Kerosene lanterns provided both house and stage
lighting, and everything...walls, seating, floor,
ceiling...was wood.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
stage was actually fairly tall, and accessed from the audience
with short stairways on both ends. The rear stairway, indicated
on the left rear corner of the building, exited onto Washington
Street, and allowed almost all of the cast and crew to escape,
though several returned to either search for relatives or
retrieve personal possessions, only to become trapped.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
seats in the middle of the auditorium were fixed, likely school
auditorium style seats, while wooden folding chairs were used for
the side seating...they became death traps during the fire by
entangling feet and legs of people trying to escape.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
stereopticon and the tanks used to power it's light were in the
front corner of the auditorium, out in the open. One of the hoses
connecting the tanks to the projector coming loose was what
caused a startled actor to accidentally kick over a kerosene
lantern, starting the fire.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
main stairway...indicated with a black arrow...had no landing on
the second floor...you stepped out of the door and straight down
onto the first step. The exit was double doored and six feet
wide...but the doors opened inward and only one of them was open
when the fire started...and that was thanks too an usher who
unbolted it and threw it open just before the panicking crowd
reached it. Dozens would die in that doorway.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
fire escapes were accessed via unmarked standard windows with
high sills, making them difficult to find, access, and use. Even
so, around fifty or sixty people made it out over them.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
two anterooms were actually insurance agency offices. Had those
front windows been accessible, they may have saved quite a few
lives by allowing people to exit onto the front porch roof, then
drop to the street. Unfortunately the doors were locked. </span></div>
</td>
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</center>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Right off the bat, we have a couple
of <i>major </i>fire safety problems. First, though the
building had brick exterior walls, the floors, frame, and interior
walls were all wood. Then, the double doors to the Philadelphia Ave
stairway opened inward, as very likely did the doorway to the rear
stairwell.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The top of the stairs could well be a
death trap in a panic because there was no landing outside the main
entrance/exit. When you stepped out of the main exit, you
immediately stepped down onto the first step. This could be a fall
hazard in the best of circumstances. In a panic situation a nasty
fall was all but a given, not to mention being a jam-up just waiting
to happen as people tried to climb over anyone who had fallen ahead
of them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then, if you made it to the bottom of
the steps without either getting trampled and/or jammed up in the
doorway or tumbling down the stairs, there was a ticket booth that
narrowed the stairs from six feet to three feet, creating yet another
major pinch-point that would seriously impede panicked occupants
trying to exit the building in an emergency.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Those fire escapes? Access to them was
via windows whose sills were three and a half feet from the floor
rather than via dedicated fire exit doors or even fire escape windows
with lower sills. Oh...the windows that <i>did </i> provide
access to them weren't marked. At all.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The 12 foot ceilings, though high
by today's standards, were actually low for an occupancy such as a
theater, so any fire would fill the room with heat and
smoke <i>quickly,</i> dropping visibility to zilch at about
the same time it rendered the air unbreathable.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
NOW!...lets talk technology!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Boyertown's town government was
investigating bringing electricity to the boro, but it hadn't
happened yet (And wouldn't for nearly a year). Oh it had made a
couple of inroads...the Boyertown Burial Casket Company's big factory
on Walnut Street had it's own powerhouse, and had been electrified
for a couple of years, and the trolley line from Reading was
electrified, but electric lights had yet to be installed in the
majority of Boyertown's businesses and homes. Boyertown <i>did</i> have
a gas plant, and gas lighting had been installed in several homes and
businesses, but the Rhoads building wasn't one of them....the opera
house relied on kerosene lanterns for everything from house lighting
to footlights, with all of the footlights drawing kerosene from a
single narrow eight foot long tank holding about two gallons. Keep
that tank in mind, because it's going to be a major player in what's
to come.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo0cTUszAkJNYb6fzd0bVFNN74nskt4Xfu1F0lnrgfSob9I3s4cJoa9wjUL1VgLygplkAN-RIiKOLB7nQ7HAZavsLhdO-Y0A6k0EgBjrKENKqj9-hMjLxumD0quAiqZSXdlA93DIgtLQg/s1600/5560222-3x2-940x627.jpg"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="426" name="graphics4" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo0cTUszAkJNYb6fzd0bVFNN74nskt4Xfu1F0lnrgfSob9I3s4cJoa9wjUL1VgLygplkAN-RIiKOLB7nQ7HAZavsLhdO-Y0A6k0EgBjrKENKqj9-hMjLxumD0quAiqZSXdlA93DIgtLQg/s640/5560222-3x2-940x627.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<td width="665"><div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">A</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">
set of kerosene-fired footlights...note the tank with the lamps
permanently attached. A similar unit was used at The Rhoads Opera
House, though I believe that the one used at the Opera House may
have been a bit larger. A small fire on the Opera House
stage had almost been brought under control when a decision was
made to move the kerosene tank out of the way. Unfortunately the
tank was dropped, spilling around two gallons of kerosene, which
ignited, intensifying the fire beyond control.</span></div>
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</center>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then there was the curtain. The stage
curtain was the exact same one that had been purchased twenty three
years and change earlier, probably either blue or maroon, and made of
the finest heavy-duty muslin. Muslin, of course, is simply cotton
cloth in a sturdy plain weave, and it's easy to ignite and tends to
burn fast...especially if it's hanging vertically. The concept of
fireproofing fabrics hadn't even been thought of when it was
purchased and hung in 1885. In 1908 it was still in excellent shape, and in
the minds of those tasked with managing and maintaining the Opera
House, there was absolutely no need to replace it...in fact my bet
is, the issue of replacing the curtain with something less flammable
(And <i>real</i> expensive) was never even raised.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So that beautiful, functional, but
highly flammable curtain, which had hung across the Opera House stage
within far too few feet of kerosene footlights and stage lighting
with no ill effects for over 23 years was still there that night.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So, to review, we had a room with
wooden walls, floor, and ceiling that offered all kind of subtle and
not so subtle impediments to a quick and safe evacuation while also
featuring a ready made ignition source, complete with a supply of
accelerant. And it gets even worse.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The five foot high stage had two short
sets of steps...one on either side...leading up from the main
auditorium, which would normally allow the audience to use the
building's rear stairway in an emergency, but during <i>The
Scottish Reformation</i> the steps on the stage-left side of the
stage (Right<i> </i>side of the stage as you face it) would be blocked by a big square of white velvet, hung across
them at an angle to act as a screen for a slide show about the
historical event that the play centered on.<br />
<br />
OK, I can just about hear
some of you going 'Wait a minute, Rob. If the place wasn't' wired for
electricity, just <i>how</i> did they have a slide
show...?'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Pay close attention, gang...the slide
show ended up being the unwanted star of the show. See, They
didn't <i>need</i> electricity. And, with that being said, lets take a real quick look at the early history of the slide projector.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Believe it or not, the slide show
has existed since the late 1600s. Yeah, you read that right,,,the
late 17th century...and the projectors operated on the exact same
principal as modern slide projectors.You had a light source behind
the slide and a prism/lens combination in front of the slide, with
the light source shining through the slide and projecting an inverted
image onto a screen, which was usually just a white painted wall back
in that era. So yes, the infamous 'The Damn Thing's In Backwards/
Upside Down!' rant was even part of these 17th century slide shows.
Another interesting little factoid...with a candle or oil lamp
(That's whale or vegetable oil, BTW. Kerosene came on the
scene <i>much</i> later) providing the light source, the
magic lanterns, as the projectors were called, featured a chimney.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course the early round glass
slides that were used in the 'Magic Lanterns' were just pretty colors
or small paintings etched into the glass rather that photographs, and
the image projected by a candle/lantern was both distorted and
weak, and would remain so until better lighting technology arrived.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Light sources improved as time went on,
until arc lamps became available in the late 19th century, as well as
lamps using brighter burning carbon based illuminating gasses. Actual
photographic slides were introduced in the mid 19th century, and the
latter part of that century brought us the
stereopticon...basically a projector with a pair of over and under
lenses that allowed a pair of slides to be shown, with one fading or
dissolving into the other...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><***></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<td width="665"><div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;">T</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">wo
examples of gas-fired stereopticons, with the one above showing
the oxygen and carbonized hydrogen tanks that supplied gas for
the projector's lamp, along with the complex system of hoses and
valves needed to properly mix and supply the two gasses. The
oxygen and carbonated hydrogen were mixed and burned in the
unit's two lamps to provide high intensity, highly focused light
that was projected onto a screen to show the slides...just as the
bulbs in modern slide projectors do. The Metropolitan </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">stereopticon</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, pictured above, is said to be the type that was in use on the night of the fire.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> The
image below, while not the type used at the Opera House that night, is similar and shows both the gas-fired lamp in the bottom
unit...the upper unit's lamp would have been identical... and a
close-up view of the hose connections and valves on the
stereopticon itself. The manifold for the gas hoses, seen in detail here at the back of the bottom unit, was located between the tanks on the Metropolitan, and I have a feeling that the hose that came loose popped off of it's connection on this manifold.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Looking at this, it becomes obvious that
this was <i>not</i> a
simple rig to operate. Several weeks of training were required
before an operator became even vaguely proficient at operating
one of these rigs safely. Harry Fisher had been trained for a
couple of days and had operated the projector 4 times, all of
them at rehearsals, before the night of the fire. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Looking
at this hose set-up it's easy to see why he became flustered and
confused when one of the hoses...probably the hydrogen
hose...popped loose from the manifold. .</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi684Gn-LIAZBE7T8yN5gvloi2XF8rOk145E9F1B4DS6vQP3bdqNAn743Ex5hKXW-yS4rjkBtHCvMrPOhU6XOHxCk9_u1Uu3QrWTk-g0NtQuSLHk0XiqIPgsZwiF90zZVvOU3KWTXNryHY/s1600/Phoenix_Stereopticon.png"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="604" name="graphics6" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi684Gn-LIAZBE7T8yN5gvloi2XF8rOk145E9F1B4DS6vQP3bdqNAn743Ex5hKXW-yS4rjkBtHCvMrPOhU6XOHxCk9_u1Uu3QrWTk-g0NtQuSLHk0XiqIPgsZwiF90zZVvOU3KWTXNryHY/s640/Phoenix_Stereopticon.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><***></b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And that's what was being used for the
slide show at the Rhoads Opera House the evening of the play...a
gas-illuminated stereopticon projector. <i>The Scottish
Reformation,</i> as I noted earlier<i>, </i>is the story of
Mary, the Queen of Scots, with the slide show, shown during the
intermissions between scenes, helping to illustrate the story. The
stereopticon required pressurized tanks of illuminating gas...oxygen
and carbonized hydrogen...which added a couple of pressurized tanks
of highly flammable gas to the hazards stuffed into that tiny
theater. The stereopticon, along with the tanks of gas needed
to operate it, was set up in the left front corner of the second
floor, diagonally opposite the screen. Operating the projector
required the services of someone who had been well trained and knew
what he was doing, and for this reason Harriet Monroe had a permanent
stereopticon operator on staff. When she started making inquiries
about performing the play in Boyertown, she assumed that he'd
be operating the stereopticon there as well.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This was an understandable
assumption, The operator, a guy named Charles Sheridan, had worked
for her for years, and had set up and operated the projector at the
Rhoads Opera House before. <i>The Scottish
Reformation </i>would be the second play that she had brought to
Boyertown. The first play, called <i>The Story Of The
Reformation </i>had been performed four years previously.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br />The Story Of The Reformation</i> had
also been sponsored by St. John's, so Ms Monroe had done
business with the church's pastor, the Reverend Adam M. Weber before.
She got hold of him yet again, and he quickly agreed to sponsor <i>The
Scottish Reformation. </i>It didn't take long at all for
word to get out that she was bringing a second play to town,
ramping anticipation up until it was clean off the scale. There
was no shortage of people wanting either a part in the play, a job as
a stage hand, or a ticket to the show. What there <i>was </i> a shortage of, though, was time.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
She probably set everything up in early
or mid December, but they had to wait until after the Holidays to begin the actual process of getting the play on stage, so the production crew (Which <i>wouldn't</i> include Harriet Monroe) probably didn't
arrive in Boyertown until two or so weeks before the play's opening night.<br />
<br />
During this fourteen day period they had to inspect and prepare the venue, get all the props ready, hire stage hands, audition around fifty actors (Mostly from the church's youth) and then costume and rehearse them. Given all of the tasks that had to be accomplished in that time frame, that would have been an <i>exceedingly</i> hectic two weeks for the play's cast and crew if everything went as planned. And of course, it didn't.<br />
<br />
Two things would throw a couple of
hitches in the process early in the ball game. The first had actually
occurred very shortly after Harriet Monroe contacted Reverend Weber, in early
December, when Charles Sheridan told her that he wouldn't be
available for several months, for reasons that weren't made
completely clear.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This could end up being a
problem. Pressurized gasses were a new,
almost experimental technology in 1908, and handling them required
specialized training. Then there was the art of running a
stereopticon itself...many experts stated that it took about three
months to learn how to run one of the complicated projectors safely
and efficiently. Unfortunately, they really didn't have time to properly train a new
operator, and definitely didn't have time for a new operator to
become intimately familiar with the stereopticon..</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Harriet Monroe didn't let this 'minor'
detail deter her, and quickly hired a 21 year old kid from New Jersey
named Harry Fisher to run the stereopticon. Problem was, he had very likely never even <i>seen</i> a stereopticon before, much less actually operated one. Despite his total lack of experience, Harry only got about two days worth of
training, basically just enough to project the images on the screen. My bet is 'Safety' was not one of the subjects covered at
any length...or at all.. in that very brief lesson. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Next came unexpected hitch #2, when
Harriet Monroe lost her voice, which would make it impossible
for her to narrate the slide shows that were an integral part of the
play. She also went on a trip to drum up more business, hunting for
new communities to show <i>The Scottish Reformation.</i><i> </i>I
can't help but wonder if this had a bit more to do with her not
accompanying the company to Boyertown than did a bout of Laryngitis.
But whatever the actual reason for her absence, she had a competent
stand in, her sister, Della Mayers, who she asked to travel to Boyertown
with the company and act as director, a task that also required her to
handle all of the auditions and rehearsals.<br />
<br />
Della Mayers dived right into the
task when she arrived in Boyertown. It's a pretty good bet that one
of the first things she did was take a look at The Opera House to get
a feel for the space she had to work with. She probably got hold of Edgar
Mauger, who leased the Opera House from Dr Rhoads, and went to the
Rhoads Building to get a quick 'cook's tour' of the facilities.<br />
<br />
She spotted a couple of things she didn't like the instant she set
foot on the second floor of the building. Though it wasn't actually
stated anywhere, I have a feeling that, to her eyes, the place had
all the makings of a fire trap. She asked that all of the
stairway doors be removed but Mauger wouldn't remove the double doors
at the main stairway. He <i>did </i>remove the door to the
rear stairway, a move that would likely save about 60 lives..</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
She couldn't do anything about the
building's other problems, so she figuratively (And possibly
literally) took a deep breath, and took to the task of molding the
cast into a well oiled machine in two weeks time. Two weeks between posting flyers announcing auditions and opening night is a <i>seriously </i>daunting task, no matter what kind of production you're putting on,
but Della Mayers and her cast managed it, and almost before they knew
it, it was a couple of days before opening night and they were in the middle of a couple of dress rehearsals. Ms Mayers was
pleased with <i>almost</i> everything she saw. The
only thing she <i>didn't</i> like was Harry Fisher,
and his skill...or lack there of...with the stereopticon.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When coupled with the building's
fire-trap like qualities, he actually <i>scared</i> her, so
much so that she knocked out a letter to her sister, telling her that
she considered Fisher incompetent if not down right dangerous. Then
she penned a <i>second</i> letter to Charles Sheridan,
again laying out her concerns, hoping he'd drop whatever he was doing
and high-tail it to Boyertown so he could take over running the
Stereopticon. There was no record...that I found, anyway...of what,
if any, replies Della Mayers got to those letters, but whatever they
might have been, they didn't include instructions to pull Fisher from
the operator's position.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What she <i>didn't </i>know
was that, apparently after receiving her letter, her sis
had <i>also </i>sent a letter to Charles Sheridan
concerning Fisher...a simple little note stating that Fisher was more
than competent, and there should be no problem with him as the
projector's operator...but if anyone should ask, Harry Fisher had
been operating Stereopticons for eight years.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Della Mayers very likely feared
something similar to what actually <i>did</i> happen,
but she could do nothing about her fears if the play was to be
performed as written, with the slide shows and lectures between
scenes. All she could do was make sure the the cast and crew of <i>The
Scottish Reformation</i> were ready for the play's two
night...Monday the 13th and Tuesday the 14th...run, and continually
caution Fisher to be careful, praying he wouldn't make a fatal
mistake of some kind while she was at it. It was a prayer that
would prove to be futile.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Monday, January 13th finally arrived.
Newspaper articles had been singing the coming performance's praises
since the play was announced, and you just know that The Reverend
Weber reminded his flock to purchase tickets (Available at the
church, or where ever else they were being sold) because they were
going <i>fast</i> during the announcements before his
January 12th sermon.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Three hundred and twelve tickets were
sold to the Monday night performance, so as the 8 PM showtime
approached on that cold (It was Pennsylvania in January...you <i>know</i> it
was cold!) Monday evening, the three hundred and twelve people
holding Monday tickets made their way to the Rhoads Opera House,
climbed that narrow stairway, and bought a program...likely from
another of the church's youth...as they emerged from the main
entrance between the two insurance offices.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Folding wooden chairs had been set up
on both sides of the auditorium, giving them maybe three hundred and
twenty-five seats, putting a near capacity crowd on the building's
second floor. Then there were around fifty people in the cast. This
meant that just fewer than four hundred people would be stuffed into
that room (Because that's really all the 'Opera House' was...one big
room) that evening, packing the venue so tightly that it was later estimated that each ticket-holder had about nine square feet of space apiece</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The doors were opened at 7:30 PM and
eleven year old Anna Weber and her ten year old sister Martha were
among the first to arrive, with their dad and a couple of other
siblings...they probably grabbed seats near the center front. Close
behind were a pair of teenage cousins. Thirteen year old Franklin
Leighty had made his way to his also 13 year old Cousin LuLu Fegley's
house to escort her to the play in their first outing unchaperoned by
parent, aunts, uncles, or other adults...or so they thought. Another
older cousin, Laura Leighty, who was a teacher at
Boyerstown's Washington Street School, also attended. My bet is she'd
been asked to keep an eye on LuLu and Franklin.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Quite a few kids attended the play with
their parents so they could watch their older siblings perform in the
play, and several entire families were in attendance, including the
three members of the Taggert family, who made their way in from their
farm just outside of town. Then there was nineteen year old Lottie
Bauman, who was also planning to attend the play with her cousin, Amanda Shultz and
a friend. Her cousin, though, was six months pregnant and feeling
under the weather. She decided to cancel, leaving Lottie and her
friend, Mamie Toms to attend without her. Amanda Shultz's illness would likely save her life<br />
<br />
Other kids, like Frank Leighty and his cousin, were allowed to attend the show without adult accompaniment. Fourteen year old Rosa Diamond took a young friend who was handicapped to the play and the two girls were so excited that they arrived early, well before the 7:30 PM door opening. The two girls went to a near-by store and pigged out on candy until the doors opened, then climbed the stairs and took their seats. Both girls would die in the fire, and Rosa would be the subject of the closest thing to a scandal to emerge form the fire.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As the audience arrived, the second floor auditorium was a frenetic ant-hill of activity. The building's third floor meeting room
was doubling as a dressing room, so there was constant traffic on
that back stairway, while scrapings and murmuring drifted from behind
the curtain as the stage-crew made last minute preparations. All of
this was overlaid by the general rumble of conversation you get in
any room filled with over three hundred people, accompanied by
the sliding scrape of wooden folding chairs as late arrivals filled
the chairs at the sides of the room.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Della Mayers was bustling around seeing
to the last minute chores and adjustments that are a part of any
play. Backstage, the youthful cast members were all but bursting with
nervous enthusiasm even as the audience quivered with the kind of
anticipation that can only come from parents waiting to watch their
kids perform.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And finally the lights went down and
the crowd became silent, and Harry Fisher cranked up the stereopticon
and showed the first batch of slides as Della Mayers narrated,
introducing the play while she was at it...and then the curtain
opened and play began.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The play was performed in four acts,
with a slide show during the intermission between each act, and I can
just about bet that, with no concessions, the only members of the
audience who didn't stay in their seats were the ones who had to take
a rest-room break.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The fourth act was the most dramatic,
and likely the most anticipated...it dramatized the execution of
Mary, Queen of Scots. The young lady who was originally to have
portrayed Mary, Queen of Scotts had taken ill over the weekend, so
her understudy, a young schoolteacher at Boyertown's Washington
Street School named Stella Tabor, had taken her place. Stella was
pretty sure she had the role down perfectly, but she was still
nervous, and it's highly likely that she slipped out to the audience
for a moment for some encouragement from her widowed mom, who equally
likely told her that she (A) looked absolutely beautiful, and (B) was
going to do fine! Stella probably gave her mom a hug, then, smiling
nervously but gamely, headed back stage.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
She'd never get to find out how she
would have done.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As she slipped backstage, Harry Fisher
was setting up the slides for the intermission slide show Somehow, as
he was setting up the slides, he managed to pop one of the hoses
leading to one of the tanks of compressed gas loose from it's
connection on the manifold that distributed the gasses to the projector, Gas blasted out into the room with
a rushing hiss that caused everyone in the auditorium to jump, then
twist around in their seats, to see Fisher scrambling, trying to
figure out just exactly what he'd done and twisting valves to try and
stop dumping the gas into the room. He finally grabbed the hose and
got his thumb over the end, stopping, or at least muffling the loud
hiss, for a second or so...but the hose slipped from his grasp as he
turned to try to figure out how to reconnect it, and the sibilant
'HISSSSS' began anew.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Weeks later he would testify that it
was the hose from the oxygen tank that popped loose, and if that had
indeed been the case, it wouldn't have been that bad. Pure oxygen in
a small, confined space can be explosive, and will cause materials to
burn almost explosively, <i>but</i> if it's released into a
large room at fairly low concentration it mixes readily with air, so
it would have harmlessly dispersed. <i>But...</i>and this is a
biggie<i>...</i>I and many other people think it was
the <i>hydrogen</i> tank's hose that popped loose, and that
would have been a different story altogether. Carbonated Hydrogen,
like pure hydrogen, is lighter than air, explosively flammable, and
would have gathered at the ceiling in a layer at least a couple of
inches thick.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course he <i>could</i> have
shut the valve off at the tank, and stopped the leak, but he didn't.
Instead he was becoming more flustered by the second, allowing the
gas to continue escaping into the room .The hissing of the escaping
gas was <i>loud, </i>loud enough to get everyone's
attention, including the cast and crew hustling around behind the
closed curtain as they moved set pieces around in preparation for the
the play's final act. Heads swiveled, kids looked at each other
wide-eyed, and almost inevitably someone...or maybe several
someones...said 'What the heck was <i>that</i>?!?'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Several of the kids in the cast pulled
the curtain aside and peered out, trying to find the source of the
hissing, probably spotting a frantic Henry Fisher desperately trying
to fix the problem...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now, those kerosene foot lights weren't
the only lights on stage...a couple of freestanding kerosene
lanterns...the classic glass-globed lanterns that just about
everyone's familiar with...were also on stage, very possibly on short
stands of some kind and most importantly, were still lit. As the kids
peered through the gap in the curtains, someone accidentally kicked
one of the lanterns, or one of the stands, and the lantern slammed
down onto the stage, shattering the glass globe and spilling a small
puddle of kerosene from the metal tank, which spread across the
wooden stage floor even as the burning wick lit it up with a muted
'WHOOF!!</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">A</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">n
antique Dietz kerosene lantern of the type that probably got
kicked over, starting the small fire on the Opera House stage.
Contrary to what movies and TV would have you believe,
throwing/dropping/breaking one of these doesn't result in a
sudden fireball/wall of fire because the kerosene tank is metal
rather than glass, so the kerosene would simply spill out through
the slot that the wick is raised or lowered through, resulting in
a small, easily controlled spill fire</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
OK, in TV shows and movies set in this
era, bad guys are forever using these things to start fires. Light
the lantern, hold it by the wire handle, wind up, and toss, and you
instantly have a wall of fire. Doesn't work that way in real life. If
one of these lanterns breaks it will indeed start a fire, and
kerosene lanterns have, in fact, started many a fire, but not as
spectacularly as TV and the Big Screen would have you think. First,
the great majority of utility type lanterns...such as the millions
that were and are made by Dietz...had metal tanks rather than glass,
so the kerosene wouldn't be released in bulk, rather it would spill
out of the slot through which the wick was raised. And second, there
just wasn't <i>that</i> much kerosene, so you'd have a
puddle of burning kerosene a foot or so in diameter, which was easily
handled if taken care of quickly. And if people didn't panic.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The semi-darkened room suddenly lit up
in shadowy flickering orange as the puddle of kerosene lit off, and
you could hear dozens of sudden exclamations and a few curses as
everyone started shuffling and moving. A few people, near the back of
the auditorium immediately left, hustling down the stairs to
Philadelphia ave...they almost panicked when they yanked on one of
the double doors, finding it locked, but panic was temporarily
averted when they found the other door unlocked and pulled it open.
Maybe ten or fifteen people hustled and tumbled down the stairway, a
couple of them doing a macabre dance with one of the ushers as they
got in each other's way...the usher quick-jogged to the exit and
unlocked the door that had been locked.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A haze of smoke was beginning to gather
in the room, and several of the crew members and a few of the dads
tore at the burning curtain and used coats to smother and snuff the
fire...they <i>almost</i> had it out. Almost...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Reverend Weber, along with a couple
of men in the front row, all had the same basic thought at the same
time. The footlights! Specifically that shallow eight foot long tank
of kerosene for the footlights, which was <i>awfully</i> close
to the burning curtains and blazing pool of kerosene from the
broken lamp. True, the crew on-stage just about had the small fire
licked, and the rumblings of near panic in the crowd were dying down
as the make-shift fire crew beat the fire down to a few small
flickers.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Someone...maybe the Reverend
himself...called out "Lets get that tank out of the way!"</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He was quickly joined on stage by
Charles Spatz, who was editor of the '<i>Berks County Democrat</i>...the
local weekly paper...as well as a member of the cast. Spatz had
brought a small square of carpet with him, to help beat out the
flames, which he handed off to the crew fighting the fire when
Reverend Weber asked him to get the nearest window open. Spatz
quick-stepped to the window, unlatching it and heaving it upward as
Rev. Weber and a couple of other guys dodged the guys stamping and
beating at the dying flames as they ran to the ends of the tank and
grabbed hold.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
"OK, guys on three, one..."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The general idea, apparently, was to
heave it out of the window that Charles Spatz had just opened,
but they'd never get that far, or even <i>close</i> to that
far. They lifted it and started carrying it towards the window, but
they hadn't figured on a couple of problems. That metal tank, with
footlights attached, wasn't exactly light, and at eight feet long it
wasn't exactly easy to move, and, worse by <i>far,</i> it
contained around two gallons of kerosene. The footlights had been
burning for about an hour and a half, so the tank wasn't full, meaning they would have been moving a little less than 13 pounds of a
flammable fluid sitting in an unbaffled tank, which meant it was free
to slosh around from one end of the tank to the other. Which meant
that the instant they picked it up and started moving it in one
direction, all of that kerosene instantly rolled in
the <i>other</i> direction, transferring most of the weight
to one end of the tank.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I get the impression that Rev.
Weber was holding the end of the tank that caught that sudden surge
of kerosene. He staggered then stumbled as that mini-wave of kerosene
slammed into the end of the tank like a hard-swung sledge hammer,
throwing him backwards and breaking his grip. That end of the tank
slammed down onto the stage <i>hard, </i>hitting with a
metallic 'THUNK!!' that got everyone's attention even <i>more</i> easily
that the hissing gas valve..</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I don't know if the cover of the tank
popped loose, or if one or more of the kerosene-fired foot lights
popped loose or, as a couple of reports suggested, a soldered joint
split open, but what ever happened, when the tank tilted towards one
end and hit the floor, a <i>second</i> wave of kerosene
gushed from the end of the tank, filling the room with it's pungent
aroma as it washed across the stage. Anyone who's ever
spilled <i>any</i> liquid knows that just a glass of water
will cover a good portion of a large kitchen floor without even
breaking a sweat. Almost two <i>gallons</i> of kerosene was
like an incoming tide,...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The stage crew-turned firefighters
watched in horror as a wave of kerosene rolled across the small,
nearly extinguished fire, apparently frozen in place for the instant
that seemed like an hour that nothing happened. That instant was
shattered by an explosive 'whoomph! as that small glimmer of flame
became a bright, flaring, moving wall, spreading across the stage in
an eye-blink. Reverend Weber was caught in the rolling wave of fire
and severely burned about the head, chest and arms as his shirt
ignited...somehow he stripped it off as he staggered off of the
stage,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Spatz made it to the window he'd just
opened as the Reverend staggered down the stage steps, tossing his
burning shirt onto the stage...this was about the same instant the
muslin curtain lit up, flames rolling up it's entire height in only a
second...and as the flames hit the ceiling something horrible
happened.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A wave of fire rolled across the
ceiling, from one end of the building to the other, in less than a second<span style="background-color: yellow;">,</span> filling the room halfway to the floor for an
instant before receding back up to ceiling level as the thin layer of
hydrogen hugging the ceiling lit off. Flames from the burning stage
now rolled along the ceiling, helped along by the burning
hydrogen...the gas probably burned away fairly quickly, but it had
super heated both the ceiling and the air just beneath it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The auditorium erupted into absolute
bedlam as the already smoldering curtain lit off and became a
vertical sheet of fire, everyone both backstage and in the audience
leaping to their feet and surging towards an exit. The curtain held
for a couple of seconds before it fell to the stage in a flaming heap
at just about the same instant that the hydrogen flashed, the flames
that filled the room for a second or so severely burning dozens of
the people who were desperately struggling to get out.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Most of the cast and crew, along
with several people who had been in the front row of seats and who
had run up the stage steps onto the stage when the hissing started,
bolted down the back stairway and out the door, all but
tumbling out onto the sidewalk on the Washington Street side of the
building. As they looked up, they could see smoke pushing from
around the second floor windows, which were already lit up in garish,
flaring orange. Even as they watched, they heard the tinkling crash
of breaking glass, saw falling glass shards twinkling in the glare
from street-lights as a couple of the windows were smashed open. A
couple of others were raised, to be instantly filled with writhing
coils of smoke, rolling upward as the sounds of terror...screams and
wails of agonized fear...drifted down to the street.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Almost all of the cast and crew made it
out, but, sadly, several of them realized that relatives were still
in the building or remembered clothing or other personal items they'd
left behind and ran back <i>up </i>the stairs to get them,
only to become trapped by the fast spreading fire. Seven cast members
would die in the fire, along with Della Mayers, who was last seen
trying to help people get to and out of the windows. Sadly she, too, was
trapped as the second floor became fully involved.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One of the ushers was sitting in
the back row, watching the slide show, when the hissing started. He
jumped, just as everyone else did, head swiveling as he looked for
the source...then out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the kids
in the cast accidentally kick a kerosene lantern, saw the first small
fire start. He knew that one of the double doors was bolted, so he
immediately jumped up, almost getting trampled by the dozen or so
people from the audience who left early as he quick stepped to the
exit. It would do no good.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The tank probably hit the stage just
about the time he unbolted the door. He was pulling that door open,
probably planning to block it open and then open the other side of
the double-doored exit. when he turned to see the room light up
orange and heard the screams and crashing clatter of wooden folding
chairs being thrown aside. He apparently managed to block that one
door open, but never made it to the other door...which,
ironically, <i>wasn't</i> bolted...to open it as well. A
human tidal wave slammed him back into the closed door with an
audible 'THUNK' that rang his entire body like a church bell.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Panicked theater goers, some
badly burned by the hydrogen-fueled fire ball and all of them
coughing and hacking on the quickly lowering pall of smoke, surged
through the open half of the doorway in a rolling wave of terror,
several of them tripping as they hit that first step and tumbling
down the stairs, taking other people down with them like a bowling
ball scoring a strike.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Several married couples and parents
with children, along with two sets of tween-girl best friends were
separated by the surging crowd as they ran towards the main exit,
holding hands and dragging each other along...then suddenly their
grip on each other was broken, with one caught in the wave of
bodies surging through the door, the other swallowed up by the crowd
still trying to escape, the surviving half of each duo probably
trying to turn and fight their way back up to find the other, only to
be carried down the steps by the crowd.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
At least fifty or so people made it out
of that door before it happened...someone fell in the doorway,
tripping someone else, then a couple of other people tripped
over <i>them. </i>Then terrified, panic stricken men, women
and children tried to climb over those who had fallen, two and three
people hitting the opening at the same time. It only took seconds
before they became all but inextricably jammed in place,
and <i>still</i> people tried to go over the jam-up until a
pile of struggling, dying people six feet high was stuffed into the
doorway.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
More people were jammed against the
closed half of the exit ...they desperately tried to open the door,
but all they managed to do was trap themselves...the surging crowd
was pressing <i>hard</i> against the inward opening door
even as they desperately tried to pull it open, locking it closed as
effectively as a dead-bolt.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Dozens would die within a foot of
safety, either jammed in the open side of the exit or piled up
against the closed side. Some of the people at the head end of the
mob started dying before the smoke even got to them, crushed either
at the bottom of the jam of bodies in the open side, or against the door on the
closed side to the point they couldn't breathe, their chests
compressed and crushed to the point that their lungs were unable to
expand and draw in air.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Even as dozens died at the auditorium's
main entrance, people nearer the windows groped for the latches, then
heaved them upward, shoving their heads out and gulping the cold
night air. A couple of people climbed awkwardly over the
three-foot-high sills and jumped, Others, almost by sheer luck,
realized that they had opened the fire escape windows on either side
of the building...but there was <i>still</i> a
problem...several of them, in fact.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
First and foremost, the fire escape
windows weren't marked in any way what so ever...no 'exit' signs, no
lights, no nothing, so no one had any idea if they were sitting right
next to a fire escape unless they had the foresight to look before
they sat down, which was (And, sadly, still is) highly unlikely.
The people who threw a window open as they coughed and gagged on
smoke, and looked out and down to see a fire escape landing at that
window, did so out of sheer luck</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One girl looked out to see the fire
escape landing a couple of feet below her and, before she even
thought about alerting anyone else that she had found it, gathered up
her long dress, half climbed, half fell onto the landing, and
scampered down...a fact that haunted her for decades. She spent the
rest of her life wondering how many she could have saved if she had
just shouted 'I've got the fire escape!!' and waited a couple of
seconds for a few people to find her, and it, before she left.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then there was the problem of getting
out of the windows once you finally found them. The long dresses that
were the fashion of the times made climbing over those high window
sills all but impossible to do quickly...women had to pull their
dresses and petticoats up, gather them in a bunch next to their
bellies, and climb up and over, still holding the bunched up
dress/petticoat combination so it wouldn't either snag on something
in the room, or trip them as they went over the sill. This would be a
pain to do in a well lit, well ventilated room with plenty of time on
your hands.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
NOW! Imagine that that it's getting
hotter and hotter with every passing second and you're trying to
perform that same maneuver while terrified and half blinded by smoke
that feels like caustic acid when you breathe it. That same caustic
acid mixes with your tears to burn your eyes as you choke and cough
uncontrollably while everyone around you is loosing their heads and
screaming and a dozen other people are trying to shove you aside, or
just climb slam over you as they try to get out of that same window.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
OH...you're trying to get
your <i>kids</i> out at the same time.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Many women pushed their kids out
of the windows onto the fire escape landings before trying to get out
themselves...this way they could at least be sure their children
were safe. A few of them managed to get their kids and themselves
out, a couple more of the moms got their kids onto the fire escape
before getting trapped by the flames themselves, and, sadly, more
than a few moms died while trying to shield their kids from the
flames.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Guys had an easier time of it getting
out of the windows...comparatively, anyway... than the women, but
several of them still had to worry about getting their kids out.
One dad, groping blindly as smoke filled the room, and fire rolled
across the ceiling towards the open windows, found an open window and
shoved his young son out...by sheer luck it was one of the fire
escape windows and the boy fell onto the landing, got up, and
scampered down the iron steps. His dad would also manage to get out,
running down the fire escape closely behind him.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
All of those folding chairs made
even <i>getting</i> to the fire escapes a challenge as
trapped occupants shoved them aside, into the paths
of <i>other</i> occupants. <i>All</i> of the
wooden chairs had been moved, often violently, by their occupants as
they jumped up and made a mad dash for either door or windows and
many of the chairs had folded, at least partially, as they were
thrown aside. Several of the people who died probably got tangled up
in a partially folded chair, their feet slipping between seat and
back, or getting snared in the legs, causing them to waste time
trying to get <i>un</i>tangled even as they sucked in a lungful
of smoke and collapsed to the floor, first coughing and hacking, then
going unconscious...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Reverend Weber, even though he was
badly burned, tried desperately to restore order and get people
out of the building...all the while trying to corral his <i>own</i> kids
and get them out. He tried to get all of them to go out through the
back stairway door early in the incident...before the kerosene tank
fiasco..., and two of his daughters did just that. His daughter
Martha, along with his son, got separated from their sisters...the
boy made it to the main exit to be passed out over the pile-up...he
scampered down the steps and out to safety, while eleven year old Anna managed to wriggle between legs and around people to squeeze through the crowd until a man lifted her to his shoulders and carried her down the main entrance stairway.. Ten year old
Martha possibly tried to follow her older sis, but she, sadly, became trapped and never made it out.<br />
<br />
No one knows
for sure whether The Reverend Weber finally gave up and bailed out of
a window himself, or if he had to be dragged out, but I have a
definite and unshakable opinion on that. He was a father trying to
save his daughter. Reverend Weber had to be <i>dragged</i> out
of a window, probably only seconds before the room flashed over. And
whoever dragged him out probably had to all but sit on him to keep
him from trying to go back in. Hours later, after the
fire was finally knocked down, Reverend Weber was seen sitting on the
curb nearby, sobbing uncontrollably.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Somehow just over half of the
occupants, counting cast and audience, got out. A dozen or so made it
out of the main entrance before the kerosene from the dropped tank
lit off, intensify the fire, another sixty or seventy made it down
the back stairway, a near equal number made it out of the main exit
before it became blocked, and another fifty or so made it down the
fire escapes, Somewhere between thirty and forty...most on that front
stairway...were rescued by citizens and firefighters. Thing is, when
that kerosene lit off, no one had more that five minutes, at the
most, to get out.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As soon as that kerosene lit up, it
extended to any and all combustible materials near-by, quickly
filling the room with heavy, dark, toxic smoke from the top down even
as flames equally quickly reached the twelve foot ceiling, first
lighting the slender layer of hydrogen off, then rolling across
the ceiling, surging towards the front of the building. It was moving across the ceiling as fast as a man could walk anyway...and then
people started smashing windows out to escape.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fire craves oxygen like a kid craves
candy, and the flames surged towards this new influx of fresh air
with a vengeance. The fire escape windows on both sides of the
building were near the front of the auditorium, so when frantic
occupants threw them open, flames boiled across nearly the full
length of the room, running across the already super-heated ceiling, in minutes.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And of course, the fire escape windows
weren't the <i>only</i> windows open...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Those who'd made it out looked up to
see heavy, dark, 'chunky' smoke boiling out of the open windows,
eddying around the people still hanging out of the windows or trying
to climb out onto the fire escapes. As they watched, flame jetted
through the smoke, retreated for an instant, then rolled from the
windows, lighting the street up like noon-time, the heat baking into
their up-turned faces, forcing them across the street, onto the
sidewalk on the south...Washington Street...side of the building and
out of the ally on the north side.. As they watched, a couple of
other people came out of the <i>third </i>floor windows...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The two or three people on the third
floor were probably there to assist the cast with wardrobe changes,
which meant they were near that rear stairway, so when heavy smoke
started jetting upward from between the floorboards and around the
baseboard trim, quickly filling the floor with first a heavy haze,
then a solid cloud of caustic, toxic smoke, they headed for the rear
stairway.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Thing is, the door had been removed
from the second floor stairwell entrance...this saved the lives of
most of the cast but it also provided an unobstructed vertical flue
between the second and third floors. By the time that those two or
three people opened the door to the stairwell it was already packed
full of heat and heavy smoke, which instantly boiled into the third
floor with the pressure and velocity of smoke blowing from the stack
of a big steam locomotive pulling a freight up a steep grade, joining
the smoke rolling up through the floor and baseboards as it did so.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They quickly backed away from the
stairwell, very probably leaving the door open when they did. All
that heavy smoke was quickly followed by flames, which were
roaring up the stairwell to the third floor like the oft-referenced flames from a blast furnace. Flames exploded out of the doorway,
rolling across the ceiling and trapping anyone left on the third
floor. The front stairway didn't extend to the third floor, but even
if it <i>had, </i>they probably couldn't have made it
through the heavy smoke that quickly filled the third floor.
They <i>might</i> be able to get down the fire escape...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Except that they probably couldn't even
make it to the fire escapes, and even if they did, they likely
couldn't <i>find</i> them, and even if they <i>found </i> them,
the fire escapes would have been death traps.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
First, like the second floor fire
escape windows, those on the third floor were unmarked, so
even <i>finding</i> them was a problem...if they could
even <i>get</i> to them. There were actually <i>three</i> fire
escapes from the third floor, but all three fire escape windows
were all the way at the front of the building, meaning that the third
floor occupants would <i>still</i> have to fight their way
through blinding, caustic smoke for the entire nearly eighty foot
length of the third floor to even try to find them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i>And even if they could find
the third floor fire escape windows, many of the windows on
the <i>second</i> floor floor were already open, so first
heavy smoke, then flames were rolling out of the windows, turning the
fire escape into a death trap as they rolled up through the open
grill work of both the third floor fire escape landing and the
fire escape itself.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And they had yet <i>another</i> problem
that very quickly made reaching, finding, and using the fire escapes
a trio of a moot points...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Even as those who'd made it out
watched, they heard the tinkling of breaking glass over the rumble of
flames as heat popped more second floor window. Shards of glass fell
to the sidewalk looking like sparklers as they tumbled, followed by
flames boiling out of the now shattered window and rolling up the
wall. The problem was, not all of the breaking glass was coming from
the second floor windows.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The fire rolling out of the second
floor windows was boiling up across the third floor windows, and it
didn't take but a minute or so for the heat to pop a couple of them,
allowing flames to roll <i>in </i>through the windows, and
play across the third floor ceiling, joining up with the fire blowing out of the rear stairway as they rolled towards the center of the room.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Our terrified third floor occupants managed to make it to a window at the rear of the building and, coughing and
hacking from the smoke quickly filling the floor, bathed in sweat
from the oven-like and still rising heat, they shoved it open, to see
flames rolling out of over half of the second floor windows. They had
one choice. They jumped.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Even as those who'd made it out watched
this horrible scene, they heard the shrill and insistent clanging of
the bell at the Keystone Fire Company, only three blocks away,
followed by the bell at Friendship Hook and Ladder (Which also had an
engine and hose wagon), only a few blocks up South Reading Ave from
Keystone.<br />
<br />
A ten year old boy had managed to snake his way through the
crowd and reach the main exit before it became panic-blocked. He
bolted down the steps and ran home, mute with terror, barely able to
tell his dad what was wrong. His dad told him to run to Keystone's
firehouse (Which doubled as the town hall) to turn in the alarm, a
run he made in record time. And even as he ran towards Keystone's
firehouse as fast as his ten-year-old legs could carry him, the
operator at the local telephone exchange was connecting a couple of
callers to Keystones phone number. It's debatable which or who
actually turned in the alarm first...remember this was before there was a phone in every house and building so whoever called it in first had to find a phone. Boyertown likely didn't have a telegraph alarm system, so there was no corner alarm box to pull. That ten year old frantically pounding on the door at Keystone's station could very well have been the first report of the fire. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
...But whoever it was, the bells
started clanging into the night about fifteen or so minutes after the
fire started. At least help was on the way. So they thought...hard as it was to believe, things
were about to get worse.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It was pushing 9:30 PM when the fire
started, so many of Boyertown's residents had either called it a
night or were getting ready to do so when those first heart-stopping
'GONG!!'s of Keystone and Friendship's fire bells peeled into the
cold night.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For nearly three centuries volunteer
firefighters have laid their clothes out at night so they could dress
and be out of the house <i>fast</i>, and with it being the
middle of a Pennsylvania January, I can just about guarantee that
these guys had their clothing already staged in layers, long
underwear already inside heavy shirts and trousers. By the time the
bell peeled for the second or third time, a score or more wives had
been awakened as covers were thrown aside and their husbands' feet
thudded to the floor. All over Boyertown, volunteer firefighters
fielded the inevitable 'Dad, where is it?!? questions from kids as
they yanked clothes and shoes on and headed for the front door,
hearing 'Be careful, honey' from wives as they said 'I don't know
yet' to those same kids.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The night's cold hit them like a punch
as they bailed out of front doors and headed for their respective
fire houses at a dead run. Most of the members of both fire companies
lived fairly near the station, so this was the quickest way to
respond. A glance towards down town as they ran told them that this
was going to be a <i>long</i> night. They didn't know the
half of it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are calls that you just <i>know</i> are
going to be bad even before you get to the station and this was one
of them. The fire had a major head start on them. By the time Keystone and Friendship's
volunteers were heading for the stations, the second floor of the
Rhoads building was puking heavy fire and smoke, fire was roaring up
the rear stairwell and into the <i>third</i> floor, and
terrified screams were fighting a macabre battle of the bands with
the fire bells.<br />
<br />
A couple of the firefighters who had to pass the fire scene to get to their stations stopped at the scene as
a panicked crowd surrounded them, screaming that there were people
trapped in the building. Several of them, accompanied by a few
townspeople, pounded up the main stairway to the second floor
landing, where they ran up on a macabre, horrible sight.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A dozen or more people (Some
sources say as many as thirty) were scattered on the stairway,
injured from tumbling down the steps. These first arriving
firefighters, helped by some citizens, first pulled these people out
of the building, then bounded up the steps, horrified as they saw
smoke pushing from around the bodies stacked in the doorway. They
began pulling people off of the top of the stack and passing them
down the steps, getting another maybe half a dozen people out that way,
while another group worked on the closed door.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They somehow got it partially open
(Some sources say they took it off of the hinges) and as they
did so a wave of people (Most probably either dead or near death)
tumbled down the steps, limbs and heads bobbling in the loose,
uncontrolled bobbling of unconsciousness. The firefighters and
citizens dragged these last rescues down the steps even as flames
rolled through the open door and chased them back down. They'd have
to wait until the rigs got there before they could do anything else.
Most of the people who'd been in the stairwell would live, and a
couple of the people who they pulled from the doorway would survive,
but most of those people were either already dead when they tumbled
out of the door, or would die before medical help could reach them.<br />
<br />
At least one or two other rescues were made, probably from fire escape windows...one young boy who had reentered the building to search for his siblings was seen at a window and pulled out by a fire fighter, and one Keystone member...Charles Mayer...entered the second floor (Again, probably over a fire escape) when he learned that his wife and daughter were in the building.<br />
<br />
By the time he climbed <i>in</i> the fire escape window, the second floor was rolling, with fire blowing out of well over half of the windows, and it boggles my mind that he managed to get inside and make a search without modern protective gear and breathing apparatus, but he did so, and found his wife fairly quickly. He managed to get her to the fire escape window and out (Possibly rescuing a couple of other people wile he was at it). The he headed back inside to try and find his 18 year old daughter, Gwendolyn (Probably 'Gwen' to friends and family). He <i>had </i>to have been crawling on the floor, breathing that two or three inches of good air that hugs the floor in a building fire as he searched...the heat would have made every summer day at the beach seem like mid-winter, and his clothes were likely charring on his body when he found Gwen...<br />
<br />
...He didn't make it out. He would be found holding Gwendolyn in his arms. Charles Mayer would be one of two Line of Duty deaths resulting from the fire.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As the drama at the scene was playing out, firefighters ran up to the two stations, making ready to roll. Keystone's station was only about three
blocks or so east of the fire, on South Reading Ave, near it's
intersection with Philadelphia Ave. They could see the orange-tinted column of smoke from the fire boiling up over the roofs of the buildings across the street, pumping up their adrenaline and kicking the sense of urgency off of the charts, even as one of the members ran inside, and pushed the bay
doors open. They knew they had a major disaster on their hands, and
more importantly, they <i>absolutely</i> knew that
they needed to get to the scene and get water on the fire if there
was any hope of saving any of the people still trapped on the second
floor.<br />
<br />
They could look down Philadelphia Ave and see the Rhoads Building in full bloom, lighting the street and the horrified crowd milling around in front of the building up like noon-time, could possibly hear the crowd screaming, pushing their desperation to get on scene and get water flowing to near panic levels. It was this rush to get on the street and to the scene that
caused someone to make what ended up being a bad, <i>bad </i>decision<i>.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i>Keystone had both a small
Silsby steamer and a hose wagon, both horse drawn, and because
they were volunteers, the horses were kept at a nearby livery stable instead of being stabled in
the building as they would be in a salaried station. This meant that the livery stable had to
be opened to get the horses. The stable's owner was likely either a member of Keystone,
or responded to the stable when the bells hit as if he was a
member...if not, the fire company may have had a key, but whichever
it may have been, it <i>still</i> meant a delay in getting
the rigs on the street.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<center>
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<colgroup><col width="665"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr>
<td width="665"><div align="CENTER">
<a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeIHjV-2tQgoj_b1iHRgfFi9NoLf3FBaNSFq4v_J8Zgm8jZeFaeKoET2nteflEd5EgOvRxr0aoSrXhmmSPU8l3yWuzu7ffwawrPmEQmnWdrn0lOEgtKMU6b5lroKsp_sfogjEJG4z7McM/s1600/1877+Silsby.png"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="446" name="graphics8" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeIHjV-2tQgoj_b1iHRgfFi9NoLf3FBaNSFq4v_J8Zgm8jZeFaeKoET2nteflEd5EgOvRxr0aoSrXhmmSPU8l3yWuzu7ffwawrPmEQmnWdrn0lOEgtKMU6b5lroKsp_sfogjEJG4z7McM/s640/1877+Silsby.png" width="640" /></a></div>
</td>
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<td width="665"><div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">A
restored 1877 Silsby steam pumper of the type that both Keystone
and Friendship likely ran. These rigs were far smaller than the
big steamers that large cities ran, with a capacity of somewhere
between 350-500 GPM. You can estimate a rig's capacity by
counting discharges...This rig only has one discharge on each
side (You can see one of them beneath the seat) so 500 GPM is the
absolute most it can supply. (You can still use this method to
figure out an engine's pump capacity today, BTW. Count the 2
1/2 inch discharges and multiply by 250). The larger hose connections beneath the gong are the intakes.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Though
these smaller rigs were designed to be horse-drawn they were
light enough ...barely...to be hand drawn by a large enough
crew. Keystone's guys hand-pulled their hose wagon
that night, resulting in a fatal accident, but I can just about
bet that they waited until they had horses for the steamer. Why?
If the relatively light weight hose wagon got away from it's
crew, the heavier steamer...even the small steamers weighed in at
around 5,000 pounds...would have absolutely done so as well.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjykAXbGUf8gOCZBW8ndhOKxdtjg0xPXwZjNr-Rfq-xibZRxM7idwm1yjat2_U9i6v5htNIDKsJRW4moyFdmi2hG1mZ1Pir1yKkLDsr9zsO6ROZ2tK0k9TwC0Dhgr0THH23DdOC4s5Mqug/s1600/PSM_V47_D624_Hose_wagon.jpg"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="300" name="graphics9" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjykAXbGUf8gOCZBW8ndhOKxdtjg0xPXwZjNr-Rfq-xibZRxM7idwm1yjat2_U9i6v5htNIDKsJRW4moyFdmi2hG1mZ1Pir1yKkLDsr9zsO6ROZ2tK0k9TwC0Dhgr0THH23DdOC4s5Mqug/s640/PSM_V47_D624_Hose_wagon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
</td>
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<td width="665"><div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">A
small horse drawn hose wagon of the type often run by volunteer
fire companies. Like the smaller steamers, it <i>could</i> be
hand drawn if need be, but loaded with 1000 feet or so of hose,
nozzles, and other fire fighting tools, they could tip the scale
at around two tons...1000 feet of the double-jacketed 2 1/2 inch
hose with brass couplings used back then (And for much of the
20th century) weighed around 1400 pounds all by itself.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
pictured rig could well have been a volunteer rig, BTW...note the
helmets carried on the rig. Many volunteer fire
companies.,..especially in the northeastern U.S....had their
members' gear hung on racks on the side of the rig until well
into the 20th Century. That way members could respond directly to
the fire scene and grab their gear off of the rig rather than
responding to the station.</span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There is a cautionary concept in firefighting that's summed up in an age-old rhyme...'<i>Scream and shout, run about, throw your head in the
corner and keep on cranking the throttle out</i>'. What this ancient rhyme describes is a bunch of firefighters acting without thinking the action through. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is
probably <i>exactly</i> what happened when someone came up
with 'Get a crew to drag (Hand-pull) the 'wagon to the fire, we'll
follow with the engine when we get the horses'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In <i>concept, </i>it should
have worked...the fire wasn't but three blocks away, and they'd be
going slightly down-grade heading for the fire, making it easier to
hand pull the heavy hose wagon. The 'wagon could get to the scene,
and 'lay in' from a hydrant, with the crew pulling an additional line
or two, and spinning nozzles on so all they'd have to do when the
steamer rolled up was connect to the hydrant and screw the hand lines
onto discharges...a slightly more complicated version of what they
would have done anyway, had wagon and steamer arrived together.<br />
<br />
A crew quickly formed up, grabbed
the heavy tongue that the horses would have normally been hitched to,
and dragged the rig out of the station, swinging out onto South
Reading, running the short block to Philadelphia Ave, then hanging a
right onto Philadelphia, with a firefighter named John Graver among
those providing the motive power. He was particularly anxious to get
to the scene...his sister Lottie was in the audience. (She made it to a window and jumped, but sadly, she would die from injures caused by the fall from the second floor.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Hand-pulling the rigs to near-by calls
wasn't <i>that</i> unusual...if the call was close to the
station, they could often pull the rigs to the scene and get water on
the fire in the time it would have taken to get the horses from the
livery stable, get them hitched up, and respond to the scene. But
they overlooked one thing, and it was a <i>biggie. </i>Philadelphia
Ave had just recently been paved, and this was the first call they
had gotten since that happened, so they weren't used to hand-pulling
the rig on pavement rather than dirt. Nor had they called a training
night and made a quick turn up Philadelphia ave and back to see the
difference between pulling on dirt and on pavement. And because of this oversight, the downgrade that should have helped them, instead beat them</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They started down the hill,
towards the fire and probably hadn't made it ten yards before the
wagon began getting away from them on the hill. The hose wagon
began pushing it's crew of firefighters rather than them pulling it
and when they tried to back-step in order to slow it, their heels
just dragged on the pavement instead of digging in as they would have
on dirt. One by one they lost their grip as the hose wagon gained
speed, spinning away from it to avoid being crushed under the wheels.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
John Graver didn't push away quickly
enough when his feet went out from under him. Or maybe he was too
close to the wagon itself when the tongue slipped from his grip, but
whatever happened he knew he was in deep trouble. He probably
tried to jog to the left, away from the now out of control hose
wagon, only to see the heavy vehicle tracking to the left as well,
almost as if it was following him. John looked back at the pursuing
rig and, ran headlong into a tree in front of 49 East Philadelphia
Ave, letting out an agonized cry as the 'wagon slammed <i>hard</i> into
that same tree, smashing a wheel into kindling even as it crushed him
between the front of the rig and the trunk of the tree.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">A
Google Street View pic of the building at 49 East Philadelphia
Ave in Boyertown (Corner of E.Philadelphia and Chestnut), which
was the home of Dr Thomas J.B. Rhoads, who owned the Rhoads
Building, in 1908. Keystone firefighter John Graver was killed
when Keystone's hose cart got away from the crew hand-pulling it
and crushed him between the rig and a tree in front of this
house, also damaging the hose cart beyond use (The tree was
likely where the small tree on the left side of the frame is
today).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">This
accident not only resulted in Graver's death, it also put
Keystone's hose wagon out of service, delaying getting water in
the fire until Friendship's steamer and wagon could arrive on
scene. </span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
His fellow firefighters, horrified, ran
over and grabbed the tongue or the front and corners of the box, and
shoved back desperately, trying to shove the rig away from the tree
so they could get Graver out. A couple of other guys trotted towards
the front door of the house they had crashed in front of, 49 East
Philadelphia Ave, at the corner of Chestnut and East Philadelphia.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm going to bet that the steamer was
enroute by then, and if it was, when the rig's driver saw the wagon's
crew trying to move the wrecked hose wagon, with Graver pinned
between wagon and tree, he almost broke the reins hauling the
team to a stop. He was stopped just long enough to be told 'Go, go,
we've got this...!', by one of the wagon firefighters, who then
pointed at the house just behind the tree that the hose wagon was now
partially wrapped around...'That's Dr Rhoads' house!'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Huh?!?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In one of those ironic twists that
seems like it should be straight out of a novel or movie, 49 East
Philadelphia was the home of Dr Thomas Rhoads...the owner of the
burning building, who was already more than aware that his building
was on fire. Worse, his cousin Mahelia Grimm had taken his seven year
old grandson, who lived with he and his wife, to the play (Both would
make it out unharmed), so I can almost bet that Dr Rhoads was
just about heading out the door to go to the scene himself when he
heard either the hose wagon slamming into the tree or frantic and
desperate knocking at his door.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He opened the door to see several
frantic Keystone firefighters who started talking at once to tell him
of the accident and Graver's injuries. Behind them he could see
several other firefighters shoving the wrecked wagon away from he
tree as a few others eased the injured man from between the rig and
the trunk. Two of the rescuers quickly supported Graver between them, and started
walking him towards the door. Graver, who was reportedly conscious
throughout his ordeal, was grimacing in pain.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That <i>had</i> to one of the
most horrible 'Torn between two decisions' moments anyone's ever
experienced. On one hand, Dr Rhoads wanted to go to the
scene...already lighting the area up like daylight just two blocks
away...to see to his grandson and cousin, on the other he had a
gravely injured man right <i>there.</i> He chose to try and
save the injured man.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There wasn't any detail about Thomas
Graver's injuries, but the runaway wagon likely crushed his chest,
and very possibly caused catastrophic abdominal injuries as well when
it slammed into the tree with him in between tree and rig. This would
have caused major life-threatening trauma that would have required
immediate surgery if it had occurred <i>today. </i>In a
small town 111 years ago, miles from the nearest hospital, it
was all but a lost cause.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Probably casting a last quick
glance at the raging fire a few hundred feet away as he did so and
saying another prayer for his grandson and cousin while he was at it,
Dr Rhoads and several of the firefighters gingerly carried Graver
inside his house, to his office, where he attempted to save him.
Tragically, Thomas Graver...who reportedly was conscious and alert
all through this, and who told the rest of his crew that he was fine,
and to leave him and go to the scene...would die within two hours, to become the second Line of Duty Death of the night.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Already reeling from the loss of
their fellow firefighter and close comrade, they were also facing a
major setback in the not-yet-started fight to control the fire...they
no longer had any way to fight fire. True, the steamer was on scene,
but the loss of their hose wagon was a crushing blow, because those
classic steam-powered fire engines were single purpose beasts...they
carried no hose other that the hard suction hose used to connect to
hydrants or draft from cisterns or lakes, no ladders or other
tools...all of that was carried by either the 'Wagon' or a ladder
rig, so while the steamer's crew could take a hydrant and get it's
water supply established, that's <i>all </i>they could do.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Just because they couldn't put water on
the fire, however didn't mean they stood around with their hands in
their pockets.While several firefighters may have worked on getting a
line from the wrecked wagon to the scene (See below) another
group, led by their Chief, Ephraim Gehris, ran into the front
entrance and up the stairway to the auditorium, joining in the rescue
effort in the front stairwell, possibly, as noted above, rescuing as
many as thirty people before the fire chased them back out to the
street.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While several of the period news
articles I read about the fire stated that they had water on the fire
'five minutes after the alarm was turned in' (Keep in mind that this
could have been as many as fifteen, twenty or even more minutes after
the fire started), I have a sneaking suspicion that it
took <i>considerably</i> longer to get water flowing. Five minutes from the time
of alarm to water on the fire would have been good time <i>today, </i>using
technology that either didn't exist at all, or was barely taking hold
in 1908. It just plain long wouldn't have happened 111 years ago,
even if everything had gone <i>right.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i> </i>It would
have taken Keystone more than five minutes to get a large enough crew
up for their doomed attempt to hand pull the hose wagon, and get
horses from the livery stable for the steamer. Ditto Friendship
getting horses for their rigs. It was probably closer to fifteen
minutes after the bells started ringing before Keystone's guys ran up,
and another five or so, at least, before Friendship's rigs rolled in,
then another five minutes...or more...to get a line in service. With all the obstacles Keystone's crew had facing them, it
could well have been closer to twenty or twenty five minutes after
the first toll of the bell before they actually had 'Water on the
fire'.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lets look at the struggle to get water
on the fire in a little bit more detail. Part of me says that the
members of Keystone's crew who weren't in the stairwell making
rescues dragged hose off of the wrecked hose wagon and hand-jacked it
to the scene, but that would have been a back-breaking and time
consuming task. A fifty foot section of double jacketed 2 1/2 inch
hose with brass couplings weighs over 70 pounds, so they would have
had to pull the line off of the wagon, and have at least one man per
section to hand-jack it the two blocks to the scene, <i>then</i> they
would have had to 'reverse' it...the coupling on the end of the hose
load nearest the fire would be a female coupling, which would screw into the male
connection on the engine's discharge just fine...but the male hose
connection that the nozzle was screwed onto was back towards the
wrecked rig, a block or more away from the scene. They'd have to cut
the stretched out line at a coupling near the wrecked wagon, drag it (And of course, the
rest of the line connected to the steamer) to the scene, <i>then </i>screw
a nozzle on and start fighting fire.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This would have taken several minutes
to accomplish on a warm drill night in mid spring. On a frigid winter
night after loosing a member, with a major fire burning uncontrolled
and dozens of frantic citizens getting underfoot as they asked about
their relatives and friends, it would have been pushing impossible.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Once Friendship's rigs passed
them, they likely abandoned that effort, if they had indeed actually
started it, and ran for the scene to help Friendships crew get set
up. If the sources I found were accurate...and that could well be
a <i>big</i> 'if'...Friendship rolled in only a few minutes
behind Keystone's steamer. They were also stationed on South Reading
Ave, only a few blocks further down than Keystone, so they had to
pass Keystone's wrecked hose wagon to get to the scene, which would
have been the first sign that things at the fire scene were going
south, fast.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The crew of Friendship's hose
wagon likely wrapped the same hydrant that Keystone's steamer
was already on with stream up, then 'laid in' ...pulling forward,
which would drag the flat-packed hose off of the rear of the wagon,
leaving a trail of hose leading from the hydrant to the fire.
Keystone's steamer, with steam up, and already connected to the
hydrant, was ready to rock and roll, so all they had to do was
connect the end of the hose line to a discharge. Once the wagon
reached the Rhoads building, a combined crew from both companies probably started scrambling, pulling extra line off to give them some
maneuverability, then screwing a nozzle on to their end and calling
for the steamer's engineer to 'Charge The Line!'. Then the engineer
opened both the throttle and the discharge, sending them water
(Likely with a loudly shouted 'Water comin'!!!!' that was also passed
up the line.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As the crew on the nozzle started
fighting fire, the crew of Friendship's wagon then went hunting for a
hydrant for their own steamer, probably catching one on the other
side of the fire building, turning the wagon around, wrapping the
hydrant, and again laying a line to the fire, while their steamer
took the hydrant, and they quickly got a second line in service.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course, things very likely didn't go
as smoothly as that description makes it sound, and Friendship's guys
had a pretty jarring heads-up that things weren't going well when
they saw Keystone's wrecked hose wagon (And possibly Keystones guys
frantically pulling hose off of it) then rolled in to find Keystone's
steamer on a hydrant, with no line connected and no one fighting
fire. When they realized that they had to get lines in service for
both steamers, it inevitably caused a few minutes of confusion that
they could ill afford, this on top of having to deal with the
confusion caused by hundreds of citizens milling around the scene, begging for them to try and rescue their loved ones. All of this confusion inevitably lost them several minutes getting water on the
fire.. In the long run, of course, no matter <i>how</i> long it took them to get water flowing, it didn't change the ultimate outcome any
at all, for either the victims or the building.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
By the time Friendship rolled in,
everyone who was going to make it out, <i>had </i>made it
out, and they still had a large, three story building with the top
two floors well involved, along with a <i>major</i> exposure
problem...a row of three story brick row houses on Washington Street,
attached to the rear of the building (The 'Charlie Side' in modern
fire service speak) in imminent danger of becoming involved as well. Across the ally, on the north side of the building, you had the wood frame Mansion House Hotel. With the limited manpower and equipment they had, Boyertown's guys
were behind the eight ball, in a big way, even <i>without</i> the
massive number of injuries and fatalities.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Within a few minutes after Friendship
got on scene, both Keystone's and Friendship's steamers were belting
their own smoke columns into the night sky as they pumped the two or
three two and a half inch hand lines they had in service, the guys on
the nozzles directing the 250 gallon-per-minute streams into the
flame-spewing maws that used to be windows, trying not to think about
what was lying on the other <i>side</i> of the windows and
knowing they were going to loose the whole block.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There was absolutely no way they were
going to put the fire out, or stop it from taking the houses with the
resources they had on scene, and they likely knew it. They may not
have known the technical reasons they weren't going to put the fire
out, or the science behind those reasons, but they knew they were
going to loose the building and the block.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There is <i>another</i> modern
fire service concept known as '<i>If your GPMs don't match or exceed
your BTUs, you're S.O.L. </i>All it means is, if you're not
flowing enough water to absorb all of the heat produced by the
flames, you're not going to extinguish the fire...it'll just keep
growing and spreading. Keystone's and Friendship's rigs were small
steamers...small enough to hand-pull, meaning they were, at most, 3rd
or 4th size Silsbys, with capacities of from 350-500 or so GPM, and
each 2 1/2 inch hose line would flow 250 GPM, which means that once
they finally got water flowing, the two or three lines they had in
service were flowing...at the most...around 750 GPM on a fire that
would've required at least two or three times that to contain. All
they were doing was annoying the fire a bit. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They were hard pressed keeping the fire
from rolling merrily up both Washington Street and Philadelphia Ave,
much less knocking it down. And these weren't the only problems they
had...not by a long shot.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not only were they dealing with a
catastrophic loss of life, along with a major building fire that was
threatening to 'Walk the dog' on them, and take a couple of blocks of
homes with it, they also had dozens of injured people, with both
burns and fractures and other trauma from jumping, and hundreds of
horrified townspeople showing up looking for missing relatives and
friends. Remember, Boyertown was (and still is) a small, close-knit
town, so everyone in town was either related to or knew someone who
had attended the play.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The firefighters on scene desperately needed <i>someone</i> to
both acquire and organize more resources, and thankfully the person
who ended up having that herculean task dropped in his lap was just
the man for the job.The two fire companies weren't the only ones who
responded to the scene when the fire bells began
tolling...Veterinarian Daniel Kohler headed for the scene at a dead
run, not in his capacity as a vet, but in his capacity as father. His
eleven year old son Lawrence had been at the play, and thankfully had
made it out of the building early in the fire...Kohler all but ran
into him when he got to the scene.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
After making absolutely sure his son
was OK, Kohler went to work in his other official capacity, that of
town Burgess, which was approximately the same as a Mayor in
Pennsylvania Dutch communities. In many ways it was actually a
ceremonial position...leading parades and giving speeches when
appropriate were his primary duties...but he was <i>still</i> the
head of the town government. He took one look at the building, which
was by then puking fire from just about every second floor window and
extending into the third floor, and at the crowd that was well on
it's way to filling the streets surrounding the fire from sidewalk to
sidewalk, and knew they would need help, and lots of it. He'd
make several important phone calls with-in the next few minutes, and the first two were to Pottstown and Reading to get help on the way for Boyertown's firefighters.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I don't know if he found Keystone's
Chief Gehris, who was probably in charge of the fire, or if the chief
found him, but at about 9:45 Kohler called for help, in the form of
both rigs and manpower, from both Reading, sixteen or so miles to the
east, and Pottstown, six miles to the south, just across the county
line in Montgomery County. Unfortunately, that help wouldn't get to the scene immediately, or even particularly quickly,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Today</i>, the initial alarm for a
commercial structure fire at Philadelphia and Washington Avenues in Boyertown
would have house sirens wailing or diaphones blasting at multiple
stations in Berks County...the county now boasts over sixty fire
companies, and several of them would be dispatched on the first alarm, with the first
units rolling in to the scene just minutes after tones tweeted over fire
radios. If those initial companies needed help, a quick <i>'Dispatch,
give me a second (Or greater) alarm!'</i> would have more Berks
County units rolling in to the scene. The entire first <i>and</i> second alarm assignments would be on scene fighting fire in less time than it took Keystone and Friendship to get the first stream flowing the night of the Opera House fire.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But things were far different 111 years
ago. Of course, there weren't anywhere near as many fire companies back then, but the number of fire companies wasn't the issue. The problem was getting to an incident further away than their own communities...or getting help <i>into</i> their own communities if they needed it. Fire apparatus from that era just wasn't able to get from one town to the other quickly. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
First, while gasoline powered, motorized fire apparatus was
becoming more and more accepted by the fire service by 1908, they
hadn't appeared in either Reading or Pottstown (Or any of the rest of
Berks County) yet. Reading wouldn't get their first motorized
rig until 1911, Pottstown's first gas-powered rig wouldn't be on the
street until 1915, and motorized rigs wouldn't come come to Keystone
or Friendship until about 1920. The lack of motorized rigs makes the
less than awesome road system that existed back in 1908 a moot point.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Oh, they <i>could</i> get rigs from one town to the other if the need arose, but they wouldn't do it quickly. Back then, Mutual Aid
responses involved a far more time consuming, complicated process than the quick run to a neighboring jurisdiction on good roads with sirens screaming that we take for granted today. While the firefighters of 1908 may not have had good <i>roads</i> in 1908, but they <i>did</i> have railroads.<br />
<br />
Back in the horse-drawn
era, rigs, horses, and personnel were transported by train when they
responded to another city on mutual aid. I'm making a big assumption
here, but I have a sneaking suspicion that many cities kept a special
train at a rail yard consisting of a given number of flat cars,
livestock cars, and coaches, ready to be loaded if mutual aid was
requested... they almost <i>had</i> to have done this.
Otherwise scrambling to find the needed rolling stock and get it all
on one siding, coupled together and ready to load would make an
already time-consuming task almost impossible. And trust me on this,
getting apparatus and crews dispatched to the rail yard and loaded
and getting the train on the way to the city requesting aid was very likely a
logistics nightmare.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They wouldn't have to have a mile
long train ready, obviously...a couple of flat cars, a cattle car,
and a couple of coaches. Reading had 14 engine companies, and
Pottstown four, so neither would be sending more than two companies,
Pottstown likely only one. (Both, in fact, sent a single engine
company, though Reading's got there late in the fire.) But just
getting <i>those </i>on the way...well, lets take a look.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A decision had to be made as to how
many companies would respond, as well as selecting which specific
companies would go. On top of that, Pottstown's four fire companies
and Reading's fourteen companies were all primarily volunteer with
paid drivers 111 years back. Both cities sent a single engine and
crew, so getting crews together added a good bit <i>more</i> time
to the response.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They were probably dispatched by
telephone. then whatever alerting system was used to call up the
volunteers had to be activated, and the crews had to respond to the
station, hitch up the horses and head for the rail yards. While all
of this was going on, the railroad was scrounging up a locomotive and
crew.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The apparatus had to be loaded (Likely
by <i>hand</i>...and Pottstown and Reading likely had the
larger...second or even first size...steamers, which weighed in at
upwards of 3-5 tons apiece. Pushing one of those rigs up a ramp onto a flatcar
would have been a backbreaking job requiring a <i>slew</i> of
men). While the steamers and hose wagons were being loaded on the
flatcars, the horses would be loaded onto a 'cattle car' (Their
drivers would have possibly ridden the cattle car with them to keep
them calm) and the crew would get settled in a coach. The locomotive
(Which hopefully, already had steam up) was backed in, coupled to the
train, and headed towards the requesting city. If
there <i>wasn't </i>already a locomotive available with
steam up, add another hour or so to the response time (This could
well be why Reading's crews, who didn't get on scene until the fire
was under control, were so late arriving in Boyertown.).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course the railroad had to add the
train to the schedule (Numbering it as an 'Extra' train), station
masters and dispatchers had to be notified, and other 'T's crossed
and 'i's dotted. Then there was the time enroute, and once they
arrived the rigs and horses had to be unloaded. It could easily be an
hour or more after the request before the train hauling the rigs and
manpower was enroute, another half hour or so to unload when they
arrived, <i>plus</i> travel time, so it could be a couple
of hours...or more... before a mutual aid company was flowing water
at the scene.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Both departments did have <i>one</i> thing
going <i>for </i>them...Reading was a railroad town,
with a railroad actually <i>named </i> after it, and
Pottstown was a mill town, with lots of rail activity, and lots of
sidings so <i>both </i>cities likely had the already made
up consist ready for loading and coupling to a locomotive...this
being said, you'd think Reading would be more in the ball game than
Pottstown, but Pottstown was also ten miles closer than Reading...at
any rate, Pottstown's crews were ready to roll by 11:30 PM or so...a
shade under two hours after they were called...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Once the engineer was given the
'Highball' signal, thought, the trips weren't all that long. Steam
locomotives had reached a pretty high level of sophistication by
1908, and these would be light-weight trains, likely consisting of a
pair of coaches, a single flatcar, carrying both steamer and hose
wagon, and a single cattle car for the horses. Even a yard switcher
would be able to haul the train at a good clip, especially if it was
a larger switcher such as an 0-6-0 (Six big driving wheels with no unpowered 'bogie' trucks ahead of or behind them). Whatever the motive power on the
train's head ends was, it was likely a comparatively fast, short trip
once they were loaded and rolling.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Once they eased out of the congestion
of the yard, onto the main line, the engineer would have eased the
throttle open wide. I can only imagine what that ride was like for
the fire-fighters from Pottstown's Goodwill Fire Company, which was
the company that responded, knowing they were on the way to a major
fire as the train hurtled towards Boyertown. The locomotive drive
wheel connecting rods would have been moving so fast that they were just blurs,
exhaust thundering, whistle screeching the classic
long-long-short-long warning as they approached crossings. I can just
about bet that all eyes were on the windows as they closed in on
Boyertown, someone very likely letting go with a heart-felt 'Holy
s***, it's <i>gettin'</i> it!!' when they caught sight of
what looked like the sun coming up hours too early.. There's a good
bet, however, that they <i>didn't</i> know the full extent
of the disaster until they rolled in to Boyertown.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We'll take a look at their arrival on
scene a few paragraphs down, but first...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
...Kohler had a migraine headache's
worth of <i>other</i> problems to deal with as well, and
thankfully they were taken care of much more efficiently than the
task of getting mutual aid rigs and fire fighters to the scene would
be. Between burns and injuries caused by jumping and being
trampled, many of the people who had escaped were seriously injured,
and they were roaming around a chaotic, dynamic fire scene. Three of
Boyertown's doctors...Drs. John Borneman, Charles Dotterer, and Henry
Ludwig...responded to the scene early on, and were quickly
overwhelmed by both the number of serious injuries and the worried
relatives of play-goers who were showing up in droves, begging for
word of their loved ones.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Kohler made a call for doctors and
nurses, along with a call for State Police back-up from the State
Police barracks in Reading, at the same time he made the call for
extra fire apparatus and manpower, and they would arrive well before
the steamers and firefighters from Pottstown, because getting the
medical and law enforcement back-up to Boyertown would be a much less
daunting problem than transporting the mutual aid fire fighters and
equipment would be.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span>An
electric commuter railway...aka Trolley line...ran from Reading to
Boyertown, so when calls went to hospitals. as well as to physicians
private homes, a dozen doctors and five nurses eagerly answered the
call. They quickly gathered equipment and probably met up at a
designated trolley stop, where a special car was likely already
waiting. A contingent of seven State Police officers, dispatched from
the Reading barracks, was likely already on board, ready to roll,
when the medical personnel arrived at the designated stop.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Probably within a half hour after the
call for State Police and medical help went out, a trolley was
rocking through the countryside, heading for Boyertown. I can only
imagine the reactions from the troopers, MDs and nurses when they
spotted the glow lighting up the sky in the direction of Boyertown,
which was likely visible for <i>miles</i> before they
arrived.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The State Troopers were requested to
handle the hundreds of horrified relatives and friends of people
who had attended the play, who, as noted above, started showing up
only minutes into the fire as news of the catastrophe spread through
the town like, well, <i>wildfire. </i>They weren't just
impeding the three doctors who were frantically trying to get ahead
of the injuries caused by the fire<i>...</i>before the
firefighters, who were already dealing with a wrecked piece of
apparatus, a gravely injured firefighter, and a major fire with a
massive loss of life, even got water on the fire, they had citizens
surrounding them, begging for news of loved ones and friends.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Some likely even pleaded with the guys
to try to get inside and search for their missing loved ones, but one
glance at the building made it obvious that this was impossible. Not
only was fire showing from every second floor window as well as a few
third floor windows by the time Kohler made the call for mutual aid,
it was also visible in the middle front windows...the stairwell
windows...on the second floor. Not only was getting inside to make a
search impossible, at this point, it was pointless...there was no way
anyone still in the building was alive.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There had been several joyful reunions
as people who made it out in time were located by their relatives,
but there were just as many, if not more, people darting around
frantically, searching for missing relatives and
friends...unfortunately most wouldn't learn their loved ones' fates
until the building could be entered, and bodies removed and
identified. Clinging to what was rapidly becoming false hope, they
would crowd around the rigs and firefighters, unintentionally
impeding efforts to control the fire, until the State Troopers rolled
in from Reading. Sadly, none of them would get good news.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The trolleys carrying the troopers,
doctors and nurses rolled in well before the train carrying
the mutual aid fire companies, possibly as early as a bit before 10:30, and definitely by 11 PM. The State Troopers quickly roped off a
fire line and pushed the crowd back behind it, likely with threats of
arrest if anyone so much as <i>thought</i> about crossing
it. While they were controlling the crowd, the doctors and nurses
found their three local cohorts, quickly got organized, and
began treating the injured and preparing the worst injured for
transport to a hospital in Reading...interesting only four would be
transported to the hospital, and only around two dozen or so would
really need treatment. Most of the injured would be taken back to
their homes to be cared for, a common practice in that era.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Goodwill's crew rolled in <i>long</i> after
the State Troopers and medical personnel did, but once they got
into Boyertown they unloaded and went right to wo...Uh, no, sadly,
they didn't. Though it wasn't specified exactly how they did it or
how bad it was, somehow their steamer was damaged while being
unloaded. Even worse, as they hustled to fix the damaged steamer,
they were watching the fire...Boyertown's railroad station was
located only one block to the south of the Rhoads Building.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ever resourceful as the Pennsylvania
Dutch were, they managed to repair it and get it to the scene. Thanks
to having to make that repair, however, it was between 11:50
and Midnight... a good two and a half hours into the fire, and at
least an hour after the State Police and medical personnel
arrived...when Goodwill's crew and rigs finally rolled in to the
scene, found a water supply, and began fighting fire.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
By the time this happened, flames
were rolling out of every window on both the second and third floors,
and were probably through the roof, shoving a huge column of smoke skyward as it lit that end of Philadelphia Ave up like
noon-time. The radiant heat was tremendous, forcing the crowds
watching the fire across and down both streets. With three steamers
now on hydrants, and plenty of hose available, Firefighters were soon
probably throwing at least 1000 GPM into the fire through a quartet
of hose lines. The problem was, they probably needed twice that if
not more. They very likely concentrated on keeping the fire contained
to the Rhoads Building and and keeping it from extending to the
Mansion House Hotel, across the alley from the fire.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course, <i>all </i>of the
hose streams weren't tackling the Rhoads building...the fire had also
extended to the row houses on Washington Street, and was working it's
way through the common attic shared by all of the houses. At least
one line was probably throwing water into the burning houses and they
made a valiant stab at saving the houses, but I have a sneaking
suspicion that, without the modern gear and breathing apparatus we
have today, it was a loosing battle from the get-go. They didn't have
the manpower or equipment to get inside, get ahead of the fire, pull
ceilings, and directly attack the fire in the attic, so all they
could do was 'Hit it hard from the yard'...pour water in from the
outside. They'd leave the houses standing but all were severely
damaged by fire, smoke, and water. This being said, they <i>still </i>made
a nice stop on the row houses, limiting fire damage to the fourth
floor and attics of all of them. This, of course, was no consolation
for the horrible loss of life in the Rhoads Building.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Pottstown firefighters hadn't
been on scene thirty minutes when a muted crunching, like someone
dropping a safe on a big pile of balsa wood, echoed across the scene
even as a mushroom of fire rolled a hundred or so feet into the air
before before settling down to twenty or so foot flames that turned
the fire into a flaring orange beacon visible for a dozen miles in
all directions. The entire remaining roof had collapsed into the
third floor.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The third floor, weakened and likely
already partially burned away, only held for a minute or so at the
most before it pancaked down onto the second floor, kicking a large
hunk of the Washington Street wall out while it was at it, sending
firefighters scrambling for their lives as the wall sections folded
outward and clatter-crashed to the ground, sending bricks bouncing
like ping-pong balls.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Firefighters quickly regrouped and,
watching the remaining walls warily, began pouring water into the
gaping gaps in the side walls. A couple more firefighters may have
laddered the porch roof at the front of the building so they could
direct a stream through the front windows. By 3AM or so, they were
making progress (Or, more likely, the fire was beginning to burn
out).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
First, both firefighters and crowd
noticed that the flames roaring out of the opening where the roof
used to be had retreated back inside the building, only occasionally
peeking above the walls, then the black smoke began to lighten and
turn gray, then white as it mixed with steam.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
By 4:15 the fire was under control,
though clouds of steam and smoke still rolled from the ruins and
glimmers of flame still peeked from beneath the rubble. The
unmistakable odor of a burned building...burned wood, plaster and
paint has a distinctive aroma that you recognize instantly after
smelling it the first time...permeated the area, with a nastier
over-cooked pork odor underlying it. That odor was another one that
firefighters knew all too well.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There were a couple of minor wins...the
second floor held, and firefighters managed, somehow, to keep the
fire out of the bank and limit damage to the hardware store...but
these were hollow triumphs given the massive loss of life.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Someone was going to have to deal with
the massive and horrible task of removing and attempting to identify
dozens of bodies (The death toll would end up being even worse than
they originally imagined), and Burgess Kohler had that covered as
well. Shortly After Kohler got Fire Mutual Aid, State Police,
and medical assistance enroute, he made a forth phone call
anticipating the catastrophic death toll...that call went to Berks
County Coroner Robert Strasser. Strasser wasn't immediately
available, though, because he was in the middle of performing an
autopsy. I can only imagine he was looking forward to going home and
kicking back to relax as he walked out of the autopsy theater (In a
funeral home, BTW, rather than a hospital) only to be met with the
news of the ongoing disaster in Boyertown.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He was one of the few Berk County
residents who owned a car, and he immediately called his deputy
coroner, grabbed what ever he thought he might need to take with him,
cranked the big touring car (It was never specified what make he owned)
to life, probably picked Deputy Coroner William Smith up enroute and
set out from Reading for Boyertown, getting on the road at a bit
after midnight.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It took them an hour and a half to make
the sixteen or so mile trip in frigidly cold weather on muddy,
narrow, and crooked roads, in an open car that very probably utilized
acetylene headlights. I can only imagine that they watched the huge
glow to their east with way more than a little trepidation as they
rocked over the bumpy roads at the breakneck speed of ten or so miles
per hour, and given the conditions they actually made pretty good
time...night time road trips of any length at all just weren't a
common occurrence back then,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fire was still blowing through the roof
for the entire length of the building when they rolled into Boyertown
(Also passing Keystone's wrecked hose cart). He likely parked as
close to the scene as possible, walked in, and found Kohler, taking
command of all but the firefighting end of the scene.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While the fire was under control by 4:15 AM,
it was far from 'Tapped Out', and it would be hours before they could
get inside the building to search for bodies...even if the ruins
hadn't been far too hot for them to get inside, they couldn't see.
While lights such as carbon-arc lights were available in larger
cities (And were, in fact, used at the Iroquois Theater fire), they
weren't available in small towns without electricity such as
Boyertown back in 1908. This, however, didn't keep Strasser from
starting to set things up. He likely searched out the owners of
Boyertown's three funeral homes and began setting up to use them as
morgues. The largest of them, owned by James Brown, was located
directly across the street in the D.C. Brumbach Furniture Store (Back
then, it was, apparently, very common for funeral homes/morgues to
be located within furniture stores.), and both of the other
two...owned by Harrison Houck and James Brumbach...were also
located close by on Philadelphia Ave</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
After he got morgue arrangements
settled, Strasser went to the Union House Hotel and rented a couple
of rooms, probably to be paid for by the county, to use as his base
of operations...this would be where an office would be set up to
handle inquiries about missing relatives, and body identification.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While he was at it, he also very likely
made arrangements for the blankets he was going to need to wrap the
bodies, twine to secure said blankets, and began devising a plan on
just how to handle the identification. Early on he decided he was
going to use a plan similar to the one used after the San Francisco
Earthquake, very likely also heeding lessons learned from the
Iroquois Theater fire.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Each body would be assigned a number
before it was removed from the scene. Then, once the body was
assigned a number, any personal effects found with it would be placed
in a pouch that would be assigned a corresponding number, and a
detailed description of the body as related to size, approximate age,
sex, clothing, and personal effects found with it would be noted both
on a report, and a sheet kept with the body. Numbering it before it
was removed from the scene would, hopefully, allow them to avoid the
confusion and errors that occurred at the Iroquois Theater fire.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The sun came up, finally, to
reveal a windowless, roofless shell, dozens of exhausted
firefighters, and a still big crowd of onlookers that would grow even
bigger as the day progressed. Strasser wanted to see what he had to
deal with before he came up with a plan to remove the bodies, so he
possibly first tried going up the front stairway. He was horrified
when he saw the massive pileup of bodies blocking the main
entrance...he'd been coroner less than a year, and had never had to
deal with anything even close to this horror. He climbed back down
the steps and got with Friendship Hook and Ladder's chief.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOldSRIJ_2iQlZMHjK0Cfnle80KmVjTrijF1xxKdjP5NT6Z3X8QLxg4CJhi8yLsX8rq0e7LAWai5puIW_9VJmeKVkIYQ-1mLeFU_O8RhHcCtjL0ijzmUXt0C93UPrIvYbmbSe-wg0yxPA/s1600/H15914-L106402785.jpg"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="424" name="graphics11" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOldSRIJ_2iQlZMHjK0Cfnle80KmVjTrijF1xxKdjP5NT6Z3X8QLxg4CJhi8yLsX8rq0e7LAWai5puIW_9VJmeKVkIYQ-1mLeFU_O8RhHcCtjL0ijzmUXt0C93UPrIvYbmbSe-wg0yxPA/s640/H15914-L106402785.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<td width="665"><div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
Rhoads Building after the fire.The doorway barely visible on the
left rear corner of the Rhoads Building, next to the first row
house, was street exit for the rear stairway, which allowed most
of the cast and a very few of the audience to escape. Sadly,
several of the cast returned to search for relatives or retrieve
personal possessions, only to become trapped.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">This
was a huge, intense, and devastating fire, especially for a small
town, and would have required an all-out effort to contain and
control even if it had occurred at 1 AM with the building empty.
The massive death toll took it from bad to unthinkably
horrible...and it could have been even worse but for a bit of
luck...some of the only good luck that occurred on that long,
cold night. When the roof collapsed about three hours into the
fire...very shortly after Pottstowns' Goodwill Fire Company got
on scene...it kicked that missing section of the third floor wall
out, endangering several firefighters when the wall section hit
the ground. It either missed all of the firefighters on the
Washington Street side of the building, or all of them managed to
get out from under it.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">When
the roof collapsed, it also carried most of the third floor with
it, into the second floor. The fire absolutely devastated the
second and third floors, burning all but unchecked and consuming
the majority of the combustibles on those two floors while it was
at it.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Though
fire fighters finally got several lines...possibly as many as
four...in service, they likely put much of their effort into
keeping the fire from walking up the block or crossing the
street. They managed to limit the damage to the Rhoads Buildings
first floor, and made an impressive stop on the row houses.
Though all of the houses were heavily damaged...the fire ran the
attic and dropped down into the forth floor of all of them...the
firefighters managed to limit damage enough that they were
repairable.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Of
course these saves...or maybe semi-saves would be the better
term...were little consolation to the firefighters and citizens
of Boyertown. Over 160 of their friends and neighbors were buried
under the burned remains of the third floor and roof.</span></div>
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<td width="665"><div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Looking
up Washington Street towards Philadelphia Ave, with the damaged
row houses on the left. Fire damage to thee row houses was
apparently limited to the fourth floors, attic, and roof</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
alley side of the gutted Rhoads Building, with the back of the
first row house on the extreme right side of the frame...sorry
about the quality. The Rhoads Building apparently had a small
basement...likely where the furnace was..,while the row houses
appear to have been three floors on the back side</span></div>
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<td width="665"><div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Interior
of the second floor after the fire. The photographer was standing
just behind the area where the stereopticon was set up at the
right front corner of the building. One of the two pressurized
gas tanks for the stereopticon is standing upright just about mid
frame, the other is in the pile of rubble immediately to it's
left. One sign that both tanks were left on...the tanks are
intact, meaning that all of the gas, be it oxygen or carbonated
hydrogen, vented either before or during the fire. Had they been
turned off, the tanks would have exploded, pretty spectacularly
at that, from the heat of the fire.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">As
can be seen in the picture, the second and third floors were
absolutely devastated. the fire burned all but unchecked for
almost seven hours, and most of the combustible material was
turned to ash while the big floor and roof joists were burned to
a fraction of their original size. You're looking towards the
stage here, and absolutely nothing remains of it. Also keep in
mind that the third floor collapsed into the second floor</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">.</span></div>
</td>
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</tbody></table>
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<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Fortunately,
Friendship Hook And Ladder, <i>did</i> have the breed of
rig that gave it it's name, and though it had arrived too late for
it's ladders to be used for any rescues...as noted previously,
everyone who was going to make it out <i>had</i> made it
out by the time Friendship got on scene...they could be, and were,
used to access the second floor. As Friendship's crew was laddering
the second floor, Strasser got with the C.O. of the State Police
detachment (Who had been there all night, and now faced a
long, <i>long</i> day) and, side-eyeing the already
growing crowd, asked that the area be roped off to give them a
path to the morgues. Strasser was about to piss off the citizens of
Boyertown...but it was out of necessity.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He climbed the ladder and pulled
himself through the window opening, his boots sinking several inches
into a sodden, ashy mud, and gazed around at the ruined interior of
the building. The roof was completely gone, and every bit of
combustible material on the walls had burned away except some of the
support beams that had once supported the floor joists for the third
floor. Some of those joists, as well as roof joists, were tumbled
together on the floor, burned to less that half of their original
size. . And what was all of this burned debris near the wa...<span style="color: black;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">'...Oh,
my God...' He may have thought. 'I'm </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>standing </i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">on
them!' And that was when each separate piece of debris...some of them
piled on top of each other...took form and substance, and he realized
that he was staring at burned bodies...dozens of them...stacked near
the windows. And the worst was yet to come.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Strasser made a lap of the floor,
trying to avoid any weak spots in the flooring, and all but recoiled
in horror when he immediately ran up on a pile of charred bodies
almost six feet high at the front of the building, where the stairway
door had been, and where panicked, terrified men, women, and children
had climbed over each other trying to get through the one door that
was open.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Strasser shuddered in horror as he
climbed back through the window, then composed himself and began
formulating a plan to remove the bodies as he climbed down. He
sent a couple of guys to grab the blankets he'd arranged for, gave a
couple of other people the clipboard and (I'm assuming here) blank
paper for numbered tags, and sent another crew, with a wagon, to
scare up some boards. Then he had Friendship's crew place a
ladder on the main stairway. (The stairway was three feet wide at the
bottom, where the ticket booth narrowed it, and six feet wide above
the ticket booth, leaving plenty of room on either side.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then he outlined his plan...a crew
would work their way in, first working from the steps to clear the
bodies from the doorway, then removing the bodies that were inside
the second floor. As noted above, as each body was removed, it would
be checked for personal effects, which would be placed in a separate
pouch, The documentation crew would write a brief description,
including a description of the personal effects found with the
body.The body would then be assigned a number, with the same number
assigned to the pouch of personal effects. It would then be
wrapped securely in a blanket and placed on one of the boards, which
would then be slid down the ladder and out of the building. Once out
of the building, it would be taken to one of the morgues along a
roped off path guarded by the State Troopers..</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Strasser needed a couple of people to
take charge of the search itself while he set up shop at the hotel.
The president of Pottstown's Goodwill Fire Company, William Young,
had been there all night, but he was more than willing to take charge
at the scene. The body recovery operation would be a massive job for one person to handle by himself. Strasser decided,
rightly, that Young would need an assistant.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Dr J.R,Evans, who was the Burger of
nearby Malvern, had journeyed to Boyertown as soon as he heard about
the fire to look for his sister-in-law and niece, who he thankfully
found alive and unharmed. Having found them, he decided to hang around at the scene
to see if he could be of any assistance. He may have silently harbored some brief second thoughts about doing so when he became the second in
command of the search for bodies.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Strasser quickly outlined his plan to
the two men, made sure they understood it, and very likely told them
to come find him at what would become the incident command post
(Though that term wouldn't actually be coined for decades) at the
Union House if they needed anything.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When they started removing bodies at
about 8 AM, Strasser knew it would be slow going, but he actually
didn't know the half of it...body recovery would end up taking <i>far</i> longer then he originally thought.<br />
<br />
On top of that, before the recovery efforts began he had decreed that no one
would be allowed to view the bodies until all had been recovered and
numbered, a necessary step to avoid confusion and errors, but a step also meant that no one could look for their missing loved ones until
all of the bodies had been recovered. This was a decision that was
about to create days worth of frustration for both the citizens of
Boyertown and Strasser himself, and their very first taste of that frustration would be the length of time it took for crews to get the bodies to morgues.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Word that the body removal was about to
begin spread through the huge crowd like ripples from a pebble tossed
into a pond, groups turning to people behind and to the side, saying
'<i>They're getting ready to take them out!!' </i>in an an
audible wave of sound that had an equally humongous wave of people
suddenly crowding against the ropes set up by the State Police
officers. They were about to find out the same thing that Strasser
and his crew were finding out hands-on.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The bodies were packed so tightly
together in the doorway that removing them at all...much less in a
manner that kept them intact...was a job that required both
backbreaking effort and near-surgical delicacy, so even with several
men working at a time, it took ten or so minutes to get each body
free of the pile-up, record it, and lower it down the front stairway.
Despite their best efforts, by noon, only forty-five bodies had been
removed from the building, most very likely from the area surrounding
the main entrance.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<td width="665"><div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
entrance to the main stairway, at the front of the building,
leading up to the second floor auditorium. The ladder was used as
a slide to bring bodies down from the second floor. Somewhere
between a dozen and as many as thirty people who had tumbled down
these steps were removed by bystanders and early-arriving
firefighters in the initial stages of the fire.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Dozens
of bodies were stacked up in the doorway at the top of the steps,
with close to a hundred more bodies piled up behind them. The
door at the top of the stairway was a double door, but only one
side was open, and everyone tried to get through that single
three foot wide opening at once, stacking on top of each other
like cord wood, and jamming themselves in the doorway</span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Young and Evans were running into other frustrations as well. Even with the slow going, they still ran
out of space at Brumbach's, so the other two morgues had to be
opened, and the fire lines adjusted accordingly. It may have
been at this point that one of them asked Strasser to find a larger
venue to act as a morgue, and the town's Superintendent of Schools
was called on to open up Washington Street School if the need arose. He told them that he would do so if needed and it absolutely would be needed, sooner than they thought.<br />
<br />
At some point during the morning they also ran out of
blankets to cover the bodies, and asked the women of Boyertown of it was possible they could find more. The ladies of the town responded in
force, heading for home, then returning with arm-fulls of them. If only <i>every</i> problem they ran into could be fixed that quickly.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One of the biggest problems Young and Evans ran into was the citizens themselves. Crowds of people desperate to find
their lost relatives tried to view the bodies as they were removed,
then tried to follow the bodies into whichever of the three morgues
they were taken to, only to be politely but firmly turned away by the
State Troopers. Inevitably, a general murmuring of 'They're not
letting us search for our relatives' began rumbling through the
crowd, but they wouldn't be the State Cops' only or biggest problem by far on this long, <i>long</i> day. Young and Evans only had body recovery to worry about...the State Cops had the entire scene to secure.<br />
<br />
The State Police Officer in charge anticipated what was coming, and called Reading to request back-up, probably not long after body recover began, and I have a feeling a couple more trolley-loads of 'Staties' were rolling through the countryside towards Boyertown before many people finished breakfast. They wouldn't arrive a minute too soon.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
News of the fire had spread through the
area with amazing speed (Especially for an era that
existed <i>long</i> before the omnipresent electronic
communications we have today) and every train that rolled into
Boyertown brought with it dozens of what Emergency Service Personnel
today refer to as 'Looky-Loos'. Overly curious citizens who's
only purpose in being there was to see the incident, often (Usually,
in fact) getting in the way while they were at it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There were actually cases of a smiling
dad, with his kid on his shoulders, pointing out nuances and details
of the scene while standing right next to grief-stricken relatives
with tears streaming down their cheeks. While it wasn't actually
mentioned in any sources I found, I can just about bet that this was both what the State Police detachment's C.O. was thinking of when he called for reinforcements and when they came in <i>real</i> handy. I can just
about bet that the State Troopers made an effort to separate the 'Looky-loos' from
the actual relatives, and push them back further behind the fire
lines.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Some of them, however, were determined
to view the ruins close up and personal.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One far less than stellar individual,
along with his girlfriend, actually managed to slip past the State
Cops and climb half way up the Washington street fire escape before a
Trooper spotted him. Said Trooper, very likely using that loudly spat
'SIR!!!!' that cops have used for well over a century, told him to
come back down <i>NOW!!</i>. Our intrepid 'Looky-Loo' tried to
pass himself off as a member of the Press (They had a bit more
freedom of movement on scenes back then than they do today) but that
fell through when he couldn't produce any credentials. Next he tried
arguing with the cop, something that generally never works out well
for the arguer. The Troopers ended up forcefully marching him back to
the fire line, the only time that actually had to be done during the
entire incident.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Meanwhile, Young, Dr Evans, and their
crew were tired, hungry, half-frozen, and far more than a little
frustrated. They took a well deserved break around noon to
regroup, warm up, and probably get some lunch and while they were at
it, they also ran into some good luck. Reading and Philadelphia
Railway Superintendent W. H. Keffer arrived in Boyertown shortly
after noon, took one look at the scene, and asked who was in charge.
He was directed to the hotel, where he approached Strasser and asked
if his men could be of assistance. Strasser, probably thanking him
effusively, told him they needed bodies, shovels, and pry-bars, and
within an hour a couple of dozen men bearing the requested tools
arrived on scene.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
More ladders were pulled off of
Friendship's truck, and both sides of the building were laddered
(Specifically at the front corners of both the Washington Street and
alley sides of the building), and the new arrivals, under Evans and
Young's supervision went to work. More boards were found and laid on
the ladders so they could be used as slides, and bodies began coming
down in a near assembly line-like operation, at the rate of one every
two or three minutes.</div>
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<td width="665"><div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">A
body being removed from the second floor in the later part of the
body recovery process, using a board placed on a ladder as a
slide. From looking at the building and background, the ladder was
likely sat at a window on the alley side of the building at the
building's front corner....that looks like it could be the end of
building's front porch at the lower left of the frame. The Alley
side fire escape would be out of frame above and to the right..</span></div>
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<td width="665"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Washington
Street School, which was used as a morgue. This building's long
gone, having been replaced by a new high school building in 1921.</span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Work progressed so quickly that
Washington Street School was opened up by about two PM, and several
class rooms were designated as morgue rooms, the desks pushed
together so they could be used as tables to support the bodies, and
wagons were used to transport the bodies enmasse, ten or more at a
time...seventy-two bodies would ultimately be taken to the school.
Another crew...probably the bunch who'd been removing bodies all
morning...was sent to the morgue to receive the bodies and get them
inside.This is where those looking for missing loved ones ran into
even more frustration, when members of the press were issued special
passes that allowed them access to the morgues while they were
forbidden from entering.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Denying the townspeople access, while
unpopular, was necessary, because to allow them access to the
bodies <i>before</i> all were removed would have created
bedlam, and made errors in identification all but inevitable. By 3 PM
over a hundred bodies had been removed, and the count increased to
162 by 4:30...I believe it was at 166 when, with the sun heading
down, the search for bodies was terminated for the night.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now all of these bodies had to be
embalmed, and there was no way Boyertown's three undertakers could
handle that many bodies on their own, but Strasser had foreseen this
problem as well. Early in the day he called several nearby
communities and requested undertakers to help with this task, and
fifty-five responded from as far away as Philadelphia, coming by
trolley and train. They would work on that grim task all night,
probably using kerosene lanterns for light.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
With the exception of the undertakers,
and the State Police officers guarding the morgues, everyone else
went home for the night, many of them sleeping like the oft-noted log
as sheer exhaustion dragged them under, others lying awake as they
wondered about the fates of their loved ones and friends. For those
who managed some sleep, the sun probably peeked above the eastern
horizon far too soon...it wasn't over yet by a long shot.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have a feeling that as soon as it was
light enough to do so, a final search was made of the ruins to ensure
all of the victims had been found. Those looking for missing loved
ones were sure they'd be allowed to view the bodies as soon as this final search was complete, but they would again be turned away, adding to their
growing frustration.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
.Strasser wanted to get the coroners
inquest over and done with as quickly as possible, so he had already
picked a jury of six men to serve, and this is what caused the
already frustrated family members even more heart-ache. According to
State Law, the members of the Coroner's Jury had to view the bodies
before they had been disturbed in any way other than embalming. This,
of course, meant that those searching for the missing weren't allowed
to view the bodies until the members of the jury did so, which also
meant that they had to wait <i>another</i> hour or two for
the jurors to walk from one morgue to the other and view the bodies.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The morgues finally opened to the
public at 10:30 AM, but the identification of bodies was slow
going. Almost <i>ALL</i> of the bodies were burned beyond any hope
of identification, meaning that they had to be I.D.ed through the
clothing and personal effects found with them, and considering the
intensity and duration of the fire, most of those personal effects
were also damaged.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
On top of that, Strasser ordered that
only four people at a time be allowed in each morgue (Again,
necessary to stave off confusion) and required a signed permit from
each person before they were allowed to enter, but even with these
precautions there was still a good bit of confusion, with at least
one child's body claimed by three sets of bereaved parents before the
issue was straightened out and the body claimed by the proper family.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then, as if things weren't bad
enough, <i>the</i> phone call...the one that almost
caused a riot... came in either late morning or very early afternoon.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Strasser wouldn't allow bodies to be
released to families with out a death certificate personally signed
by him, so if they ran out of signed forms, they couldn't release any
bodies. And, as efficient as he had been, Strasser apparently
hadn't pre-signed that many...or maybe <i>any</i>...death
certificates. Maybe that was what he was doing when the phone rang,
and he found himself talking to the Clerk of the Circuit Court in
Reading, who was, likely not all that pleasantly, asking him just
where the heck he was, because he was <i>supposed </i>to be
testifying at a murder trial.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Strasser tried to get excused, but the
Court Clerk wouldn't go for it. Arguing with the Clerk of Court
in that type of situation is essentially arguing with the Judge by
proxy, and arguing with a judge <i>never</i> works out well
for the arguer, so Strasser made sure his deputy coroner was straight
on not releasing bodies in his absence, cranked his car up, and
headed for Reading. And, while bodies were still being identified,
they were <i>not</i> being released (Note here...some
sources say that citizens weren't even allowed in the buildings, so
identification may have actually come to a standstill). Whichever it
may have been, the citizens of Boyertown who had been waiting to
either identify or claim their dead were getting pissed, to the point
that some feared that violence would break out.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
After he testified, Strasser found a
payphone (Yes, they existed in 1908) and called Smith (The Deputy
coroner) at the hotel, to ask how things were going, and got an
ear-full of the fact that the good citizens of Boyertown were getting
ready to rumble...seriously, both he and the State Police were scared
a riot would break out. Strasser quickly gave Deputy Coroner Smith
permission to sign Death Certificates in his absence and a riot was
avoided as the identifications continued. Then, after hanging up,
Strasser buttonholed the District Attorney to plead his case. There
was the possibility he'd be called back to the stand for redirect,
but he was needed even more in Boyertown...he was released to return
to the scene, and arrived back in Boyertown sometime near 6 PM.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then, sometime after Strasser left
Reading and while he was enroute back to Boyertown, they ran out of
death certificate forms, and more had to be delivered. Of course,
they didn't find this out while Strasser was still <i>in</i> Reading,
when they could have just put a couple of boxes of them in his car.
Deputy Coroner Smith called Reading and ordered some more, likely
telling them they needed them <i>yesterday. </i>More Death
Certificates were delivered by 9 PM, probably by trolley, though the
exact method wasn't specified. Strasser worked well into the wee-hours
filling out and signing death certificates.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Because of the day's setbacks and
shortages, only twenty five bodies had been claimed by their
families, and moved to their homes for wakes by the time the morgue
at the school closed at about 5 PM...when the sun started
down...because of lack of lights in the school building. (My opinion
here...while they had risked using kerosene lanterns to embalm the
bodies, several people felt they had dodged a bullet, and didn't want
to risk it a second night...nothing would be even <i>more</i> horrible
than burning the bodies a <i>second</i> time.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Strasser also required that any bodies
that were claimed by families living in another community be
accompanied by a receipt listing the deceased's identification, and
this frustrated the out-of-town undertakers to no end, as they
weren't used to such rigid requirements, but, again, Strasser
stressed that these procedures were absolutely required to ensure
that the right body was transported to the right location (And,
equally importantly, that the wrong body wasn't transported and
buried at the wrong location...something that did happen one time. More about that in 'Notes').</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The heart-breaking task of searching
for, identifying, and claiming bodies went on for almost a
week...families would continue looking for their missing and trying
to identify bodies until Saturday, Jan 18th, and twenty-five bodies
would <i>never</i> be identified.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Even worse, three entire families
(Those of Morris Anderson, Charles Nuss, and Robert Taggert ) were
totally wiped out in the fire, and no one even realized that they
were missing for several days. The Taggert family is a good example.
The Taggerts lived on a farm several miles outside of Boyertown,
Several neighbors realized they had heard their livestock mooing and
calling plaintively for a couple of days, and went to the Taggerts' farm to find the animals near starvation and the home empty...it was
only then that they realized that all of them must have died in the fire.<br />
<br />
The same type of scenereo likely played out with the Anderson's and the Nusses, when their neighbors realized they hadn't seen them at all since the night of the fire.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Once all of the bodies were embalmed
and identifications began, Boyertown's three undertakers were all but
overwhelmed...they had plenty of help during the embalming of bodies,
but once that was finished, the out of town undertakers headed for
home. It was up to the locals (One of whom, Harrison Houck, not only
lost his son in the fire, but had to prepare the boy's body for
burial) to arrange funerals...this in itself was a week or more long
process that I'l hit in more detail in 'Notes'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Meanwhile, Kohler wasn't just sitting
on his laurels and watching everyone else...he was busy seeing to it
that the injured were all cared for, that medical supplies were
available, and that everyone had what they needed to try to survive
one of the worst ordeals that any small town has ever endured.
While he was at it (We'll take a look at all of this in 'Notes', too)
he was arranging for a relief fund for those who had lost husbands
and fathers (Remember, back then the man of the house was almost
always the primary provider for the family).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And, as funerals were arranged, and
relief efforts were launched, Strasser had a task of his own ahead of
him...determining just who was responsible for almost 170 deaths
(Several of the injured were still hanging on almost a week after the
fire). Subpoenas were issued and served to fifty witnesses,
among them Harry Fletcher, Dr Rhoads, and Harriet Monroe. Strasser
was determined he was going to make someone pay for the carnage...but
first, he already had a problem with the investigation, and that problem was evidence
disappearing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We're not talking <i>small</i> evidence,
either, because <i>both</i> of the tanks for the
stereopticon disappeared, only to be returned, altered, a day later, and <i>all </i>of
this happened before Strasser even knew it had happened.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
On Wednesday the 15th, while Strasser
was in Reading testifying at the murder trial and everyone else was
at the morgues, a motion-picture house operator from nearby
Quakerstown by the name of W.R. Javens showed up at the burned out
Rhoads Building and presented a pass, allegedly signed by Strasser,
allowing him to remove the tanks from the building. The troopers
guarding the building didn't question it's authenticity in the least,
so Havens removed the two tanks (Both were about three feet tall and
six or so inches in diameter, so he probably had to make two trips
into the building) and carried them to the Boyertown railroad
station, where he had them shipped to Quakertown. OH...when the tanks
were removed, the regulators and hose outlets were attached...keep
this fact in mind.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The very next day both tanks were
returned to Boyertown, addressed to a guy named 'R.E.Ransom', Ransom,
of course, was Javens, who picked up the tanks and took them back to
the Rhoads Building, sans regulators and hose outlets.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And there they sat until Monday the
20th...one week after the fire... when someone asked Strasser why the
tanks had been removed from the building, and why the regulators had
been removed from the tanks. While his actual reaction has been lost
to history, I have a feeling he went slam off, especially when told
that the tanks had been returned without the regulators. That in
itself was a <i>huge</i> problem, investigation-wise,
because without the regulators they couldn't determine if Fisher had
turned the tanks off before he bailed out of the building, which he
claimed he had indeed done</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Strasser quickly assigned a
plainclothes State Police detective to the case, also assigning Deputy Coroner Smith to assist him. He then gave them his car, and sent them to Quakertown
to find Javens, who they <i>didn't</i> find because he was on a train enroute to Boyertown at about the same time they left for Quakertown. And as Smith
and the detective strolled around Quakertown, inquiring about Javens'
whereabouts, Javens sauntered into the Union House Hotel, found
Strasser, and confessed to moving the tanks (And forging the note allowing him to remove the tanks as well).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That would have been an interesting
conversation to hear, but it's also lost to history...what we do know
is that Strasser had Javens arrested for larceny. He appeared at
a hearing before a magistrate, where he absolutely refused to state a
reason for taking and returning the tanks, or speculate on what may
have happened to the regulators. The magistrate held him over for a
second hearing with a bail of 600 dollars...$16,500 in 2019
dollars...which he couldn't come up with. He was taken to the Reading
Jail and incarcerated. His attorney bailed him out the next day, and
he was told to be at a second hearing on January 27th.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
At that second hearing Javens had
apparently come up with a reason for taking the things...he claimed
that he had taken the tanks for entertainment purposes, figuring that
advertising them as the cause of the fire would draw crowds, who he
could charge a nickel or so a head to see them. Then, he continued,
he thought about his decision, and realized that the instant that he
advertised the tanks, he'd very likely get in serious trouble, so he
decided to return them. He had no knowledge what so ever, according
to him at any rate, as to what happened to the regulators. He
had also apparently decided that bringing them back would negate any
trouble he may have been in.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The magistrate told him he was bound
over for trial on the single charge of larceny (Anyone pulling a
stunt like this today would be charged with, at the minimum,
Interfering With An Investigation, Obstructing Justice, and Grand
Theft, not to mention Forgery and Uttering). He was tried nine months later, in October, and had the
charges dismissed for lack of evidence, despite the fact that he
actually admitted to the crime...something else that likely wouldn't have happened today</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Javens reasoning for taking the tanks
made some twisted sort of sense...lowlifes existed 111 years ago,
too...except for one thing. The regulators. The missing regulators
caused more than a little suspicion, leading many people to wonder
if, just maybe, he and Fisher might have been friends, and if he
might have removed the regulators to cover up the fact that Fisher did <i>not</i> cut the tanks off. If that <i>was</i> what
he was trying to do, it worked.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Coroners Inquest started the day
after Javens' second hearing...January 28th...and when the issue of
the tanks and the regulators was brought up, Deputy Coroner Smith
could only say that the tanks had been in the building and intact,
with regulators in place and no sign of an explosion the day after
the fire...he hadn't had the expertise necessary to determine if the
tanks were off or on. He also testified that when the tanks were returned they had
been tampered with, with the regulators missing, and therefore they
couldn't determine whether Fisher had turned the tanks off before he
escaped or not.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This sort of left Fisher in Limbo, and
frustrated Strasser to no end, but the tanks were far from the only
subject covered at the inquest, which as I noted above kicked off on
January 28th...two weeks and one day after the fire. Things were
about to get interesting...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
At Two PM on that cold Tuesday
afternoon the six jurors along with all fifty witnesses climbed the
steps to the second floor of Keystone's fire house and took seats,
with Strasser presiding over the inquest, and attorney William Young
questioning witnesses. Six State troopers guarded the firehouse to
keep any unauthorized persons from entering, as it was closed to the
public, and questioning of the witnesses began. The inquest would
recess late Tuesday evening and continue on Wednesday morning.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The great majority of the witnesses
were people who had either survived the fire or who had been on scene
immediately after it started, and more than a few of them were still
wearing either bandages or scars from burns.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
These were all eye-witnesses, so they
must have given accurate testimony as to <i>exactly</i> what
happened, right? Errr...wrong. Ask any investigator and they'll tell
you that eyewitnesses are often their <i>least</i> accurate
sources of information. They likely weren't more than three witnesses
in when it became obvious that no one, apparently, saw the exact same
thing. The <i>only</i> thing all of the witnesses agreed on
was the suddenness of the fire, just how fast it spread throughout
the second floor of the Rhoads building, and just how little time
people had to escape.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
These witnesses weren't the stars of
the show, anyway...there were four witnesses whose testimony Strasser
was particularly anxious to hear...Harriet Monroe, Dr Rhoads, Harry
Fisher, and State Factory Inspector Harry Bechtel. Unfortunately, one
of them <i>wouldn't </i> be there...but in a way you
couldn't blame her. That witness was Harriet Monroe.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
She had been in Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania...seventy miles from Boyertown...when the Operas House
burned, and had the soul-shattering experience of glancing at a
newspaper the next day and seeing a headline proclaiming '<b>FIRE IN
THE OPERA HOUSE IN BOYERTOWN'</b>. Then she scrambled to get a ticket
for what had to have felt like one of the longest train rides in
recorded history to arrive in Boyertown and find that her sister was
dead and that she'd lost her business.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
She stayed in Boyertown just long
enough to identify her sister's body and wire her brother-in-law,
Edwin Earhart, about the fire and his sister's death. and then,
traumatized and shaken to the core, caught a train for her home town
of Washington, DC</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Her sister's body was so badly burned
that they identified it by a mileage book found on her person, and a
ring found on her finger...her husband did not claim the body, and
her brother made the decision to have her buried at Boyertown's
Fairview Cemetery.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then Harriet Monroe got a
letter...essentially a subpoena...requesting her presence in
Boyertown for the inquest, a request that she declined through her
attorney in a letter citing her health. In this same letter she
reiterated the fact that Fisher was well trained, and his handling of
the gas tanks had nothing to do with the fire, but unbeknownst
to <i>her, </i>Charles Sheridan...her regular Stereopticon
operator...<i>did</i> come to Boyertown to testify, and he
brought her letter telling him to lie about Fisher's level of
training with him, reading it to the jury along with Della Mayers
letter voicing her concerns about Fisher's lack of skill. Those two
letters would carry far more weight than her letter to Strasser
proclaiming her innocence.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Harry Fisher's testimony was equally
damaging when he stated that he had only taken charge of the
stereopticon on January 6th, and had only operated it four
times before the fatal performance, all of them rehearsals.
Interestingly, a suggestion was made that a stereopticon be procured
and set up in the room for a demonstration of just how they worked and
were operated. Keystone's Chief Gehris, likely envisioning his
station going the same way as the Rhoads Building, and knowing that
there was only the single stairway for an exit, said something to the
effect of 'Not only 'No', but <i>hell</i> no' to the
request. The demonstration did take place, but at Strasser's room at
the Union House (That's right...in a hotel full of people?!?).
Thankfully, it came off without a hitch.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Next on the hot seat was Dr Rhoads, but
very few people were really interested in causing him any grief. Dr Rhoads was
pushing 70 and had served his community well both as a physician and
as a business owner and politician.. At his age he <i>still </i>made house calls (Several of the injured from the fire, in fact, were under his care), he had served as Boyertown's Berger <i>and</i> he'd
founded the town's premiere bank...The Farmer's bank...which had been
housed on the first floor of The Rhoads Building.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He had also endured a rough year kicked off by the temporary closing of the bank in July of '07, caused by a fraudulent 130,000 dollar loan (That'd be a
3.5 <i>million</i> dollar fraud today, folks), a set-back
the bank was just recovering from in January of 1908 after the bank's
board contributed $30,000 (815.5 grand today) of their own money to
restore the bank's cash flow.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He was also devastated by the
fire...and not just because of the physical loss of the building. The loss of the building was probably the very least of his worries as it was fully insured. Remember Boyertown was a small town, so it's a
good bet that he knew the majority of the people who died in the
fire, and had probably known them for all of their lives. Many of them, in fact, had probably been his patients. But
devastated as he was, he wasn't going to take the blame for the fire.
The only suggestion made by the State Factory Inspector (Closest
thing Pennsylvania had to a State Fire Marshal back in that era),
made several years earlier, had been the addition of fire escapes, a
suggestion that he followed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He reminded the Jury that, while he
owned the building, the Opera House was actually leased by Edgar
Mauger. He was also asked why the theater was kerosene-lit when gas
lines ran right past the building, and in reply he stated that he had been planning to electrify the building as soon as Boyertown got
electricity town-wide, and saw no need to go to the expense of
installing gas lights for only a year or two.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The State Factory Inspector for the
area...a gent named Harry Bechtel...testified that he had inspected
the building, noted the high window sills and other safety defects,
and advised Dr Rhoads that they needed to be corrected, a claim that
Dr Rhoads politely but firmly denied ever happening.<br />
<br />
The Jury ultimately refused to assign Dr Rhoads any blame, despite his alleged knowledge of
the building's safety deficiencies and lack of action to correct
them. In clearing Dr Roads of blame, they stated that Edgar Mauger, as manager of the Opera House,
bore more responsibility for seeing that the improvements were made.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Bechtel, during <i>his</i> testimony,
had very neatly taken the heat off of Dr Rhoads and dropped it smack
dab on top of himself both by his attitude and, more importantly, by
pissing the jury (And all of the town) slam off. How'd he do that?<br />
<br />
Simple...he insulted the town, which is
a sure-fire way to alienate yourself from the entire populace of a
small town.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Bechtel had testified that he inspected
the Opera House, advised Dr Rhoads of the changes that needed to be
made, and when asked if he had followed up on these requested
changes, he said that he had not. He was grilled relentlessly on this
oversight, finally stating (You can imagine the tone of voice this
was said in <i>real</i> easily) '<i>I have far more
important places to go than a measly little town like
Boyertown...' </i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Jury had heard enough.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
At 9 PM on Wednesday the 29th, State
Troopers escorted the jury to the library at The Union House where
they would deliberate for about four hours. At one AM on Thursday the
30th, the library doors opened and the members of the jury walked
out and rendered their verdict, stating that the primary causes of
the great loss of life were Harriet Monroe's hiring of an
inexperienced and incompetent stereopticon operator, and Harry
Bechtel's lax enforcement of existing safety regulations. They
declined to blame either Dr Rhoads or Edgar Mauger, and likewise
declined to blame Harry Fisher, basically noting that he
couldn't help being dropped into a job that he really hadn't been
trained to do.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They also noted that the fire safety
laws and building codes in Pennsylvania were woefully
inadequate, and asked that they be beefed up.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They then concluded by asking that District
Attorney Harry Schaeffer swear out warrants for manslaughter for both
Ms Monroe and Harry Becthel.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
D.A. Schaeffer promised swift
action against the accused and justice for the deceased and bereaved.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Problem is, that didn't happen. And we can, at least
partially, blame those inadequate (In actuality, nearly nonexistent)
fire codes. And the flu.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
D.A. Shaeffer caught the flu at about
the same time the verdict was announced and found himself sick in bed
for a solid week. During that same week, Harry Becthel
apologized for his remarks about Boyertown (Blaming those same
remarks on the flu, which he apparently had during the inquest. I
can't help but wonder if he passed it on the the D.A.). Then, after
making that apology, his presence was demanded in the State Capitol
of Harrisburg, where his boss chewed him out and suspended him for a
week without pay for making those same remarks. (But <i>not</i> for
failing to enforce the fire codes. Why? You may ask. Keep reading.).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That week in bed apparently gave
Schaeffer time to reflect on just how good a case he
had...or <i>didn't</i> have...and whether he could get a
conviction because, once he was back on his feet, he announced that
he would <i>not</i> be pressing charges against Harriet
Monroe until he had evidence of actual criminal negligence. And while
he was at it, he wouldn't be pressing charges against Harry Becthel
either.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When pressed for his reasoning he noted
that 'There is a great deal of difference between carelessness and
Criminal Negligence. As for his reasoning on letting Becthel off the
hook, he did so because the existing laws didn't apply.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
SO no warrants were ever sworn out
against <i>any</i>one. There was, according to Shaeffer, no
evidence that Ms Monroe was actually guilty of negligence (Though her
letter to Charles Sheriden asking him to lie about Fisher's
qualifications sure made it seem as if she <i>thought</i> she was in the
wrong.)<br />
<br />
As for his decision not to charge Becthel, it turned out that the factory inspector
could suggest all of the safety improvements he wanted, but he
couldn't <i>demand</i> anything other than exterior fire
escapes (Which the Rhoads Building had). Unfortunately, the laws of
Pennsylvania didn't really address what interior features a building
could and should (And equally importantly, couldn't and shouldn't)
have, which meant that he couldn't be found negligent for not enforcing the laws regarding the Rhoads Building's safety defects because there were no laws to enforce. Those laws simply didn't exist at the time.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The residents of Boyertown weren't
happy, either with Ms Monroe and Harry Becthel getting off the hook,
or the fact that Dr Rhoads and Edgar Mauger were found <i>not</i> to
be responsible for the building's safety flaws. Of course,
again, if they <i>had</i> been found responsible, the laws
really didn't address it other than <i>maybe</i> finding
them negligent.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As unpopular as the decision to not
swear out any warrants was, it was,...legally, at any rate...the
correct one. There was no case. All a trial would have done was draw
out the community's pain for months, only to have the defendants
found not guilty due to a lack of evidence, if the charges weren't
just dismissed with prejudice because, well, no laws were actually
broken.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Strasser probably breathed a huge sigh
of relief when the verdict was finally read...his part in the ordeal
was over, though I have to wonder just how easy it would have been to
put such a horrific incident out of his mind. He dotted the last few
'i's and crossed the last 't's on the morning of January 30th and
climbed in his car, aiming it back towards Reading for the final
time. He noted some time later that his one regret was that no one
had to face any consequences for the disaster.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Boyertown's residents could finally
begin picking up the pieces, but it would be a long, painful process.
Around eight percent of the town's population died in the fire,
so everyone in town knew someone...and most <i>multiple</i> people...who
had died.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fifteen children and teens were
orphaned. Twenty-one lost mothers, and fourteen lost fathers. Several
families lost multiple children.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Washington Street School wouldn't
reopen until February 3rd, after a thorough cleaning, giving the kids
an unexpected three weeks off in January, but it was a vacation they
neither wanted...given the reason they got it...or were able to
enjoy. Too many of them had lost parents and siblings, and too many
of their friends had died in the fire. When the school reopened there
were twenty-six empty desks. Nearly a full quarter of the high
school's 40 students...nine of them...were among the dead. Three
teachers also died in the fire, leaving empty desks at the front of
the classrooms as well. The one class that lost no students lost it's
teacher.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Several business owners died in the
fire, as well as several valued employees. Dr Rhoads was one of the
business owners who lost employees, as the head teller of The
Farmer's Bank was among those who died.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Charles Spatz...editor of <i>The
Burke County Democrat</i>, Boyertown's paper...was badly injured when
he bailed out of the window, and was bed-ridden for several weeks. On
top of that, his Linotype operator was also one of the fire's
victims, but neither of these issues caused the paper to cease
operation for more than a day or so. Charles Spatz's sixteen year old
son Carl returned home from boarding school and took over for
him...If Carl Spatz's name sounds familiar, BTW, there's a good
reason. We'll take a closer look at both him and his dad (And how a
sixteen year old kid all but single-handedly published the paper) in
Notes.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The building's gutted, roofless shell
loomed over Downtown Boyertown until the end of January, acting as a
very visible and very unwelcome reminder of the tragedy. Dr Rhoads
promised to rebuild the building within a year or so, but most
importantly for the town's morale, he wasted no time in having the
burned out shell of the fire building torn down and removed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Demolition of the building's shell was
well under way by the end of January, and ground was broken for it's
replacement in the spring. The new building was similar in appearance
to the one it replaced, but a bit larger. Construction-wise it bore
no resemblance what-so-ever to the old Rhoads building. The new
building was built of brick and concrete, probably with a steel (Or
in that era, possibly iron) framework, and featured offices on the
second floor rather than a performance venue.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The row houses on Washington Street, at
the rear of the building, were also repaired and rebuilt.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The building is still in use today,
though the offices have been converted to apartments. A plaque
memorializing the fire victims is displayed on the wall at the
northeast corner of the building, on Washington Street.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<center>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 665px;">
<colgroup><col width="665"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr>
<td width="665"><div align="CENTER">
<a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZV2g50CUPj3369XL0QmUzSNLquZ6UKnhkgaUMaKsoW83KBrDDTOxVrJmjjdDsQGnPUOkXpyamHQ7GhYzKy7bxKAbeglVMIH-QiKzdnpVrZ5Stlay1lg77owUqbBNWDnBJx31eN1wsdok/s1600/97fe7d08766a8749ea3808f76323d55c.jpg"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="388" name="graphics18" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZV2g50CUPj3369XL0QmUzSNLquZ6UKnhkgaUMaKsoW83KBrDDTOxVrJmjjdDsQGnPUOkXpyamHQ7GhYzKy7bxKAbeglVMIH-QiKzdnpVrZ5Stlay1lg77owUqbBNWDnBJx31eN1wsdok/s640/97fe7d08766a8749ea3808f76323d55c.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="665"><div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;">T</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">he
new Rhoads Building shortly after it opened in 1909. Note the
electrical service drop above the third window back from the
front of the building. This building was constructed of concrete
with a steel or possibly iron frame. The new building did not
include an auditorium...the second and third floors instead
contained offices.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
row houses were also rebuilt. The fourth floor and attic were
removed, making them three story houses, and a new attic and roof
were installed. The interiors were also, I'm sure, completely
remodeled. These houses also still stand today.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
<center>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 665px;">
<colgroup><col width="665"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr>
<td width="665"><div align="CENTER">
<a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGvSyogJ4U3P6JllMiVJVKfGDzeqeDFGCzvD6wCahPH9-vb0KyVIDYbOQXYOZzI7eHUfSyE63Vnq6FpSK_D72yNKAe_d3eAvrO5pUfq8RXQ0gkp1HRswf1Z-O10HDBiDQRJ98TXRacuko/s1600/Screenshot+%2528622%2529.png"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="350" name="graphics19" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGvSyogJ4U3P6JllMiVJVKfGDzeqeDFGCzvD6wCahPH9-vb0KyVIDYbOQXYOZzI7eHUfSyE63Vnq6FpSK_D72yNKAe_d3eAvrO5pUfq8RXQ0gkp1HRswf1Z-O10HDBiDQRJ98TXRacuko/s640/Screenshot+%2528622%2529.png" width="640" /></a></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="665"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
new Rhodes building as it appears today. The offices that once
occupied the second and third floors were converted to apartments
decades ago,</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<center>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 665px;">
<colgroup><col width="665"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr>
<td width="665"><div align="CENTER">
<a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs87iYsEGHeLbYR1DppKMMsMaJ_86-gMFKLwSTwHjPvRTJnbL7jubBEfjSQLJFegrhGUhZ1zcTmEeRB_ebrpfqB_v6zoWsZ1hBmTJZQXg8ESf92Ag4DjrAYqID3QNycm64FnohgaqqqSY/s1600/Screenshot+%2528624%2529.png"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="360" name="graphics20" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs87iYsEGHeLbYR1DppKMMsMaJ_86-gMFKLwSTwHjPvRTJnbL7jubBEfjSQLJFegrhGUhZ1zcTmEeRB_ebrpfqB_v6zoWsZ1hBmTJZQXg8ESf92Ag4DjrAYqID3QNycm64FnohgaqqqSY/s640/Screenshot+%2528624%2529.png" width="640" /></a></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="665"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Looking
up Washington Street towards Philadelphia Ave today, with the row
houses in the foreground. After the fire, the fire-gutted forth
floor was removed from the row houses, and they were rebuilt as
three story houses. They are still in use...greatly
modernized...as residences today.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrPH49cIWYcOpvE4YQdj4bU_Lo6zNskj2a27YA1UhYJoNMHgjYrMCnBsnHK1vmyG-V2Jep15KDDblMtKVkgzH2Sf0x_gfbUSlUf51j8349MPfVAOV8Tfoo4V_N2oG66GQdpedaUsqwHk/s1600/rhoadsoperahouse.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrPH49cIWYcOpvE4YQdj4bU_Lo6zNskj2a27YA1UhYJoNMHgjYrMCnBsnHK1vmyG-V2Jep15KDDblMtKVkgzH2Sf0x_gfbUSlUf51j8349MPfVAOV8Tfoo4V_N2oG66GQdpedaUsqwHk/s640/rhoadsoperahouse.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plaque dedicated to the fire's victims, located on the Washington Street side of the building</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As time progressed and the tragedy
slipped further and further into the past, Boyertown grieved in
relative isolation and silence. Understandably, many of those who were either survivors of the fire
or had lost loved ones absolutely refused to speak of it again. The
impression I get is that anniversaries of the fire are remembered in
far more detail now than they were in the years and decades
immediately following it, but this is also understandable. It wasn't
exactly an event to be celebrated. Most likely, yearly memorial
services...both private and church sponsored... were held for those
lost in the fire, but I have a feeling there were few, if any, of
those photo-and-fact-loaded anniversary-of-the-disaster articles that
are a feature of <i>any</i> past disaster today.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This, of course caused the fire to slip
into the twilight of history. No one's left who remembered it first
hand,...the last person alive when the fire occurred passed away over a decade ago. Even an infant born in that long ago year would be 111 years old
now.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That doesn't mean the fire's been
forgotten...far from it, in fact. Thanks to organizations such as The
Boyertown Historical Society, the Rhoads Opera House Fire is,
arguably, better known in it's own community than either the
Richmond, Brooklyn, or Iroquois Theater fires are in their home cities.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Around the time of the fire's
100th anniversary there were lectures and historic walking tours
highlighting important sites as well as the requisite anniversary
articles in newspapers such as The Reading Eagle. There was even an
hour long documentary about the fire on a local TV station.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I know that remembrance walk was
held for at least a couple of years on either side of the centennial anniversary, and detailed articles are still published annually. The
Boyertown Historic Society has amassed a wealth of data on the fire.
I'm pretty sure that the great majority of the four thousand or so
people who currently call Boyertown home could tell you the
significance of the building at East Philadelphia Ave and Washington
Street without even missing a beat.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But this is understandable, too. To the
people living in Boyertown and environs there-of today, the fire was
an interesting if tragic historic event that sets their small town
apart from the rest.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To the people who called Boyertown
'Home' in 1908, however, it was a soul-shattering tragedy that
devastated their small town.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><***>Notes,
Links, And Stuff<***></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I got lucky with this one on several different levels.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
First, despite the 111 year gap between
the fire and this blog post, there is actually a good bit of info
on-line about the fire. True, many of the articles, most of which
were written around the fire's Centennial Anniversary, rehash the
exact same information...but not all. Thanks to stories
being passed down, remembered, and preserved over the years there are
also some unique takes on the fire from the viewpoint of people whose
lives it impacted. I had enough good, solid information just from
articles I'd found to write a pretty decent post (And, in fact was
well on my way to doing just that when...)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
...I ran up on bit of luck #2. I'd seen
reference to a pair of books penned by Mary Jane Schneider and
illustrated by Julia Longacre several times as I researched the
fire...but couldn't find the books themselves, either in print or in
Google Books, where you can usually find at least <i>some </i>of
the text of just about every tome ever written. Then the Olen Valley
Community Library decided to sell some of it's books. Guess which
books...several copies, of them, in fact...were among them And,
this being the second decade of the 21st Century, they listed them in
that grandest of all online department stores, Amazon. And I ran across the
link as I did yet another article search. The library's cast-offs were about
to become my research-treasure (And, in fact, the source of a good three quarters of my research info).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The books are <i>The Boyertown
Opera House Fire Volume I: Midwinter Mourning </i>and <i>The
Boyertown Opera House Fire Volume II: A Town In Tragedy </i>and
they give a very concise, well written and informative look at not
only the fire and it's aftermath, but life in Boyertown in the first
decade of the last century, as well as a detailed biography of all 170
of the fire's victims. The books were on sale for eight bucks and
change apiece. Even my tiny budget could handle that...I didn't even
have to <i>think</i> about it before I clicked 'Add To
Cart'.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then they arrived three days earlier
than promised to...Really, I should be used to this by now...refute a
good bit of what I'd already written. This, however, was no big deal
either....I'd much rather rewrite part of, or even all, of a post and
have it as accurate as possible than go in unnecessarily blind, and
be called out on errors that I had no excuse for making.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then I ran up on Bit Of Luck #3, when I
gave the Boyertown Historical Society a call, and was put in touch
with a lady named Lindsay<span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Dierolf, who is the collection manager for the Boyertown Area Historical Society. She and I had a long, informative, and very pleasant phone conversation about All Things Opera House that cleared up several things I'd been wondering about...the exchanges of ideas continued with a couple of Emails, and all of the above left me more then impressed with both Ms Dierolf and her organization. Really, every small town should have both a Historical society as dedicated to preserving their town's past as this crew is, with members as knowledgeable and dedicated as she is.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course this still doesn't mean I had all
of the info I would have liked. As happens in almost <i>all</i> fire-related historical research, I found very little about the actual
fire ground operations, and the little info I <i>did</i> find
tended to be contradictory. One news article, for example, says that
firefighters were playing streams of water on the fire within five
minutes of the alarm sounding, but reading Ms Schneider's book
quickly refuted that one, an opinion that was strengthened further by my conversation with Ms <span style="background-color: white; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Dierolf</span>. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So, as almost always occurs in these
posts, I had to do a bit...ok, a <i>good</i> bit...OK,
a <i>Lot...</i>of speculating as to what happened when the bells
finally started ringing in Keystone and Friendship's bell towers.
Interestingly enough, as I read Ms Schneider's excellent books, I
realized that some of the stories told by people who either escaped
or assisted with rescues was a bit contradictory as well (And this is
to be expected when you have a few dozen people relating
events...again, eyewitnesses are often the <i>worst</i> witnesses).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For this reason I added my own
interpretation of what happened on the second floor of The Rhoads
Building on that cold January evening 111 years back. Of course we'll
never know exactly what happened that night, and I can only hope I
came close and did it...and the 170 victims...justice. And, as
always, I hope I made it interesting and informative while I was at
it.<br />
<br />
Any errors, of course, are mine and mine alone, and if anyone sees anything that needs changing or fixing, please feel free to put it in the comments. As are all of my posts, this one is a constant work in progress.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<***></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To kick the Notes off, lets talk Fire
Safety Reform in the early 20th century.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Iroquois Theater Fire just over
four years earlier had brought the problem of fire safety, and more
importantly, the lack there of into sharp focus nation-wide and there
was a huge and forceful push to to improve fire safety...in
large theaters located in large and medium sized cities.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Unfortunately, hundreds of small venues
like the Opera House fell through the cracks because, well, they
weren't really <i>theaters</i> as defined by the
authorities pushing for reform. They were auditoriums. The owners and
managers of these smaller venues...if they even gave fire safety a
moment's thought in the first place...agreed with this
definition. Not having to make expensive changes to meet new codes
meant not having to spend money (A mindset that, unfortunately, can
still be found regularly today.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
After all, their thoughts likely
continued (Again, if they even gave it any thought at all), there
was no <i>way</i> they could kill 600 people in their
auditorium!! The place doesn't even <i>hold</i> that many
people!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But...as Boyertown was about to find
out graphically and horribly...they could kill
nearly <i>two</i> hundred people with little or no
effort at all. And there were hundreds, if not thousands of small,
second floor auditoriums just like The Rhoads Opera House throughout
the country, all of them in small rural towns, with <i>all</i> of
them...Every. Single. One...boasting most if not all of the fire
hazards that killed 169 people on the second floor of the Rhoads
Building on that cold January 13th 111 years back.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And, also like the Rhoads Building,
very few laws, ordinances, or regulations actually covered these
venues. State building inspectors, whatever their actual title may
have been in their respective states, could suggest improvements to
the buildings they inspected until they were blue in the face, but
the problem was, they couldn't <i>require</i> theses
changes be made. And as long as they couldn't, say, threaten to close
down the auditorium if it didn't comply (Because there were no laws
to comply <i>with) </i>another disaster of the same
magnitude as the Opera House was just waiting to happen.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While small towns nationwide took a
hard look at their auditoriums (And every small town had, if you
include school auditoriums, and churches, two or three), many states
didn't go as far as actually legislating changes in the laws, and among the few
that <i>did </i>pass laws governing fire safety in small
'Places of Public Assembly' (As such venues were, and are,
technically known), not a single one passed laws that were
as stringent as those that were passed in Pennsylvania.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was
shocked into taking <i>serious </i>action.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The changes started even before laws
were passed. Every town in P.A., of any size, up to and including
Philadelphia, took a long, hard look at pretty much <i>every</i> type
of occupancy where a large number of people could gather, and it was
a good thing they did...it was discovered that one school district
had a couple of ancient buildings that had no fire escapes, and they
they hadn't held a fire drill in four years.
Bet <i>that</i> changed <i>real</i> quick.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Owners of movie houses...especially
those converted from other types of buildings...were told to add fire
escapes, with appropriate exits leading to them, or close. Except that they still <i>couldn't</i> force them to close, because the law <i>still</i> didn't require dedicated fire exits leading to the fire escapes.<br />
<br />
Fire escapes were
already required on buildings of three or more floors at the time,
but we just saw graphically just how well that worked out when no
other safety features...such as dedicated, well lit, well marked fire exits...were mandatory. Which means that the
State Factory inspectors could demand that the fire escapes be added,
but when it came down to legal brass tacks,
they <i>still</i> couldn't demand that appropriately
sized, marked, and lighted exit doors be installed along <i>with</i> the fire escapes. That
being the case, there was a very real...and very valid...fear that
things would quickly go back to the brutally unsafe way they were
once the hysteria over the Opera House fire died down.<br />
<br />
Of course, fire exits were <i>far</i> from the only fire hazard that was present in just about every early-20th-Century auditorium and movie house. The Opera House was very likely not the only auditorium still lit by kerosene lamps in 1908. Highly flammable muslin curtains were pretty much the small-venue-industry-standard. And the list goes on.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fire Marshalls throughout Pa. were more
than aware of the lack of fire safety that predominated in that era,
and laws had been suggested even before the Opera House fire.
Philadelphia's fire marshal had taken one look at the projectors of
the day...both movie and slide...and declared them disasters waiting
to happen. He was in the process of trying to get some laws governing
the things through the legislature when The Opera House fire
occurred, and he went on record immediately afterward stating that
the fire had been an 'Absolutely unnecessary tragedy'.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The fire apparently kicked the State
legislature into action, and two laws slid through the legislative
process like they were riding on greased runners, passing in 1909.
One bill, Act 206A, dealt specifically with movie houses and slide
shows, requiring all such equipment to be permanently installed
in enclosed, fire resistant enclosures remote from the audience
seating. That alone would have very likely prevented the Opera House
fire from becoming the multiple-fatality tragedy that it was. If it
hadn't, the bill that birthed 206A...Act 233...likely would have not
only prevented the deaths...it would have probably prevented the fire
from starting in the first place.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This bill, which dealt with any Hall,
auditorium, or theater of two or more floors and/or theaters
incorporating a gallery, when passed, pretty much took every hazard
that The Rhoads Building had incorporated, and specifically forbade
them. The law didn't allow the use of any combustible or explosive
oil for lighting (Pretty much requiring either gas or, if it was
available, electricity for lighting.). Fire escape exits had to be
appropriately sized, marked with proper signage, and properly
lighted. Act 233 also stated that these exits <i>must</i> be
kept unobstructed and in good repair, and the signage <i>must </i>be
repainted yearly.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Second floor venues had to have more
than one exit, and the main stairway <i>had</i> to have a
landing at the exit leading to the stairway. That landing <i>had</i> to
measure at least 4 ft by 4 ft.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Failure to comply with either law
brought a 500 dollar fine (That'd be just north of $14,000 today) along with the possibility of imprisonment...up to 6 months for violating Act
233, up to 90 days for 206A.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There were still some shortfalls.
Operators of projectors and stereopticons weren't required to be
licensed, nor were the theaters themselves, and possibly most
importantly, theses new laws didn't set <i>any</i> maximum
seating restrictions (Occupancy restrictions are, today, among the
most <i>basic</i> of fire codes.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But the new laws did improve things...at least in Pennsylvania. But sadly, not everywhere.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Much like the laws governing school
buses at grade crossings decades later, it was like pulling <i>teeth</i> to
get every state to pass adequate fire codes, and often when
they <i>were</i> passed, they were either too
specific...the language, for example, would cover theaters, but not
schools...or were written so that older buildings were grandfathered
(One of the saddest fire disasters in the U.S...the Our Lady Of The
Angels School Fire in Chicago...occurred for <i>just </i>this reason.
And that was in 1958, fifty years after The Rhoads Opera House, so
the battle to get proper fire codes passed went right on to the
middle of the last century.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It goes without saying that new laws in
other states were almost always passed <i>after </i>a huge
loss of life brought the problem to the fore front and the public
demanded action to fix the problem. New laws may have improved things
immensely in P.A., but the rest of the country still had lessons to
learn...the first decade of the twentieth century had at least three
catastrophic loss of life fires, with fifty or more deaths, and the
first half of the century gave us nearly two dozen. Drop the number
of deaths down to the general cut-off for 'Catastrophic loss of
life...twenty-five or more dearths...and the number surges well
beyond that mark.<i>.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i>Those lessons were, sadly,
learned through a lot of sorrow and tears.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><***></b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The main doors to the
auditorium were locked. Or closed. and opened inward (And they did
indeed open inward). And that was the absolute deciding factor in the
large loss of life. You read that in just about every account of the
fire (Along with the fact that one of the ushers apparently locked
the doors to keep people from going in and out so he could watch the
play). One problem. Didn't happen that way. It couldn't have.
Too <i>many</i> people made it out for both of the the main exit doors to have been closed.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Say <i>what???' </i>You
ask. Read on say I.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lets do some math real
quick.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There were 312 tickets sold
to the Monday Night (Jan 13th) performance, then there were around 60
members of the cast and crew, for a total of 372 people in the
building when the curtain rose for the first act . Possibly as many
as ten left early for one reason or the other...not feeling well,
child wanted to go home, didn't feel safe, what have you...giving us
362 inside when the hose came loose, the hissing startled everyone,
and the kerosene lamp got kicked over.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As many as a dozen left as
soon as the hissing started, going out the main entrance. We're down
to 350. Possibly as many as 70 made it down the back stairs (Several
people from the front row or two went out that way as well as the
cast and crew.) Down to 280 people still inside.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Another 50-60 made it down
the fire escapes. I'll be optimistic and say that 60 made it out that
way. We're down to 220 people still inside the second floor.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of that 220, 166 never made
it out (Three of those who <i>did</i> make it out would die
later.). </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That leaves 54 people still
on the second floor who <i>did</i> make it out before
someone tripped and fell stepping down to that first stairway step,
initiating the massive pile-up of bodies that quickly blocked the
exit, rendering it useless.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If both doors had been
closed, those fifty-four people would have never gotten them open
because they opened inwards. The crowd pressing against them would
have jammed <i>both</i> doors (Rather than just one of
them, as actually did happen) closed just as effectively as a dead
bolt. And those 54 people would have been trapped, making the death
toll 220 instead of 170.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The accounts given by
several of those who escaped even confirmed that one of the doors was
open...people stating that they made it through the door while their
wife/child/sibling/friend was torn away from them and trapped by the
crowd.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So I think it happened real
close to the way I wrote it. The usher scrambled as soon as the fire
started, managing to get one side of the main entrance opened before
the panic hit. He was probably trying to open the other side when the
panicked mob hit the exit like a human tidal wave. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Had he had another fifteen
seconds or so...long enough to unbolt the other door and throw it
open...there would have been a six foot wide exit available. I'm not
going to pretend that everyone would have gotten out. There would
have <i>still</i> been 220 people trying to get through one
six foot wide opening with the second floor already well involved in
fire. There would have still been lives lost. It would, in fact,
probably still have been catastrophic. But everyone would at least
had more of a chance.</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><***></b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It would be nice to say that
the identification and claiming of bodies went off without a single
hitch but, as awesome a job as Berks County Coroner Strasser did in
organizing the identification and release of bodies, there
were <i>still </i>errors, despite the strict protocols he
put in place to prevent them.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There were a few problems at
the morgues themselves...in one case, as I noted in the body of the
post, three families claimed the same child's body, and that had to
be worked out. It wouldn't surprise me if something similar happened a
couple of times. But that wasn't the biggie...these issues were
resolved before the bodies were actually removed from the morgue and
buried.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While there weren't as
many <i>big</i> problems...AKA the wrong body being claimed
by a family...as there had been at the Iroquois Theater Fire five
years earlier, there <i>was</i> one misidentified body
claimed by...and buried by...the wrong family,
and <i>that </i>one <i>almost</i> caused a
scandal.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Case Of The Mystery
Woman started simply...and sadly...enough, with Morris and Rebecca
Diamond looking for the body of their 14 year old daughter Rosa on
the Wednesday after the fire, a search that was unsuccessful.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fearing that they may not be
able to find her because of the condition of the bodies, Morris set
back out on Thursday morning, with a detailed list and description,
compiled by his wife, of exactly what she was wearing, including
jewelry. (No mother should <i>ever</i> have to compile such
a list for such a reason.) Included on this list was a
description of a specific...and apparently fairly unusual... kind of
safety pin that Rebecca Diamond had used on her daughter's
undergarments.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Morris likely searched all
of the morgues, and didn't make it to the Washington Street School
until Thursday afternoon. He began checking the pouches containing
personal effects, as he likely had at the other morgues. This time,
however, he hadn't been searching long when he ran up on the exact
kind of safety pin described by his wife in one of the pouches.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One problem. There
was <i>no</i> jewelry with it. The jewelry, he surmised,
could have been lost in the shuffle of body recovery. The Safety Pin,
however, was attached to the undergarments...or at least the remains
of them... that had been with what he assumed was his daughter's body. He immediately informed the
officials in charge of the morgue that he'd found his daughter Rosa,
then went to the Union House, where he met with Strasser and had a
death certificate signed.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Once he claimed his
daughter's body, he made arrangements for it to be shipped to
Philadelphia by train, to be buried in a family plot. The casket was
met by grieving, sobbing relatives, and interment took place in Mt
Carmel Cemetery, on Philly's Frankfort Ave after a funeral service at
the home of Rosa's grandmother.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sad as this was, the family
could now grieve properly, and begin to move on, if you can move on
from such a horrible occurrence. Unfortunately, it wasn't over yet...things were about to get even
sadder.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
At just about the same time
Morris Diamond was removing his daughter's body...or what
he <i>thought</i> was his daughter's body...from the
schoolhouse there was a body whose personal effects included pieces
of a men's suit and a pocket watch. This body...body #162...went
unclaimed despite this rather ornate and unique watch.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And then one of the people
who had helped recover bodies told Strasser that 'Body #162 appeared to be that of a woman.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A woman who apparently had
been dressed in men's clothing. <i>Today</i> that would
hardly be worth a mention. In 1908, however, it was the stuff of deep
scandal. The very <i>thought</i> that one of the ladies of
the town would be skulking around dressed as a man was just ...well
it just couldn't <i>be</i>! Except that, apparently, it was.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The first theory was that
the Mystery Woman was possibly one of the cast in costume. This, at
first glance, was a logical assumption, and better yet, one that
would quickly derail any scandalous rumors that might get started.
One problem, though.. The play was set in the mid 16th century. None
of the cast would have been costumed in a then-modern men's suit. And
just to be sure of this, several cast members were asked if, for some
reason, such a costume had been worn by one of their female cast
mates. The answer, of course, was an unequivocal 'no'.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Th Media sniffed out the
story even as the 'Cast Member Theory' withered on the vine. The members of the Fourth Estate haven't changed their basic operating concept...Scandal Means Good Stories And Good Stories Mean
More Profit, be it papers sold in 1908 or modern (Monetized) YouTube
views today...in 111 years. Needless to say, the papers...both local
and regional...grabbed the story and ran with it like a ball-carrier
heading for the end zone. The story was reported extensively
state-wide, with the <i>Philadelphia Evening Telegraph </i> taking
the very unusual action for that era of printing a paragraph about
the 'Mystery Woman' in red ink.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Curiosity seekers (And I got
the very definite impression that a lot of them were <i>not</i> Boyertown
residents) showed up at the school to get a glimpse of the body,
a situation that began to get out of hand <i>quickly</i>.
Strasser took care of that problem by moving the body to a separate
room, and placing it under lock, key, and guard.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Meanwhile, the residents of
Boyertown engaged in another ancient small town past time...gossip
and speculation, As in just who could this mystery woman <i>be</i>,
and just <i>why</i> was she dressed in men's clothing.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Theories ranged from a
woman spying on her possibly unfaithful husband to a gang getting
ready to rob the Farmer's Bank, and sightings, just before the fire,
of women possibly dressed as men were suddenly remembered and
reported in some detail. None of these reported sightings amounted to
anything concrete.<br />
<br />
The Possible Criminal Gang theory...bolstered by a
telegram from Philadelphia PD to Strasser detailing the arrest of a
man in women's clothing who told detectives he'd been in Boyertown
the day before the fire...took hold and grew roots. If the Mystery
Woman was an outsider that meant that she <i>wasn't</i> a Boyertown resident, which meant that the townspeople could breathe a
collective sigh of relief...at least now no scandal could be
connected to their community.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But this still left an
unsolved mystery...just who <i>was</i> she???</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Those working the morgue
reported that jewelry had been recovered along with the Mystery
Woman's body, with a description of said jewelry provided to several
media outlets (Spell that, of course, 'Newspapers) and
the <i>Philadelphia Inquirer </i>sent a photographer, who
took pictures of the items that were published in the Saturday
January 18th edition of the paper.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Those items were a bracelet,
a pair of diamond ear rings, and a signet ring with the initial 'R'
on it.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Diamonds, who were in
Philly, saw this picture and felt their blood run cold...that signet
ring belonged to their daughter. In fact, <i>all</i> of
the jewelry belonged to Rosa.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Someone needed to go back to
Boyertown and look at the jewelry to confirm that it was, in
fact, Rosa's but the Diamonds were absolutely sure it was (And
equally sure that she had <i>not</i> been wearing a men's
suit). It wouldn't surprise me at all if Morris Diamond just
wasn't up to the trip. The events of the last few days had taken his
heart and used a sledge hammer on it.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As a member of Keystone Fire
company, he'd arrived at the scene early in, tried to get in to find
Rosa only to be forced out by the heat and fire. He had to be restrained by
friends and fellow fire fighters when he tried to go in a second
time, only to be told 'She's gone Morris...we saw her burning...' by
one of the survivors who escaped (OK...that would have ended me right
there. It just...would have.) <i>then </i>he had to search
the morgues for her body. He was, very likely, just done. The man's
heart was already shattered into tiny pieces at that point.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Rosa's cousin, Harry
Englander,who had given her the signet ring, made the trip and
quickly identified the ring as Rosa's, an identification he confirmed
to both Strasser and a reporter from the <i>Reading Eagle. </i>Then
(Even as Strasser was likely already scrambling to fix the mix-up)
Englander sent a telegram to The Diamonds in Philly. They caught an
afternoon train back to Boyertown, met with Strasser, and informed
him that the 'Mystery Woman' was all but definitely their Rosa, and
that she had gone to the play wearing her own clothes... <i>not</i> a
men's suit. She had in fact taken a young handicapped girl who she
was friends with to the play, and the two had arrived early...before
the doors opened...and gone to a nearby store, where they had munched
on candy while awaiting the 7:30 PM door-opening time.
SO <i>several</i> people had seen her dressed in her own
clothes.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Strasser was more than
convinced, concluding that the volunteers working the morgue had
managed to mix up the clothing while bringing the bodies to the
morgue...something the numbered bodies and personal possession pouches was supposed to prevent. All it would've taken for a mis-identification to occur, however, was for one pouch to be misnumbered, or for some scraps of clothing/possessions to find their way into the wrong pouch, which is likely exactly what happened. Given the conditions they were working under, he was lucky
that this was the only major foul-up that occurred.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The mix-up had been discovered, but Strasser <i>still </i>had
a problem. If this was Rosa Diamond's body, that meant that the wrong
body had been buried in Philadelphia, and they had no idea who it
was. The Diamonds assured Strasser that the other body would be
returned to Boyertown post-haste (And <i>then</i> had to
wait for him to go to Reading on business before Rosa's body was
released to them). A likely mini-blizzard of phone calls and/or
telegrams were exchanged to get the other body disinterred and on a
train, hopefully in time for it to be buried with the other 24
unidentified bodies on Sunday the 19th...which didn't happen.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The unidentified body was
disinterred and loaded on a train to Boyertown on Monday the 20th, a
week to the day after the fire. The same morning that the Diamonds
boarded a train to Philadelphia, with Rosa's finally positively
identified body in the baggage car. The two trains likely passed each
other somewhere along the way.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The actual mystery
woman...she never was identified...was finally buried along with
the rest of the unidentified dead from the fire, a day after their mass interment, making the total
number of unidentified bodies twenty-five.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><***></b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A quick disclaimer of sorts
as well as the 'clencher' of the above note...the Mystery Woman/Rosa
Diamond was the only mix-up that we know about for sure (Spell that
The Only One That Was Caught). For the most part the clothing used to
identify bodies actually consisted of burned scraps of clothing,
probably found under the body where the fire couldn't reach it, so
it's not unlikely that clothing got mixed up more than once. It's also likely that there were cases where (As was the apparent but unstated case here) all of
the items found with the body weren't examined by the person searching for a missing loved one. Had Morris Diamond
seen that signet ring he would have at least had reason to look at
'The Mystery Woman's' body more closely. But he <i>didn't</i> see the signet ring, of course, because he gave that body only a quick, cursory glance. After all,
Rosa's body was originally thought to be male because of the remains
of the men's suit.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
He had
claimed the wrong body as Rosa's by the time the Mystery Woman was
found to have, in fact, been a woman. Only that men's suit
and the fact that the body was, somehow, determined to be female caused Strasser to delve more deeply into the
body's I.D.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
Keep in mind that, even though that men's suit was why Mr Diamond didn't even look at 'The Mystery Woman's' body when he was searching for Rosa, it was <i>only</i> because that same men's suit created a media frenzy that Rosa's body was actually finally identified, claimed by the Diamond's, and buried.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now...lets change the
scenereo a bit. What if the set of clothing that was incorrectly
placed with Rosa's body had been a young girl's dress instead of a
men's suit....but, obviously not <i>Rosa's</i> dress. And Morris Diamond had examined that body before examining the body he wrongly claimed as his daughters.. He would have still assumed his daughter's body was some other unfortunate young girl because the dress (Or remnants of a dress) displayed with it wasn't his daughter's, which means his examination of the body would have stopped before he saw the signet ring. And he would have still moved on, found that safety pin, assumed that Rosa's jewelry had been lost during recovery efforts, and claimed the wrong body as his daughter's.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's a good bet that little
or no further examination would have been done. The Diamonds, as they actually did, would
have thought they had Rosa'a body. And those looking at <i>Rosa's </i>body wouldn't have been able to identify the clothing, or even if they <i>did</i> recognize the dress, they wouldn't have recognized the jewelry, and would have, very possibly, just assumed two young girls may have been wearing the same type dress.<br />
<br />
The body would have <i>still</i> been an unidentified body. This, though, wouldn't have been an unidentified body that had generated a huge news story all it's own...this would have just been a little girl's unidentified body. One among twenty-five unidentified bodies.<br />
<br />
No photographer would have been sent get pictures of the jewelry. The description of the signet ring would have simply been published along with the description of the body it was found with, and these descriptions would be included in the descriptions of the other 24 unidentified bodies, probably in a side-bar to one of the main articles about the fire.<br />
<br />
The Diamonds would have thought for sure that they had buried the correct body, and would have no reason to read the descriptions of unidentified bodies <i>or</i> the possessions found with them, There would be no sensationalized 'Mystery Woman' article for them to read, and therefore no photos of the signet ring for them to see.<br />
<br />
Rosa's body would have been
buried with the unidentified while her parents would have buried the <i>wrong</i> body, thinking they had buried Rosa. Of course, that very scenereo could
have actually happened a couple of times. And, without the modern
forms of forensic identification, such as DNA, that we enjoy today,
no one would have been the wiser.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not only could this have
happened, it wouldn't surprise me if it did happen. At least in those cases
(If they did indeed happen) the grieving families got a body that
they thought was that of their loved one, and didn't have to suffer
the heart wrenching ordeal of finding out that they had buried the
wrong body, then having to go through the ordeal of searching for
the right body...which may have <i>also</i> been
misidentified, claimed and buried, which meant they would never find
it...all over again.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That being said,
Strasser <i>still</i> did an amazing job, especially given
the conditions he had to deal with, and the technology he had to work
with.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>'Wait</i> a minute
Rob!' I can hear a couple of people 'What about the safety pin...."</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And here's our
clencher...apparently, the exact same kind of safety pin was
found with both<i> </i>Rosa'a body <i>and </i> the body that Mr Diamond initially claimed. Sometimes that item that you
think is so unique that it's a fail-safe way of identifying someone,
well, isn't. This, BTW, still can happen today, but the modern
forensics I mentioned above make it into an aggravation rather than a
major error.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><br /><***></b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There were 120 funerals,
including a mass funeral and interment for the unidentified
dead, in the week after the fire, with just shy of 150 of the victims
being buried in Boyertown's Fairview Cemetery. While this was a
tragic figure...normally a town the size of Boyertown wouldn't see
that many funerals over the course of a decade...it was also a
logistics nightmare. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Boyertown was the home of
Boyertown Burial Casket Company, one of the largest and best known
casket manufacturers in the nation at the time, and they were
suddenly working overtime to produce the number of caskets needed to
bury the fire victims (Even as the plant employees mourned several of
their fellow workers, who died in the fire). I have a feeling that,
with a few exceptions, these were not overly fancy caskets....plain,
only slightly adorned black caskets for adults, and small white
caskets for children. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It goes without saying that
the employees and owners of the company would have not been at all
unhappy if this sudden surge in business had never happened.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then there were graves. The
town actually had to call for help to get all of the graves dug and
prepared in time for their respective funeral services, with as many
as fifty to sixty extra workers in town at one point, and
they <i>still</i> couldn't keep up with the demand for
finished graves. Several times, mourners had to wait while workers
finished digging and preparing their loved one's grave, and on a
couple of occasions funerals were actually postponed. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Extra hearses had to be
ordered. Boyertown was also home to the Boyertown Carriage Works, a builder of horse drawn hearses at the time, and they provided a
couple of stock models ('Demonstrators' are <i>not</i> a
new concept at all) for use by the town's undertakers, but
this <i>still </i> wasn't enough, and out of town
undertakers loaned hearses to the local undertakers, which, like the
mutual aid fire rigs from Pottstown, were very likely transported to
Boyertown by train.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Clergymen were all but
literally running form service to service, and a few
interments...generally those of bodies so badly burned and in such
horrible shape that they needed to be buried as soon as
possible...took place without any clergy present at all. In the same vein, a
couple of services took place without any family present (In both of
theses type cases, a memorial service was generally held for the
deceased in the days after the interment.)</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And yes...as well as being
sad and tragic, this week of funerals was just as hectic and morbidly
frenetic as it seems.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><***></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
One of the saddest facets of the fire was the number of children who died, and the number of families that lost multiple children and multiple family members:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Three entire families were wiped out</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Twenty-six children under the age of 18 died.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Thirteen families lost multiple children. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Seven children died along with both parents. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Eight married couples died. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Five sets of cousins died in the fire...in one case, that of the Moyer family, six cousins (Three of them sisters) died.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Fifteen children and teens were orphaned.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Twenty one children lost their mothers.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Fourteen lost their dads.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Words don't exist to describe just how horrible those numbers are.</div>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><***></b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Preparing the grave for and
burying the unidentified dead was another task in and of itself, and
was handled by the Citizens Relief Committee, a group we'll take a
closer look at shortly. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The grave was 48 by 36 feet,
divided into separate graves by nine inch brick walls, and was ready
by Sunday morning. Local lodges provided pallbearers. Undertakers from four near-by towns as well
as thirteen hearses were procured and the service was meticulously planned down to the
last detail. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Newspapers had reported on
the preparations and schedule for the service, which was to start at
9 AM, and the public responded...to the tune of
fifteen <i>thousand </i>spectators, who very literally
filled the streets. Extra trains were run to transport the seven
thousand people who traveled to Boyertown by train, while trolleys
were running every twenty minutes to bring the three thousand people
who traveled to Boyertown from Reading. The other five thousand
came in via every other form of vehicle in existence during that era,
including a few early automobiles.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This crowd had lined
Washington Street and Philadelphia Ave from the school to Fairview
Cemetery by well before 9 AM, when the service was to start. The
undertakers likely spent a good portion of early Sunday morning
readying the bodies and getting them in the twenty-four caskets (The
twenty-fifth body, wrongly identified as Rosa Diamond, was still in
Philadelphia).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
pallbearers...wearing white gloves, marched into the school house two
by two, and brought out the first thirteen caskets, loading them into
then hearses, which pulled away from the school in intervals, leaving
100 feet between each hearse. They then proceeded down Washington
Street to Philadelphia Ave, past the ruins of the Rhoads Building, to
the cemetery. The first hearse turned into the gate (Ironically,
passing a poster advertising a lecture at the Opera House) at 9:45.
The first casket was lowered into the grave very shortly there-after. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There would have to be
two services, with thirteen (Five males and eight females) buried
during the first service. The five males were interred first,
followed by the eight females.The Reverend Melvin Kurtz began the
service as the 7th casket was lowered into the grave, using the same
quick but solemn and dignified service for each.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The first service had ended
at 10:30 AM, and the hearses had left the cemetery to return to the
school as soon as the first thirteen unidentified bodies were
at the grave side...the remaining eleven bodies were being loaded as the service
took place.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The second procession of
eleven hearses, all carrying female bodies, arrived at the cemetery
at about eleven AM, with the second service a solemn repeat of the
first. The service concluded around noon...but the funerals weren't
over for the day. There would be twelve more funerals, of known
victims, before the day was through. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Interestingly, the people of
Boyertown...<i>all</i> of whom to the last man, woman, and
child, turned out for the funeral of the unidentified...were pretty
sure <i>who</i> was buried in that grave. The bodies were
just in such a condition, with so few if any identifiable personal
effects remaining, that there was no way to determine which body was
which person. A memorial would later be erected with the names of all
of the unidentified engraved there-on.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs_CYUhe1RjFN-0AgdpCt-TcCOobN1wxx99tGmfkm_GH0v4KQLN4bn0OXbpDfWbbJ0xSNum5ZvEItthjU5eHxjyML00giIXK54RVS2KFuKCt53csR3hObrJTdOmy0pmJShGtpUS0gAzvQ/s1600/RhoadsTombstone.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="855" data-original-width="1422" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs_CYUhe1RjFN-0AgdpCt-TcCOobN1wxx99tGmfkm_GH0v4KQLN4bn0OXbpDfWbbJ0xSNum5ZvEItthjU5eHxjyML00giIXK54RVS2KFuKCt53csR3hObrJTdOmy0pmJShGtpUS0gAzvQ/s640/RhoadsTombstone.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The memorial erected at Fairview Cemetery at the grave of the unidentified dead from the fire.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><***></b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There can't be anything much worse
than having your small town turned into a temporary tourist
attraction during the darkest, saddest week in it's history,
but that's <i>exactly</i> what happened to Boyertown on the
day the Unidentified Dead were buried. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The relief committee, along
with Kohler, anticipated the influx of out of towners (Though I'm not
sure they expected fifteen <i>thousand</i> of them.) and
had forty-five State Troopers brought in to handle the crowds. Those
forty-five troopers had a long, <i>long</i> day.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Keep in mind that
Boyertown's population at the time was right around 2200, so the town
was wall to wall packed with seven times it's normal population.
Restaurants at the hotels ran out of food, a lunch wagon (The
fore-runner of today's food trucks) was brought in, and ran out of
food just as quickly, and there were so many people on the streets
that town officials were actually scared that the streets built over
old mines on the town's south end would collapse under the weight of
all the people standing and walking on them. My bet is that one of
the big jobs that Pa. State P.D. had was keeping people off of those particular streets.
And another bet was that those efforts were met with people giving them every excuse and reason in the world as to why they should be allowed to stay on those same streets...the same breed of frustration that police officers encounter while doing crowd control to this very
day.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I also have a feeling that
the good citizens of Boyertown were just about done with strangers
showing up and acting as if their town was a carnival or circus
placed there for their entertainment. Thankfully the crowd realized
the solemness of the funeral services required dignified and
respectful behavior...I hate to think of how such a crowd would
behave <i>today...</i>and behaved appropriately. I also have a
feeling that had they not done so, things might have gotten a little
ugly before the day was over...again, my bet is that the people of
Boyertown were <i>done</i> with people coming in as
tourists and using their tragedy as entertainment. I have
a <i>huge </i>level of respect for <i>all</i> of
Boyertown's citizens of that era for the amount of restraint they
exhibited, and for the fact that they treated these people who'd
invaded their town and their grief with the utmost of hospitality and respect.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I also have a feeling that
Boyertown's 2200 or so citizens were not at all sad to see the last
of these people board a train and leave them to their grief as the
day drew to a close.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><***></b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Danial Kohler was the man of
the hour on a whole slew of different levels. He got all but
literally yanked out of bed to have just about all of the ancillary
command functions of one of the worst disasters in U.S. history
dumped in his lap...while searching for his son...and dived right in
with both feet. In doing so he exhibited an amazing talent for both
organization and multi-tasking.<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lets take a look at just the
first forty-eight hours or so of the incident to see just what Dan
Kohler accomplished.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
With-in thirty minutes of
the fire's start, Kohler already had extra resources...Fire, police,
and medical...on the way. Before sunrise the next morning he'd begun
organizing a Relief Committee to assist the survivors of the fire,
and by lunch-time on Tuesday he had met with the town's undertakers,
asking them what they needed, and had extra resources to assist in
burying Boyertown's dead...both extra hearses and extra hands to dig
graves...lined up.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He was doing this while
answering innumerable questions and taking an equal number of
requests from the citizens and business owners of Boyertown,
answering multiple phone calls from the mayors of every large city in
Pennsylvania offering assistance, and handling the Press...and trust
me on this, that was <i>no</i> easy task as the members of
The Forth Estate were every bit as aggressive, if not a bit more so, in reporting a story
and trying to get interviews back then as they are today</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While all of this was going
on, he also appointed twelve members of the community to the relief
committee, and set up guide lines for what they needed to do, and how
to best do it.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He did all of this, BTW, on
Tuesday, the day after the fire. He was helped along by the very
nature of the citizens of Boyertown, and indeed, the entire region.
The Pennsylvania Dutch were and are renowned for having a penchant
for order and organization that has served them well over the years,
and made the formidable task of bringing order to the
tragedy-stricken Chaos that was Boyertown on 1-14-08...the day after
the fire...a little less difficult.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Oh...keep in mind that he
did all of this with none of the technology that we take for granted
today, with the exception of the telephone...and the telephone system
as it existed in 1908 was a far, <i>far </i>different
and more primitive beast that the system we enjoy today.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The madness continued on
Wednesday...the day kicked off with a meeting of the relief
committee, then continued with <i>more </i>offers of
assistance, dealing with reporters, who literally mobbed him on
a couple of occasions, (and as busy as he was with everything else, he
still took time to answer all of their questions, as asinine as a few
of them inevitably were). While answering the questions posed to him by the Press, he also managed to defuse several untrue stories
(Fake News is <i>not</i> a new thing) </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Getting the Relief Committee
organized and to work in just over twenty four hours was his best
accomplishment, IMHO.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lets take a closer look at
this crew's accomplishments...</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><br /><***></b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Even as he was getting
Mutual Aid enroute to Boyertown, and trying to make order out of the
horror that was Monday night, Dan Kohler already knew what he needed
to do. They were going to need a committee to both assist with the
'math' of the tragedy...How many were dead, missing, and injured as
well as just <i>who</i> was missing, deceased, or
injured...as well as providing the injured and the families of the
deceased with what ever assistance they needed in both the short term
and the long term. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Getting such a committee off
the ground and functioning efficiently in just 24 hours under the conditions he was
faced with would be a herculean task <i>today</i> In the
technology-less first decade of the Twentieth Century, it was just a
couple of clicks shy of impossible. But it still got done, and done
well.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
By early Wednesday morning,
Kohler had chosen and anointed the twelve members of the Relief
committee. By 9 AM or so, the committee was in Keystone Fire Company's second floor meeting room (Which also served as town hall) hammering out the details of what
needed to be done and how to do it . Before this meeting even started, a
proclamation both announcing the formation and purpose of the
committee and asking for willing hands to assist in digging graves
had been posted.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Proper burial of the dead
was listed as the top priority, and one of the first tasks the
committee took on was, as noted above, determining who was dead,
alive, and missing, and just how much assistance each family needed
in burying their dead.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They planned to visit every
household in Boyertown over the course of the day...an enormous
undertaking even in a town as small as Boyertown. To pull this off,
they first divided Boyertown into four quadrants, using the railroad
tracks as the north-south boundary, and Philadelphia Ave as the
East-West boundary. All twelve members of the committee were issued
badges (White with black letters) and divided into four three man
teams.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
They were, of course, trying
to determine who was missing, and what assistance each family needed
in burying their dead, but their rounds very quickly took on multiple
tasks. They began running up on orphaned children and families who'd lost their primary bread-winner, as well as injured citizens who were
in need of bandages and medicine (Not to mention medical help).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A printer was tasked with
printing up applications for assistance, and these were
distributed...along with, in some cases, emergency food supplies...
to the families who required aid. One local drugstore was ordered to
provide whatever medical supplies and medicines any family needed
without charge, the items to be paid for through funds collected by
the Relief Committee. Though it wasn't stated, I have a sneaking
suspicion that the Relief Committee was also tasked with delivering
these medical supplies.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In order to inform the
citizens of Boyertown just how they planned to tackle the daunting
tasks ahead of them, the Relief Committee hosted a public meeting at
8 PM on Tuesday night at Friendship Hook and Ladder's fire house.
Fifty citizens...all male...showed up for the meeting, to be told
that the committee had compiled a list of the missing, that identification of the
bodies was progressing slowly, and that a plot for burial of the unidentified dead, however many there might be, had been purchased, and gravediggers had been procured. They also very likely outlined their plans for
assisting the orphaned and widowed, and hosted the inevitable
question and answer session.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
After the meeting, the
committee walked to Keystones station, and trudged up to the second
floor to continue their work. The finally adjourned around midnight,
went to Heritage House to present the list of missing persons
to Strasser, and finally headed for home.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One item that I'm sure was
discussed at the public meeting was money. An over-riding need that
the relief committee, and Kohler, had to deal with was raising funds
to both distribute to those in need, and fund the projects...such as
the burial of the unidentified dead..that the committee was taking
on. As with every other task they took on, they kicked butt,
and made it look easy. They got $2500...that'd be just shy of $69,500
today...from the Philadelphia Relief Committee alone. All told the
Relief Committee managed to raise around $21,000...just over $584,500
in 2019 dollars...before all was said and done.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The donations were posted
against expenses of $7,718 ($214,838 today) leaving the relief
committee $13,282 to work with (Just shy of $370,000 today).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Among the charitable work
funded by these donations was a $5.00 to $8.00 ($140 to $224 in 2019
dollars) weekly donation to several families for a period of three
months...until they could get back on their feet and homes could be
found for the orphaned children.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The committee also set
aside 7900 dollars...just shy of $220,000 in 2029 dollars...to set up
trust funds for the fifty kids who lost one or both parents,
with each child receiving from $100 to $300 ($2785 to $8350 today)
distributed in monthly payments to them until they were 21 years old.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The relief committee's
attention to detail was exhaustive...not to mention exhausting. They
met three times daily during the first week after the fire, once a
day for the next month after that. The committee stayed active for at
least a year, meeting once a week until a year or so after the fire.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><***></b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Boyertown had a very
progressive newspaper, headed by a very capable, knowledgeable, and
business savvy editor, in 1908. The <i>Burks County
Democrat, </i>with around 400 subscribers and a unsubscribed
circulation of probably about three times that, was widely read and
well respected in 1908. Charles Spatz had been editor of the paper
for 24 years, and had a very definite finger on the county's pulse.
Not only did he run the paper itself with an expertise born of
experience, he also wrote a weekly column filled with wit, humor, and
pretty on-the-mark analysis of everything from town goings-on to
local and national politics (The paper's name pretty much indicates
the political leanings of the area, paper, and editor during the early part of the 20th Century).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The paper itself was pretty
state-of-the-art, especially for a small town weekly in the early
Twentieth Century, but the fire made a strafing run on the staff.
Charles Spatz was first painfully burned when the kerosene from the
foot light tank lit off, then more seriously injured when he jumped
from the window. His Linotype operator, Robert LaPish, died in the
fire. And all of his other employees either lost relatives or were
completely traumatized. On top of that they lost a couple of their
more popular columnists to the fire. It appeared that the paper would
miss reporting on what should have been it's biggest...and
saddest...story. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And that is exactly what
would have happened had Charles Spatz not had some very capable
back-up in the form of his sixteen year old son, Carl Spatz (If
you're a history buff...especially a WW II History Buff...that name
should ring a bell, BTW.). A quick phone call to Perioman Academy, in
nearby Pennsburg, had Carl on the next available train, and by late
on the day after the fire he had checked on his dad (Widely but
inaccurately reported to be on death's door) and taken over at the
paper, having to perform just about every job himself while he was at it.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Oh he had <i>some</i> help,
including a couple of former employees as well as some friends of his
dad, one of whom was Lewis Fegley, who had lost his daughter LuLu in
the fire. He also had his dad to go to for advice (And to assist with
writing stories) but the <i>big</i> stuff...gathering
stories, handling business inquiries, rough setting the layout,
setting up type and forms, and actually running the Linotype
machine...he had to handle himself. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As you read this, keep in
mind that this was a <i>sixteen year old kid</i> doing all
of this.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The paper went out weekly,
on Saturdays, and that Saturday The <i>Burk County
Democrat</i> landed on door steps and in news stands right on
schedule. Oh there were typos, and print out of alignment, and much
of the reporting on the fire was borrowed from larger papers, and the
paper was a mere shadow of it's usual self, but it was out, on
time, and even included some commentary from it's editor, most
particularly a disclaimer...or maybe a gentle warning...praising his
son for tackling the task, admitting that the paper wasn't as sharp
or professional looking as normal, and then basically stating that if
young Carl hadn't abandoned his studies mid-year to come home and
take care of business, there wouldn't have been <i>any</i> paper,
so they should give the kid a break.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In that same first post-fire
issue, Charles Spatz noted that he planned to be back at work with-in
the next week, likely also planning to send Carl back to school and
his studies. Neither happened, though. Charles Spatz wouldn't return
to work until March, though he continued to write commentary for each
weekly issue. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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Carl never returned to
school, but continued working for the paper until he turned 18.
(Anyone figured out why his name should be familiar yet?)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As for the <i>Burke
County Democrat, </i>it stayed in business until 1930 (Likely,
as with many businesses in the early 1930s, killed off by the Great
Depression). While there are still several weekly papers in
circulation in Berks County today, none of them are descended from
the <i>Democrat.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><***></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Again...anyone figured out
just <i>why </i>Carl Spatz's name should be familiar?
Anyone? <i>Anyone?</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
OK, here's why. In 1918 Carl
Spatz was admitted to to the United States Military Academy at West
Point . Sometime after his appointment he witnessed a flying
demonstration by Glenn Curtis, an event that began an interest in
Aviation that just wouldn't quit.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He graduated ((97th out of
107) in 1915, was assigned to the Signal Corps Aviation School in
1915, and began training as a pilot in 1916.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He must have picked up on
his lessons pretty quickly, and pretty well, because when he was sent
'Over There' in 1917, he shot down three enemy aircraft. In only
three weeks.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Carl Spatz was assigned to
several air bases...as commanding officer...during the period
between wars, and earned successive promotions until entering WW II
with the Army Air Corps, soon to be renamed the Army Air Forces.
The promotions...both temporary and permanent...kept coming until he
was given command of the 8th Air Force (Arguably the best known and
most prestigious of the numbered Air Forces serving in Europe. This
is the crew that carried out the Strategic Bombing campaign against
Germany. An...er...obscure young actor by the name of James Stewart
commanded an 8th Air Force bombing group). Spatz apparently did a pretty
good job, because ultimately he was given command of <i>all</i> American
Army Air Force air operations in the European Theater of War.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then when the War in Europe
ended in victory for the Allies, he attended the two surrender
ceremonies (To the Allies on May 7th, 1945, and the the Soviets on
May 8th). After attending the two surrender ceremonies, he was immediately shipped to the Pacific Theater, He
was given command of U.S. Strategic Air Force operations in the
Pacific Theater, where he headed up the short but intense strategic
bombing campaign against Japan (Including the Atomic Bomb strikes
against Hiroshima and Nagasaki)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When Japan surrendered, he
was present at the surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri, in
Tokyo Bay, on September 2, 1945, making him the only officer of his
rank present at all three surrender ceremonies.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He continued his career
after the war, was given command of the Army Air Forces in 1946,
after General 'Hap' Arnold's retirement, and when the Army Air Force
became the separate U.S. Air Force in 1947, he was became the very
first Chief of Staff of that branch of the military.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Carl Spaatz (Nope, I didn't
spell it wrong...more on that in a bit) retired from the Air Force in
1948, and worked for Time Magazine as Military Affairs Editor until
1961. He also served on The Committee of Senior Advisors to The Air
Force Chief Of Staff from 1952 until his death in 1974, was Chairman
of the Civil Air Patrol's National Board from 1948 until 1959, and
served on the committee to choose the site for the U.S. Air Force
Academy.</div>
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<br /></div>
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After his death in 1974, he
was buried with Full Military Honors at the Air Force Academy
cemetery in Colorado Springs.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Not bad for a small town
kid!</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><***></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Somehow during his life,
Carl Spatz's name picked up an extra 'A' to become Carl Spaatz.
Ok, it was because of his wife and kids. They were tired of the
family name being mispronounced.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
By 1937 Carl Spatz had been
married for awhile, a marriage that had also given him three very
lovely daughters. The four women in his life were <i>very</i> displeased
with the fact that many...likely most...people pronounced their name
as if it rhymed with 'cats' rather than the correct pronunciation,
rhyming with 'shots'.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As anyone with wives,
daughters, nieces, girlfriends, etc can tell you, having displeased
women in your life can make said life <i>very</i> uncomfortable
on occasion. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Carl had four at
least occasionally displeased women in his life, all of them at least occasionally quad-teaming him, saying 'Honey/Daddy <i>fix</i> it!'</div>
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<br /></div>
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So he did.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In 1937, Carl Spatz
had the family surname legally changed to 'Spaatz'</div>
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<br /></div>
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And <i>that's</i> why
Carl Spaatz has that extras 'A' in his last name.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><***></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Charles Spatz wasn't
the <i>only</i> person connected to the Rhoads Opera House
Fire to be related to an aviation legend.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The others were Harriet
Monroe and Della Mayers. Who were they related to?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Hint...Harriet's middle name
was 'Earhart'.<br />
<br />
Figured it out yet?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you guessed that Harriet
Monroe was somehow related to mysteriously missing aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, you were right on the money. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But Ms Monroe wasn't just
some distant relative. One of her brothers was Amelia Earhart's dad,
making her the famed aviatrix's' paternal aunt.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I could find very little
about just how close...or distant...the relationship between Harriet Monroe, Della Mayers, and their famous niece was, but the fact that they were, in
fact, Aunt and Niece is a interesting little tidbit all on it's
own.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><***></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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While the press can be an absolute pain to deal with for upper echelon fire officers...this is why most departments of any size at all today have Public Information Officers (PIOs) whose job is dealing with them...they can also come in handy, so it's a good idea to keep them on your side. Pottstown's firefighters found this out first-hand when they became the unwilling subjects of an image-killing rumor as the coverage of the Opera House Fire ramped up.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
These guys had been awakened from a dead sleep, loaded onto a train, taken to Boyertown, dealt with a broken steamer, then spent most of a night and day fighting a loosing battle with the fire, and assisting with body recovery at the most horribly tragic incident any of them would ever respond to.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And what do they get for their troubles? Rumors, and <i>not</i> the good kind. Two days after the fire, with many of the guys still dragging from both the physical and psychological abuse they had willingly subjected themselves to, someone possibly buttonholed one of them, and said, inevitably snidely, 'I heard the only work you guys did in Boyertown the other night was lifting whisky glasses to your mouth...word is <i>all </i>of you guys were drunk the whole time you were there...'<i> </i>Or worse, Pottstown's mayor possibly requested an audience with Goodwill's chief, Thomas Cook, requesting an explanation of these same rumors. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Needless to say, the guys were booth horrified and <i>beyond</i> offended. Chief Cook <i>immediately</i> knocked out a letter to <i>The Pottstown Daily News</i> emphatically refuting the rumors, and my bet is he hand-delivered the letter to the <i>Daily News' </i>offices both to save time and to ensure that they actually received it..</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The <i>Daily News </i>published the letter the next day, putting it prominently front and center on the editorial page, very likely with a letter from the editor backing them up.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I doubt that this completely shut the rumors down...like avalanches and run-away trains, rumors are hard to stop once they get rolling...but that letter probably made people think, and very probably at least knocked the wind out of the rumor's sails.<br />
<br />
The sad thing about rumors like this one is that, thanks to the public's insatiable love for scandal, they still regularly get started today, and when they do, thanks to our modern communications technology and social media, they spread further and faster than Chief Cook and the editorial staff at The <i>Pottstown Daily News</i> could ever conceive of in their worst public-relations-snafu related nightmare.</div>
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<b><br /><***></b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
The paparazzi are <i>not</i> a newly-minted concept in the American news media by a long shot. They've been around in one form or the other ever since the concept of 'celebrity' was formed.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Don't believe me? Lets take a look at what happened to Harry Fisher.<br />
<br />
He managed to escape from the Opera House by bailing out of a window and jumping to the fire escape, but not before suffering painful burns to his scalp. Once he made it out of the building, he returned to the Union House, where he was staying. Once in his room, and more then aware that he was <i>the</i> central figure in the tragedy, he basically 'hid out', trying to avoid the press. He failed miserably in that department, though...reporters are amazingly resourceful when it comes to finding people who don't want to be found, and the press started hounding him almost as soon as the sun came up, with reporters knocking on his door before breakfast, requesting an interview...or just a word.<br />
<br />
He was treated by a doctor on Tuesday. Given the fact that he was (Unsuccessfully) hiding from the Press, I'm assuming the doctor came to him. After examining Fisher and dressing his burns, the good doctor released him to return to his home in Bridgetown, New Jersey on Wednesday. He arrived at the Boyertown train station along with a very unwanted and vocal entourage of reporters, all of them calling his name, shouting out questions, and otherwise making nuisances of themselves. He gave them a quick statement denying responsibility for the disaster, and stating that he had cut the tanks off, even as photographers fired off shots of him wrapped in a nightgown, with his head wrapped in bandages, that would appear in several papers the next day.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
His every move was monitored...he had to change trains in Pottstown, and reporters changed trains right along with him, even reporting his time of arrival at Philadelphia's Reading Terminal. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
There is no way that photographs of Fisher in his injured and bandaged state beat him to Philly back in 1908, so someone either pointed him out, or people saw the bandages and put two and two together, because his fellow citizens took up the chase at Reading Terminal, point-blank asking him if he was to blame for the fire.<br />
<br />
He denied this, then fled the terminal and found his younger sister, who worked at a near-by department store. She tried to run interference for him on the trolley ride to the ferry that crossed the Delaware River to Camden. While she was probably great moral support, she wasn't too successful at diverting the public's curiosity....news of who he was traveled, in that mysterious way that such news seems to travel, and he was also besieged on the trip across the Delaware River.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Once he got to Camden, he <i>still</i> had a two hour train ride home...and it was more of the same. He <i>finally</i> found some peace and quiet...or at least relative peace and quiet...when he got home.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
He did ultimately agree to give <i>The Philadelphia Press</i> an interview, during which he reiterated that he was not to blame for the disaster, and that the tanks did not explode. And finally, the hoopla surrounding him died down. The Press went on to find a new scandal to chase and a new victim to harass</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Ironically, when he returned to Boyertown two weeks later, to testify at the inquest, his arrival and presence there went all but unnoticed...something I have a sneakin' suspicion he was more then grateful for.<br />
<br />
SO, as you can see, and as I noted, being hounded by The Press is as old as The Fourth Estate itself.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<b><***></b><br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Sometimes the fact that one of the deaths attributed to the Rhoads Opera House Fire...(John Graver's death in the Hose wagon accident)...was a Line of Duty Death gets lost in the enormity of the tragedy, but even sadder is the fact that John Graver wasn't the only Boyertown firefighter who died that night, nor was he the only Line Of Duty Death.<br />
<br />
Lets take a look at the second LODD first. Keystone firefighter Charles Mayer died in the performance of his duties as a firefighter, when he became trapped while performing rescues. As I noted in the body of this post, he responded straight to the scene, and immediately entered the blazing second floor to search for his wife and daughter, managing to rescue his wife, and possibly making a couple of other rescues as well. He became trapped after getting his wife out, when he went back in to search for his daughter...he found her, but couldn't make it back to the windows to get out of the building. He would be found cradling his daughter's body in his arms.<br />
<br />
Sadly, the fact that there were actually two Line of Duty Deaths attributed to the fire is apparently <i>never </i>mentioned.<br />
<br />
Also, both Keystone and Friendship lost firefighters who were attending the play and became trapped when the fire started. Keystone lost two other members who were attending the play and became trapped...Herbert Gotshall and Charles Maurer. Charles Maurer was a former chief of the fire company, and was also President of the Fireman's Relief Association.<br />
<br />
Friendship lost one firefighter...George Parsons...who was attending the play.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
John Graver was chairman of the Fireman's Relief Committee, which had been formed six years earlier, as a joint effort by both fire companies, after two other Keystone firefighters were killed when a wall collapsed on them at another major fire. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Both Keystone and Friendship still exist, BTW. Keystone was organized as the Keystone Steam Fire Engine Co #1 in 1873 and Friendship as Friendship Hook And Ladder in 1882. They were joined by a third fire company...Liberty Fire Company...in 1925. The three companies operated as independent fire companies until 2014, when the three companies consolidated to form Boyertown Area Fire and Rescue. Both Keystone and Friendship maintain a 'Social Quarters' at which they provide entertainment for the public, which raises funds used to help fund BAF&R's operations. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
BAF&R has far more apparatus available to them than the crews of Keystone and Friendship available to them on scene on that tragic night in 1908. Today BAF&R runs two engines, a rescue engine (An engine that also caries a good bit of rescue equipment, such as the Jaws of Life), a tanker, an aerial ladder, two brush trucks, and a quintet of auxiliary and utility rigs. They run out of two stations with 65 volunteers.<br />
<br />
Just one of those modern engines can pump the same amount of water that all three steamers on scene at the Opera House were flowing with change left over. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><***></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
The type of incident that took John Graver's life...a vehicle accident involving a fire rig responding to a call...sadly, is not a rare occurrence, nor are fatalities caused by them rare. and, equally sadly, they were just as prevalent in the horse drawn era as they are now.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Many horse drawn rigs actually had safety belts for the drivers, but you still had guys who wouldn't use them. (Another trend that's way older than you think it is). Firefighters getting thrown from a rig, and then getting crushed beneath it as the horses continued pulling it was an incident that happened several times yearly. Rigs overturned because the driver took a corner too fast, got hit by trolleys, got hit by trains, and dropped a wheel in a ditch, throwing the guys driving or riding the rig clear.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Once motorized apparatus came into vogue, and speeds increased, the danger increased as well (And, interestingly, safety belts disappeared from motorized rigs until well into the 20th century.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The deaths from motorized fire apparatus accidents began early. Just ten or so miles north of me, Richmond Va lost their Chief and the Chief's driver in July 1915, when the chiefs car hit a light pole while enroute to a call. And the vehicle accident deaths have continued throughout the decades, though safety features and mandatory seat belt use has helped reduce the number of deaths annually. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Still, even with the safety improvements, vehicle accidents have accounted for the second or third highest number of annual line-of-duty firefighter deaths for years, and it's a trend that doesn't show much sign of ending. In order to get to a scene, you have to drive there, and as long as that's the case, the possibility of crashing while enroute (Or, for that matter, while returning to the station) will exist.</div>
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><***></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
You guys knew this was coming...the ghost stories. Infamous disasters have a tendency to breed ghost stories the way celebrities breed gossip, and The Rhoads Opera House Fire ghost stories started early and continue today.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
One of the first reports came before the ruins had even cooled down good, when an elderly man showed up at the scene and tried to enter the building. When asked what he was doing, he stated that his deceased wife called to him to meet her on the second floor so she could tell him good bye. Interestingly, though, none of the tellings of this tale mention either the elderly man's name or that of his wife.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Dr Rhoads, of course, rebuilt the building on the same site...using the original stone foundation...and inevitably ghosts of the fire victims are said to inhabit the apartments that now occupy the building's second and third floor. One resident of the apartments tells the story of a ghostly lady, dressed in turn-of-the-last-century finery, who walks through her apartment at the same time every year (Bet it's around Jan 13th) saying she must hurry because she's going to be late for the play. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
There was apparently a dance studio on the first floor at one time, and supposedly, many of the younger girls refused to use one of the dance rooms because it was already occupied...by ghosts. The realtor who handled rental of the building's apartments lost a potential tenant when the lady's son absolutely refused to enter the apartment, also because of the ghosts already in residence there.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
There have also been reports of the faint odor of smoke in the building with no source found (Makes me wonder how many times Keystone's and Friendship's guys have heard<i> '...Intersection of Philadelphia and Washington Avenues, for the odor of smoke in an apartment...' </i>and rolled in to find nothing and...unofficially at any rate...attributed it to the ghosts of the past. This type of call, BTW, always comes in either at Oh-Dark-Hundred, or smack dab in the middle of a meal, usually when you're eating something that's not good heated up.)</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The ghosts don't confine themselves to the new Rhoads Building, either. The former Mansion House Hotel...still in existence and now home to Durango's Saloon...is said to be an apparent meeting place for poltergeists, chief among them Harry Binder, who was a former proprietor of The Mansion House, and who died in the fire. He and/or his ghostly pals are known to move objects, flit across doorways as shadowy figures, and appear on photographs as strange mists.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
There are a slew of ghostly tales that I don't have room to go into here, and I'll include a couple of sites dedicated to them in 'Links' </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Do I believe in them? I've always been open-minded about ghost stories. Some of them have perfectly good scientific explanations...but some are, and will probably remain, eerily mysterious. And they should stay that way...that's well over half the fun.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><***></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
Let's play 'What If' for a bit.<br />
<br />
What if this exact fire had happened in an identical building, including the rowhouses, in 2019 rather than 1908.<br />
<br />
It couldn't have happened, of course, not in the same way (Or at least we like to think it couldn't have happened).<br />
<br />
<br />
Modern fire codes would not have allowed a Place Of Public Assembly on the second floor of the building with out major alterations, and this is purely a hypothetical exercise, because those alterations would have likely cost almost as much as a new building. But lets say the alterations <i>were</i> made.<br />
<br />
There would have been actual fire doors at the fire escapes with a dedicated aisle leading to them, marked with lighted exit signs. The main entrance stairway would have had to have been completely rebuilt, and been a uniform width of 6 feet all the way down, with a landing and outward opening doors equipped with 'Panic Bars' on the second floor. There certainly wouldn't have been any kerosene lanterns on the stage, or anywhere else. and if there was a projector...a modern commercial projector, of course...it would have been in an enclosed booth. And the curtain would have been fire resistant.<br />
<br />
That rear stairway would have also been marked as an exit, of course, and would have had to have been enclosed in a fire resistant enclosure. The stairwell doors would have been rated, auto-closing fire doors.<br />
<br />
There would have been fire extinguishers all over the place, along with a fire alarm system, and possibly monitored smoke detectors that would have activated the building alarm, and sent a signal to a monitoring agency, such as ADT, who would notify the fire department.<br />
<br />
So if a small fire started on stage in a similar building, brought up to modern fire code, in 2019, the smoke detectors would activate the building alarm as someone knocked it down with an extinguisher. As this was going on, the audience would be filing out calmly down the fire escapes and the main stairway while the cast went out of the back stairway. ADT would be calling Berks County's 911 center, who would also be fielding 911 calls from some of the audience who called it in on their cell phones.<br />
<br />
A full commercial assignment (Possibly 4 engines, a pair of truck companies, and a heavy rescue along with a battalion chief) would be dispatched for a possible structure fire, and the first in engine would mark on scene with 'Nothing Showing from a three story commercial structure, evacuation of the building is underway...'<br />
<br />
The crew of the first in engine would lay in from a hydrant, go into 'Investigative Mode', as an attack line...probably an 1 3/4 inch line...was pulled in case it was needed. Incoming units would be given assignments or told to stage until it was determined whether they were needed or not. If there was still some fire, the attack line would be taken inside, either up one of the stairways or a fire escape, to complete extinguishment. If not, the crews would overhaul the fire area to make sure there no more fire, remove smoke and water from the building, and gather information for the fire report.<br />
<br />
It would be a non-event, news wise, an interesting story for the building occupants to tell, and a routine run for the fire companies that responded..<br />
<br />
If only it could have happened that way 111 years ago.</div>
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<b><br /></b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><***> LINKS <***></b><br />
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I was <i>not</i> wanting for research material for this post...throw 'Rhoads Opera House Fire' in the ol' Google Machine or one of it's cousins and you get <i>pages</i> worth of articles and links. Of course a lot of them repeat the exact same information, but then you find those one or two that are treasure-troves of information that make all of that midnight oil expended in the name of research worth it.<br />
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As is often the case, it would be impossible to list every link I checked out on here, so I'm going to list the best dozen or so.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boyertownhistory.org/">http://www.boyertownhistory.org/</a> Boyertown Historical Society's home page. This is one top-notch group of people, all of whom are dedicated to preserving the history of their town.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Town-Tragedy-Boyertown-Opera-House/dp/0962921815/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=Mary+Jane+Schneider&qid=1565808737&s=gateway&sr=8-12">https://www.amazon.com/Town-Tragedy-Boyertown-Opera-House/dp/0962921815/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=Mary+Jane+Schneider&qid=1565808737&s=gateway&sr=8-12</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Midwinter-Mourning-Boyertown-Opera-House/dp/0962921807/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Midwinter+Mourning&qid=1565808891&s=gateway&sr=8-2">https://www.amazon.com/Midwinter-Mourning-Boyertown-Opera-House/dp/0962921807/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Midwinter+Mourning&qid=1565808891&s=gateway&sr=8-2</a><br />
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The two above links are to Amazon's listing for Mary Jane Schneider's two excellent books about the fire. '<i>A Town In Tragedy</i>' tells the story of the fire and it's aftermath in detail, while '<i>Midwinter Mourning</i>' gives detailed information about all of the fire's victims. Both are awesome books, showing the fruits of what had to have been a massive amount of research. The Author's awesome research job made my own research far easier.<br />
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<a href="https://www.firehouse.com/home/news/10545480/the-forgotten-fire">https://www.firehouse.com/home/news/10545480/the-forgotten-fire</a> An article written for Firehouse Magazine by Mary Jane Schneider, who also authored the two books linked above<br />
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<a href="http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/berks/history/local/operahfire.txt">http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/berks/history/local/operahfire.txt</a> Text document with a complete victims list</div>
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<a href="https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/335167?page=5#sr-105380882">https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/335167?page=5#sr-105380882</a> Find-A-Grave page listing the burial locations of 143 of the 170 victims.</div>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoads_Opera_House_fire">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoads_Opera_House_fire</a> The all-but-obligatory Wikipedia page.</div>
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<a href="http://www.gendisasters.com/pennsylvania/2185/boyertown%2C-pa-rhoades-opera-house-terrible-fire%2C-jan-1908">http://www.gendisasters.com/pennsylvania/2185/boyertown%2C-pa-rhoades-opera-house-terrible-fire%2C-jan-1908</a> Gen. Disasters page, featuring the text of period news articles</div>
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<a href="https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/trapped-third-act-rhoads-opera-house-fire">https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/trapped-third-act-rhoads-opera-house-fire</a> An excellent and comprehensive article about the fire by Samantha Pearson, posted on The Pennsylvania Center For The Book's excellent website.</div>
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<a href="https://horrormoviepodcast.com/31-days-of-halloween-day-31-the-rhoads-opera-house-fire-the-legacy-of-a-tragedy-2008-by-dr-shock/">https://horrormoviepodcast.com/31-days-of-halloween-day-31-the-rhoads-opera-house-fire-the-legacy-of-a-tragedy-2008-by-dr-shock/</a> A quick little article by well known Horror Movie vlogger Dave 'Dr Shock' Becker as the final article in a series of 31 horror themed Halloween posts back in October 2015. A bit different than his usual subject matter, Dave Becker lives in Berks County just outside of Boyertown.</div>
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<a href="https://www.berksmontnews.com/news/rhoads-opera-house-fire-boyertown-an-untold-story-from-january/article_211450f8-7f67-5305-aed2-5f89cf0270a4.html">https://www.berksmontnews.com/news/rhoads-opera-house-fire-boyertown-an-untold-story-from-january/article_211450f8-7f67-5305-aed2-5f89cf0270a4.html</a> A detailed and moving account of the story of Lottie Bauman, one of the victims of the fire, written by her twice removed cousin Betty J Burdan.</div>
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<a href="https://www.pottsmerc.com/lifestyle/first-history-horrific-boyertown-opera-house-fire-of-recalled/article_7123cc16-923c-5d2b-a8e5-69bc7b7ca061.html">https://www.pottsmerc.com/lifestyle/first-history-horrific-boyertown-opera-house-fire-of-recalled/article_7123cc16-923c-5d2b-a8e5-69bc7b7ca061.html</a> Another comprehensive, well written article about the fire from The Mercury, an award-winning daily newspaper that covers portions of Berks, Montgomery, and Chester Counties in Pennsylvania. The article was written to coincide with the 110th anniversary of the fire.</div>
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<a href="https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2008/01/15/86413.htm">https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2008/01/15/86413.htm</a> Yet another anniversary article from The Insurance Journal, written to coincide with the fire's centennial anniversary.</div>
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<a href="https://www.thedeadhistory.com/rhoads-opera-house-fire-ghosts-of-greif/">https://www.thedeadhistory.com/rhoads-opera-house-fire-ghosts-of-greif/</a> One of two articles I found dedicated to the ghosts of the fire victims.</div>
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<a href="https://www.theconfessionalspodcast.com/the-blog/Opera-ghosts-echoes-of-the-rhoads-opera-house-fire">https://www.theconfessionalspodcast.com/the-blog/Opera-ghosts-echoes-of-the-rhoads-opera-house-fire</a> And the second ghostly article. Both are interesting reads.<br />
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<b> A Quick Take On Another Tragedy...The Wallaceton Theater Fire</b></div>
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Eight years and change after The Rhoads Opera House Fire, a similar tragedy struck my home state of Virginia....and this one fell completely through the cracks to be all but totally lost to history. One of the reasons it did so is particularly sad...but we'll get to that in a second.</div>
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In 1916 the tiny Norfolk County, Virginia community of Wallaceton, situated hard by the Dismal Swamp Canal in the southeastern corner of the state, consisted mainly of a large lumber mill and the housing for the mill's workers, the great majority of whom were African American. The mill's manager treated his workers fairly well. From what little I could find researching this fire, the housing was comfortable, the company store was well stocked and affordable, and everyone was happy. The management even provided his workers with a recreation center.</div>
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Sometime before 1916, a new company store was built, and the old one was renovated into a community center of sorts. Among the recreational pursuits this center offered were weekly movies.</div>
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The building was apparently set up fairly nicely for what it was, even featuring electric lights, powered by their own gasoline powered generator. Here's the thing...while the generator itself had to have been outside the building to avoid filling the place with carbon monoxide, I got the impression that the gas tank for the beast was just <i>inside </i>(?????) the building. (You guys see where this is going, don't ya?)</div>
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The three articles I found gave pitiful few details. Two of them, found on the genealogy site I use to find subjects for this blog, were barely a paragraph each, and the third, from a 'Rare Newspapers' type site, was maybe three paragraphs long and was the only one to provide <i>any</i> detail, skimpy as they may have been. This meant I had to read into the events leading up to the fire a bit, but I think that, as eighty or so people were filling the small building to just about capacity on the warm evening of May 10, 1916, the the building's manager was filling the generator's gas tank. And I think that while he was at it he managed to spill gasoline all over the place. </div>
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Keep in mind that a gasoline powered generator in 1916 and one from 2016 are two entirely different beasts, The 1916 model is bulkier by far, less efficient, and utilizes a larger fuel tank (It very likely used a Model 'T' Ford engine). So when they spilled gas it was likely in the order of a gallon or more,. Gas fumes, once they mix with air, don't have to search hard at all to find an ignition source. And I think that's exactly what happened.</div>
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From the description I read, I get the feeling that the gas tank and generator were in the rear of the building, so when the gas fumes...and spilled gas...lit up with an evil-sounding 'WHOOOMPH!!!' at least the fire didn't block the front door. The crowd had gotten seated, and the show had started and been going for at least several minutes when a sudden fast moving wall of fire rose to the ceiling (Very likely actually the underside of the roof) and rolled over everyone's heads while quickly filling the building with heat and choking smoke.Eighty people jumped up as one terrified body and bolted for the door in a terrified mass of humanity, all of them trying to make it out through a single standard sized doorway at the same time. Miraculously over half <i>did</i> made it out, though at least thirty were seriously burned.</div>
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Somewhere between twenty-three and twenty-six died at that front entrance the exact same way people have died in <i>every</i> large loss of life building fire. Several were trampled to death as the crowd rushed the single door, then a jam-up formed in the doorway when multiple people tried to get out at the same time, piling on top of each other in the doorway and wedging themselves tightly, trapping themselves and everyone left in the building.</div>
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Wallaceton had no fire department, so the building burned unchecked, quickly becoming fully involved. Bystanders tried desperately to get to those trapped in the doorway, but frame buildings burn hot and fast when they get rolling, and the would be rescuers were quickly driven back. By the time the roof collapsed all of those still trapped were dead. The building, needless to say, burned to the ground.</div>
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There was only one doctor in or even near Wallaceton, and he was quickly overwhelmed by the number of seriously to critically burned patients, exhausting his medical supplies in well under a half hour.. He called Portsmouth for help (Very likely from Portsmouth Navel Hospital) then commandeered as many cars and trucks as he could find and had the injured transported to Portsmouth.</div>
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It was 1 AM before the building cooled enough for body removal to begin. Most of the dead were, according to the longer article, women and children</div>
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As I noted, only a couple of short articles were written about the fire, and it was quickly lost to history. Someone who was an infant in 1916 would be over 100 today, so there's no one left who remembers it. Maybe a few grandchildren...themselves likely to be in their 90s if they're still around...or great-grandchildren, who would probably be in their late 60s or 70s, remember their grandparents telling them about the fire.</div>
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Very little remains of Wallaceton. The lumber mill is long gone, along with all of the mill's auxiliary buildings All that remains of the community is the small manor house that gave the community and the mill it's name, and the old Canal watchman/lock keeper's cottage. Both are on the list of Historic Landmarks. The Dismal Swamp Canal continues to be used as a part of the Intracoastal Waterway.</div>
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Even Norfolk County itself is gone...it (along with the City of South Norfolk) became the City of Chesapeake back in 1963. By then the Wallaceton Theater Fire was already all but forgotten.</div>
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Why wasn't this reported more widely, you may ask. How can over twenty people...mostly women and children...burn to death with barely a whimper from the media? Sadly, it was very likely because this was the South in the early 1900s, and all of the victims were African American. That in itself makes this fire doubly tragic.<br />
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<img id="hzDownscaled" style="position: absolute; top: -10000px;" /><img id="hzDownscaled" style="position: absolute; top: -10000px;" /><img id="hzDownscaled" style="position: absolute; top: -10000px;" /><img id="hzDownscaled" style="position: absolute; top: -10000px;" /><div id="hzImg" style="background-color: white; border-radius: 4px; border: 4px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4) 0px 1px 3px; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: 5px; line-height: 0px; margin: 4px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 1272px; visibility: visible; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-10805025440919558212018-11-13T10:09:00.004-05:002023-05-25T00:31:59.254-04:00The Iroquois Theater Fire. Fireproof Firetrap...America's Worst Single Building fire.<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The Iroquois Theater Fire</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Dec 30, 1903</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Fireproof </b></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Firetrap</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>America's Worst Loss Of Life In A Single Building Fire. </b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Ahhh, Chicago! The Windy City! Home to The Cubs, Al Capone, John Belushi, and, of course, Ferris Bueller.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Chicago boasts one of the most colorful histories of any city in the U.S. and is every bit as loaded with history, drama and mystique as it's East Coast arch rival, New York City. In fact, when you get right down to it, The Windy City's history and legend just may be a scosh <i>more</i> colorful than The Big Apple's. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Wait...you didn't know New York was Chicago's arch-rival?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Oh yeah...A spirited, but one-sided rivalry began between these two legendary cities towards the end of the 19th Century, when Chicago finally edged past Philadelphia to become the second most populous city in the U.S. (A title the Windy City would hold until the mid 20th Century, when L.A snagged the #2 spot for themselves.). Second, I might add, only to New York. The good citizens of Chicago found that they did not like being 'Number 2' and most especially, didn't like being 'Number 2' behind The Big Apple. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">New York, on the other hand, pretty much ignored the fact that they'd gained a brand new Arch-Rival...Go back in time and ask <i>any</i> <span style="color: #26282a;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chicagoan</span></span> from 1903 which city they considered their arch-rival, nemesis, and city to beat at all costs and they'll tell you, with little hesitation and a good bit of enthusiasm, 'New York'.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Go to New York and ask that very same question, however, and the answer won't be Chicago. In fact, New Yorkers really didn't, and indeed, still don't, consider themselves to even <i>have</i> a rival ...they pretty much knew, and indeed, <i>know</i> they're #1. Chicago wasn't even on their radar as a rival.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">That fact did absolutely nothing to dispel The Windy City's desire to one-up The Big Apple, which is why, as soon as they snagged that #2 spot, Chicago began doing everything in their power to blow past New York in every possible category.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">One of the categories they decided to try to one-up New York in was Theater. Which is kind of like your local high school football team deciding to take on the New York Jets.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Don't get me wrong here...Chicago had a pretty solid presence in Theater at the turn of the 20th century. The city was home to thirty-six theaters in 1903, but that was still just a fraction of the number of playhouses in New York. The New York theater scene had blown past The Windy City's theater scene decades earlier and was still pulling away steadily.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After all, in the U.S. the New York Theater scene pretty much <i>was </i>(And indeed, still <i>is</i>) THE THEATER. Broadway had, by then, become...</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>'BROADWAY!!'</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">...And All Things Theater looked towards The Big Apple for their cue.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Needless to say, this made the New York theater scene hard, if not impossible, to top. Chicago, however, was not only going to try to beat The Big Apple at their own game, they were going to try to do it with a single theater...a Megatheater, encompassing every possible modern luxury feature and safety technology known to man, to be called The Iroquois Theater.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Unfortunately, while they were at it, they managed to surpass New York, and every city in the U.S. in <i>one </i>category that they didn't even want to compete in. When the Iroquois Theater burned with an over-capacity house attending a matinee performance of Mr Bluebeard on December 30th, 1903, it resulted in 602 deaths...The highest death toll ever recorded in a structure fire in the U.S, a record that stands to this day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And yes, you read that right. Just over six hundred people...the majority of them women and children...died on that frigid December afternoon, and the events that led to their deaths began in the spring of 1903, when a pair of enterprising gents named Will J. Davis and Harry Powers bought a couple of lots near Randolph and Dearborn Streets, in Chicago's already legendary 'Loop' (named after the system of elevated trains...the legendary 'El'...that served Chicago's main business district), with intent to erect the afore-noted theater to end all theaters there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It's a good bet that these two gentlemen needed some backing from somewhere in order to tackle such a huge task...not only financial backing, but professional backing as well, the latter to ensure that major plays (The forerunner of today's first-run blockbusters) were performed on their theater's stage.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Enter The Theatrical Trust.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As I noted in my </span></span><a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-brooklyn-theater-fire-brooklyn-ny.html">post about the Brooklyn Theater Fire</a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">, several theaters would be owned by a single corporate entity, just as movie theaters are today. Think Regal Cinema's, Or, maybe, </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>kinda</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> think Regal Cinemas, because, if you go by percentage of the nation's theaters owned rather than hard numbers, the New York based Theatrical Trust...the syndicate that owned and controlled the vast majority of the nation's major theaters in the late 19th/early 20th Century...made Regal look like a small town business owner.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I'm not sure if Will Davis and Harry Powers approached the Theatrical Trust to inquire about backing, or if The Trust, with it's pulse on all facets of the theater industry, </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">heard of the plans for a new theater and </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">contacted </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">them </i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">with an offer to provide financial and professional backing (And to provide themselves with yet another source of profit), or if, possibly the plan to build the Iroquois was a collaboration between the team of Davis and Powers and The Trust from the outset, but whichever way that collaboration came to be, the Iroquois ended up under the collective thumbs of the Theatrical Trust.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Wait, Rob, you ask...just what <i>was</i> this 'Theatrical Trust' of which you speak?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> That organization's story could fill an entire book all it's own, much less a blog post, but I'll try to hit the high points here. The Theatrical Trust was run by a Good-Cop/Bad Cop-style pair named Marc Klaw and Abraham Lincoln Erlanger from an office on (Where else?) Broadway, in New York. The two of them were also named as producers of the majority of the plays that were performed in theaters owned by The Trust.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The Theatrical Trust's Good Cop/Bad Cop team, Marc Klaw(L) and Abraham Erlanger (R). These two pretty much controlled the entire American theater scene in the early 20th Century.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Though the Theatrical Trust...also known as The Syndicate...had only been around since 1896, by 1903 it had an iron-fisted grip on just about <i>all</i> of the major theaters in the U.S. They controlled which theaters got major productions and which ones got second or third rate plays, and by the same token they controlled which producer's plays were performed in major markets and which ones went to second and third rate theaters in smaller cities. Underhanded tactics were pretty much the norm, and Klaw and Erlanger were <i>not </i>well liked by <i>anyone</i> in the entertainment industry, be they actors/managers/theater owners or members of the press.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br />They were said to have had the 'Good Cop-Bad Cop' method of doing business down to an art form, with Klaw being the sophisticated and eloquent speaking 'Good Cop', while Erlinger was the harsh, rude, demanding 'Bad Cop'. Utilizing this method, they regularly intimidated theater owners/producers/ etc into doing their bidding. </span>That being said, getting under the wing of The Trust all but ensured a theater's success...as long as they kept Klaw and Erlinger happy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Keeping those two happy would play a <i>huge</i> part in the disaster to come...but w</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">e'll get back to 'The Trust' in a bit. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Now...lets take a look at the beautiful death-trap that the team of Davis and Powers planned to build.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Ok, obviously they didn't build it to be a death trap...they intended for it to be the be-all and end-all in both luxury and safety, and if everything had gone <i>right</i>, they just may have done <i>just </i> that...but then again, if every thing had gone right, I wouldn't be writing a blog post about the place.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">First off, when the property for the Iroquois was purchased, it did <i>not</i> include the lot at the actual corner of Randolph and Dearborn. That lot was already occupied by the seven story Real Estate Exchange Building, the very same office building that's located at that intersection today, now named the Delaware building.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This meant that The Iroquois would have to be built <i>around</i> the Real Estate Exchange, giving it an 'L' shape. ( HMMMM...beginning to sound a bit like <i>another</i> ill-fated theater, ain't it??)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, while the Iroquois, like the Brooklyn Theater, <i>was</i> 'L'-shaped, and while the two theaters <i>did</i> share a vaguely similar layout, that's where the similarities between the two stopped.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Front view of the Iroquois...or actually the <i>former</i> Iroquois, as this photo was actually taken a year or so after the fire, during the theater's short stint as Hyde and Behman's Theater. The striped canopy over the front entrance, and the bust of an Iroquois Indian that once resided above the front entrance were both removed after the post-fire renovation. Though it was no longer The Iroquois by the time the pic was taken, you can very much still see the level of grandeur that Architect Benjamin Marshall designed into the building</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A Stereograph pic of the intersection of Randolph and Dearborn Streets, with the by then former Iroquois Theater visible obliquely dead center of the frame. The large, dark brick, multi-story building at the corner of Randolph and Dearborn is the Real Estate Exchange Building, which still stands today as The Delaware Building. The cigar store visible at the front of the building is both where the Iroquois ticket receipts and cash drawer would be taken for safe keeping and where the first telephone report of the fire was called in from. A MacDonalds occupies that same space today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A quick word about stereographs. This is actually half of a double image, The two images were taken from almost identical angles and the side-by-side double image was placed in a stereoscope viewer which had a clip for the photo, mounted on a wooden rod six or so inches in front of an eyepiece that sort of looked like a very early version of the old Viewmaster toy. When you looked through the eye piece at the photo, it...sort of...appeared to be in 3D. Very popular at the turn of the 20th Century, valuable collectible today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Artists drawing of he lobby of The Iroquois. You can definitely see how lovely the lobby was...and looking at the set up of the balcony stairways, how dangerous it would have been in a fire. The three first floor doorways visible lower mid-frame are the entrances to the parquet and orchestra levels of the auditorium, just above them is the 2nd floor promenade where the Dress Circle entrances were located. The 'Hanging' landing above that promenade separated the 2nd and 3rd floor promenades. The 3rd floor promenade, where the Gallery entrances were located, is above the hanging landing, at the very top of the frame. That hanging landing was an artistic...and very dangerous...touch, but it didn't trap as many people as you might think, because most of the Dress Circle and Gallery occupants never made it that far before becoming trapped in the exits and on the promenades.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">And then there were the iron accordion gates...we'll talk about them later.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The very first differences between the two were size and decor.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Lets get this one out of the way first...the Iroquois made the Brooklyn Theater look like a hovel. While the Brooklyn Theater's decor had been ornate and attractive, the Iroquois took 'Ornate and Attractive' to the next level. The Iroquois was designed to one-up the most ornate play-houses in Europe and...most particularly...New York, with copious use of marble, exotic woods, and plush fabrics. It was breath-takingly beautiful inside and, unfortunately as it would turn out, much of that beauty came at the cost of safety.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As for the relative sizes of the two buildings, even though the Iroquois and Brooklyn Theaters were both designed to have the exact same seating capacity...1600 seats....The Iroquois was a far larger building. The Iroquois' lobby wing, where the main entrance, lobby, facilities such as checkrooms and restrooms, entrances to the Auditorium's main floor, and the stairways providing access to the balconies were all located, was six stories tall, and fronted 45 feet on Randolph Street...three stories taller and nearly twice as wide as the Brooklyn Theater''s entrance wing...while the 120 foot long auditorium wing, containing the auditorium, stage, and back stage areas, fronted 110 feet on a narrow vacant lot off of Dearborn Street, a third again larger than The Brooklyn Theater in all dimensions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">The only part of the Iroquois that </span><span style="color: black;">wasn't</span><span style="color: black;"> considerably larger that the Brooklyn Theater was the auditorium... as in the actual audience seating area...itself. In fact, dimensions-wise they were about the same size. Both theaters also boasted two balcony levels, but this is where the Brooklyn Theater was actually a little </span><span style="color: black;"><i>better</i></span><span style="color: black;"> than the Iroquois. Because of an architectural design error, </span>the Iroquois' second balcony...home to the theater's least expensive seating, tucked up against the theater's ceiling, and known as the Gallery,... had <i>far</i> more steeply pitched rows of seats than those in the Brooklyn Theater's 'Family Circle', with a twenty-five inch rise between rows...far steeper than even modern football stadiums. So steep, in fact, that brass railings were installed between rows to assist people walking to their seats, as well as to keep those already seated from tumbling head over heels if they tripped while standing back up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The first floor floor plan of The Iroquois, showing the theater's 'L' shaped design. The fire exits were along the north wall, directly opposite the entrances to the auditorium...this was true on both balconies as well. The square with a cross with-in it was the elevator, the six levels of dressing rooms would have been between the elevator and the theater's back wall. The light bridge where the fire started was on the the 'Stage Right' side of the stage (Left side as you face the stage), hard by the elevator, with he buildings main electrical switchboard tucked beneath the light bridge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The two stage doors are also visible...the Dearborn Street stage door, located hard by the dressing room wing near the building's southwest corner, and the Couch Place stage door, which was a 'Wicket Door', with a small personnel door nested within a larger scenery door, located on the other side of the stage at the building's's northwest corner. Keep the Couch Place stage door in mind...it would play a huge and tragic part in the fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />The Iroquois' stage and backstage areas, however, with a total square footage of 5,750 square feet, were <i>far </i>larger, than those of the Brooklyn Theater. The Iroquois boasted six levels of dressing rooms, situated along the backstage area's south wall and served by an electric elevator, which was considered an <i>extremely</i> high-tech feature in 1903. There were also stage offices and dressing rooms below the stage, accessed by a stairway on the south side of the back stage area..</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, there were two <i>major</i> differences in the layouts of the Brooklyn and Iroquois theaters. The first was the way the auditorium was oriented to the lobby. The Brooklyn Theater's auditorium was actually located to the side of the lobby, with the entrances to the lower level to your left as you entered the lobby and a stairway accessing the first balcony ahead of you. As you walked in to the Brooklyn Theaters first level through one of those entrances, you were at the rear of the auditorium, with the stage directly in front of you.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">The Iroquois lobby, on the other hand, was far larger. </span>You entered the Iroquois through one of six elaborate glass and mahogany doors to find yourself in a lavishly decorated forty-five foot wide, fifty foot deep, six story high marble and mahogany lobby, called the grand stair hall...with ornate stairways on either side of you and the three entrances to the first level of seating (The Parquet and Orchestra level) directly ahead of you. If you had an Orchestra or Parquet level ticket, when you entered the auditorium through one of those three entrances to the Orchestra Level, you were at the <i>side</i> of the auditorium with the stage to your left, and the sides of the rows of seating directly in front of you. The entrances to both balcony levels were, of course, oriented similarly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span><span style="color: black;"> The second, and biggest, major difference between the two theaters was access to the balconies. The Brooklyn Theater featured separate stairways for each balcony with a separate outside entrance for the Family Circle (Topmost balcony). If you read the Brooklyn Theater post, you may remember that that very circuitous Family Circle entrance/Exit path became a death-trap.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Iroquois architect managed to make <i>his</i> stairways even worse by having the exit paths from the two balconies meet in a restricted space. I'll take a more detailed look at this when I discuss the fire itself, but lets take a look at how you'd access the balconies.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">If your ticket had been for a Dress Circle or Gallery seat, you'd climb one of those twin stairways, both of which climbed through a series of five 'straight through' landings, until they reached a balcony above the Parquet Level entrances. When you reached that balcony, you could either go straight, and enter the first balcony level, called the Dress Circle, through any of three ornate doors, or you could turn (Depending on which stairway you climbed) either right or left, and climb yet another set of steps that passed through a long 'hanging landing' before turning 180 degrees and climbing to a similar balcony serving the Gallery's (the topmost balcony level) two entrances. Then, owing to the top levels extremely steep pitch, if your seat was at the very rear of the balcony, you had yet <i>another</i> short staircase to climb before reaching your seat.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Theses balconies, promenades, stairways and landings were elaborate, beautiful, allowed everyone to see and be seen, and, owing to the fact that they created numerous pinch points, they were deadly in a fire. Keep them in mind...they become real important here in a bit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The differences in size and grandeur and access between the two buildings, while notable, were far from the biggest differences. Will Davis and Harry Powers, as you recall, intended the Iroquois to be one of the safest, most modern, most technologically advanced theaters in the U.S, if not the world. That backstage elevator was just one of the theater's technological innovations. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br />First, speaking of electricity, the theater's lighting would be all electric. OK, this wasn't really </span><span style="color: black;"><i>that</i></span><span style="color: black;"> new...</span>The very first electric, incandescent lighting system to be installed in a theater (Both stage and house lighting) was installed in London's Savoy Theater in 1881, with Boston's Bijou's Theater getting the first theatrical electric lighting system in the U.S. a year later, so electric lighting in commercial buildings had already been around for a couple of decades.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">By the time ground was broken for The Iroquois on May 1st, 1903, electric lighting in large commercial buildings...the ones located in major cities at any rate...was very common, and <i>every</i> new theater was being built with electric lighting for both house and stage lighting, so electric lighting in the Iroquois was pretty much a given from the git-go.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Electric lighting in Rural areas was a different story, though. </span>Electric lighting in homes... especially <i>rural</i> homes...still lagged behind electricity in urban commercial buildings by <i>miles</i> in 1903, so many people <i>still </i>considered electric lights to be just shy of actual wizardry. People who traveled from their kerosene lamp lit rural and small town homes to see a play in Chicago would stare in unabashed wonder at these flameless sources of illumination that required only the flip of a switch to light.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Much of the Iroquois theater's new technology was safety and exit technology related. The Brooklyn Theater Fire, along with the even deadlier Ring Theater Fire, in Vienna, Austria five years later, taught a slew of lessons RE: Theater Fire Safety, and the Iroquois' owners planned to heed <i>all</i> of them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">**</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A cut-away schematic of the theater, looking in from the Couch Place side of the building. The ventilator above the stage was actually <i>supposed</i> to be a smoke/heat vent that could be opened in event of a fire to vent heat and smoke straight up and out, keeping it out of the auditorium. The vents were never completed, and were boarded over at the time of the fire, with tragic results. The ventilator and fan above the gallery, however, was completed, and running. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The area beneath the stage...the Sub-Stage...was not just open space., It contained dressing rooms, workshops and storage as well as the coal bin for the furnaces, which were in the basement, adjacent to the sub-stage. The chute for the coal bins was used to rescue several trapped dancers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The scenery flats were hung vertically in the two fly galleries, which became fully involved very early in the fire, trapping both a group of German aerialists...one of whose number would become the fire's first fatality when she fell to her death...and aerialist Nellie Reed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">**</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">Almost every theater fire started either on-stage or back stage, sending smoke, heated gasses, and fire into the auditorium. The proscenium arch ( archway that separated stage from auditorium) was an integral part of the building structure in the Iroquois (And all modern theaters) but it was also the weak point of the theater, fire safety wise. </span>A fire starting backstage and gaining headway could and would pump smoke and heated gasses through the proscenium arch and into the auditorium to endanger all of the theater's occupants, causing multiple deaths...especially in the balconies...long before flames swept through that arch to finish off any trapped occupants who the smoke hadn't already suffocated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Iroquois was designed to prevent that from happening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The roof over the stage would be equipped with a pair of big smoke vents, cable operated from the main switchboard...a flip of a switch would drop counterweights which would slide the covers down tracks, opening the smoke vents and venting fire and smoke straight up and out, there-by preventing it from rolling out into the auditorium. My bet is that the mechanism that held the counterweights in place was either designed to release them automatically in the event of a power loss, or was supposed to be backed up by a fusible link.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">To prevent flames from roaring into the auditorium through the proscenium arch, the Iroquois would have a weighted, fire proof asbestos curtain that could be dropped in the event of a fire, completely separating stage and auditorium, holding the fire backstage and on stage long enough for the theater to be safely and calmly evacuated. The curtain would be manually dropped, though, rather than automatic, but there was a sound reason for this...a manually dropped curtain wouldn't be disabled if the fire killed power to the building.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">A sprinkler system as well as standpipes and fire hose were included in the plans. The former should keep a fire from ever getting much beyond the incipient stage, with the latter making quick work of any fire that the sprinklers didn't snuff. At least that was the way it was <i>supposed</i> to work.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Iroquois was...theoretically, at any rate...also well equipped with exits as well as exterior fire escapes. There were nearly thirty exits, nine of which were dedicated fire exits on the north side of the auditorium, with the fire exits on the first level emptying directly onto Couch Place, which ran between Dearborn and State Streets, paralleling the theater's north side, while the second and third level fire exits emptied onto a pair of exterior fire escapes that also emptied into Couch Place. In theory, a capacity crowd in the auditorium could be emptied in around 4-5 minutes. Note here that I said 'In Theory'. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Basically, no fire on stage at the Iroquois should ever get past the incipient stage. If a fire, somehow, <i>did</i> manage to get rolling on stage, the fire-curtain should contain it, the smoke vents should pull the smoke, heat, and fire straight up and out, helping to keep it out of the auditorium, the sprinkler system should knock it down before either fire curtain or smoke vents became necessary in the first place, and the hose lines should be all but redundant. Our theoretical fire shouldn't be more than an inconvenience to the audience, who should be exiting calmly and quickly through the nearly thirty exits available to them as the fire department rolled up.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">That's also what <i>should </i> have happened when the <i>actual</i> fire started, while the story about that same fire in the New Years Eve edition of the Chicago Tribune <i>should</i> have been a short filler article about a minor fire causing the evacuation of the city's newest theater during a matinee performance of <i>Mr Bluebeard</i>. But that's not the way it happened...not even close.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">To tell the story of the fire, we first have to continue with the story of the theater itself.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Will Davis and Harry Powers handed off design of the building to a twenty-nine year old architect named Benjamin H. Marshall, who would ultimately become one of Chicago's most renowned architects, then contracted construction of the theater out to the George A. Fuller Construction Company...one of that era's premiere national construction firms. I'm going to give them the benefit if the doubt, at least in the beginning, when that ceremonial first shovel full of dirt was turned, because I truly think they started out with the full intent of building the most luxurious, most modern, and most importantly, safest theater the U.S. had ever seen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Unfortrunately, shenanigans went hand in hand with the construction of the Iroquois almost from that ceremonial first shovel of dirt on Ground-Breaking Day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then as now, the Christmas Holiday season was when a lion's share of the entertainment industry's profits were realized so, when construction started on 5-1-1903, the tag-team of Klaw and Erlanger made it clear to Will Davis and Harry Powers that they wanted the Iroquois to open it's doors well before Christmas, 1903. In fact, they <i>wanted </i> it open in late October, in time for the opening of the 1903 Theater season.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, with all the dictatorial control that The Theatrical Trust may have held over the industry, and all of the original good intentions that Will Davis and Harry Powers may have had when construction started on the Iroquois, there were a couple of things that none of them could control. Like Labor issues. And the weather.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The inevitable delays due to weather and such things as materials not being delivered on time, pushed the opening date back first a week or so, then a month, then six weeks until, finally, a firm opening date of November 23rd was announced to a Windy City public who had been reading about this amazing new theater, watching progress of construction, and anticipating it's opening for months.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">Then </span><span style="color: black;"><i>that </i></span><span style="color: black;">date was threatened, first by the year's first major snow, which hit on </span>November 5th, extremely early even by Chicago standards. This storm was followed up by a couple of days of freezing rain, a combination that would have delayed construction further even <i>without </i>causing rail line delays that kept Fuller employees from making it to the site.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As if that wasn't bad enough, the project was also hit with a One-Two-Three punch of labor problems.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Just as the weather began to moderate a bit, only eleven days before the theater's grand opening, the New York Bricklayers Union...1000 men strong...struck every Fuller Construction contract in the Big Apple. .I'm not a hundred percent sure how a labor problem in New York would affect a construction site in Chicago, and a full explanation of the labor politics involved is far beyond the scope of this blog, but basically, with the bricklayers not working in New York, no one else could...or would... work either, and this led to across the board work stoppages. These stoppages included sites in The Windy City, once again slowing the final stages of construction at the Iroquois to a crawl.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They got that one sorted out, and then, even as the bricklayers went back to work, another, far more serious strike took place only a week or so before the theater was supposed to open, when the iron and steel workers union struck Fuller Construction. As Fuller tried to sort out these labor problems, the third, and likely most damaging, punch was thrown.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">On November 14th...three days after the theaters new, firm opening date was announced...3000 streetcar motormen went on strike in a violent work stoppage that had the multiple effects of delaying workers trying to get to their jobs (Including the Iroquois site) and keeping the public from getting to places of business. The strike's violence also made husbands hesitant to allow their wives and children (Who made up a huge percentage of Holiday theater-goers) to venture down-town. The strike wouldn't be settled until November 25th...two days <i>after</i> the Iroquois' grand opening...and I can just about bet that the strike affected attendance those first two days. And trust me, Klaw and Erlanger did <i>not </i>need anything to either delay the Iroquois' opening or cut down on attendance.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As if the weather and labor problems weren't giving the Theatrical Trust enough headaches, the Trust was having other problems of its own. That iron grip they had on the Entertainment Industry had apparently been smeared with a little bit of grease because it was beginning to slip a little, and in fact, had <i>been</i> slipping for the better part of a year..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Several well known entertainers and a few successful theater owners had split off from the Trust to start their own syndicate and produce their own plays and thanks to this, neither of 1902/03's two biggest hits...the magically legendary <i>Babes in Toyland </i>in 1903, and a little play called <i>The Wizard Of Oz </i>the year before...were Theatrical Trust (AKA Klaw and Erlanger ) Productions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Klaw and Erlanger were getting just a bit desperate to turn things around, but they had both a plan and a play to turn it around with.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">While the</span> Theatrical Trust couldn't claim either of the last two years' really big hits, they <i>had</i> had been finding success with family oriented musicals...all imported from London's Drury Lane Theater Company. They chose one of them to kick off the Iroquois reign as Chicago's Premiere Theater. The play they chose was a (for the time) special effects packed musical and dance fantasy called <i>Mr Bluebeard</i> that had opened at New York's Knickerbocker Theater the previous season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">They had </span><span style="color: black;">really</span><span style="color: black;"> gambled on </span><span style="color: black;"><i>Mr Bluebeard</i></span><span style="color: black;"> being a success, by the way, because it was not an inexpensive production. To bring the production to life, a company comprising over 350 people utilized hundreds of set pieces, lights, special effects, and costumes (Most of which had to be altered to properly fit American actresses), all of which had been shipped across the Atlantic at Klaw and Erlanger's expense. </span>Then those 350+ people had to be paid. Total outlay, before the first prop was carried through the Knickerbocker's scenery door had been around $150,000. That's just shy of four <i>million</i> 2017 dollars.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But their gamble had paid off. <i>Mr Bluebeard</i> had enjoyed a successful run, making a tidy profit, and the Trust decided to extend their rights to the production for another season (Bet that wasn't inexpensive, either) so they could open their newest and finest theater with it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br />They even already had a home-town favorite</span>...A Chicago native of amazing comedic talents named Eddie Foy...<span style="color: black;">starring in the play, </span>and had courted him for months before signing him at the then unheard of salary of $800 a week (Just over $21,000 in today's money). </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">SO the Trust had the tools to, despite several theater owners jumping ship, make the 1903 Chicago theater season a major success, and maybe even make their own home town's already iconic theater scene pause for just an instant and take notice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But first they had to get the Iroquois open for business, and, frustrated to no end by all the problems and delays, they told Fuller </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Construction's honcho's to get the building open on November 23rd no mater what it took and, most importantly and ultimately tragically, no matter <i>what</i> wasn't finished.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">'What about Inspections and being Certified for Occupancy, and such?' Fuller's brass may have asked. Klaw and Erlanger's reply? It was something to the effect of 'If free tickets had to be offered and palms had to be greased, so be it.'</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Let the shenanigans begin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, said shenanigans had actually already started, probably before the first construction delay reared it's head, in the form of cutting corners to save money.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">One item...That reinforced asbestos fire curtain...is a perfect example. And, OK., before anyone else brings it up, yep, we all know that asbestos has been proven to be dangerous to life and lung, and that inhaled asbestos fibers cause one of the most horrible modern diseases (Asbestosis) to ever be discovered, but in 1903 none of this was known, and asbestos was considered a miracle material that rendered anything it was even <i>near </i>fire-proof, at least according to those who manufactured and sold items made from it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The curtain, originally, was to be made of asbestos fiber and reinforced with a brass wire frame, rendering it semi-rigid and fire resistant. Properly constructed, this curtain would have weighed somewhere between 3000 and 4,000 pounds, and would have been manually raised and lowered using a geared winch/cable/counterweight system. The base of the curtain was fixed to a rigid metal rod fitted with rollers on each end that would be slotted into a vertical track on either side of the stage. This way, when lowered, the curtain would form a semi-rigid fire-resistant barrier between a back-stage fire and the audience that, along with the stage roof vents, would hold the fire long enough to give them time to calmly exit the building.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I don't know how much this curtain would have cost, but I have a feeling that they weren't cheap. So Fuller, with full knowledge of Will Davis and Harry Powers, instead ordered a curtain that was made chiefly of wood pulp, with some asbestos fiber...enough to meet building codes...woven through it. There was no wire mesh frame to provide rigidity, though there was a metal rod slotted into a track on either side of the stage, but the tracks were wooden rather than metal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This Faux-asbestos curtain may have met the then existing building codes, and it certainly saved money...to the tune of about $56 ($1550 in 2017), but it was just about as fireproof as a paper towel. Which meant that that $56 was saved while robbing the theater's patrons of a a major safety feature while giving them the impression that it was, indeed, still there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And it got worse...The sprinkler system that had been in the original plans (And that was actually <i>required</i> by Chicago building codes) was somehow deleted from the actual construction process. The standpipes, with multiple hose connections, were installed...but without hose or fittings. They would have been useless anyway, because the standpipes hadn't been connected to the city water system, nor did it have a roof mounted water tank large enough to both supply water to the system and pressurize it. While there <i>was</i> a water tank on the theater's roof, it was a small one whose purpose was to supply water pressure to flush toilets.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">There was also no fire department standpipe connection to allow an engine to pump into the system, supplying it. So the standpipe was nothing but a useless, empty pipe. Even worse, these 'oversights' were somehow 'missed' by building inspectors. Spoiler alert...That's going to be a recurring theme here.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Remember that high-tech roof venting system above the stage? Those construction delays... especially, most likely, the problems with the iron workers union...delayed completion of the automatic roof vents above the stage and back stage areas (Probably delaying installation of the tracks that the missing counterweights, which opened the vents, slid up and down in). Make that 'prevented completion', as in, when the theater opened on November 23rd not only was the roof venting system <i>not</i> finished, it apparently wasn't going to <i>be</i> finished anytime in the immediate future. In fact, boards were actually nailed over the roof vents themselves, apparently to prevent cold air from entering through them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A large ventilator above the auditorium, which was part of the normal heating and ventilation system and was designed to draw air up and out of the auditorium, <i>was</i> completed and operational. These two facts alone would be a <i>huge</i> factor in the fire, and the deaths resulting from it.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then there were the fire escapes. While some sources say they weren't finished, leaving only blind platforms hanging over Couch Place<i>, </i>photographs (Including the best known photo of the fire) say otherwise...the fire escapes were there. There were nine exits leading to these exterior fire escapes alone. But there were still a bunch of problems with these exits.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">First, the way the exits were set up was a major problem in and of itself. The fire exits utilized 'stacked' doors, with double glass doors (Equipped with difficult to operate bascule locks) inside and windowless iron doors (Equally difficult to open.) outside. So even getting out of the fire exits onto the fire escapes posed a major problem.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then, once the theater patrons got out of the fire exits onto the fire escape landings, things got even worse. They could only assume that if a exit was provided, that a way to safely reach the ground would also be provided, and this <i>should </i> have been a given. This, as we'll see, would turn out to be a lethal assumption. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><br />The stairs were </span><span style="color: black;">there, </span><span style="color: black;">but were were poorly designed. We'll go into just what these design flaws are later, as we examine the fire as it's in progress, but lets just say that the stairs would be completely obstructed before the evacuation really got under way, leading to a choice between burning to death or a forty foot drop to just about certain death on the cobblestones of Couch Place.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">You'd think it couldn't get any worse but it could and did. As preparations to open the theater began, and newly minted ushers and cashiers and elevator operators and all the other people needed to run a major stage theater were trained, one thing was missing in that training...what to do in case of a fire (Or any <i>other</i> emergency for that matter)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So as commemorative programs for the Grand Opening were ordered and printed, and rehearsals for the performance were held and last minute inspections were allegedly supposedly carried out...the inoperative roof venting system was nailed closed and covered, the fire escapes were death traps waiting to happen, and <i>no</i> one who worked in the place had a clue as to what to do if it caught on fire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And these weren't, by far, the <i>only</i> hazards in the new, supposedly uber-safe theater. They were just the most obvious. OK, you ask, why didn't the fire inspections, or final inspections by the building department or <i>somebody</i> find these problems and forbid the theater from opening until they were corrected?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Anyone by any chance remember me mentioning shenanigans? Eight or so weeks before the theater opened, city Building Commissioner George Williams submitted a study on Theater Fire Safety, with the intention being to amend the building codes, bringing the hammer down on the unsafe practices that were still all too common in theater construction and management. Problem was, the proposal, and new ordinances, were shelved pending further study.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Me thinks the timing on shelving this proposal was <i>not</i> coincidental.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, even with action on this study tabled indefinitely, the theater shouldn't have opened with a single...much less <i>multiple</i>...major fire hazard(s) still existing, because the Iroquois' owners hired a retired Chicago firefighter named Bill Sallers, to act as the 'House Fireman'. His primary duty was attending each performance to ensure that the theater's exits and exit paths were clear and unobstructed, inspect the in-house fire equipment to ensure it was in good order and ready for use, and ensure that the theater wasn't over-crowded as it filled before each performance. Also, if a fire got going anyway despite all of the precautions, he was there to make the initial attack on it, to, hopefully, hold it until CFD rolled in.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">His secondary duty (And to be technical, <i>primary</i> duty before the theater opened ) was to clue the owners and builders in on fire hazards so they could be corrected before they actually became safety issues.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Awesome idea in theory...but there were <i>lots</i> of problems in practice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Lets take a look at 'Checking exit paths and fighting incipient fires' first.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">There were no exit signs, (The architect felt that they'd be 'distracting') and some of the exits were hidden behind draperies (Wouldn't want an ugly ol' fire exit marring the theater's elegant decor, now, would we?). Several of the exits utilized difficult to operate Bascule locks, which were common in Europe, but rare in the U.S., meaning very few people on this side of The Pond could operate them in broad daylight when they <i>weren't </i>panicking...much less in choking, smoke-filled darkness when they <i>were.</i>(Those big, ornate, brass Bascule locks sure were pretty, though!!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">**</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The infamous Bascule Lock. I wish I could have found the legend that identified the numbered parts, but it wasn't included. Best I can figure out, you had to pull the latch, marked '1', towards you, which rotated the locking pins at the top and bottom of the door away from the lock plates, allowing you to swing the door open. Not at all intuitive when you're used to twisting a knob and either pulling or pushing the door.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Now! </i>Imagine encountering this beast in a building full of smoke when you're terrified, can't see, can't hardly breath, and have several hundred panicking people behind you trying to push through the door.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">**</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">On top of that, during performances the theater management locked accordion gates across the landings on the stairways between the upper gallery and the Dress circle, to keep Gallery patrons from sneaking down to better seats...Sallers was <i>not</i> provided with a key.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Now! Lets take a look at the 'Controlling Incipient Fires part of the deal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He <i>couldn't</i> control a small fire if it got started for the simple reason they left him virtually no equipment to fight a fire <i>with.</i> Or, for that matter, even to <i>report</i> one with.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course the sprinkler syste...oh, wait, there <i>was</i> no sprinkler system. It had, as noted above, disappeared from the theater's final plans. The standpipes were still there...but they were useless. The only firefighting equipment that was retained were six...count 'em...six three foot long tin tubes, each about an inch and a half or so in diameter, each filled with about three pounds of a dry chemical known as Kilfyre. It was intended to be thrown (Forcibly, as the label indicates) onto the fire, and it was actually designed to be used on minor household fires, chimney fires in particular.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The infamous Kilfyre extinguishers. Six of these three foot long, inch and a half diameter tubes, filled with a dry chemical fire extinguishing agent, were all of the fire fighting equipment that The Iroquois could muster. It even had a model name...'The Monarch'. The discharge end was apparently on the bottom of the tube...the directions stated to 'Yank Down (Thus Removing Cover) Hurl Contents <u>Forcibly</u> with sweeping motion into the base of the flames. It also advised the user...in bold type...to</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>ALWAYS THROW FORCIBLY NEVER SPRINKLE</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">It could also be used on flue fires (Chimney fires) by pouring some of the contents into a container and tossing it into the fireplace or stovepipe opening below the fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The thing may have been OK on a small fire burning on the floor or the classic 'Pan On The Stove' fire, and may even have been effective on chimney fires, but it was...as Bill Sallers was to find out...absolutely useless for stopping a fast moving fire running up a vertical surface, such as curtains, located above the user.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Those six tubes of Kilfyre, folks, were all Bill Sallers had available to him in the event of a fire at the Iroquois..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And reporting a fire? Wasn't happening, not quickly anyway. There was <i>no</i> fire alarm box in or even near the building...closest one was at the corner of Clarke and Randolph, in front of the famous Sherman House Hotel (The very hotel where most of the first-billed cast of Mr Bluebeard were staying), nearly two blocks from the theater. First Due Engine 13's firehouse was actually closer to the theater than the nearest box.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">'How 'bout a Telephone?' You ask. Good luck with that...Even though telephones had become a part of urban life by late 1903, especially in commercial and government buildings, there wasn't a single phone back stage in the Iroquois, and only a couple, apparently, in the entire building<i>. </i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The situation should never have gotten anywhere <i>near</i> that bad, though, because, as noted above, Sallers was actually hired well before the theater opened, and was supposed to point out fire hazards to the owners and management of the theater so they could be corrected before they became an issue.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He should have pointed these problems out to Mssrs Davis and Powers, and if <i>that</i> didn't yield any results, made a bee-line to the fire department and reported the issues to them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Didn't work that way. Or even <i>close</i> to that way.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh, Sallers was, <i>indeed</i> aware of <i>all</i> of these problems and hazards and had pointed them out to Mssrs Davis and Powers, who equally obviously, simply ignored him...after advising him that his job depended on him <i>also</i> ignoring the problem. Remember, The Trust wanted the theater opened before the Christmas Holiday Rush <i>at all costs.</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Also, Sallers had previously had been fired from a similar job at McVickor's Theater for over-zealously attempting to enforce fire regulations. And now he was being told he was in danger of losing <i>this </i>job as well. SO , with his job on the line, and knowing the threat to fire him was not an idle one, Sallers made absolutely <i>no</i> mention of the theater's many issues to the Fire Department...even though CFD Engine 13 was quartered less than a block away, on Dearborn Street, literally with-in sight of the new theater.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then again, as it turned out, even if he <i>had</i> mentioned it, it may not have made any difference.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Say <i>What???' </i>you ask. 'Read on', I say.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Sallers was actually called out on the fact that he never notified the Fire Department of the theater's many fire safety issues, and it was Engine 13's Captain that called him out on it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">Back in 1903, firefighters pretty much lived at the stations. There was </span>one 'platoon' rather than the three or four shift system departments use today, which meant that the twelve or so firefighters watched this huge new theater that they were not only first due on, but less than a minute away from, take shape and form </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">daily</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">for six months. It would have been nice to have taken a tour of the place as it neared completion, to see just what they would be facing if caught a run there, but the technology of the era...or actually, the </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">lack</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> of technology...got in their way. The lack of radio communications back then prevented the guys from going 'In the district' to tour the theater as it was being built because they'd have no way to receive alarms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /> This didn't, however, prevent Engine 13's captain, Patrick 'Paddy' Jennings, from touring the theater, possibly on one of his two or so times monthly days off, with Bill Sallers in tow. He, after all, would be in command of the first in engine if they caught a working fire at the theater, so he felt like he should familiarize himself with the theater's layout, features, and hazards so he could tell his guys what they would be up against should they have a fire there. Not as good as the entire company roaming around the place and seeing first hand what kind of problems they could potentially face, but better than nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He'd also heard that, due to the theater's ultra-modern, high-tech fire safety technology, any fire call at the Iroquois would likely be more of an inconvenience than anything else and he wanted to see just how true this was. He'd quickly find out that this was far from accurate.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Paddy Jennings about had a major conniption as he looked at the disaster waiting to happen, and (Probably very colorfully) demanded to know why Sallers hadn't swung by #13 and let him know about the theater's many and varied fire safety problems.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Simple, Sallers replied...he didn't want to get fired. As noted above, he literally feared for his job if he brought up the fact that the theater was a very luxurious fire trap...a situation he was, theoretically at any rate, hired to prevent.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Captain Jennings replied , bluntly, that if a fire got going during a performance and Sallers' complicity in the lack of fire protection became known, that the families of the inevitable fatalities would find and lynch him. Jennings was <i>pissed</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He didn't have an actual Fire Prevention Bureau to contact...Chicago wouldn't have one until 1911...but he <i>did</i> have a Battalion Chief, quartered in the same house as Engine 13, so as soon as he returned to quarters, Jennings made his way to the Battalion Chief Jack Hannon's third floor office and laid his findings out, telling the Chief that 'If a fire gets going on stage or back stage, it'll be frightful' (I have a feeling the actual conversation may have been a scosh more colorful.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The thing is, Chief Hannon simply answered 'What can we do about it, Paddy? They've got Bill Sallers there, <i>they</i> know all about the problems and don't seem too worried about it'.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The unspoken conclusion of the discussion was 'Just Drop It...something my mind definitely struggles to get around even though it was a far different time and era.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Believe it or not...it gets even better. While there wasn't a Fire Prevention Bureau, there <i>was</i> a building department, and they were responsible for inspecting public buildings to ensure that they met building codes and that they were safe for occupancy. New construction had to be certified safe for occupancy before the first paying customer was allowed inside.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Responsibility for inspecting the Iroquois as it was being built fell to Deputy Building Inspector Ed Loughlin, who passed the Iroquois with flying colors without even filing a written report...he simply told his boss that the building was completed, safe, and OK for occupancy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So, as the theater's grand opening loomed, the building was actually <i>far</i> from finished...but no one apparently cared. Worse, it was actually certified for occupancy <i>despite</i> all of the unfinished and/or faulty/poorly designed/non-existent fire safety equipment and fire escapes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The public didn't have a clue. Half page newspaper ads espoused the theater's luxury, modern features, and, ironically, safety, and plans were made by people from a radius of a couple of hundred miles of Chicago to bring their kids into the big city over the Holidays to see Mr Bluebeard, which would've been a once-in-a-childhood treat for rural kids back in the first decade of the last century.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Interestingly, a seemingly minor incident provided both a bit of foreshadowing of the coming disaster as well as final chance to avoid it. The sets for Mr Bluebeard included dozens upon dozens of scenery flats, many of them delicate bordering on lacy and all of them heavily painted with oil paints to the point that they were, basically, solidified gasoline. All it would take would be a tiny spark...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Supposedly Will Davis stopped by the theater one afternoon shortly before it opened to see the sets being off loaded from a couple of big freight wagons and carried in through the scenery doors off of Couch Place. He took one look at the heavily painted, highly flammable scenery flats, went goggle eyed, and said 'That has <i>got</i> to be the most goddamn flammable mess of scenery I've ever seen in my life! No way it's going in my theater!'</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He supposedly actually told the teamsters and stagehands who were carrying it inside to carry all of it back <i>out</i>side...but then reconsidered. Erlinger had an absolutely volatile temper, Klaw and Erlinger owned a percentage of the theater and the production, so pissing them off could mean he was out of a job, and delaying the opening of the Iroquois by so much as an extra <i>day</i> was a perfect way to piss them off.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So he told them 'Ok, take it in...we'll try to get along with the damn stuff!'</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Among the items that were taken in were a big pedestal-mounted carbon arc spotlight, which used an electric current arcing between a pair of carbon rods to create a bright, directable beam of bluish-white light. While they created plenty of light, they also drew an immense amount of current. And they had a bad habit of shorting when they pulled too much current, creating a spark when they did so.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">All of the elements of the disaster were in place.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">******************************************************************************</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Satellite view of the intersection of Randolph and Dearborn today. The building at the intersection's northeast corner is the Delaware building, formerly the Real Estate Exchange Building, and is the only building still standing that was around in 1903. The 'L' shaped Iroquois was built surrounding it on two sides. The eastern third or so of The Real Estate Exchange was partially razed in 1924, along with the former Iroquois Theater and much of the rest of that block, to make way for the United Masonic Temple Building, which also contained The Oriental Theater. The Oriental, of course, is still there, and still thriving.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">I've also indicated the approximate footprint of the Iroquois as well as the location of the Iroquois' exterior doors, and the location of Thompson's Restaurant, next door to the theater, which became a 'Field Hospital' of sorts during the fire. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Christmas has always been a kids holiday...Oh sure, adults exchange gifts as well, but just about everything <i>about</i> the commercial side of Christmas was created with kids in mind, from stockings and Santa to holiday entertainment, and Mr Bluebeard was not only no exception to the rule...in fact, it was a kid's dream come true. On steroids.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><br />Mr Bluebeard was loosely based on the fable about a wealthy, violent monster who had married and killed 7 wives, and his eighth wife's attempts to avoid the same fate after she went into a forbidden room in Bluebeard's castle and discovered the bodies of wives 1-7. OK, I can see the horrified, questioning looks as everyone asks, mouth agape, 'That was a </span><span style="color: black;"><i>kids</i></span><span style="color: black;"> play???'. As originally written, it </span><span style="color: black;"><i>wasn't</i></span><span style="color: black;">...to make it kid-friendly, the story was given a happy ending (All seven deceased wives came back to life), put to music, and Americanized a bit.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">While it wasn't a Christmas-themed play, it was still very much a kid's play, with lots for kids to love... Exotic and colorful (And, as noted, <i>highly</i> flammable) backdrops, amazing special effects (Most made possible by the same thing that would cause the fire...electric lighting), spectacular musical numbers performed by huge, gaudily dressed dance troupes, whimsically costumed characters, a baby elephant (Actually a couple of actors in an elephant costume), Eddie Foy in hilarious drag (He was a brilliant comedian, and reviews of the play said he was seriously underused...he'd also be considered the hero of the day.) and an aerial ballet featuring a dancer who actually 'flew' out over the audience, on a wire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course the dangers weren't apparent, and had remained dormant for the nearly a year that Mr Bluebeard had played in the U.S, during both it's run at Broadway's Knickerbocker Theater, and a mini-tour of the Midwest it embarked on to keep the profits rolling in while the Iroquois was under construction. Klaw and Erlanger knew that the play's appeal to children made it <i>perfect</i> for the premier run at what promised to be the nations most luxurious, safest, most technologically advanced stage theater, so they went all out, even as they sweated the construction delays.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Iroquois had been advertised heavily and constantly...or as constantly as a world without electronic communication would allow...with all of the major Chicago papers running articles about both the theater and the play, as well as half and full page ads, for weeks before the opening, which was timed well despite it's being a month into the new theater season. November 23rd was the Monday of Thanksgiving Week, and Thanksgiving, then as now, was pretty much the kick-off of the Holiday Season, though it was dozens of times more low-key in 1903 than it is today. Then as now as well, theaters made a big hunk of their annual profits over that five or so week period. And, As I've noted, Mr Bluebeard was the perfect play to make said profits with.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">A capacity crowd turned out for Mr Bluebeard's premiere Chicago performance despite the still on-going motorman's strike, and though the critics were a bit disappointed in the play's weak plot, they raved about the special effects, colorful costumes and sets, dance numbers, and in particular, Eddie Foy's performance, and were <i>very</i> impressed with the Iroquois. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />While the critics weren't quite sure what to make of the play's weak plot, the target demographic loved it...kids, generally, could care less about the plot's sophistication, or lack there of, as long as it's fun to watch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">**</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Yep...souvenir programs were very much a thing even 115 years ago. Here we have the front cover of the inevitable souvenir program, available to those attending the grand opening and premier performance at the Iroquois on November 23, 1903. The picture on the left is an an enlargement of the illustration on the cover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Mr Bluebeard starred Home Town Boy Eddie Foy, shown here in a head shot from the era, and in costume (And drag) as Anne, the ugly sister of Fatima. He would end up being considered one of the heroes of the fire.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">**</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The play enjoyed pretty good attendance right on through the first couple of weeks of December, though not quite as high as owners and producers had hoped, but that would soon be a non-problem. Remember, Mr Bluebeard was basically a <i>kids</i> play. And one thing that hasn't changed much over the past century and change is the amount of time kids have off for Christmas, at least here in the U.S.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Traditionally, kids in just about every school system in the U.S have gotten two weeks...Christmas Week and the week between Christmas and New Years...off for Christmas. This has been happening for at least the last century and a quarter or so, and it's likely what the kids in Chicago had as a Christmas Break in 1903....very probably from Monday the 20th to Monday, Jan 4th, 1904. And that's <i>exactly</i> what Klaw and Erlanger were counting on.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Twice a week (Saturday and Wednesday) Matinee performances were added during those two weeks, bringing about <i>exactly </i>what Klaw, Erlanger, Will Davis, and Harry Powers had hoped for. With the kids out of school, parents decided to give them a special treat, in the form of shopping in the many high-end stores 'In The Loop', lunch at a good restaurant (Many of them probably ate at Thompson's, a popular restaurant right next door to the Iroquois) and finally, attending the afternoon matinee performance of Mr Bluebeard.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Because the men of the house had to work, it was usually the moms, or sometimes aunts or nannies, who brought the kids to the afternoon matinees, and they showed up in droves, as did groups of high school kids, especially the girls. During an interview after the fire, Eddie Foy would note that the play had enjoyed big crowds the entire week after Christmas, crowds that seemed to get larger with each successive night.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And then came December 30th.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The day before New Years Eve, 1903 dawned clear and frigid in Chicago, with a little bit of snow on the ground and temps hovering right around zero. This was shaping up to be a <i>cold</i> winter in Chicago (And would, in fact, end up being the coldest on record) but the frigid temps didn't do anything to slow the influx of moms, kids, and families who converged on Chicago's Loop from thirteen states and eighty-seven cities.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">People had planned day-trips around this performance. Remember, back in 1903 going into Chicago wasn't just a simple affair of getting into the trusty Family SUV and jumping on I-55 or I-94. For the vast majority of families it entailed making a trip into town by train, which meant round-trip train tickets also had to be purchased, then everyone had to be up early, bathed, dressed, and at the train station, ready to go when the train rolled in to the station. It's a good bet that lunches may have been made and packed, unless a lunch in a restaurant was planned.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It was a day loaded with excitement for the kids, who were already in the middle of that sensory-overloaded week-long sugar-high giddiness that's the awesomeness of Christmas as a child. The train ride, day in the big city, and seeing Mr Bluebeard were just icing on the cake (And very likely part of many of the kids' 'Santa Claus' )</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, they also had to get tickets to the show. Back then, of course, there was no buying tickets online ...you had to actually go to the theater's box office and purchase them. They could still be purchased in advance at the box office, but you pretty much had to live in Chicago to do so. Those coming from out of town had to buy tickets at the door.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">**</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A ticket to Mr Blue Beard from Dec, 30, 1903...but this was one of the tickets that would never be sold. This one...in the Orchestra section, on the auditorium's first level...was for the evening performance which, of course, was never performed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">One of the ticket stubs from the fatal performance, held by an occupant of orchestra section, on the theater's first level of seating. Just about everyone on the auditorium's first level made it out safely, so this stub was very likely held on to by a survivor..</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Iroquois' box office was located in a vestibule between the theater's inner and outer exit doors (Two groups of six identical glass and mahogany doors). With that afternoon's matinee performance starting at around 2PM, a crowd was already queuing up at the box office well before 1PM, filling the vestibule up to overflowing, then probably forming a line that extended down Randolph Street. With school out for the holidays, the line was packed with moms and kids as well as groups of teens.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The tickets <i>kept</i> selling, until all 1600 seats had been filled, and this made Davis and Powers <i>more </i>than happy because, as I noted above, crowds, while good, had been disappointingly short of being a full house. So they told the ticket-sellers to keep <i>on</i> selling standing room tickets until they managed to stuff another anywhere from</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">...</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">depending on the source...</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">two to five hundred more people </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">inside the theater. According to many witnesses there were people standing four deep along the back walls of all three levels as well as standing or sitting on camp chairs and stools in the aisles. (Though actual records seem to refute this....more about that in 'Notes')</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They sold so many tickets, in fact, that the show's star...Eddie Foy...even got shut out. Being on the road constantly, he didn't get anywhere near enough Family Time, so his wife and kids were in town over New Years to visit him, and he tried his best to get passes for them to attend the Wednesday afternoon matinee...but he was too late. By the time he tried to get passes, all of the seating had been sold out, and they were well into 'Standing Room Only' mode. After a quick parental discussion a <i>very</i> fortunate decision was made...his wife would take the kids shopping (Or maybe take herself shopping, with the kids in tow) instead. There would, after all, be other chances to see Eddie perform.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The oldest Foy child, six year old Brian, begged his dad to take him anyway, so Eddie relented and brought him along, trying one more time to get him a seat...or possibly even just a folding chair...near the front,</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">No room, though a folding chair was likely what he sat on when his dad, instead, took a look at the wings of the stage and realized he could stow Brian on stage...or just off stage. There was an alcove of sorts, just off of 'Stage Right (The <i>left</i> side of the stage to the audience) hard by the main switch board and beneath one of the 'Fly bridges' that both supported lighting equipment and provided access to the overhead scenery storage known as the fly gallery. That would be a perfect place for Brian to watch the show...And lets be honest here, a six year old boy would <i>much</i> rather be back stage, where he could watch <i>all </i>of the action. And next to the switchboard, where he'd get to 'supervise' the high-tech stuff? Even <i>better</i> in the mind of <i>any</i> six year old boy!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So Eddie grabbed the afore-mentioned folding chair and placed it in the alcove, let stage managers and the electricians running the switchboard know where he was putting Brian so they could keep an eye on him, then headed for his dressing room to begin the likely long, drawn-out process of becoming Anne, the the ugliest of the seven ugly sisters of Fatima, who was the lust-object of the titular Mr Bluebeard. (It's a good bet that Brian tagged along to watch this process, too.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And, as a now fully costumed Eddie brought Brian back to his place of honor next to the switchboard, he glanced through a small opening in the curtains to see a huge crowd awaiting the performance. Every seat in the house filled, with people standing along the back walls.Among them, he'd note later, were 'More mothers with kids than I've ever seen at any performance...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Meanwhile, as Eddie Foy installed his son next to the switchboard and glanced out at the crowd, just above them, on the Fly-bridge, electrician William McMullen was probably in the process of testing a big carbon arc spotlight, maybe even letting their new 'assistant' throw the big knife switch that sent power to it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The entire theater was humming with the energetic controlled chaos that's a major stage production as the clock ticks down the last half hour or so to show-time, and the audience could feel it. Young girls tittered and giggled (And checked out the actors) and young guys preened (And checked out the young girls...some things haven't changed in 115 years.) and kids all but shivered in anticipation as moms and dads pointed out details of tech and beauty.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And finally, the curtain opened and the houselights dimmed. All of us have been in a movie theater when the lights finally dimmed all the way and the feature started, and you, as it's been said, can almost hear the silence. It was the same as the houselights dimmed at the Iroquois that long-ago afternoon, but even more-so, spiced with youthful and childish anticipation...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The show had started. Over a third of the audience had just begun their last hour or so of life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The first act went off without a hitch, much to the delight of the audience, especially the kids. The song and dance numbers were spectacular, the special effects amazing, and everyone loved the young, lovely, petite and very talented teen dancers of the Pony Ballet as they cavorted and swirled across the stage. The antics of Eddie Foy were hilarious, what they had gotten to see of them so far. He'd hit his stride in Act 2, when he would, among other hilarity, dance with an elephant (OK, again, it was a couple of actors in an elephant costume...)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It was probably about quarter to three or there-abouts when the curtain dropped on Act 1, kicking off a general rumbling and jostling of activity among the audience as moms took kids to the rest room, and the men-folk gathered in the smoking room to enjoy cigars, as others headed for the 'Crush Room', as the huge foyer was also called, to mingle during intermission.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">If you think there was a lot of activity in the audience, <i>back</i> stage things went into overdrive. Flymen heaved on ropes to raise the old backdrops and lower new ones into place while Prop-men quickly and efficiently organized various set-pieces so they'd be available in the right order.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">One of the biggest jobs was handled by riggers as they set up the wire for lovely young dancer Nellie Reed's aerial ballet...she'd actually fly out over the audience dropping flowers...and as some of the riggers strung her flying wire, another assisted Nellie in donning the leather and steel 'Greek Corset' that she wore beneath her costume. This beast looked like the top half of a leather suit of armor (And was probably just as comfortable) and came complete with a hook on the back that allowed the wearer to be attached to the flying wire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Nellie Reed, who would be one of only two fatalities among the Mr Bluebeard cast when, while still attached to the wire used for her aerial act, she became trapped above the fire. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Early in the second act, a double octet...a group of sixteen dancers...would dance to the hit song 'In The Pale Moonlight', the exact breed of performance that the big carbon-arc spotlights were designed for.. Up on the flybridge, Bill McMullen slid a blue-tinted sheet of isenglass into a pair of guide slots on the front of the spotlight he was manning that evening. This would give the lighting for the octet a blue glow, simulating a moonlight effect. Of course, In The Pale Moonlight' wouldn't be performed for another fifteen or twenty minutes or so, but he also wouldn't need that carbon-arc light until then, so now he was ready to go.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The house lights flashed several times in the traditional signal that intermission was over and Act 2 was about to begin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*****</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The second act kicked off just as smoothly as the first, keeping the hundreds of kids in the audience wide-eyed with wonder. Eddie Foy once again had the audience in stitches as he cavorted with the dancing elephant, then, as his first scene in Act II ended, he checked on Brian, who by by then was probably happily in Coolness Overload. Once he made sure Brian was OK, Eddie headed for his dressing room to touch up his make-up and get ready for his second performance of the act, a fantasy sequence as the Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Nellie Reed's aerial act was also flawless and awe-inspiring, made even more so by the use of lighting. Some of these lights were housed in twenty inch tall, five inch wide retractable reflectors, called 'Front Lights', mounted on either side of the proscenium arch. They were hinged vertically, and when not needed could be swung into wells in the arch's wall, so they'd be out of the way of the curtain, and most importantly, the fire curtain. Nellie Reed's aerial performance was the only time during Act 2 that the front lights were needed, and once she finished showering the audience with flowers, stage hands <i>should</i> have swung the lights on both sides of the stage back into their wells. And they did just that, swinging the lights on the stage-right side of the stage closed. The one on the stage-<i>left </i>side, however, didn't catch completely, and bounced back open a couple of inches. In the tumult of activity that's a major stage production, no one noticed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Octet's sixteen performers were waiting in the wings as Eddie Foy headed for his dressing room to make his quick costume change, and it's a good bet that he quietly and good-naturedly bid all of them 'Break a Leg...theater's traditional Good Luck Omen...as he passed. Eddie heard the orchestra swing into 'By The Pale Moonlight as he started touching up his stage.make-up.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Up on the fly bridge, Bill McMullen called for both the houselights to dim and and power to his big carbon-arc spotlight. Brian Foy probably watched wide-eyed as the chief electrician twisted a rheostat, dimming the house lights all the way down, as he closed the arc light's knife switch at the same time. The effect worked perfectly...The sixteen opulently costumed dancers gracefully entered the stage, followed by a circle of diffused blue light, just as the houselights faded out, giving the impression that the moon was rising and that they were indeed dancing in the moonlight...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">In certain 'Down Front' seats, the two flybridges...one on either side of the stage...were visible from the audience. Simple fix...both flybridges were concealed by vertically hung gauze curtains, hung close to it in such a way that the lights and fly bridges were both hidden from the audience. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The curtains were within just a few feet of Bill McMullen's spotlight, which was hazardous in and of itself, considering the fact that those big old carbon-arc spotlights generated about 4,000 degrees (Yep...you read that right) at the electrical arc between the electrodes...but the electrodes were actually pretty well isolated, and <i>wouldn't</i> be the problem. The <i>huge</i> amount of power the things drew, however, <i>would.</i> These lamps drew a <i>tremendous</i> amount of current...more than any building's electrical system was really designed for at the time. Because of this, a small defect could be a killer...a short could toss sparks around among all of the combustibles on a stage, igniting a firestorm.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>almost </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> happened a couple of months earlier, in Cleveland, while </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Mr Bluebeard </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">was touring. An arc light sparked, setting the curtains on fire, but that one was caught quickly and extinguished before any damage was done. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And it's probably exactly what </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">did</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> happen that afternoon at the Iroquois, about fifteen or so minutes into the second act.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Bill McMullen was following the Pale Moonlight dancers with the blue spot, concentrating on that task diligently, when a couple of loud 'POP!!'s startled him at the same instant a bright blue flash lit up the wall behind the light...and the flash didn't entirely disappear...it just turned orange, and...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Bill jerked his head around and looked up and to his right, where a small flame was working it's way along the bottom edge of one of the gauze curtains that was hung to obscure the fly-bridge. These curtains were thin and lacy and burned <i>fast</i>, so what started as a fire the size of the palm of his hand quickly grabbed hold of the curtain and started climbing, just a dozen or so feet below hundreds of highly flammable, vertically hung scenery flats, supported by miles of manila rope. He knew he <i>had </i>to stop the fire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Artist's rendition of the very early moments of the fire. Once those curtains got going, there was no stopping it with the entirely inadequate fire equipment that Bill Sallers had available to him. It only took minutes for the fire to reach the scenery flats stored in the fly gallery and 'Go for a hayride'. Both levels of the fly gallery were likely fully involved well less than five minutes after the fire started.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">One of the post fire investigative photos, take from roughly the same point of view as the painting. The photo was taken from the Gallery...note the brass rails that were installed between the seats because of the Gallery's extremely steep pitch between seats.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The light bridge where the fire started is just out of view to the left of the stage. The building's main electrical switchboard was directly beneath the light bridge. You can see the Dearborn Street stage door, which I've labeled, at the rear corner of the stage as well as the tiers of dressing rooms immediately to the left of the stage door. Numerous cast and crew members as well as Eddie Foy's son escaped through this door before the backdraft and scenery collapse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The scenery on stage would have become fully involved quickly as burning debris fell on it (And would have burned quickly due to it's lightweight construction.). Had the fire curtain worked properly and actually been fire resistant, it very well might have held the fire long enough for the theater to be evacuated, or at least to have significantly reduced the death toll, Unfortunately, while being lowered, the 'fire curtain' got hung up on a side light on the right side of the stage, leaving that side of the curtain 20 feet above the stage. On top of that, curtain was actually flammable, making it useless even if it <i>had</i> lowered properly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Note the extreme heat and fire damage above the stage's proscenium arch. When the fly galleries and gridiron 'backdrafted', sending a fireball down onto the stage, then out into the auditorium, it rolled out from beneath the proscenium arch and across the ceiling, into the Gallery and Dress Circles, dooming anyone left in them. The useless fire curtain lit up and collapsed into the orchestra pit and first few rows of first level seats seconds later, about the same time the ropes holding the scenery flats aloft burned through and sent tons of burning scenery slamming into the stage, taking out the main switchboard and plunging the theater into flame-lit darkness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The lack of debris on stage is notable as well. The scenery consisted of painted canvas stretched over lightweight wood framing, and would have burned fast and hot, even though the falling scenery partially snuffed itself by burying a lot of the fire when it hit the stage. It wouldn't have taken long at all for the entire pile of fallen scenery to re-ignite, and the debris would have burned fast, consuming the combustibles on stage in a matter of minutes. Engine 13's crew made quick work of what fire was left back/on stage once they took a hose line inside through the Couch Place scenery door.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">**</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Bill McMullen dived across the fly bridge and grabbed the curtain (Likely burning his hand while he was at it), tearing at it as he tried desperately to yank it down, and when that failed, he tried to beat the fire out with his hands. The fire climbed out of his reach in well less than an instant, causing both of his attempts to stop it to failed miserably. Even worse, as the fire climbed, it extended to the other curtains hanging near it, kicking a cloud of dark smoke ahead of it as it boiled upward, .</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"Guys, put it out!!!" McMullen called up to a man on the catwalk a few feet above the fly bridge, who also started slapping at the flames, meeting just about as much success as McMullen had...the fire just kept boiling upwards towards the scenery hanging in the flies, rolling past him as if he wasn't even there while it was at it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As of yet the audience wasn't aware of the fire, nor were the dancers, but several stage hands in the wings and on cat walks were <i>more</i> than aware of it, and all were both alerting McMullen to the fire that he already knew about, and offering unsolicited advice about just how to handle the growing blaze, none of which was particularly helpful.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">As all of this was going on</span><span style="color: black;">, </span><span style="color: black;">Bill Sallers was checking the basement dressing rooms and work rooms located beneath the stage for illicit smokers. He was just coming up the basement stairs, on the far 'Stage Right' side of the back stage area, behind the elevator, so at first he didn't see anything. But he heard people calling for someone to 'Put It Out!!!" and he </span><span style="color: black;">smelled</span><span style="color: black;"> it. Once you're a firefighter, your nose becomes attuned to smoke, especially smoke that shouldn't be there, and there shouldn't have been </span><span style="color: black;"><i>any</i></span><span style="color: black;"> smoke backstage at the Iroquois. </span>Sallers was instantly on high alert.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />He bolted around the elevator cage, probably all but running into a couple of people looking up as he did so. When he came around the elevator, he was diagonally behind the right-hand stage wing and the electrical panel, which put him just below and maybe 20 feet from the light bridge, which meant it was no way he could miss the developing disaster above him as he followed everyone's gaze. He muttered a curse when he saw the fingers of orange rolling up the curtains, pumping black smoke into the fly gallery even as they raced upwards towards it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He grabbed several Kilfyre tubes from their wall hooks, made the vertical ladder to the light bridge in about two steps, and somehow managed to scramble up the ladder while hanging on to the three foot long tubes. When he got to the light bridge he had a slew of problems.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The metal platform was narrow, packed with cables and the lights, and set at an angle that put the burning curtains beyond his reach. Ignoring the 12 foot drop to the stage, Sallers probably handed McMullen the tubes, then climbed over the bridge's pipe-made railing, straddling it before taking one of the tubes from him. Then he probably popped the cover off of the tube's discharge end, grabbed the railing one handed to steady himself, and reached as high up, and far over as he safely could as he whipped the tube back and forth, over his head, slinging the powder in an arc that didn't even come close to reaching the flames, and wouldn't have been effective even if it had...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"SOMEONE PULL THE BOX!! AND DROP THE FIRE CURTAIN!!"</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Sallers called down to the backstage crew as he emptied the first tube...but he'd forgotten something, unless he meant for someone to run the two blocks to Randolph and Clark and pull the street box there. There <i>was</i> no box in the building.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As for the 'asbestos' fire curtain, it was as if no one even heard him, because absolutely <i>nothing </i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">happened<i>...</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He called for both the box to be pulled and the curtain to be dropped a second time, even as he grabbed a second tube from McMullen, uncovered the discharge hole, and whipped it back and forth overhead just as he had the first, with even <i>less </i>success. The flames, which were leaping and rolling up the curtains with a vengeance, were by then out of reach and control of anything short of a fire hose and were, very likely, already licking at the scenery stored in the fly gallery.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Bits of burning cloth were beginning to drift towards the stage, like slowly falling stars, and the audience...at first...thought they were yet more of the play's amazing special effects. The double octet dancers performing 'In The Pale Moonlight', however, damn well <i>knew</i> that the burning bits of fabric they were having to dodge were <i>not </i>part of the show.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">At first, the dancers continued as if everything was just fine, with several of them even thinking that the fire would be quickly brought under control, an opinion that was proven wrong in short order. Above them, Sallers had grabbed yet a third Kilfyr tube, and was slinging the contents at the flames with absolutely no effect other than causing a snowstorm of bicarbonate of soda to fall on the stage.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Pale Moonlight dancers pressed on with their performance even as they dodged drifting bits of flaming cloth and faster moving mini-meteors of burning debris. Below them, in the Orchestra pit, the musicians making up the sixteen piece Iroquois orchestra could probably look straight up into the flies and see flames jumping from one highly flammable scenery flat to the next. Despite this terrifying vantage point, they kept playing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The audience by now <i>knew</i> the theater was on fire,,,especially those seated on the right side of the auditorium, on the 'Stage Left' side of the stage...they could now see the fly bridge, and could see both the flaming curtains and Bill Sallers comi-tragic, completely ineffective attempts to control the fire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Some of the audience started leaving. Up in the balconies a hum of panic was starting...crying children, tense, murmured shoutings, rustlings of panicked motion...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Eddie Foy, meanwhile, was entirely unaware of the unfolding disaster as he touched up his make-up, and put on a wig with a comical, up-tilted pony-tail. It was as he was adjusting his wig that he heard the fight. Or, at least, what he at first <i>thought</i> was a fight. A few of the stage-hands had gotten in to it pretty seriously a few days earlier, and Eddie figured it was this same two or three people, at it again, as he got up from his chair, and opened his dressing room door. What he saw sent chills up his spine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The dressing rooms were on six levels, off of a stairway on the 'Stage right' side of the backstage area and Eddie Foy's dressing room was likely the first one on the first level, hard by the stairs. He had to go down a short flight of steps and down a short corridor to reach the stage, and when he walked out of the corridor he got an eye-full of Bill Sellars' futile attempts to control the fire, which by now had roared into the fly loft like a runaway train, and was rolling across scenery flats at the rate of one every second or so.. One look told Eddie that the theater...or at least the stage area...was doomed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He glanced around frantically for a second, spotting Brian still under the light bridge, probably watching Sallers tossing Kil Fyr. Eddie made it to his son in less than seconds, picked him up, very likely said something like 'Time to leave, buddy', and made his way back stage, probably dodging falling bits of flaming debris the whole time. As he carried Brian towards the Dearborn Street </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">stage door, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">he could hear the panicked pandemonium that was the audience...sobbing and panicked cries, and a general rumbling and rustling, most of it from the galleries.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The stage crew was bailing out of the building en masse by then, and Eddie started to follow them out when those panicked sobs and cries from the audience started haunting him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"Here..." Eddie said to one of the crew he knew well, handing Brian off to him. "See that my boy gets out of here, and watch him for me..." Once he knew Brian was safe, Eddie Foy made a broken field run through the rain of flaming debris, heading back for the stage, very likely mentally guesstimating just how long the ropes holding all of those burning scenery flats would hold before they burned through and dumped the whole flaming mass on the stage.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Even as Eddie made his way to the stage, the situation was worsening by the second. First, the Pale Moonlight octet began to falter as the dancers watched the fire. Then, the music (And the performance) stopped cold as several of the Orchestra members, watching the fire grow, left through the trap door and stairway that took them beneath the stage. One of the Octet dancers fainted, and her partner carried her backstage.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the audience several people on all three levels left...one young man of 12 grabbing his two siblings and, when his nanny insisted that it was 'Part of the show', ignored her and left, saving them. Several other kids were told to 'Sit back down before you start a panic'. Sadly, it's a good bet that many of them didn't make it out.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">***</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So far there was no smoke in the Auditorium itself...yet...but it was filling the two fly galleries, as well as the 'gridiron', the very upper portion of the stage, where a group of sixteen young German aerialists <i>should</i> have been awaiting their turn to perform, but instead were watching the fast-growing fire from above. Several pieces of burning scenery, some the size of bed sheets twisted and rolled, leaving smoke trails as they fell, while a couple more, catching the rising convection currents caused by the fire, drifted upwards towards them,....and one of these up-drafting fire-bombs caused one of their own to become the fire's first fatality when it wrapped around her. She screamed as she tried to unravel herself from the burning cloth, lost her grip, and plummeted to the back-stage floor sixty feet below, hitting the boards with a solid and deadly 'THUNK!" that the rest of the troupe swore down they actually felt. The rest of them unhooked from their wires, and, on the verge of panic themselves, scampered down some scaffolding. When they looked as they reached the bottom, Florentine...the girl who had fallen...wasn't there. Someone had apparently moved her, and they could only hope that she somehow managed to survive. Sadly, their hopes would be in vain.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">...And, as the German aerialists scampered down the scaffolding, another performer was forgotten in all the terror and confusion. Nellie Reed was still attached to her wire, still wearing that formidable Greek corset under her costume, and still 30 or so feet above the stage. She was also all alone, desperately trying to get the hook disengaged, and becoming more terrified by the second...then another big piece of burning canvas, kicked aloft by the fire's thermal updraft, wrapped itself around her and lit her filmy costume off...and she started screaming. Still burning, she somehow untangled herself from the burning canvas, finally disconnected the wire from her rig, and made it to the same scaffolding that the German aerialists climbed down, crying in pain and terror and trying desperately to get her burning costume off the whole time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Her costume burned off of her...she disappeared, horribly burned and in unspeakable pain, somehow making it to a stairway and down to the basement, below the stage, where she'd wander around in agony for several minutes until she was found by building engineer Robert Murray, who had just finished rescuing several trapped and terrified dancers and chorus girls by pushing them up and out of the theater's coal chute,...they would emerge on Couch Place still dressed in their costumes in the near-zero-degree cold, but they would be alive.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Murray happened upon Nellie Reed as he headed back up the stairs (Some sources have him finding her in the stairwell, others back stage). He carried the terrified and fatally burned young aerialist up the stairs that emptied near the Dearborn Street stage door, and carried her outside, handing her off to someone who would see that she was transported to a hospital. Unfortunately, she wouldn't survive the night.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">***</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The German Aerialists and Nellie Reed weren't the <i>only</i> performers trapped on the upper levels of the theater...there were six levels of dressing rooms, arranged in tiers, on the 'Stage Right' side of the back stage area, serviced by both the afore-mentioned staircase, and the elevator. Smoke and heat were already rolling into the dressing rooms on the upper level tiers when Eddie Foy handed his son off to a stage hand and headed for the stage, and it was thick, acrid, and thoroughly unbreathable.. Enter a mostly unsung hero named Robert Smith,who was the elevator operator. Elevators at the turn of the last century weren't automatic as today's elevators are, instead requiring an operator to manipulate a lever that raised and lowered the car. This was Bob Smith's job, and as the fire grew, he made the first trip, stopping at the first level to bring down a load of chorus girls. He cold hear the rumble of flames in the fly galleries, and the panicked cries in the audience as he handed off the chorus girls to electrician Archie Bernard, who was the point man of a group who herded the girls to and out of the Dearborn Street stage door.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As soon as he was sure the chorus girls were safe, Bob Smith closed the door and threw the control lever to 'UP', shooting towards the top level, diving into a malicious fog-bank of hot, acrid smoke as he did so. He found one girl trapped on the top...sixth...level then, hearing screams below him, stopped on the fifth level, all but working blind and coughing and wheezing as he packed the elevator full before heading back down and unloading. The scenery on stage was burning now, and an ominous crackling rumble came from the fly lofts as flames rolled through the scenery flats unchecked. He handed this load off to Archie Bernard as well, then shot back upward to either the third or forth level, where he had to drag several girls who were frozen with terror onto the elevator. The controls were hot by now, burning his hand as he headed back down. Flames were probably rolling through the upper levels of dressing rooms by then, and going back up a forth time would be suicide. He and Archie Bernard guided the girls to the stage door, bailing out of the burning theater along with them when they reached it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Dearborn Street stage door was a life-saver for many of the cast and crew, but a good third or so of the crew, and several of the performers were on the opposite side of the stage, nearer the Scenery doors, which opened onto Couch Place. There was another stage door, embedded in the big scenery door, and the first performers to reach it discovered a terrifying fact...the stage door was jammed tight. It moved maybe a quarter inch and stopped. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I don't know why they didn't open the scenery door...it would have actually been better if they had done so then, early in the fire...but they didn't. Instead they considered crossing to the other door, looked at the flaming debris beginning to rain down into the backstage area, then began pounding on the jammed door and screaming.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">About the same time Archie Bernard was ushering the girls that Bob Smith had rescued through the Dearborn Street stage door while the cast and crew members on the Couch place side were discovering that their stage door was jammed, one of the first audience members to make it out of the theater shoved one of the main entrance doors open so hard it rang, and ran down Randolph Street. He all but ran down Peter Quinn, the AT&SF Railroad's Chief Special Agent, who was in charge of the team that investigated crimes committed against the railroad. Quinn had been walking up Randolph when the man nearly bowled him over, then pin-balled off of a couple other pedestrians and ran up to a police officer, saying something to him. The cop immediately went wide-eyed, glanced at the theater, and took off for the nearest police call box. The coatless man then continued up Randolph and hung a right on Dearborn.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A front view of the Iroquois' main entrance, said to have been taken early in the fire...note the smoke seeping from the bottom of the top left window. You can also tell that the upper floors are filled with smoke, which never banked down much lower then the floor of the second floor promenade.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Kodak had developed the roll-film 'Brownie' camera over a decade earlier, and those little cameras were not only extremely popular, they took (And, if you can find the 120-size roll film they took, still do take) pretty decent pics, so if this was indeed a quick shot of the very beginning stages of the fire, taken by a soon-to-be bystander, it's a good bet that it was taken by a 'Brownie' or similar box camera.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">Quinn </span>noticed the quick tang of smoke even as he quickly scanned the teaming crowd pouring out of the main entrance doors, many of them (Like the guy that nearly bowled him over) coatless in the bitter cold, and immediately <i>knew</i> what was going on. He trotted past the Real Estate Exchange building, and around the corner onto Dearborn, glancing across the narrow vacant lot beyond the Real Estate Building and next to the theater, where he saw people...many in costume...milling around and hustling out of the Dearborn Street stage door. He probably cut diagonally across the lot, rounding the corner onto Couch Place, and he heard it as soon as he rounded that corner...pounding and screaming, voices yelling 'Oh GOD, please get us out of here!! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">The big scenery door, </span>which had a standard single door embedded in the center of it, was right at the corner of the building and opened onto Couch Place, with the smaller door being one that all of the terrified screaming and pounding was behind. Quinn Muttered an oath, grabbed the doorknob and twisted it, yanking hard on the door...he might as well have been trying to move the wall of the theater, because the door was jammed tight. He glanced at the hinges, saw that it was hinged on the outside, and yanked a small tool kit from a pocket. My bet is he grabbed a screwdriver.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"Hang on, I'm going to pop the pins out of the hinges..." Probably working from top to bottom, he quickly popped the pins, then called for the people trapped behind the door to move back. He yanked on the door, letting it fall and stepping back himself as a throng of a hundred or so people...both adults and children, some of them in colorful costumes and all of them coatless, hustled out of the door, a coupe of them confirming what he already suspected as they told him the theater was on fire. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He had no way of knowing that the larger door...the door that the personnel door whose hinge pins he'd just popped was embedded in...would play a huge and deadly part in the carnage to come.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Quinn had probably just started removing the Couch Place stage door's hinges when Eddie Foy trotted out on stage with burning scenery as his backdrop and heavy smoke beginning to roll out from beneath the proscenium arch (And beginning to fill the balconies). Dressed partially in drag and wearing a wig that included a huge, upswept pony-tail, he strode to the edge of the stage and called out:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'Please, don't get excited...There's no danger if you stay calm...please sit down, it'll be alright, there's no danger, it'll be all right...'</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Whether he actually <i>believed</i> this or not is open to speculation, but the main things he was trying to do were prevent a panic and get the fire curtain lowered to buy the audience some much-needed time. With those goals in mind he first looked down at Orchestra conductor Herbert Dillia and the six musicians who remained, all standing in a Hodge-podge of overturned chairs and music stands left by those who had fled.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"<i>An overture, Herbert, play an overture, play anything...just keep your music up...</i>" and the six muscuians swung into the overture for <i>Beauty And The Beast'</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">That accomplished, Eddie called for the fire curtain to be lowered (Not realizing that Sellars had already called for it to be lowered, with no success). If they could drop that, so he thought, it would protect the audience at least long enough for them to get out...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">...But there was a problem. No one knew where the stage manager was (He'd gone to a nearby hardware store to buy something that was needed back stage...what that item may have been is long lost to history) and to make matters even worse, the guy who usually handled the curtains had been hospitalized that morning and a stage hand named Joe Daugherty was subbing for him after a quick and cursory explanation of what ropes controlled which curtain...and for the life of him he couldn't remember which of the wire-reinforced ropes dropped the 'asbestos' fire curtain. So, as people called for him to 'Drop the Fire Curtain, and the bell that rang to warn that the curtain was dropping, activated by some unknown person, peeled in the background, and the audience panicked even as Eddie Foy tried desperately to prevent said panic, he was staring at what looked to him like a rats nest of ropes, completely confused.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And Eddie Foy grew more frustrated by the second as he waited, in vain for the fire curtain to drop, calling for it to drop a second time as a couple loud crashes resounded from back-stage...larger pieces of scenery, possibly an entire scenery flat or two, crashing to the floor. Dozens of thoughts were running through his head...time for a change in game-plan...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>"OK, we need to get out of here, folks, but take your time...go slow, we've got plenty of time, don't be frightened...take your time,"</i>...He turned as a couple of stage hands passed behind him, making tracks for the stage door. <i>"For Gods sake, drop the fire curtain! Does anyone know how the fire curtain works???"</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Octet dancers had bailed by then, a couple of the girls carried to the stage door by their male partners after fainting, and the six remaining orchestra members quickly left through the trap door that took them below the stage, where they'd have a round-about journey up a set of steps, back stage, and out the stage door...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">...Many of the audience members hadn't had to be told to leave...they were coming to that conclusion on their own, and, like the audience at the Brooklyn Theater twenty-seven years earlier, most of those on the first level would make it out by just leaving through the exits out to the lobby, and them through the main entrance. OF course, that makes their escape sound far, far easier than it actually was. While most <i>would </i>make it out of the first level, they <i>wouldn't </i>have an easy time of it<i>.</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">All three of the exits out to the lobby were tri-fold French doors, (Actually a bifold door, with a single French door to the right of it.) and </span><span style="color: black;"><i>all</i></span><span style="color: black;"> were initially locked (Probably with those Bascule locks that the building's designer was so taken with) and on top of that, the ushers reportedly refused to unlock them. (They would later say that the theaters's management had never told them when to unlock the doors, only that they were to remain locked during a performance. The thought ' </span>If The Building's On Fire, Unlock The Freakin' Doors ' apparently didn't occur to them.).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Only the middle set of doors was partially opened...the bifold door was broken open, reportedly after a recalcitrant usher was...er...forcibly removed from it and there <i>were</i> fatalities among the crowd fighting their way out of the first level, most due to being trampled to death as they all tried to make it out of that single double-width doorway. The panicked mob rolled over women and children like an out of control steam roller, some of these women and kids going down after people behind them stepped on the hems of long dresses, then bowled them over. Conversely, some of the people being trampled grabbed hold of the skirts of women who were trampling them, pulling their skirts and dresses off...quite a few women were found on the street wearing only their Victorian undergarments.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The only reason that there weren't <i>more</i> first level fatalities was because the smoke never really mushroomed all the way down to the first level of the auditorium...the auditorium's high, high ceiling and the exhaust fan above the rear of the gallery vented the building just enough to keep the bottom of the smoke layer well above the heads of the orchestra/Parquet level occupants.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">While few on the first level died, those occupants still lived a nightmare of panic and terror. Parents and children were separated from each other as were sets of siblings. Some theater-goers showed a resourcefulness that was uncanny...one young lady of about twelve, finding herself separated from her mom and cut off from the aisles by the panicking mob, jumped up on her seat and, using the seat backs as stepping stones, bypassed most of the crowd, then, upon reaching the rear aisle, slalomed her way through the crowd until she reached the south side of the auditorium and slipped through the exit to the lobby before escaping through the main exit...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">...But all wasn't roses at the exits out to Randolph Street either. Once the crowd made it into the vestibule they were home free, because the three street doors were all unlocked, but the ''Making It Into The Vestibule Part' presented another problem. </span>While all of the <i>street</i> doors were unlocked, a<span style="color: black;">ll three of the vestibule doors, between lobby and vestibule, </span><span style="color: black;"><i>were</i></span><span style="color: black;"> locked, and all were the same type of 'trifold' (Bifold French with a single French Door on one side) that were used as the Parquet level exits out to the lobby. All three of the bifold doors were ultimately unlocked and opened...the middle one after it was broken open...while the single door on the door-</span>sets to either side were both broken open, either by the crowd itself, or someone who came in from the outside. Once just <i>one </i>of those doors was opened, the panicking crowd hit it in a mass rush. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /> The panicked crowd trying to make it through the inner vestibule doors kept jamming up as everyone tried to make it through the doorways at the same time. Luckily, there was plenty of outside help at the front of the theater, because the box office was open, selling tickets to later performances, which is also why the vestibule doors were locked. The ticket-buyers-turned-rescuers kept having to drag people off of the rapidly growing pile-ups to keep the crowd moving. As one of them stated <i>'We'd clear the doors, and a dozen or so people would make it through, then they'd start jamming up again, and we'd have to clear the doors again...'</i> (These brave souls likely came close to getting trampled themselves).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The audience on the first level...the Parquet and Orchestra sections...may have had a rough time making it out, and may have been banged up, bruised up, and traumatized...but the majority of them <i>did</i> make it out. The audience in the <i>balconies, </i>however, would be an entirely different story. Panic was beginning to overwhelm them, especially with fire now visible on stage and heavy smoke rolling out from beneath the proscenium arch, to be dawn upward into the Gallery by the big exhaust fan over the rear of upper level. Smoke, heavy, nasty, and toxic, was beginning to fill the balconies, stinging eyes and filling lungs to bring on fits of uncontrollable coughing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">Some of the Dress Circle and Gallery occupants never even made it out of their seats, suffocating in the heavy smoke before they even had a chance to </span><span style="color: black;"><i>try </i></span><span style="color: black;">to escape. The hundreds</span>...mostly women and children...who were fighting for their lives as they <i>did </i> try to escape began running up on the multiple obstacles that had been inadvertently thrown in the way of a successful escape.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As rough a go as the parquet level occupants had, that level still all but emptied pretty quickly, and those very few who left the Dress circle (First balcony) early in the fire also had a comparatively easy go of it, but the Dress Circle and Gallery occupants who waited more than a very few minutes before trying to escape had a multitude of obstacles in their way, and believe it or not, the locked accordion gates were the least of them, because most of those who died got jammed up at the entrances to the two balconies or on the fire escapes before they could even get <i>close</i> to the gates.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">One group from the Gallery almost made it out, though. Almost. The Iroquois topmost level of seating (The Gallery) emptied onto a 'U' shaped promenade that extended along both the east and west walls, all the way to the front of the building. A utility stairway that allowed theater employees and vendors to move between floors without having to use the main stairway was located at the south (Front) end of the eastern third floor promenade,. It also provided access to the theater manager's office as well as the music room...both located on the second floor. And, as the stairway dumped into the main entrance foyer, in theory, it could have given anyone escaping the fire a nearly straight shot out of the theater's main entrance. Unfortunately, this could <i>also </i>allow someone to enter off of the street and bypass the box office to gain themselves a free seat.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><br /> It </span><span style="color: black;">could</span><span style="color: black;"> have, anyway, except for the door on the north end of the second floor landing, which was kept locked. Which also made it not only useless, but potentially deadly, as a fire exit. As a gallery occupant named James Strong was about to find out.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span>James Strong, who had attended the play with his wife, mother, and teenage niece, decided early on that it was time to leave the building, despite Eddie Foy's insistence that they were safe where they were. Panic was beginning to erupt around them, and I can picture him saying something like 'Let's get the hell outa here, guys'. to the other three members of his party...I get the impression they were seated pretty near the Gallery's eastern-most entrance, which was one of the few doors that wasn't locked or jammed, making getting out of the Gallery itself a piece of cake. Getting out of the <i>theater</i>, however, would be another story altogether..</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">When the Strong family got up and made their way towards the exit, around thirty more people took the hint and followed. They made it out before smoke had really started filling the upper part of the theater and <i>just </i>before panicked theater-goers mobbed the exits, jamming them up with a solid wall of trapped and trampled bodies.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They started down the steps leading to the main stairway, only to spot the accordion gates blocking the landing They quickly regained the third level promenade, hung the 90 degree turn, dropped down another short flight of steps, and ran head-long down the section of the third floor promenade that ran along the theater's east wall. They dropped down a short, open flight of steps into the third floor landing for the utility stairwell with a burst of relief that was all but ecstatic as they hit the first flight of the utility stairway...but then they encountered the door separating the second and third floors. James Strong twisted the door knob, finding it locked...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The utility stairway door that trapped James Strong's family along with a couple of dozen other Gallery occupants. James Strong climbed out through the transom over the door, then went in search of either help, keys, or something to break the door down with, whichever he might find first.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The board sitting across the door jamb just might be the one that he desperately wielded when he tried unsuccessfully smash the door so he could rescue his family and the rest of the people trapped with them. Firefighters finally used an ax to smash open the bottom of the door panel...You can see where the lower panel was bashed in...in an attempt to reach the trapped occupants, but by then it was too late.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As James Strong and his thirty or so fellow patrons were making that heart-breaking discovery, the rest of the occupants of the Gallery and the Dress Circle were ignoring Eddie Foy's pleas for calm, and mobbing either the fire escape doors or the exits leading to the main stairways. All three levels had at least three exits out to the fire escape (Or, for the first level, directly out to Couch Place).but there were <i>no</i> exit signs (Remember...they would have been a 'distraction') and the doors were hidden behind heavy drapes, making them resemble windows. It took the quickly panicking crowd a couple of minutes...at least...to to figure out that these lavishly curtained windows were actually the fire exits. When they <i>did</i> figure that out, they pulled the drapes aside (Or, more likely, down) and immediately began queuing up at the doors, expecting them to be easily popped open...they were, after all, <i>fire escape </i>doors... only to find them secured by Bascule locks, which the great majority of US citizens had never even <i>seen</i> before, much less actually operated.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This would have been a problem...or at least an inconvenience...if there was <i>no </i>fire, but with a panicked mob pressing against the two or three people at each door who were trying to figure out just exactly how the locks operated, and smoke quickly filling the balconies, burning their eyes, and causing fits of spasmodic coughing, these exits became multiple death traps.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They got lucky with a couple of the doors, when either a recent European immigrant or someone who actually had some of the few other Bascule locks in the U.S. in their own home knew how to operate the locks, and managed to open the inner, French doors. A couple of the other inner doors were opened by brute strength, but when they got the inner doors open, they found that they still had a problem. These were stacked doors, with French inner doors, and windowless steel outer doors. The steel outer doors were <i>supposed</i> to be opened and swung flat against the theater's brick wall, out of the way of anyone exiting onto or descending on the fire escapes before every performance, but this didn't happen. Therefore, the outer doors were also locked, using difficult to operate industrial style latches...and a coupe of these refused to budge.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The crowd managed to get two fire escape doors open on the first level, one, and possibly two doors opened on the Dress Circle, and all three doors in the Gallery open, none of them easily. Those Parquet level patrons who hadn't already exited through the single main entrance that was opened flooded through the two open fire exits into Couch Place to find frigid temps and smoke rolling from the roof of the theater, Bedlam was erupting above them as the occupants of the two galleries poured out onto the twin fire escapes, and found yet another host of problems, a couple of them particularly deadly...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">...Even as all of this drama unfolded, Eddie Foy probably breathed a sigh of relief as the fire curtain </span><span style="color: black;">finally</span><span style="color: black;"> started easing down in it's guide track. Most of the stage crew had either left, or were at the stage doors, queuing up to leave, but </span><span style="color: black;"><i>someone</i></span><span style="color: black;"> in the crew hadn't bailed yet, and they actually knew how to lower the thing. </span> Eddie watched as the curtain started easing down, rollers probably rumbling gently in the wooden tracks...probably thinking 'Finally...this will buy us a little bit of time...' as, for a few seconds, the lowering curtain stopped, or at least slowed, the smoke rolling into the Auditorium. His relief was to be short lived.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">I don't know if he spotted it before or after the curtain jammed up. Remember those front lights on the sides of the proscenium arch? Specifically the one that bounced back open and therefore wasn't completely retracted? That reflector was probably on the stage left (Right as you face the stage) side of the stage and Eddie Foy's eyes went huge as that side of the curtain hung up on the front light, stopping twenty feet above the stage and refusing to move, while the other side of the curtain continued to drop. Someone...maybe even Eddie himself...very likely yelled 'Whoa..</span>whoa.. <i>WHOA!!!' </i>to whoever was lowering the curtain, and it stopped with the low side about five feet above the stage and the high side still twenty feet up, hung up on the reflector.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Smoke and super-heated gasses were 'mushrooming'...starting to move <i>downward</i> as they filled the fly-galleries...and now heavy smoke started rolling from beneath the high side of the curtain, adding to the malicious over-cast of smoke in the auditorium.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Several stage hands tried desperately to free the high side of the curtain, Building Engineer Robert Murray coming perilously close to tumbling off of the edge of the stage into the empty orchestra pit, but it was useless. (Murray would head down to the basement immediately after, where he'd make sure the boilers were shut down before rescuing several dancers and aerialist Nellie Reed.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><br /> If the curtain had been stopped and reversed a foot or so the instant it hung up, they could have possibly just closed that front light and continued lowering it. But they didn't, and now it was in a bind, the high side too high to jump up and reach, and the roller twisted just enough that it was in a bind, jamming it and preventing the stage crew from pushing it up off of the light with scenery poles. The low side was in even more of a bind, and twisted far worse, pulled by the uneven high side of the curtain, putting a </span><span style="color: black;"><i>lot</i></span><span style="color: black;"> of stress on the wooden track....and the first punch of a one-two punch was thrown.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">With a splintering, ripping, drawn out crack, the rail on the low side ripped loose and the roller on the low side tore away from it, leaving the bottom of the curtain free to sway.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Remember the stage door was open, and the breeze whipping in billowed the now-free curtain outward like a spinnaker on a sailboat, heavy smoke rolling and puffing from beneath the curtain as it swayed and flapped in the breeze. The gallery was probably almost obscured by smoke by now. and the Dress Circle was also filling up with smoke. They didn't know it yet...but they were running out of time even faster then they knew...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />A Cataclysmic event was only minutes away, but even before it happened, even as the fire grew with each passing second as the stage crew tried vainly to get the jammed curtain down, people were already dying by the hundreds on the two balconies...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A chart showing the locations of all of the doors in the Iroquois, as well as their status (Locked, unlocked but difficult to open, unlocked and open.) I've tried to remember to refer any door mentioned back to this chart as a reference for you guys as you read the post.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Multi-section doors use a number for the door, and a letter designation for each section (For example, 33a, 33b, 33c, 33d) and colors indicate that door or sections status, as indicated on the key. Most of the multi-section doors were French doors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Other important features are also noted, so this floor plan is an excellent reference point to keep in mind while reading this post. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">Charts courtesy iroquoistheater.com.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">By the time the crowd on the fire escapes had shoved, broken, or forced the metal outer doors open, smoke had probably banked all of the way down to the floor in the Gallery, and was steadily filling the Dress Circle, so it was an increasingly desperate crowd that found themselves on the twin fire escape stairways...and they also found that they had had <i>more</i> problems, and they were bad ones.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span> First, lets talk about the fire escape door at the northeast corner of the Dress Circle....Door 31 on the door chart above.<span style="color: black;"> This door would have been at the rear corner of The Dress Circle, also making it the highest Dress Circle fire escape door from the ground. </span> The panicked crowd managed to get it open, only to find that there was a two foot drop from the floor of the Dress Circle to the top landing of the fire escape. Sadly, they found that drop the hard way...by blindly making that first step. And falling. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />The ankle length skirts and dresses of the day would have made that a daunting first step if you <i>knew </i>it was there, and would <i>not</i> have exactly helped speed up the evacuation, because all of those ladies, shepherding terrified kids, would have had to have looked at what they were doing and stepped gingerly out and down, creating a back-up. Again, let me reiterate...this is what would have happened if they <i>knew</i> that two foot drop was there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">This is possibly the infamous Door 31, the top-most Fire Escape Exit from the Dress Circle, on that balcony's north-east corner. There was a 24 inch drop from the floor of the Dress Circle to the fire escape landing, causing the first several people out of the exit to trip and fall. Those behind them either stumbled on the pile-up and pitched over the railing, falling to their death, or piled up in the doorway, blocking it. The several dozen bodies found piled up at this exit, sadly, would <i>not</i> be the worst body count at a single exit by far.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">That dubious title would belong to the main Dress Circle exit, directly opposite this door on the south-east corner</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br /><br />...But they <i>didn't</i> know it was there, and they were in a blind panic, rushing to escape the smoke filling the Dress Circle, making that gargantuan first step a death trap of the first magnitude. Everyone expected to just step right out onto the landing, so it's an all but sure bet that the very first person out the door fell...not tripped, <i>fell...</i>and two or three others followed suit, ending up in a tangle on the landing. Then more people tripped over them, and several may have even pitched forward and over the railing, to fall to their death on the cobblestones below. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />As this was happening, the panicked crowd still inside tried to force their way out of the door, and the next group that tripped and went down blocked the door way...then more people tried to force their way out of the doorway, trying to climb over the fallen bodies in the doorway until an immovable mass of humanity was piled up in the doorway, totally blocking the exit. It's a very good bet that very few people actually made it out of Door 31. Numerous bodies would be found in that deadly corner, but it wouldn't even be <i>close</i> to the worst death trap with-in a deathtrap on that frigid Wednesday afternoon. Some of of the worst ones were the fire escapes themselves.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">There were several more problems with the fire escapes. When the doors were opened half way, they completely blocked the fire escape, but that wasn't the biggest problem. Remember, the outer doors were designed to swing 180 degrees so they could lay flat against the outside wall when open all the way, so they <i>could </i> be swung out of the way. It wouldn't have taken long for the crowds pushing through the fire exits to figure this out. It was, in fact, probably discovered almost as soon as they cleared the door, when the throngs of people at each exit pushed against the door between them and the safety of Couch Place. They likely wasted no time slamming the doors on the 'downstairs' side against the wall, allowing them to continue downward.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">Remember, though, the Dress Circle and Gallery exits weren't all on the same level...there were three exits from both balconies, each a bit higher (Or lower depending on where you were) then the other, so the those coming out of the two higher exits on each balcony were </span><span style="color: black;"><i>still</i></span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">blocked by an open door. No problem...they either pulled it all of the way open or, most likely, shoved it closed, and continued down. Of course, pushing it closed would have blocked people who were still inside that exit, so it's possible that the doors on the 'upstairs' side of each exit see-sawed between open and closed a couple of times until someone finally swung it all of the way open...if they had room to do so with people crowding them from above. This still wasn't their biggest problem, though. </span>It's when they were almost at the bottom that they quickly found the real problem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A schematic of the Iroquois' exterior fire escapes, detailing the problems that faced terrified, panicked theater-goers who were trying to escape the fire. Pay particular attention to the description of the problems with the uppermost fire escape door (Door 31 on the door chart) which I also detailed above. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">Chart courtesy iroquoistheater.com</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The northwest corner of the Gallery...the top most balcony...during the after-fire investigation. The fireball rolled across the ceiling and into the Gallery, causing the heavy damage seen here. The Gallery was was still almost fully occupied when this happened. Nearly three hundred people died there when that happened....many in their seats, others in the exits and on the narrow promenade immediately outside of the exits as they jammed up in the panic The debris draped over the brass railing on the left side of the frame is just some of the hundreds of coats and other personal possessions left behind by the victims as they tried to escape the fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">You can also see just how steeply pitched the seats were here.Take a look the two fire escape doors...these would have been Doors 37 a-b (Right side of frame) and 36 a-b (Lower left side of frame) and are labeled as two doors each due to them being stacked doors, with a French door on the inside and a steel door on the outside. Take a look how much lower Door 36 is than door 37...the two doors are separated horizontally by only about 17 feet, but the pitch is so steep that door 36 is almost six feet lower than door 37. Or to put it another way, each row of seats is nearly <i>two feet</i> lower than the row behind it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">From the looks of Door 37, the panicked mob trying to get out managed to break down the inner French door, only to find the steel outer door closed and latched...it appears to <i>still</i> be latched here. On the chart, it's listed as unknown if opened,but from the number of people trapped on the top-most landing, it <i>had </i>to have been opened. It's not at all improbable that the crowd of investigators seen in the pic pulled it closed to block some of the frigid air that would have been rolling in to the now-unheated building.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">**</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The bottom section of steps on both fire escapes were designed to fold up, out of the way of traffic on Couch Place...all fire escapes are designed this way...and normally a quick yank on a release drops it. Remember, though, Chicago had been dealing with some nasty, frigid weather over the past several weeks. The bottom section of stairs on <i>both</i> fire escapes were frozen solid. The lower fire escape...from the Dress Circle...was apparently freed fairly early on, allowing the people on that set of steps to make it to safety, but the ladder for the upper...Gallery...fire escape remained solidly frozen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">One father took matters into his own hands as soon as he reached the bottom of the Gallery fire escape. </span>Eleven year old Harriet Bray (Who would be one of the longest-living survivors of the fire) had attended the play with her dad, and so far they'd been lucky. They had been on the lowest portion of the Gallery, fairly near a fire exit, which her dad had managed (With help) to break open even as the Gallery filled with heat and nasty, toxic smoke. They were very likely all but coughing up a lung when they finally made it out to the frigid cold on the fire escape and started down only to find the bottom section of the fire escape frozen <i>solid</i> in the raised position. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Mr Bray quickly came up with a plan, and told Harriet what he was going to do. He then vaulted over the rail and made the 12 foot jump to the cobblestones below, looked up at his daughter, and said something like 'OK, Sweetheart, I've got you...<i>jump!! </i>From the description I read, she was all but already climbing over the rail as her dad got ready, and when she jumped, her dad made a perfect catch. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Meanwhile, as the Brays were escaping from the Gallery, things were going from desperate to deadly a level below them, in the Dress Circle. The three interior Dress Circle exits that opened out to the twin Grand Staircases were on the opposite side of the auditorium from the fire exits, and all were equipped with ornate, multi-section French doors. When smoke started rolling into the Dress Circle like a killer fog bank, panic became desperate terror, and three hundred-plus people rushed those three exits, immersing themselves in heavy smoke as they did so.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of the three exits was near the southwest corner...front corner...of the Dress Circle, and used a trifold French door. This one opened directly onto eastern grand staircase, but it had two problems...it was either jammed or locked, and using it required people to (I'm guessing, here, BTW) climb a small flight of steps, and then hang a left to exit. A third or so of the Dress Circle crowd...those closest to the stage...crowded into that small staircase, and those closest to the doorway shoved, pounded upon, kicked, and cursed the triple doors until they were smashed open, and a flood tide of humanity surged through it...until someone tripped. Someone inevitably tripped on that small flight of steps to be trampled by the onrushing throng, then someone <i>else</i> tripped over <i>them</i>...and that person took a third person down with them, and it became a deadly game of dominoes as people either tripped over them or tried to climb over them, and multiple people, blinded by smoke, coughing their lungs up, and crazed by terror, all tried to climb over each other until there was a pile of dying humanity stuffed between the railings on that small staircas.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This would <i>not </i> be the worst of it</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Another group surged towards the middle of the three exits, which was a double French door...but that would be a moot point, because when they got to the door, it was locked, and no amount of pounding would open it. People either died right their or, groping their way along the Dress Circle's South wall, made their way to one of the other two exits. They would either succumb to smoke inhalation between the exits, or simply find another jam-up to die in.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The majority of the Dress Circle crowd headed for the same door they had entered...the four section French door equipped main entrance (Actually a pair of two section French doors) on that balcony's southeast corner. The panicked mob of mostly moms and kids dropped down a short ramp as they piled up against the doors, only to find yet another deadly design flaw. There was a specific way this door <i>had</i> to be opened or it would jam on the ramp. From the looks of it, the outer two sections had to be pushed outward with the inner panels still in the closed position to get them clear of the ramp. Once they were clear, the inner panels were folded against the outer sections, then the whole shooting match could be opened all of the way.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Not at all intuitive, especially to this crowd who were blinking acid tears as smoke blinded them, and coughing uncontrollably as smoke filled their lungs. Someone did what everyone does when encountering such a door...pushed at the hinge point between sections, pushing each section open from the middle. In the process, the doors inevitable swung a bit inward, jamming the two inner sections on the ramp, which also manged to jam the doors mostly closed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The main exit from the Dress Circle (Doors 33 a-d on the door chart), which would have been on the south-east corner of the Dress Circle and was at the head of one of the two Grand Stairways, which <i>should</i> have made it all but a straight shot out of the main exit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />Instead it became the deadliest exit in the theater. The doors...broken open here...jammed when the terrified occupants tried to open them, leaving only a quarter of the door opening unobstructed and usable. Over a hundred people all tried to get out of that one opening at the same time, resulting in a tangle of bodies that was almost as tall as the door itself piled and jammed in the doorway, and a mass of nearly a hundred bodies piled up on the floor of the balcony hard by the door.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />Their were two other interior exits from the Dress Circle., The middle exit (Doors 32 a-c) was locked, and never opened, and the exit on the northeast corner of the Dress Circle (Doors 28 a-c) required occupants to drop down a short stairway, then make a 90 degree turn to the left to exit the door....dozens of bodies were found jammed on that stairway as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Attempts to open them further only managed to jam them worse. The crowd basically freaked, shoving and pulling and kicking at the doors until they managed, ultimately, to tear the inner section on the right side completely free, but they probably pulled the outer section inward as they did so, jamming <i>it </i>and forcing nearly two hundred panic-crazed people to funnel through an opening about as wide as a standard door. A few...a <i>very</i> few...did make it out, but that ended when someone fell in that narrow doorway, and the terrified throng tried to climb, clamber, or jump over them, three and four people all hitting that doorway at the same time, until dying people were stacked almost to the top of the door frame, trapping everyone else behind them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Some occupants of both galleries wouldn't even make it out of their seats...maybe they were initially frozen in terror, or maybe they were waiting to see if the jam-ups would clear, but whatever the case, they would succumb to smoke inhalation where they sat. Others didn't make it to a fire exit, and stopped short of the body-jammed main exits from the gallery. Several of <i>these</i> people took a look at the half-wall at the front end of the balconies, gauged the distance to the parquet level floor (Or seats), swallowed hard, then climbed the half walls...and jumped.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The fifteen or so foot drop from the Dress Circle was on the very borderline of being survivable...but not without injury. Anyone managing to land on their feet broke a leg or hip (Or maybe <i>both </i>legs), and if you landed on a seat, or even worse, astride a seat back, you would be injured in some of the most horrible ways imaginable. But they might survive, to be carried from the lower level of the auditorium to a hospital.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">If you jumped from the <i>Gallery</i>, however, you were doomed...that was about a thirty or so foot drop, and you'd hit the floor...or seat...or parquet level occupant...at about 25 miles per hour. There was no way that was survivable...even if a person survived that initial fall, they would have been gravely injured, with death all but inevitable.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Anyone on the parquet level who was hit by one of these jumpers (From <i>either </i>of the balconies) was also doomed as their head...and neck...would take most of the impact. There were only twenty or so fatalities among Parquet/Orchestra level occupants, and several of them were trampled to death...but a few others were hit by jumpers, and I can just about bet that the cause of death for these unfortunate souls was a 'High Level Cervical Fracture'...a broken neck.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Back in the Utility stairwell, James Strong, his family, and the twenty-five or so people who'd followed them down the third floor promenade choked on the smoke that was quickly filling the upper part of the theater. He pounded desperately on the locked second floor landing door, hoping against hope that someone on the other side would hear them, have (Or be able to find) a key, and unlock it, but all the pounding was giving him were sore hands. It wouldn't surprise me if a couple of them tried kicking it open to no avail.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The smoke was getting heavier by the second....but there was enough visibility for James to realize there was a transom above the door.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"Quick, someone give me a boost!" He called back to the rest of his group, a couple of whom lifted him up towards the closed transom. Suddenly realizing that he had nothing to break the glass with, Strong wrapped his shirt sleeve around his fist, and, working nearly blind due to the smoke, pounded on the glass, shattering it. He probably cleared as much of the glass from the transom's frame as possible before dragging himself through head first and dropping to the floor on the other side. The locked door was on a landing halfway between the second and third floors, and Strong had to go to his left about five feet to find the flight that led to the second floor. He all but tumbled down that half-flight and bounded off of the stairs to find another locked door.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><br />He tried the door (Maybe there's a key in here) with no success...he then looked back up the stairwell, and his heart sank.. The second floor landing </span><span style="color: black;"><i>had</i></span><span style="color: black;"> been pretty clear of smoke, but a boiling cloud of it was now rolling through the shattered transom, and desperate coughing and screaming from the other side of the door made it clear that he didn't have much more time. He wasn't going to get the door open without tools...he headed down the steps, hoping to find more help, and ran in to none other than light operator Bill McMullen, who was </span><span style="color: black;"><i>also</i></span><span style="color: black;"> desperately looking for a pass key, but for a different reason,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">McMullen was rushing to see that a friend of his...believed to be a female restroom attendant...got out safely. Strong quickly reported that there was no pass key, that the stairwell door was locked, and that there were thirty or so people...his family among them...trapped on the other side of that door.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Who knows <i>where</i> they found it, but the two men snagged a short, solid board from somewhere and pounded back up the steps, then took turns at smashing the board against the door which, though it sang like a tuning fork with every blow, didn't budge an inch. Strong's heart sank as he realized all was quiet on the other side of the door...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">In the Iroquois entrance vestibule, only yards from the utility stairway where James Strong and Bill McMullen would soon be desperately trying to get the second floor landing door open, ticket-taker Fred Brackenbush watched in awed, and slightly frightened wonder as a near literal stampede of humanity rushed through the vestibule and out of the main entrances. He knew the theater was on fire, but that didn't worry him too much...the fire was back stage, and he was over 100 feet away from it...just let all of this crowd get clear and he could just...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"Fred!!..." Brackenbush's head snapped around to see one of his bosses...theater manager Thomas Noonan...standing at his window. 'Lock the cash box and get it out of here...take it to the cigar store next door, they'v got a vault..." Then Noonan disappeared , and Brackenbush quickly set about closing the cash box (Containing around 1700 dollars...just north of 47, 000 dollars today) and trying to get out of the door...which he found jammed closed by the teeming crowd outside. So then did the next best thing by shoving the ticket window all of the way open and pulling himself through it, dropping to the floor on his feet, cradling the cash box like a ball carrier going for the goal line, and bulling his way through the crowd, out of the door, and into the frigid weather outside.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He hung a right and, shivering in the cold as he ran, made for the Best and Russell Cigar Store on the first floor of the Real Estate Building (Still standing as today's Delaware Building). Brackenbush pushed through the cigar store's front door, ran to the counter, and told the store's owner what was going on, and what he needed...and I can hear this conversation taking place, as the store's owner took the cash box, opened the vault, and placed it inside...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>"A fire at the theater??...has anyone called the Fire Department?"</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>"I don't know!"</i> Brackenbush may have replied over a look of bewilderment....and the stores owner, picked up the phone, rang for the operator and, when he got her, asked to be connected to the Fire Department, like then.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And, as he said something to the effect of 'I need to report a fire at the Iroquois...' he may have been making the first report of the fire...or maybe not.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">McMullen and Sallers had both probably bailed off of the light bridge when it became clear that Sallers wasn't going to control the fire, but the two men went in different directions. McMullen headed for the utility stairway to see to his friend on the third floor while Sallers continued in fire-fighter mode, helping to get cast and crew members out of the Dearborn Street stage door.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">'Where the hell's Engine 13???' He likely asked himself as he hurried people to and out of the stage door...then it hit him. The box hadn't been pulled because there <i>was</i> no box in the Iroquois.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He stopped rushing people out of the door for just a second, just long enough to ask one of them...who turned out to be carpenter John McClosky...if he knew where Engine 13's house was located.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"Straight down Dearborn, just the other side of Lake Street, on the left...Go!" Sallers may have told McClosky, who disappeared through the stage door, heading for and up Deerborn...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">...But here's what we don't know...just how fast McClosky ran...or walked...to get to Engine 13. But head for Engine 13 he did...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Engine 13's firehouse, located at 209 N.Dearborn Street, as it looked in 1903. The firehouse was only two blocks from the front of the theater, and one block from the scenery door on Couch Place, The rigs were likely 'stacked' one behind the other behind the single bay door, with the Chief's buggy in front, the hose wagon behind the 'buggy', and the steamer in the rear, where it's boiler was connected ti the station's hot water heater via a rubber hose and quick-connect coupling to cut the time needed to get steam up and to working pressure. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">On the afternoon of the fire, Fireman Mike Corrigan was sitting at the house-watch desk, just inside the personnel door to the left of the bay door when john McClosky knocked on the door to report the fire. As soon as he got the report, Corrigan would have hit a button to sound the station gong, 'Stilling Out' the company, and would have probably called the fire alarm office to advise them of the alarm. As soon as the bells hit, chains across the entrances to the horse stalls would have dropped, and the horses...as well trained in their jobs as the fire-fighters were at fighting fire...immediately trotted to their assigned places in front of the rigs, where their drivers woulds pull on a rope or chain which dropped their harnesses, hung from the ceiling, down on them and finished the hitch using snap-like quick-hitches. As all of this was going on, a couple of firefighters would be swinging the big bay doors open. During this era, Rigs <i>regularly</i> got out of the house in half a minute or so when an alarm came in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">...And at Engine 13's house, sitting at the watch desk just inside the personnel door at the southeast corner of the building, was future Chicago Fire Commissioner Mike Corrigan, who was also acting as Battalion Chief Hannon's driver that day.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Specifically, though, at that moment Corrigan was very likely being very glad that he was inside, where radiators were hissing, keeping the building nice and wa...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And then a knock sounded at the door's glass window, and he looked over to see a face at the window. Corrigan jumped up from his chair and walked the few steps to the door, opening it, probably wincing at the flood of 0 degree air that poured in, even as he noticed that the guy didn't have a coat on and was shivering. Corrigan stepped aside, ushering the man in, then going wide-eyed as he realized what he was saying.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I can just about bet that Corrigan stuck his head out of the door, looked south on Dearborn, and probably breathed a curse as he saw the column of smoke already pushing skyward. He made it back to the watch desk in a couple of giant steps and finger-stabbed a button that sounded the bells, 'stilling out' Engine 13 and the Chief. As men appeared through the pole holes, sliding the shiny brass poles from the second floor, Corrigan shouted ' The Iroquois's on fire!!! (It's a good bet he also called the Fire Alarm office to 'still them out' officially...this would get them a single truck company responding along with themselves)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The chains across the horse's stalls automatically dropped (The chains dropped automatically when the bells hit, no matter whether they were activated by the telegraph alarm system or the 'Still' button) and the well trained animals trotted to their positions in front of the rigs, (The rigs were probably 'stacked' one behind the other as the station only had a single bay door, probably Chief's buggy, hose wagon, then the steamer) as a couple of guys swung the big exit doors open. Engine 13's engineer tossed a burning taper into the steamer's firebox, and other firefighters pulled releases that dropped quick-hitch harnesses onto the horses.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"The Iroquois? No Shit???' someone very likely yelled to Corrigan as firefighters pulled stepped into and pulled up 3/4 boots, pulled on rubber coats and donned leather helmets. Corrigan hitched the horse to the Chief's buggy as Chief Hannon, already in white coat and helmet, pulled himself up into the shotgun seat. Corrigan dived up into the drivers seat, grabbing the reins and flicking them, calling the animals name...the well trained horse, eager to roll, very likely bounced them back into the seats a bit as he tore out of the house, swinging to the right with the hose wagon and the steamer following close behind, the quick-disconnect for the pipe that connected the steamer's boiler to the station's hot water heater popping loose as they rolled.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Chief Hannon didn't even need to hear Corrigan's 'It's gettin' it, Chief' as he spotted the boiling, dark grey smoke rolling from the rear of the theater. We don't know what the conversation between the two was like, but it was probably something like:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"Mike, this is gonna be a freaking nightmare..." Then, thinking fast...they had a Truck company responding with them and that was it (Again, <i>if</i> they had a phone in quarters and <i>if </i> someone called the fire alarm office to report their response. If not, they were on their own). Chief Hannon was a veteran of decades of service...he knew they needed a full box response...at least. Preferably yesterday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A schematic map showing the locations of the two still alarms, either called in or reported directly to Engine 13's crew at their station as well as the location of Firebox 26, from which the first box alarm was transmitted by Chief Hannon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">Chart courtesy iroquoistheater.com.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"Mike, go up Couch to Clark and out to Randolph so we can pull the box..." This would also give him a chance to do a quick size up. One of Northwestern University's classroom buildings was at Lake and Dearborn, backing up to the Iroquois, which also meant it hid the rear of the theater...but it didn't hide the smoke pushing from the ally...or the strangely dressed throng at the corner of Dearborn and Couch, with another similarly dressed crowd milling around further up Dearborn, nearer Randolph Street.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"What the..." One of them started to say, before realizing just <i>exactly</i> what they were seeing...actors and stage hands...many in the colorful costumes of the Mr Bluebeard cast...who had evacuated the theater, many of them gesturing towards the alley that Couch Place became behind the Iroquois.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The auditorium...and therefore, the fire escapes...were on the far end of the building from Couch Place's intersection with Dearborn, so Chief Hannon probably had to crane his neck, then look behind him to look down the ally as Mike Corrigan swung the turn onto Couch Place but he got enough of a look to tell him they had a true horror on their hands. His eyes widened as he saw the smoke rolling from the fire escape doors, and the panicked throng of people screaming on the upper fire escape, saw the planks between the upper landing and the Northwestern U. Building (At least it looks like everyone's off of the lower escape). It also <i>looked</i> like..and he hoped against hope it <i>wasn't...</i>bodies in the ally.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"Mike, get us to the box, and get us back here!", but Hannon didn't even have to say it as the buggy was already swinging to the right on Couch Place. Mike Corrigann flicked the reins hard, calling the horses name and very possibly yelling that 'Hi-Yahh'! that westerns have made famous. They made Clark Street in a few seconds, then hung a left and shot past the side of the Sherman House Hotel before Mike hauled back on the reins, calling 'Whoa, Boy...<i>whoa!! </i>as he pulled up short at the corner. Hannon bailed out of the buggy, trotted to the box, opened it up, and pulled the hook down before turning and running back to the ride.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"At least we' got some help on the way" he said to Corrigan as he pulled himself back in...Mike Corrigan flicked the reigns and yelled to the horse to 'Go!'</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As Engine 13's rigs pounded up Dearborn Street towards the Iroquois, things were getting desperate on the fire escape landings in Couch Place. Couch Place, to this day, bears the nickname 'Death Alley, and a few dozen people...college students workmen, and painters...had a very much unwanted front row seat to the horror that would give the alley it's nickname...we'll have to back time up just a few minutes to see just <i>how</i> the ally got that name.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Northwestern University's classroom building at Lake and Dearborn Street extended all the way to Couch Place, which meant it backed up to the Iroquois. Despite it being the Christmas Holidays, several students were inside one of the building's labs, studying. They weren't the only ones occupying the building on that frigid Wednesday afternoon..several classrooms had smoke damage from a room and contents fire a few weeks earlier, and painters were hustling to get repairs made before the next semester started,</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">A senior named George Dunlap just happened to glance in one of the rooms being repainted as he walked past the door. He went wide eyed, uttering an oath, as he saw heavy smoke pushing from the open fire escape doors as terrified people emerged from the roiling clouds of smoke to join the throngs fighting for their lives on the fire escape.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">He ran into the room, shouting to the painters about the fire as he ran to one of the windows and shoved it open, allowing the screams and pleas for help from across Couch Place to roll in with the cold December air. Couch Place was only about twelve or fifteen feet wide, and the painters had an extension ladder handy...several of the painters lifted it, pulled the fly section out and (Probably a bit awkwardly in the room's confined space) swung it and pushed it out of the window as another painter guided him...'Run it out...OK...keep going...'</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They were apparently on the same level as and nearly directly across from the top landing of the Gallery fire escape, making it a bit easier...for them. But when the tip of the ladder touched the fire escape railing, all hell probably broke loose as people...pushed by the super-hot smoke (And possibly some flames as the smoke started to light up) fought to get on the ladder. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">One man, all but crazed with terror, made it onto the ladder and started across, making it about a quarter way across before the nasty weather that Chicago had been having helped to kill him. The window sills of the N.W.U. building were coated with ice, and the foot of the ladder, barely resting on the window ledge, was bouncing as the man scurried across. The ladder finally skated off of the icy window ledge, falling from under the man, who plummeted fifty feet to the cobblestones, probably dying instantly when he hit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The room the painters were working in may have had actual fire damage from then earlier fire, because there were a few planks lying around, and the painters quickly grabbed a couple of them, sliding them across the ally so their ends, like the ladder's tip, rested on the railing. A couple of feet of each board extended inside the room this time, and whenever anyone would get on the boards, two or three guys would put all their weight on the ends of the boards to anchor them in place.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The first people to make it across were a pair of sisters named Hortense and Irene Lang. Sixteen year old Hortense was the oldest, and she and eleven year old Irene had both been crouching lower and lower, trying to get below the smoke rolling from the open fire escape door...Irene let out a couple of shrill little screams as some flame lanced through the smoke. The girls were about ready to chance a jump, even though Hortense knew it would be suicide...then the board thumped down onto the railing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Everyone had seen the man on the ladder fall, and possibility worse, heard the bursting-watermelon 'Thunk!' when he hit the pavement, and at first no one made a try for the board. Hortense decided to try for it...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">'Come on Sis...' </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">'No! We'll fall...'</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">"If we stay here we'll burn...' Hortense pulled herself up onto the board and then actually managed to turn around on the board so she was facing the fire escape. She grabbed her little sister's hands and pulled her onto the board.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">'I've got ya Sis...just crawl...it's not but ten or twelve feet...don't look down...look at my face...there we go...<i>look at my face!</i>' and, as painters and students as well as people on the platform encouraged them, the girls eased across, Hortense backing across, encouraging her little sister as the two of them eased their way across the ally. Finally...after what probably seemed like hours to the girls...workers in the room pulled first Hortense, then Irene inside the room. Then, miraculously, they were reunited with their mom, who had also made it out without injury. The three just held each other and sobbed with relief.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Hortense wasn't the only hero in Couch Place that afternoon...Several people from the NWU building actually made their way out onto the planks to assist people in getting across, including George Dunlap, the student who first noticed the plight of the people trapped on the fire escape. More than one plank was used ultimately, and I have a feeling that at least two of the planks were laid side by side to give them room to actually crawl out on the planks to make rescues</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Looking up Couch Place, from Dearborn Street, the day after the fire. The steamer is probably Engine 13, and you can see the open scenery door next to it. More importantly, you can see both fire escapes as well as the plank bridge used by the students and workers at NWU to rescue nearly 40 people and the ladder used by CFD to remove bodies. Imagine having to crawl across that plank bridge during the fire...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This pic very handily refutes one of the best known and often told stories about the fire, BTW...that the fire escapes were unfinished. They had actually been finished, but the bottom sections of the fire escapes were frozen in the raised position...both sections have been freed and lowered here. The Dress Circle fire escape was lowered during the fire, allowing many of those trapped on it to escape, but the Gallery escape remained frozen, trapping over a hundred people who either jumped to their deaths or burned to death on the fire escape when the back draft occurred. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">As to how the 'Unfinished Fire Escape' Rumor got started...look above the steamer. There's a small balcony, probably leading to some type of scuttle in the Gridiron, up there. I'd bet lunch at Applebees that reporters took a look at that and, despite the fire escapes right in front of their noses, went 'OMG...The fire escapes weren't finished! The rest is inaccurate journalistic history. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">This, BTW, is probably best known picture of the fire...it has appeared in just about every book, article, or account of the fire, and almost all of them have captioned it as 'Pumper in Couch Place/The ally behind the theater/What have you/ During The Fire', and all of them that captioned it that way are wrong. This pic was actually taken the day <i>after </i>the fire. That's probably Engine 13, and they are in the ally getting ready to pump out the flooded basement. Though the steamer is spotted right next to the open scenery door, the crew is probably going to lower the rig's suction hoses (Called 'Hard Sleeves' by fire fighters) through one of the coal scuttles. The smoke that looks like it's coming from the scenery door is actually coming from the steamer</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">↓ <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">For a look at what the rescues may have looked like while in progress, look below ↓</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Students and construction workers in the upper floors of the Northwestern University building across Couch Place from the theater rescued several theatergoers trapped on the Gallery fire escape over a plank bridge. Here we have an artist's rendition of the rescues, probably published with a newspaper story about the fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /> Though it's not entirely accurate as the artist shows them using a ladder rather than planks, and shows trapped theater occupants at a window rather than on the fire escape landing, it still gives us a pretty good idea of what the in-progress rescues may have looked like. An attempt to use a ladder actually <i>was</i> made, early in the fire, but only one person tried to cross it, and he fell to his death when the ladder slipped off of the NWU building's ice covered windowsill. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Once they got the planks in place, the NWU crew rescued nearly 40 people, but sadly, over a hundred more died in Couch Place, either from jumping/falling from the fire escapes, or burning to death on the fire escapes when flames rolled out of the fire escape doors after the backdraft that occurred when the scenery door was opened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">George Dunlap and the others who assisted people across sensed that they were working against time...the smoke boiling from the open fire escape doors was beginning to churn as it pushed out under more and more pressure, and every once in a while a lancet of flame would appear within the smoke. Several of the people they helped across had burns from the intense heat in the gallery.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They got nearly forty people across...but they couldn't get everyone, and a slew of people jumped, many of them, like the man on the ladder, dying all but instantly when they hit the cobblestones. A few people who'd escaped through the first level fire exits died when they were hit by jumpers and, conversely, a few jumpers survived when their landing was cushioned by the bodies of people who jumped before them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Sadly, it was about to get worse. <i>Much</i> worse...The event that would seal everyone's fate was only seconds away...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">***</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The fire had possibly been burning for as much as fifteen minutes by the time the Lang sisters made it across the plank bridge, and falling bits of flaming scenery flats had set the scenery already on stage as well as various items back stage on fire, so both the back stage and stage were also well involved... but something strange was happening to the fire rolling through the scenery flats. The gridiron...the area above the scenery flats, where the German aerialists had been temporarily trapped...was by now packed with super-heated smoke with nowhere to go On top of that, there was no ventilation, so the fire roaring through the scenery flats was rapidly becoming what firefighters call a 'Third Stage Fire', which occurs when a fire basically runs out of oxygen and enters a smoldering stage. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><span style="color: #222222;">Of course, the burning scenery probably hadn't </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>quite</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> become a Third Stage fire yet...there was a little too much oxygen available...but it was definitely getting there, pumping a huge quantity of smoke into the gridiron while it was at it. The smoke vents were blocked off and even though you had that huge proscenium arch, the air in the auditorium was actually being pulled </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>away</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> from the proscenium arch by the big exhaust fan over the gallery (Which was also helping to fill both balconies with smoke). The stage doors were open, but they weren't big enough to provide the fire with that much 'New' oxygen, and they were partially blocked by the actors and crew trying to exit. On top of that, the air was cold, so it was staying low. Most of the fire was still well above the stage at that point.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />Meanwhile the gridiron was filling with smoke, which is flammable, by the way...all smoke </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>is</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> is unburned gasses and bits of carbon. In fact, under the right circumstances...say being super-heated and stuffed into a confined space with little oxygen...it can be explosive. And all that smoke in the gridiron had displaced the oxygen, and was becoming hotter by the second as the scenery flats burned below it.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />So as hundreds of people fought for their lives in the two balconies and the crew members struggling with the jammed fire curtain finally gave up on trying to free it and made their exit, a very potent fuel-air bomb was simmering in the Gridiron, just waiting for someone to give it some air. And, as I think about it, it just </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>may</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> have been one of those crew members who provided it.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />The fire curtain was jammed up on the 'Stage Left' side of the stage, so when the crew members who were working on it decided the curtain wasn't coming loose and that they definitely needed to leave, they were closest to the Couch Place stage door...the one embedded in the big scenery door, that Quinn had removed form it's hinges. It was raining burning bits of cloth and wood as they ran for the door. Everyone on that side of the theater who was going to leave through that door likely had done so by then...except for them. They absolutely </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>knew</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> that they didn't have much time before all of that burning scenery slammed down onto the stage, which meant that they </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>really</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> didn't want to leave one by one, even if there were only five or six of them. And then one of them remembered that the stage door was actually a wicket door, set in the larger...20 ft by 12 foot...scenery door.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />"Wonder why they didn't just open the big door' one of the group possibly asked aloud as he hit the latch for the scenery door, and dragged it open, the rest of the crew scurrying around him and out of the twelve foot high, twenty foot wide, 240 square foot opening in the wall. The guy pulling the door open slipped around the edge of the door and out, bracing himself against the 0 degree breeze roaring in through the big doorway...</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />...He'd just inadvertently signed several hundred death warrants. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It happened in less than seconds. That frigid mass of cold air, staying low as it moved from right to left, rolled across the stage and slammed into the tiers of dressing rooms, trying to roll up and over as even more cold air piled in behind it. This frigid air mass mushroomed upward, whipping the burning scenery flats into renewed vigor as it roared into the gridiron, rolling across the underside of the roof and mixing with the mass of super-heated smoke and gasses that was just waiting for the final piece of the perfect fuel-air bomb.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Firefighters call it a 'Backdraft', and before that term was coined, they called it a 'Smoke Explosion'. What it <i>was</i> was a mini Armageddon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">When that oxygen-rich tidal wave of cold air slammed into the gridiron, it gave all that super-heated smoke and gas the single thing it needed to light up. And light up it did...violently. The smoke-gas mixture flashed into a ball of flame in a millisecond, expanding to hundreds of times its original volume as it filled the gridiron, fly-lofts, and backstage area, being shoved towards the proscenium arch by the very same breeze that birthed it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This expanding fireball blew the glass out of the skylights, rolling out of the roof in a mushroom of fire, but more importantly..and lethally...in that very same milli-instant it also slammed into the floor backstage and rolled towards the stage and proscenium arch, filling the stage from wall to wall and hitting the supposed fire curtain with the force of a dozen or so high-balling locomotives</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">That all-but-useless 'fire curtain' held for an instant or two, long enough for the fireball to bow it outward, roll out from under it and surge towards the auditorium ceiling, rolling upward into the mass of smoke filling the upper portion of the auditorium, and the galleries. The fireball then rolled along the ceiling, towards the back of the auditorium (Helped along a bit by the ventilating fan above the Gallery) as the smoke already filling those areas lit up ahead of it, filling the gallery and dress circles with fire a milli-instant before the fireball roared in, probably blowing the fire escape doors that couldn't be opened open wide even as lit <i>both</i> balconies off, sealing the fate of anyone still trapped in them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Even as flames ripped through the Dress Circle and Gallery, and rolled out of the open fire escape doors, the 'fire curtain' lit up in a solid sheet of fire, held for another second or so, then dropped into the orchestra pit and first three or so rows of orchestra level seats, setting them on fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then, as the flaming curtain dropped, the last few ropes holding the burning scenery flats aloft burned through, and the whole flaming mass let go, taking anything that was in its path with it as it slammed into the back stage floor with a tremendous crashing roar, hitting with the force of a large truck ramming the stage at about 40 MPH. The flaming mass flattened anything beneath it when it hit, some of the debris taking out the main switchboard with a single bright-blue flash before plunging the entire theater into darkness...except for the dancing orange light from the flames.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Something a little strange probably happened to all that burning scenery when it hit the backstage floor...it partially snuffed itself out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;">'Huh???. You may ask.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />Think of burning leaves...and what happens when you dump more leaves on the pile. The new mass of leaves appears to partially snuff out the original fire, until the new leaves light off as well. This was the same thing, on a HUGE scale. The mass of scenery buried itself, burying much of the fire, when it fell. Oh it didn't go </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>out</i></span><span style="color: #222222;">...but the whole pile wasn't free burning either. It was just pumping clouds of smoke into the already smoke-filled theater.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />This probably also saved Eddie Foy, (If he was, indeed, still on stage...more on that in 'Notes...') who decided that the time to 'Un-ass The Building' had come when the fireball rolled from beneath the curtain, a decision that was reinforced when the mass of burning scenery shook the building as it hit the floor. Eddie's Guardian Angel was working overtime in that few seconds. First, the fireball missed him as it rolled from beneath the curtain, then the burning curtain missed him when it fell, and finally the fire snuffed itself to the point that he was able to skirt the burning debris pile and make it out of, most likely, the Couch Place exit. (Again, if he was, indeed, still in the building at that point...)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The fireball not only doomed everyone left in the Dress Circle and Gallery, it also finished off dozens of people still on the fire escapes, giving the group from Northwestern who'd just recently been making dramatic rescues a front row seat to a true horror. Flames boiled out of all six fire escape doors on both balcony levels, trapping everyone who was still on the fire escapes. Almost everyone on the Dress Circle fire escape had already made it down, but dozens of people were still trapped on the Gallery escape. Worse still, Flames blowing out of the Dress Circle doors rolled upwards, through the grill of the Gallery fire escape, burning several people to death where they stood...in full sight of the workers and students only fifteen or so feet away at Northwestern.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A panoramic view of the Iroquois' auditorium after the fire, looking out at the auditorium from the stage, taken the day after the fire...click on the image for the full size picture. The great majority of the fire damage is in the upper part of the auditorium was caused when the fireball from the backdraft rolled up, along the ceiling, and into the two balconies (The Dress Circle and the Gallery). One exception to this...note the heavy damage to the first couple of rows of seats. especially on the left side of the frame. This was likely caused when the burning 'Fire Curtain' fell into the front rows of seats.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">You can see the heavy heat and fire damage on the back wall of the Dress Circle (The first balcony) very easily in this pic as well as the contrast between the flame-seared Dress Circle, and the undamaged rear wall of the first level. The light coming in on the left side of the picture on both the first level and the Dress Circle is coming in through open fire escape doors. What appears to be smoke is probably actually snow blowing in through the open doors. While there wasn't that much snow on the ground, these photos were shot using long exposure times of several seconds, giving what snow was blowing in that blurred effect, making bit appear to be smoke.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Close up of the Stage Right side of the stage, actually an enlargement of part of the above panoramic shot. The light that started the fire has been removed from the light bridge and is visible on the stage at the lower right side of the frame, I've also labeled the light bridge. The main electrical switchboard was directly under the light bridge. Note the box seats in the center of the frame...there was an identical set of boxes on the other side of the stage. These seats featured their own exits and stairways. The box seat exits on this side of the stage emptied directly into the lobby, on the other side they emptied into the first level immediately adjacent to the first fire escape door. None of the Box Seat occupants were killed or injured thanks to this feature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Speaking of those box seats, they actually created a hazard for the occupants of the first four rows of seats, and it was because of yet another ignored regulation. There was no aisle between the end of those rows and the boxes, forcing occupants of those seats to use the center aisles. A pain in the ass in normal use, a potential jam-up during a fire. Luckily this one hazard didn't create as much of a problem as it could have during the fire. Tragically, the same can't be said for the majority of the other hazards the theater threw at it's occupants.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The damage to the first level seating, caused by the falling 'fire curtain' is also far more evident here, as is the contrast between the all but undamaged walls of the rear portion of the first leveled, and the burned out Dress Circle and gallery levels. Interestingly, once firefighters got hose lines onto the balcony levels, they made quick work of the fire as all that was really burning was the seats and some wood trim. And, sadly, bodies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A close up of the Stage Left side of the Auditorium. The fire damage to the fist row or so of seats is very evident here, as is the absolute lack of fire damage to the rear portion of the first level. The stairway banister visible just about mid frame is the stairway that served the occupants of the box seats, the two doorways visible just to the right of the stairs are two of the three fire escape doors serving the first level occupants. Though they suffered a bit of smoke and heat damage, the lower level box seats on both side also escaped major fire damage as the fire ball rolled up and over after it cleared the proscenium arch, The second level of boxes on both sides, however, did burn. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The people visible at the rear of the auditorium are just a few of the battalion or so of investigators who examined the ruins after the fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A close up of both the light bridge and the destroyed electrical switchboard. Note the bent metal ladder at the rear of the light bridge, damaged when the mass of scenery fell...this is the ladder that Bill Sallars scrambled up, carrying three ineffectual tubes of Fyrkil, in his attempt to control the fire. The curtain that was the original point of ignition was likely hanging vertically next to the near end of the light bridge. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The switchboard was protected by a metal railing, but it didn't even slow the mass of scenery down. Look next to the police officer standing below the light bridge and you can see the railing bent downward and inward in a 'V'. This was caused by the mass of scenery, part of which probably bounced sideways into the switchboard. The light bridge would have kept the scenery from falling straight down onto the switchboard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">I'm not sure what the metal beam visible lower mid frame, next to the step ladder, once supported, but either the heat of the fire or the impact of the falling mass of scenery bent it like a strand of cooked spaghetti!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An unfortunately low quality photo, taken from about the middle of the backstage area and looking towards the southwest corner of the theater. The Dearborn Street stage door is visible just to the right of mid frame with the dressing rooms to the left of the door, and the theater's west wall to the right of the door. While there is a huge amount of debris on the floor, it's still not as much as you'd think would be there given the huge mass of scenery flats that fell to the stage. Much of the combustible materiel that the flats were made of burned away fairly quickly. Engine 13's line made quick work of the burning debris left on stage.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">**</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Before I get into what may have happened next, a quick review of Engine Company operations back in the Horse Drawn Steamer era is in order.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Back in that era, all engine companies were two piece companies. First was the most familiar piece, the steamer, which was a single purpose beast, It pumped water, and that was all it did, It carried no hose, no tools, no ladders...nada. It's reason for existence was to sit on a hydrant or other water source, and pump water to the fire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Second piece was the hose wagon, which carried hose, coal for the steamer, fittings, tools, and possibly a couple of pike poles. Many also carried 'Chemical equipment'...basically a huge soda-acid fire extinguisher connected to a reel or basket of small diameter hose, for taking care of small fires...or getting a line in service quickly if they had, say, a fire escape full of people with their clothes on fire (Yep...I think the first line in service <i>may</i> have been a chemical line off of 'Wagon 13' as the hose wagon would have been designated...the steamer would have been 'Engine 13'). Back then this was the only kind of hose line that could be put in service in seconds.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A period post card showing an Early 20th Century Chicago engine company, hose wagon in front with the steamer bringing up the rear. Engine 13's rigs would have been, essentially, identical.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The front of the Iroquois during the fire. I wish I could tell for sure which engine companies the three steamers belonged to. (Yep there are three of them...look just to the left of the steamer closest to the theater and you can see one of the third pumper's rear wheels.) One of them is probably 2nd due Engine 32, but first due Engine 13 is likely not in the shot...it would have probably been well out of the frame to the left, on the hydrant at Randolph and Dearborn, pumping the lines that were in service on Couch Place. The steamer with it's two horse team still hitched very likely has only just arrived. It doesn't look like it's pumping a line, and the team hasn't been unhitched and led away to a place of safety yet. There is very possibly another steamer...or two...on other hydrants pumping to them, to supply them with water.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Steamers were single purpose rigs...they sat on a water source and pumped water to the fire, and carried no water, hose, or tools, so it not only would have taken a while to get lines in service, if they weren't 'on a hydrant', lines would have been stretched to them from another water source (Most likely another hydrant in the middle of downtown Chicago), and another steamer would have to connect to that hydrant and supply them with water. Interestingly enough, though the technology has changed a hundred fold since 1903, the basics of getting water on a fire haven't, and much the same system...one engine on the hydrant pumping to another engine at the fire...is used to this very day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A pair of hose wagons and an aerial ladder are also visible...one hose wagon mid frame, just ahead of the team of horses still hitched to the steamer. The aerial ladder is ahead of the horses, directly in front of the theater, almost hidden in the smoke and steam. The other hose wagon is across Randolph Street from that same steamer, behind the light pole. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">While there is a lot of smoke and steam visible in this pic, <i>all</i> of it is coming from the steamers. There was <i>very</i> little showing from this side of the theater. All of the fire, and most of the firefighting was on the Couch Place side of the theater. Also note the snow on the ground, and visible on the window sills of the Real Estate Exchange Building. It was <i>cold</i> during the fire!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Looking down Couch Place from Dearborn Street at the height of the fire. The NWU building is on the left, the theater on the right. The auditorium...and thus the fire escapes...are on the far end of the building. Heavy smoke is still boiling out of the theater, hiding the planks bridging Couch Place as well as the fire escapes. The Scenery Door is just inside Couch Place, a few feet beyond the small one story building.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Look on the extreme right center of the frame and you can see one of Engine 13's hose lines leading into Couch Place...There's a man standing, facing the camera, with his right foot resting on the charged hose line. Several lines were stretched into the ally, then advanced over the fire escapes and into the two balconies to knock down the fire, a couple of those lines were probably stretched from the State Street end of the ally by the extra alarm companies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A huge crowd gathered to watch the fire, and if it appears that some of this crowd are posing for a picture, it's probably because they are watching the photographer...On-scene photography such as this was still not all that common in 1903. Note as well that several of the people in the pic are blurred. This picture was shot using a long exposure time...possibly as much as a half second or so...so the least little movement would create a blurred image.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The hose wagon was first out of the house on any alarm, followed by the steamer, and normal SOP was for the 'Wagon' to stop at the nearest hydrant, where a firefighter would pull the last section of hose off of the hose flat-loaded and coupled together in the wagon (Hose is still loaded on rigs the same basic way today). He'd snub the end of the hose around the barrel of the hydrant ('Wrap the Hydrant) and yell to the driver to 'Go!'. The driver would head for the fire with hose dropping off of the rear of the hose wagon, leaving a trail of hose in it's wake. Then the steamer's operator would hook up to the hydrant, get his water supply established, connect the hose line to a discharge, and send water to the fire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I'm firmly convinced that the backdraft occurred in the couple of minutes between Engine 13 hitting the street and their arrival at the theater, possibly even between their arrival and Chief Hannon's arrival only a half minute or less earlier.. I also think they may have been on the way to Randolph Street, and their game plan got suddenly changed mid-response. Firefighting was becoming more sophisticated by leaps and bounds at the turn of the 20th century, especially in big cities, and pre-planned responses to major buildings, assigning each incoming engine company to respond to a specific entrance and/or to lead off with a specific task was already very definitely a thing in large urban fire departments in 1903. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">E-13's crew probably heard the screams before they saw the carnage in the ally. </span>They were very likely originally on the way to the front of the theater when the desperate screams coming from the rear of the theater likely clued them in that the game plan was about to change dramatically. <span style="color: black;">They wouldn't have been able to see the backside of the Iroquois until they cleared the Northwestern University building, and there was a BIG vacant lot on the west side of the theater, behind the Real Estate Building (The building that, today, is the Delaware Building), so the rear of the theater wasn't right on the street. Then, the fire escapes, as noted, were on the far end of the building, so they would have had to actually </span><span style="color: black;"><i>looked</i></span><span style="color: black;"> down the ally to see the on-going horror on the fire escapes.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br /> But that's part of what they're trained to do...it's something that's been ingrained in firefighters mindsets pretty much since firefighting became an organized effort. It's called size-up, and it simply means looking at the fire building and it's surroundings as you approach and arrive to see what you had, then mapping out your strategy according to what you saw. So as they rolled past the ally, Engine 13's guys...like Chief Hannon only seconds earlier...looked down the ally as </span>they cleared the Northwestern U building, saw heavy fire blowing out of six doors on two levels, trapping dozens of people on the fire escapes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The wagon's driver would have first hauled his team to a stop, then turned onto Couch Place, and pulled as far down the ally as possible, with the crew bailing off of the rig before it even got stopped. If the rig was indeed equipped with chemical equipment, a firefighter spun the crank that dumped an acid vial into a sodium bicarb container contained inside the fifty or so gallon tank, pressurizing it with carbon dioxide. As this was happening another firefighter pulled the 1" diameter chemical line and stretched it into the ally as the firefighter who had pressurized the tank assisted by pulling the line, hand over hand, off of the reel or out of the basket. The firefighter on the chemical line's nozzle stretched to the fire escapes, where he directed that line's small stream onto the people trapped on the fire escape. He had, maybe, a minute and a half worth of water.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br />Engine 13's driver would have known something was up when he saw the wagon stop and turn, ...one look down the ally would have told the engine crew what was going on. The wagon's crew would have yelled for him to 'Go on and take the hydrant!' There was a problem though. The </span>hydrant was at Randolph and Dearborn, which both the hose wagon and engine were likely heading for when they rolled up on the deadly scene on Couch Place, Which means they found a major rescue problem before they ever reached the hydrant. Which means they had to back up and regroup. With both the wagon itself and most of Engine 13's crew committed to protecting and attempting to rescue the people trapped on the fire escape, some major-reshuffling and hustling had to take place.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />The engine proceeded straight to the hydrant where it's driver and engineer began making the hydrant connection, while one or two firefighters began 'hand-jacking' hose from the tail end of the wagon, dragging a tail of hose behind them as they ran towards the engine. Cotton jacketed 2 1/2 inch fire hose with brass couplings weighs about 75 lbs per fifty foot length, and they probably had to hand jack about 350 feet of line to make the hydrant, which would have taken at least four guys to do it with any speed at all. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /> When they got the line to Engine 13, and while the steamer's engineer was spinning the coupling onto a discharge, another firefighter back at the wagon pulled enough fifty foot lengths of hose off of the rig to both reach the fire escapes and give the line more maneuverability (To be effective in protecting the trapped theater-goers as well as be able to advance the line over the fire escape and into the balcony to fight the fire, they would have had to have stretched around 450 feet of 2 1/2 inch hose) and spun a nozzle onto the line. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br />Keep in mind as you read this that I'm </span><span style="color: black;"><i>assuming</i></span><span style="color: black;"> that Wagon 13 had chemical equipment...if it didn't, that would have made getting Engine 13 to the hydrant and getting it's line in service even more critical. Even if the wagon did have a chemical line, it was only a very temporary and very meager solution. At a maximum of maybe 30 gallons per minute...and likely less...it would have no effect on the actual fire. It's function was to try to save some of the people whose clothes were on fire, and protect them until Engine 13 got a line in service.. And to do that they had, as noted, maybe 90 seconds of water. So there were sighs of relief when the crew who'd hand-jacked the line ran into the ally, saw that the line was ready to rock and roll, and 13's</span> Captain sent the shouted word back to the engine to 'Charge the line!!'</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />They couldn't rescue everyone on the fire escape. The ally was far too narrow to get an aerial ladder in and raised, and the fire escape's multiple levels would have made an aerial ladder less than effective anyway. Ground ladders would even be a problem in the ally's tight confines, and their tallest ground ladder...a 300 pound monster of a fifty foot extension ladder (Known as a 'Bangor ladder) would have likely been too short for the Gallery's top landing, and all but impossible to 'throw' in the alley anyway, so the best they could so was pour 250 gallons of water per minute into the crowd on the fire escape while some of the crew tried desperately to free the bottom section of steps...a task that they ultimately achieved, but by then there were pitifully few people left alive on the fire escape.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><br />Chief Hannon arrived back at the scene as all of this was going on, and the very first thing he likely did was send Mike Corrigan back to the box to call for additional alarms (I think he told him to 'Skip the second and third and go straight to a 4-11. This would </span><span style="color: black;"><i>not</i></span><span style="color: black;"> be the last time that was done at a major loss-of-life fire in Chicago, BTW.). Engine 13's guys were hustling and doing the best they could do at the moment...Chief Hannon trotted to the corner to meet the 1st due truck company. It was, he thought to himself, going to be a long afternoon. He didn't even know the half of it.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span>Traffic on Randolph Street was at near gridlock during the fire's early stages, delaying both first due Truck 9 and second due Engine 32, so when 9-Truck finally rolled in, Chief Hannon was waiting for them, likely none too patiently. He probably had Truck 9's Lieutenant...thirty-six year old Michael Roche...split his crew, with half hustling ground ladders around the corner to Couch Place, and half making entry into the front of the building. Between the two groups they very likely quickly stripped the rig of both ground ladders and forcible entry tools. When Engine 32 rolled in not far behind Truck 9 (Probably laying in from a hydrant further down Randolph Street) Chief Hannon had them stretch a line through the front door...a tactic that would soon prove to be fruitless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />There was very little showing on the Randolph Street side of the theater...just a little smoke seeping from around the frames of a couple of windows...but if you really <i>looked</i> at the windows, you could tell that the building was <i>heavily</i> charged with smoke. Knowing that there could well be people trapped in the upper floors at the front of the theater, Lt Roach, grabbed a couple of his guys, and they quickly threw a ground ladder to the last window over in the row of 2nd floor windows closest to Thompson's Restaurant. Roche grabbed an ax (One of the age-old unwritten rules of 'Truck work' is that you never go in without a tool) and, along with a couple of his guys, climbed to the window, using said ax to take out the glass. Smoke rolled out from the window as he climbed over the sill, followed closely by the 9-Truck firefighters who accompanied him, to find himself in manager Will Davis' office. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br />It was smoky in the room, but the closed door had kept it from becoming untenable, and there was enough visibility that he could see the door, which he quickly crossed over to and opened. And as he stepped out of the door he was likely almost bowled over by a frantic James Strong, and Bill McMullen. One of them quickly told Roche about the people trapped behind the locked door to the utility stairwell. The doorway was up a short half flight of steps and Roche flew across to the door (Partially hidden by the heavier smoke in the hallway and stairwell) and started chopping at the door panels, making quick work of them and quickly getting through to the deadly scene on the other side of the door. It was tragically obvious that they were too late as all but one or two of the twenty or thirty people had already succumbed to the heavy smoke...sadly, none of James Strong's family was among those pitiful few survivors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />When the backdraft occurred, lighting off the Dress Circle and The Gallery, the fire rolling out of the open fire escape doors created a draft, partially ventilating the building and pulling much of the smoke out of the upper part of the theater's Randolph Street wing (Tragically, not before the heavy smoke suffocated the group trapped in the the stairwell), so the smoke condition was actually clearing a bit by the time Roche chopped through the door. With conditions improving, Roche and the other firefighters, assisted by McMullen, quickly pulled the bodies back up the flight of steps to the third floor landing, then into the music room, which also opened off of the landing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />As this was happening, Engine 32's crew found that the lobby of the theater was still packed with people.The smoke and heat never banked down to the lobby level, but with the lights off and the daylight quickly facing outside, visibility, though it was rapidly worsening in the gathering gloom, wasn't all that good, was still good enough for the guys to realize that they couldn't advance the line against the throng of terrified theater-goers. They quickly started evacuating the remaining people, likely assisted by firefighters from the other arriving companies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Most of the action, however, was on the backside...the Couch Place side...of the theater. Engine 13's crew had likely set a new record for getting a line in service, and their first action was to play a stream on the people who remained trapped on the fire escape. Sadly, I have a feeling that there were pitiful few left to save by the time this happened, even with the chemical line (If there indeed was one) going in service only seconds after they arrived on scene. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Gotta do a little speculating here...OK, a lot of this has been speculation...but I have a feeling that the rest of 9-Truck's crew, along with crews from the other arriving companies, laddered the fire escape landings for two reasons...first to start removing anyone still alive who was still on the fire escape, then to give the engine companies access to the balconies. Bodies were two and three deep on the ally's cobblestones, and the guys were having to step over and around them to advance lines (Even as other firefighters quickly checked for signs of life).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Once the rescue problem was well in hand on Couch Place, Engine 13's crew advanced that first line through the scenery door, to very likely find that much of the fire back stage, as well as on the stage had all but burned itself out...remember, while the remains of literally hundreds of scenery flats were on the floor backstage, all of them were painted canvas over light wooden frames, and they had been burning for a good twenty minutes or so by the time Engine 13's crew made entry, so what they had back stage, basically, was a good size rubbish fire. With a 2 1/2 inch line flowing 250 GPM, they likely made quick work of it. They attacked the backstage fire as they advanced the line, pushing onto the smoldering stage and knocking down the fires involving what remained of the burning curtains and scenery, to find a pretty brisk fire burning in the first few rows of seats and the orchestra pit. The nozzleman swung the stream back and forth across this fire, knocking it down quickly as well. Above them, in the rear of the auditorium, though, they could see heavy fire rolling through the heavy smoke filling the balconies...and hear other streams tearing into them with a angry, splashing hiss.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Meanwhile, After moving the bodies from the stairwell to the music room, Lt Roche first saw to it that both James Strong and McMullen were evacuated, then made his way along the third floor promenade to the entrance to the Gallery...he was one of the first firefighters to realize the possible scope of the disaster when he found bodies stacked in the entrance like cord wood, with more bodies (<i>But...</i>not as many as you might imagine) piled up at the accordion gates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Engine 32's Captain, Ed Buckley, along with his crew, had a hectic half hour or so after they arrived. Their first abortive attempt to stretch a line in through the front doors turned into an evacuation of those left on the first floor. They probably stationed a couple of people...be they firefighters, cops, or even responsible-seeming civilians...at the main entrance to keep the crowds from jamming up, and once they got the crowd in the lobby (Many of whom were likely watching the bottom of the smoke layer in horrified awe) moving, it probably didn't take that long to get everyone out. By then more help was rolling in en masse. The guys on the Still Alarm companies probably felt like they were operating alone for a century or so, then everyone seemed to roll in at once. Other Engine companies laid in from other hydrants or stretched additional lines from Engines 13 and 32, while other truck companies rolled in, and their crews began assisting Truck 9's crew in both searching and ventilating the building.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />That wasn't the only help they had...cops and civilians also forced their way into the theater and made their way to the balconies to try to rescue those trapped in the building. <i>No</i> one had the slightest inkling just how bad it was (Though Lt. Roche and the guys operating on Couch Place both knew it was <i>real</i> bad), but as the minutes passed, the true horror of the disaster began to reveal itself...slowly at first.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />One firefighter from one of the Truck Companies grabbed a roof rope, and tied it off to something on the first floor so they'd have a safety line to follow back out to the main entrance, then a mixed team of firefighters and civilians made their way up one of the stairways to, probably, the dress circle promenade. They immediately ran into a cluster of dead bodies, all burned and all dead. One of the firefighters yelled back 'Oh my God, there must be at least a dozen dead!!' He then grabbed two small, charred bodies, obviously children, and carried them back down the stairs, horrified, but still not yet having a clue just how horrible the scene in the Dress Circle and Gallery really was.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />On the Couch Place side of the theater, fire was still blowing out of all six balcony fire escape doors, preventing firefighters from setting up for an interior attack on the landings themselves, but they still had a game-plan. The truck companies had set ground ladders against both fire escapes, and the engine companies advanced hose lines over them, probably to the steps just below the lowest landing on each level...and called for the lines to be charged. The command 'Charge Engine XX's line!!' would have been called back to each steamer's engineer, and he would have spun a discharge's hand wheel open, filling the flatted hose lines with water as the guys on the nozzle crouched, waiting on the metal steps just below the flame-vomiting doorways.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />When they got water, the nozzleman would open his nozzle's shut-off and play the 250 GPM stream up and through the doorway, directing it towards the ceiling so it would break up and spatter over a wider area. knocking down the fire. There would be at least two more guys on each line, pushing forward on the hose line to relieve the back pressure the nozzleman was fighting as the flames were slowly pushed back into the doorway, the flames rolling from the other four doorways slowly diminishing, to be replaced by smoke that became progressively lighter as it mixed with steam.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They were soon able to advance the lines into the building, and the call 'Lighten up on Engine XX's line!' would be yelled down the steps, a request for the guys at the foot of the ladder to feed more line to the crew on the hose line's business end so they could advance the line further into the building. The guys on the lines disappeared as if walking into a fog bank as they duck-walked the nozzles into smoke far heavier than any modern firefighter would even <i>think</i> about tackling without a mask. The guys were hacking and coughing as they advanced near-blindly into the smoke. There were still flames flickering in the ruined seats, and, before they even made it ten feet in to the balconies, the thought 'Something just doesn't look right about some of these seats' was dawning on them...unconsciously, then consciously they absolutely <i>knew</i> what was wrong, even though they didn't want it to be so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Most of the fire was probably knocked down with-in about 30-40 minutes of Engine 13 receiving the walk in report of the fire (<i>Not, </i>IMHO<i>,</i> the twenty minutes often quoted in historical accounts) and body recovery operations in the Gallery and Dress Circle began in earnest even as the 'Truckies' began overhauling while the guys on the hose lines knocked down most of the remaining vestiges of the fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As the Truck Company firefighters began overhauling and searching the Dress Circle, they discovered bodies packed to within two feet of the top of the doorway at the main exit from the Dress Circle, with dozens more bodies piled up between the doorway and the seats. Even more bodies were found packed together in the stairwell and on the landing at the Dress Circle's west exit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /> Firefighters a level above them in the Gallery, which the backdraft's fireball turned into a miniature version of hell in less than an eye-blink, made an even <i>more</i> macabre discovery. Not only were bodies packed at the Gallery's two exits (One of which had been locked) in a tangled mass, just as they had been on the Dress Circle, even <i>more</i> bodies, burned beyond any hope of recognition, were still sitting in their seats where they had been caught by the fireball when it roared into the Gallery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This was a nasty, <i>nasty</i> scene, with the overcooked-pork stench of charred flesh overlaying the smell of burned wood, cloth, paint and plaster. Death was piled and tangled everywhere you looked, but the guys dived right in searching for signs of life among the gruesome scene even as they began removing bodies.They, in fact, began even <i>before</i> the fire was completely knocked down...the crews removing bodies had to be pulled out a couple of times when the fires on the balconies flared back up so the Engine Co. guys could knock down the flare-up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Even as the guys in Couch Ally advanced lines through the fire escape doors, the evacuation of the lobby was finishing up and the initial crew of truckies, cops, and civilians were joined by Engine Company firefighters who were now finally able to advance lines up the twin grand staircases. As they manhandled the heavy (But likely not yet charged) lines up the staircases, they would find several gruesome obstacles in the forms of bodies stacked as deep as six feet at every balcony entrance and anywhere corridors merged. On top of that gruesome find, I have a sneaking suspicion they had at least a little fire on the promenades, hard by the gallery exits...if fire was rolling from the fire escape exits, I can just about bet that it was also rolling from the main balcony exits. So, even as some firefighters started trying to untangle the piles of bodies, the word was sent back to the street...by loudly yelled word of mouth...to 'Charge Engine XX's line!!!', and the crews on the lines made quick work of what little fire had extended to the promenades, which was a priority, to protect both the rescuers and anyone who might be left alive. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /> Then as now, major fires draw White-Shirts, as fire and police department brass is known to the rank and file, the way picnics draw ants. Both CFD Chief of Department Bill Musham (Who had been officiating a disciplinary hearing for six firefighters accused of bad mouthing him when the 4-11 was struck. He brought them with him when he responded) and Chicago PD Chief Patrick O'Neal were on scene by the time the lobby evacuation was being completed. Chief O'Neal entered the theater when he arrived, following closely behind the Engine Companies advancing the lines up the grand staircase. He immediately took command of his people, and possibly the entire rescue/recovery operation on the Promenade side. He...along with the firefighters on the balcony levels, both in the promenade and in the balconies themselves...had a horrible and all but overwhelming task.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">First, even though the fire had vented itself and pulled some of the smoke out of the building, the Gallery was still chock full of heavy smoke, which was also banked down almost to the floor of the Dress Circle. This not only cut visibility on the two balconies, it also made breathing more akin to torture. (I <i>still</i> don't know how fire-fighters in this era...and in fact, right on up to the late 1960s-early '70s, when mask use began becoming mandatory...operated without air masks). <i>Finding</i> bodies was no problem as the guys were literally all but standing on them, but <i>handling</i> them was horrible beyond imagination. Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition, more were mangled and even dismembered, and on top of that, they were not only stacked, they were packed <i>tightly </i>together in the doorways, so tightly that moving them was all but futile. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />And yet, they could hear moaning deep with-in a couple of the piles. When the crews said they couldn't move the bodies, O'Neal told them they <i>had</i> to move them to get to the living, so they tugged at tightly packed bodies (Sloughing skin off of many badly charred bodies) and pulled them off of piles from the top down, actually finding a few people still alive at or near the bottom of the piles.. One young lady of about 18, for example, was found bear the bottom of one of the piles only slightly injured. One or two were even found alive...though horribly burned...huddled beneath seats on the floor near the front of the Dress Circle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />John Thompson, the owner of Thompson's Restaurant, right next door to the theater on Randolph Street, converted the entire building into what would today be known as a triage and treatment center (But not before experiencing a miracle of his own...more on that in 'Notes'), and many of the injured were taken over there where some of the hundred or so medical students who rushed to the scene from a near-by teaching hospital began treating them before they were transported to a hospital.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Finding someone still alive in the tangled piles of bodies was, sadly, a rare occurrence, and it quickly became obvious, as the death toll rose nearly literally by the second, that recovering the bodies was going to be an all but overwhelming task, both because of the number of bodies, and because of the (Not recognized for pushing a century) psychological effects of recovering them. The very great majority of the dead were women and children, making an already grim scene all the more horrible. Many of the firefighters were fathers themselves, and several of the guys had tears running down their faces as they removed the small bodies...at least one firefighter, when ordered to hand a little girls body to another firefighter so he could get back in the auditorium and remove more bodies, tearfully asked to be allowed to take this child out himself, because she reminded him of his own daughter. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />I can just about bet that this experience haunted not only that firefighter, but any of the guys involved with body recovery...this was the stuff that nightmares were made of.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />The body removal was such a huge task that it had to be split into two sectors. On the Couch Place side of the theater, Mike Corrigan had been released to assist the companies operating in the galleries. One of the first things he did was (likely at Chief Hannon's direction) have a ground ladder placed between the theater and the NWU building, using it as a bridge to remove a few of there bodies while others were taken down the fire escapes. There were well over a hundred bodies on the cobblestones of Couch Place, but these, at least were out of the public view.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />The other sector was on the Randolph Street side of the theater, where the majority of the bodies were brought down the Grand Staircases and out of the main entrance, to be lined up on the sidewalk in front of the theater. The hundreds of spectators who had been pushed across Randolph, behind the fire line, watched in ever increasing horror as body after body was carried out of the main entrance to be laid in a double...or maybe even triple...line on the sidewalk. That line of death would extend well over a hundred feet on either side of the Iroquois' main entrance before the night was over.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A newspaper photograph of some of the bodies lined up outside of the Iroquois main entrance on Randolph Street...news photography back in this era was <i>far</i> more graphic than news photography today. The line of bodies...sadly, mostly women and children...would extend over a hundred feet to either side of the Iroquois main entrance before the night was over.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">This picture was taken well after the fire was marked under control, and well after the sun went down, so it was taken using 'flash lamps', utilizing the same basic tray filled with flash powder that had been used for years, but with a modern twist, A dry cell battery allowed the powder to be fired electrically by the camera shutter, giving birth to the concept of modern flash photography. But this method, of course, still used flash powder, which accounts for the somewhat funky lighting seen in this photograph.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Another view of the front of the Iroquois as bodies are removed from the theater.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The owner of Thompson's Restaurant, visible in the background immediately turned his entire building over to fire and P.D to be used as what today would be known as a triage and treatment center, and it wouldn't surprise me if the fire's command post was also moved inside Thompson's as the injured and dead were cleared out of the building. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Chief Musham (Who probably set up a command post of sorts near the front of the theater.) as well as Chief O'Neal both recognized how daunting the task facing their crews was before the first body came through the main entrance. As soon as Chief Musham was satisfied the fire was all but tapped out, he and Chief O'Neal likely had a quick face to face conference, splitting the tasks between them. Then they started calling for more resources. Both chiefs made a request for every ambulance that they could get as well as any vehicle capable of carrying freight, Night was falling rapidly, and it would be dark, both inside and outside the theater, so a request was made for lanterns...a nearby hardware store sent their entire stock. And when the lanterns didn't provide enough light inside the theater, Edison Electric sent over forty big arc lamps and, we have to assume, some type of early mobile generator to power them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Body removal likely ceased until the big arc lights could be set up, and when they were turned on...lighting up the singed interior like daylight...you could probably hear the collective and all but involuntary gasp of horror from outside the building. The powerful lights revealed the carnage in almost clinical detail. There were even more people dead in their seats, on both balconies, than they had even imagined, and the still massive jam-ups of bodies appeared both macabre and almost surreal. Many other bodies, in the aisles, bore brutal evidence of having been trampled to death. And again, possibly the saddest facet of the whole scene was the number of children among the dead. None of the firefighters on scene (Or anywhere else) had ever seen death on such a massive sale.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />In a ghastly parallel to the lines of carriages and horse-drawn taxis dropping off theater-goers only a couple of hours earlier, freight wagons, ambulances, and even CFD coal wagons were lined up on Randolph Street, waiting to pick up their macabre load, then carry it to either a funeral home or morgue, or, in the cases of the injured, to a hospital.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">A pair of pictures showing the bodies of the victims being transported from the scene. On the left a Fire department coal wagon...or possibly a reserve hose wagon...is being used to remove bodies (Thankfully, covered with a tarp), while on the right a horse-drawn ambulance is loaded with bodies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Five hundred and ninety-one bodies would be counted at the scene, to be transported to thirty different morgues and funeral homes while nearly three hundred people suffered injuries ranging from minor to critical and were transported to as many as ten different hospitals. This made the search for missing loved ones a living nightmare for relatives of the victims, as no records were kept to indicate who was transported where, or even, for the first day or so, who was deceased and who was injured.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Needless to say, there were no records of any kind kept to indicate who the injured were and and where they were transported, and no effort at all was made to identify bodies at the scene, much less identify which body was transported to which place. Many of the bodies were burned beyond any hope of recognition anyway, and would have to be identified using scraps of clothing, jewelry (If the fire didn't melt it) or trinkets found in pockets (Ditto). This led to absolute chaos when people started showing up at the scene by the hundreds, searching for loved ones who should have been home hours ago. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />The mass confusion at the Iroquois lead to a problem that, sadly, <i>still</i> often rears it's head even with all of the technology we have today. In the quest to save lives, the multiple victims of a Mass Casualty Incident are often triaged, treated on scene, and transported before proper records as to who was transported where can be recorded. Live patients, in fact, sometimes aren't even identified before they're transported depending on their condition And that happens <i>today</i>, leading to that heartbreaking, multi-venue search for loved ones that's too horrible to even try to imagine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Now, imagine a MCI involving, counting fatalities and injuries, over <i>800</i> victims that occurred before many of the modern means of communication and transportation we take for granted today even existed. (Smart phones and automobiles, I'm looking at <i>you</i>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It was absolute chaos. While some victims were reunited with their families on scene (A <i>very</i> few) most were transported to either hospital, morgue, or funeral home before any real attempt of identification at all was made. Relatives of the Iroquois victims who were searching for their loved ones had pushing <i>forty</i> different places to search. This search for missing relatives was often a multi-day task, especially if the missing loved one was deceased. And the various morgues and funeral homes where the deceased were taken weren't always over-accommodating to the grieving relatives...at least one funeral home reportedly, in one of the most blatant displays of insensitivity of all time, told a group that it was too late to ID bodies and that they'd have to come back in the morning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This same chaos also led to massive discrepancies as to the exact death toll, discrepancies that still exist to this day, and that I'll touch on in a bit more detail in 'Notes...'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">News of the fire and horrible loss of life got around <i>quickly...</i>especially for a world without radio, TV, or internet...both via word of mouth and the Media. The media actually had a leg up, as one reporter, <i>Chicago Record-Herald</i> reporter Charles Collins, was dispatched to the scene early in the incident by his editor ...not only did he get there almost before the first in fire units, he ended up assisting with the rescues and body removal inside the theater. Not only that, he helped reunite one distraught father...who had escaped all but unscathed...with his daughter, who had also made it out of the theater with minor injuries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">By nine that night newsboys were shouting 'EXTRA! EXTRA! HUNDREDS DIE AT THE IROQUOIS!!!' as they hawked the Breaking News of that era...Extra editions of every local paper. Still, many Chicago area residents...especially those who lived in what were then outlying communities...didn't find out about the fire until the next morning. Which meant that then-cutting edge technology allowed people overseas to learn of the fire before many in Chicagoland, as the Associated Press wired reports of the fire to it's subscribers in other countries, some of whom were reading about the fire well before newspapers...extra or otherwise...hit the news stands in Chicago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This very early version of electronic media also allowed Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison, who was in Oklahoma when the fire occurred, to learn about the fire well with-in 24 hours of it being 'Tapped Out'. He immediately grabbed the first possible train back home. He'd be coming home to a hornets nest. Outrage over the fire was immediate and massive, with the populace of not only Chicago, but the nation in general, demanding answers, and wanting 'Heads To Roll'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison. Harrison rushed home from a trip to Oklahoma the day after the fire to find an entire nation-worth of fingers pointing at him, in large part blaming his method of governing Chicago for the fire's horrendous death toll. The blame was not entirely misplaced at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Harrison rolled back into Chicago on a very subdued New Years Eve to find his city in shock and morning and bereaved families either searching for their loved ones or preparing to bury them. (Dozens of funerals took place daily over the next week...one well known minister was actually hospitalized for exhaustion after performing fifteen funerals in a single day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Mayor decried the carnage and vowed to take action. He immediately shut down every theater in the city, then amended and expanded that action by shutting down virtually <i>every</i> place of public assembly, of any kind until all could be inspected. He also vowed to get to the bottom of the disaster, and find answers...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">...Aaaaand the press and most of the populace figuratively, and sometimes literally, yelled 'Whoa, dude...<i>You </i> did it!!! Or at least contributed to it'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Think maybe that wasn't very fair? Read on, because actually, it kinda...was.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">See, the Honorable Mayor Harrison was not exactly loved by either the press or a majority of the citizens of Chicago. He was renowned for allowing the city to govern itself without much oversight, and for not taking action on graft, corruption, and incompetence until he was called out on it. It was also said (And the Iroquois fire just about proved this one) that he didn't exactly encourage the enforcement of City ordinances and codes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">In fact, fingers were being pointed at him RE: Theater Fire Safety <i>before</i> the Iroquois fire (Remember the shelved report of fire safety?). Now everyone was blaming his lax management style for allowing the theater's many faults to fly under the radar while every city department involved in inspecting the theater and approving it as safe for occupancy was blaming each other for the disaster while denying any responsibility of their own while.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They weren't the only ones shirking responsibility, of course. Literally <i>everyone</i> involved with the design, building, and management of the theater was blaming everyone else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Theater owners Davis and Powers, in one of the prime douche bag moves of all time, actually blamed the injured and deceased victims for their own fates, saying that the theater was the safest ever designed (Ignoring the fact that literally <i>none</i> of that cutting edge safety technology functioned properly or even at all) and that if they hadn't panicked, the theater's occupants would have had plenty of time to exit through the nearly thirty exits (Somewhere between a third and half of which were locked or otherwise unusable).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Architect Benjamin Marshall was flabbergasted by the loss of life, saying that he designed the theater incorporating every lesson learned from previous theater fires, to make the theater (Here we go again) the safest ever designed. OK, he ultimately conceded, maybe the interior trim shouldn't have been as flammable, and maybe the exits shouldn't have been hidden by drapes and maybe the latches shouldn't have been so complicated...but all of that deadly finery was absolutely necessary, because the theater absolutely <i>had</i> to also be the most beautiful and elegant ever designed!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As for Klaw and Erlanger, their take on it was basically 'Hey, we are just stockholders (12.5 % each) and besides, we were seven hundred miles away...how could we be responsible for <i>anything </i>(Ignoring the fact that they demanded that the theater be opened as soon as possible, no matter <i>what</i> had to be done to make it happen).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The public...not just in Chicago, or even the U.S., but world-wide...was out-raged. This was among the first major disasters that the electronic media, in the form of the telegraph and the wire services, allowed the nation and world to know about almost immediately after it happened, and as a result, the city, nation, and world were waiting for...<i>demanding, </i>in fact...answers. A coroners Inquest would be convened, and surely they'd have answers and the guilty parties would be identified and made to face the music! So many people would be sent to The Big House over the disaster that the State of Illinois would have to build a <i>new</i> Big House!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Yeaahh...not so much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">What <i>would</i> result would be one of the longest, strangest legal free-for-alls to ever hear see the inside of a court room.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Several members of both the Mr Bluebeard cast and the theater's management team were arrested and jailed to ensure they'd be present when the Coroners Inquest took place (A very common tactic after a major incident back in the day) while over two hundred other witnesses...from audience members to firefighters and police officers to other cast and crew members..were subpoenaed to appear before the inquest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Chicago's chief coroner, John Traeger presided over a six member panel when the Inquest kicked off at 9AM on January 7th, 1904 at Chicago City Hall...a week and a day after the fire...and even though it was seriously cold <i>outside, </i>it was a hot, smoky nightmare <i>inside. </i>The building had central steam heat, of course, but this was long before modern HVAC systems, with the emphasis here on the 'V'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The boilers were likely cranking wide open to heat the big old building, which was sealed up as tight as a drum, or at least as tight as buildings of that era could be sealed, against encroaching cold air. It was not only warm inside the council chamber, it was downright steamy...and that was <i>before</i> they added the body heat generated by the three hundred or so people to the heat generated by the hissing radiators.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">To make matters even worse, back in that era pretty much <i>every</i> man of any influence smoked cigars, and there were absolutely no 'No Smoking' regulations, which meant they could smoke them anywhere they wanted to. So, not only was it <i>hot </i>in the not-all-that-well-ventilated council chamber, thanks to a couple of hundred simultaneously smoked cigars, a permanent cloud of cigar smoke was hanging in the chamber like a noxious fog bank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Add all of that together, and you ended up with a truly, <i>truly</i> unpleasant place to spend a few hours. Per Day. For what was originally scheduled as a six day inquest, but ended up being a month long ordeal for the two hundred or so witnesses who had been called to testify.. Despite the discomfort, a huge crowd of citizens also showed up to the inquest, which was open to the public, and they were joined by a few dozen representatives of the Media wielding boxy cameras and flash pans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">During those hours, days, and weeks the panel, spectators and Media alike heard a bewildering number of often contradictory reports. Several different causes of the fire were quoted, from an exploding hydrogen tank to a gust of wind to the actual, all-but-proven cause. Ushers were described as everything from heroes to cowards, and Eddie Foy even contradicted himself, as to exactly where he was when the fire started.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But even with the confusing and contradictory stories, some downright disturbing facts came to light. Theater manager Thomas Noonan admitted that he never trained any of the staff on what to do in case of fire, or on how to prevent panic, even though that responsibility was very much in his job description. (This actually came to light <i>before</i> the inquest started.). During the same interview that bombshell was revealed in, it was discovered that no one knew who had the authority to open the roof vents (OK, this was admittedly somewhat of a moot point, considering the things were inoperable in the first place). What these revelations <i>did</i> do was prove just how incompetent the theater's management actually was. And it only got worse. The inquest would soon reveal that the much of Chicago's city government was not only just as incompetent, some of it was downright corrupt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">All of the higher ranking fire department officials got raked over the coals, big time, and Deputy Coroner M. Lawrence Buckley <i>really</i> let CFD Chief of Department Musham have it. Chief Musham put himself behind the eight-ball right out of the gate, when he informed Lawrence that he absolutely did <i>not </i>have to confer with anyone in the building department about whether any given building met fire codes, and that, while he understood that there were certain things that were required in theaters (Like, oh, I dunno, <i>sprinklers</i>), that these requirements had nothing to do with the fire department or him. He also testified that he had absolutely <i>nothing </i>to do with the the many problems at the Iroquois, because that was the Building Department's domain, <i>not</i> the Fire Department's</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">His answers as to why he didn't require Sallors to report to him weekly (As law required) were equally weak, ending with saying that he really wasn't familiar with the various codes and ordinances pertaining to fire safety, up to and including telling the Deputy Coroner that he didn't realize that he had the authority to shut down the Iroquois if it wasn't safe for occupancy (?????).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">These answers, needless to say did not exactly cast him in a good light.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Battalion Chief Hannon didn't fare much better...in his testimony before the inquest he revealed that he apparently <i>did</i> personally inspect the theater a few weeks after Paddy Jennings made his report...after it opened...and found the very same defects that were reported to him by Captain Jennings a month or so earlier...<i>before </i>it opened...but <i>he</i> didn't kick it further up the food chain either time because he hadn't been ordered to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Sallors testified that he didn't report anything because of fear of losing his job, and because no one ordered him to. This 'I received no orders to do my job' thing seems to have been a common theme here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Paddy Jennings is the only one who came out of the fire-department-coal-raking in fair shape. He, after all, <i>did</i> try. He reported the theater's unsafe condition to Chief Hannon. And Chief Hannon had made it more than clear that he didn't intend to take it any higher. Going any higher himself would have been jumping chain of command...then, as now, a <i>serious</i> policy violation in every fire department world-wide, one that, at the very <i>least</i> would see him get a career-stalling transfer to a slow company out in what passed as 'The Boonies' in early 20th Century Chicago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Though no record exists of Jennings' testimony, I can't help but think he said something to the effect of 'I tried guys...God knows I tried.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The building department fared even worse than the fire department. Everyone from that department who testified claimed that they were only responsible for the building's actual <i>structure</i> and that every other detail had it's own department whose own inspectors were specifically tasked with inspecting such items as sprinklers, electrical wiring, fire escapes, etc. Therefore <i>they</i> had done <i>their</i> job...it was everyone <i>else</i> who was negligent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The head of the building inspections department stated that he signed off on the approval of the theater...submitted by inspector Edward Loughlin...because he supposed that this meant that the building was complete, and that all necessary safety features were in place and operational. He also noted that he was not yet at all familiar with the ordinances that pertained to his job because he had just been appointed. He didn't read said ordinances until <i>after</i> the fire. As for Laughlin, he's the one who first stated that his approval was only for the actual structure of the building.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Even worse, an off duty building inspector who tagged along with Laughlin when he inspected the Iroquois took note of every one of the theaters many violations...but <i>he</i> didn't report any of them because he wasn't there in an official capacity (The free tickets to Mr Bluebeard for the inspectors and their families</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">, I'm sure,</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> had absolutely </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">nothing</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> to do with the building's approval as Safe for Occupancy being pretty much rubber-stamped.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Theater owners Will Davis' and Harry Powers' testimony was interesting in a couple of respects. First, when one of them was testifying, the other was forbidden to be present in the Council Chamber. And this may have been very good for Harry Powers health, because Will Davis just <i>may</i> have attacked him had he heard Powers' testimony.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">See, Powers tossed Will Davis slam under the bus. Powers stated that he was merely a silent partner, with no say what so ever in the running of the Iroquois, while Will Davis was the active partner, who handled all business affairs. He, Powers continued, acted in only an advisory role.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then Davis was called to testify. He pretty much pushed himself even further under the aforementioned bus when he testified that he really had no idea what features the building codes required, fire safety wise...he simply trusted Fuller Construction to build the building in compliance with local codes and ordinances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And no, he had not a clue about fire equipment, or what fire equipment was required, or even if any fire equipment was installed in the Iroquois in the first place, though he assumed it was.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">On being asked what brought him to that conclusion, he stated that there was a fireman assigned to the theater (Sallors) and that Sallors had not requisitioned <i>any</i> equipment or apparatus, therefore, he had assumed that none was needed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then, in what was possibly the most incriminating testimony heard in a nearly month long run of incriminating testimony, Fuller Construction foreman Dave Jones admitted to embarking on a Mission Impossible class plot to destroy evidence...which, of course, he claimed <i>not</i> to be destroying.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Probably within hours of the fire being tapped out a cordon of cops and Pinkerton guards was thrown up around the theater to keep unauthorized people out of the building. They apparently forgot about the building's roof.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Thomas and his band of miscreants went into action as soon as they could be notified and come up with a game plan...likely with-in 24 hours of that first tiny flame being spotted. He and his crew made their way across a half-block or so worth of roof tops to access the theater's roof, and were busily removing boards form the boarded up roof vents when they were caught by a contingent of cops and Pinkerton guards. Whether they made this startling discovery while making a regular round or heard the Fuller crew's labors and went to investigate has been lost to history, but which ever it was, they stopped Thomas and crew before they finished, leaving one of the vents still boarded up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">When asked just what they thought they were doing by the at-that-point weary and more than a little disgusted panel, Fuller replied that they were absolutely <i>not </i>destroying evidence...they were simply making the building safer for the investigators by removing glass from the skylights so it wouldn't fall on said investigators and injure them. The panel didn't even <i>begin </i>to buy that one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As the inquest drew to a close, the panel had no trouble determining a cause...they ruled that it was accidental, caused by the sparking arc light, and that there was no malicious intent associated with the actual start of the fire or the deaths involved. They also ruled that corruption and incompetence subbed for actual malice very handily. They ruled that pretty much <i>every</i> possible fire code associated with fire safety in theaters had been thrown out the window in the rush to get the theater open, that the 'fire curtain' was a sick joke, and that just about <i>everyone</i> involved with inspecting or managing the theater was criminally responsible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Likely mentally face-palming as one, the panel held eight people over to appear before the Grand Jury.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Facing possible indictment were Mayor Harrison, Chief Musham, Owner Will Davis, Building Commissioner Williams, Building Inspector Loughlin, Fireman Sallers, Stage Carpenter Cummings, and light operator Bill McMullen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Davis was accused of ignoring his responsibility to know the laws and ordinances pertaining to fire safety, to see that they were complied with, and to see that his employees were properly trained on what to do if a fire should occur. The Honorable Mayor was held responsible for basically letting his department heads do what-ever-the-heck-they-wanted. Chief Musham and Commissioner Williams were accused of gross neglect and neglect of duty, Inspector Loughlin of official Malfeasance, Sallers of basically, criminal incompetence, and McMullen got tossed in simply because he was in charge of the light that started the fire in the first place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">All were arrested and posted bail, and to a man they, at first, refused to speak to the press (Some things haven't changed in 115 or so years...). Commissioner Williams probably <i>really</i> circled the wagons when, just shy of two weeks after the inquest ended, several of his inspectors were arrested for taking bribes...allegations that Williams said were false, a story that fell apart when an entry was found in the ledgers belonging to one of the companies offering bribes. And just what was that ledger entry, you may ask. An expense account entry listing a thousand bucks, budgeted yearly, to be used as favor-buying funds. Yep...the bribes were in the budget.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As for Mayor Harrison, when the press finally buttonholed him, he used an excuse that's pretty much been a boiler-plate excuse for high ranking officials caught in less-than-ideal circumstances for well over a century. He said that the allegations towards him were politically motivated untruths told by bitter rivals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Press...locally and nationwide...pilloried the whole bunch of them as they waited for the Grand Jury to return indictments, with the majority of the scorn aimed at Mayor Harrison. It was stated...not inaccurately...that no matter what he did, he was incriminating himself. A good example is his virtual lock-down of places of public assembly after the fire.. To simplify their comments greatly, they asked the somewhat rhetorical question 'If he could enforce the relevant ordinances <i>now...</i>why couldn't he have done so <i>before</i> the fire?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Political cartoonists had a field day after the Iroquois Theater Fire. This is just a very tiny sample of the hundreds of political cartoons that were generated by the fire, the majority of them targeting the corruption that allowed the fire...and the deaths...to happen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">This cartoon by renowned political cartoonist John T. McCutcheon, really tugged at the newspaper-reading public heart strings. It's very likely based on the family of Mary Holst, from Chicago. Mary Holst and her husband had four kids, one of them a infant son, only six months old in December '03. She had promised the other three kids...8 and 10 year old daughters, and a 13 year old son...that she'd take them to see Mr Bluebeard that afternoon, with dad volunteering, or possibly being volunteered, for babysitting duties at home. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Tragically, Mary Holst and all three of the older children died in the fire, leaving her husband and the baby behind. As you can imagine, Mr Holst was absolutely devastated by his family's death, and John T. McCutchon captured his devastation and grief in this cartoon to hammer home the fire's absolute horror. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Political cartoonists...in particular The Tribune's John T McCutcheon...had a field day with the embattled mayor, as well as the other department heads facing indictment, and the Press was licking their collective lips, just waiting for the indictments to be handed down, and the actual criminal trials to begin. Predictions were made that several <i>long</i> prison sentences would ultimately result, while lawsuits (Several had already been filed.) would drain the responsible parties not indicted of every</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">cent and valuable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As greatly deserved as that would have been, it wasn't gonna happen....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Why? You may ask...Read on, say I.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Grand Jury first noted that, as the coroner's Jury had stated, ordinances had been all but ignored, costs had been slashed via omitting required items (Sprinklers and proper standpipes) and substituting sub-standard materials for the real thing (The soon-to-be-infamous fire curtain), and on top of that, the theater was opened before it was finished...in particular before <i>any</i> fire protection was installed. All of this, they also noted, was done willfully in order to maximize profits. They also noted that everyone's extreme overconfidence in the building's 'fireproof' construction led them to assume that the building construction alone would protect the theater's occupants if a fire should start. and that the building's much-touted safety features could be worked on and completed at their leisure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The theater's manger and owners, obviously didn't factor in the building's contents, the fact that you can't breath smoke, or the effects of panic in their estimation's of how safe their new gem of a theater was. In effect (And the Coroner's panel stated this) they had built a brand new, 'fireproof' fire trap.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And just who was responsible for the catastrophic loss of life on that frigid Wednesday afternoon?...America waited, holding their breath for the Grand Jury to release the indictments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The indictments were finally released on February 23rd, 1904, noting that it was the moral and legal responsibility of the theater management to follow ordinances and provide proper fire protection for the theater, and adequate means for any occupants to remove themselves from peril without injury or harm. They also noted that it was the duty of Fire Department and the Building Department to see that the various ordinances were complied with.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Indictments were handed out to theater manager Thomas Noonan, owner Will Davis, and stage carpenter James Cummings, charging them with multiple counts of manslaughter. Also indicted were</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Commissioner of Buildings Williams, and inspector Laughlin, both for 'Palpable Omission of Duty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Off the hook were Chief Musham, Fireman Sallers, and Bill McMullen...charges were dropped against them due to lack of evidence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Most surprising of all, charges against Mayor Harrison were also dropped...but he wasn't <i>completely</i> off the hook. Though they didn't say this in so many words, the Grand Jury's opinion was pretty obviously along the lines of 'Unfortunately, incompetence isn't illegal'. Harrison's rebuttal to the press was, basically, ' The important thing here is not that they feel I did my job improperly, it's the fact that they didn't have any evidence that I did anything illegal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But the Grand Jury <i>had</i> found evidence that five individuals did indeed commit crimes, three of them...Noonan, Davis, and Cummings...charged with manslaughter. and the resultant trial would end up being one of the longest, most drawn out legal battles in Chicago history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This brings us to a Richmond, Va born lawyer by the name of Levy Mayer who had decided on a law career early in life. He moved to Chicago with his family in the 1860s (His parents quickly grew weary of the drama created by a little tiff called the Civil War and headed for more stable climes), entered Yale Law School at sixteen, and generally kicked butt and took names all the way through Law School, graduating second in his class. Once he passed the Illinois Bar, he and a partner founded a law firm that exists to this very day, and Mayer quickly earned a reputation as a tough as nails attorney with an uncanny knowledge of the ins and outs of the law that made him an outstanding litigator who was vigorously loyal to his clients. He also became well known for diving right in and defending unpopular clients in controversial cases.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Mayer was retained to defend The Theatrical Trust's interests by lunchtime on New Years Eve, 1903...less than 24 hours after the fire. True to his well-earned reputation, Mayer jumped right on in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">To convict any of the three primary defendants of Manslaughter, the prosecution would not only have to prove that the death of any specific individual was caused by a specific violation of law or ordinance, they would also have to prove that the pertinent ordinances were valid in the first place. The problem the prosecution was going to have was the fact that the bodies were recovered before any attempt to ascertain the specific reason that at least one specific person couldn't escape from the theater, and whether that inability to escape directly caused that person's death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Huh??? You say. Yeah, I know, we all know that anyone who died in the crush at, say, the main Dress Circle exit died because that exit was partially blocked and they couldn't escape before the the products of combustion suffocated them. But the law of the time demanded that the prosecution prove that a specific person who died because the exit was blocked be named in order for a conviction of manslaughter to be obtained. There was absolutely no way that the State could prove, with out any doubt, where <i>any</i> of the deceased met their untimely death, and Mayer knew it. He also had a feeling that he might not even have to prove that the State couldn't connect any given person's death to a specific violation of Ordinance, because he had a sneaking suspicion that he could prove the the ordinances weren't even valid and legal in the first place. And if he could prove <i>that</i>, the prosecution's case would unravel in a heartbeat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">With that thought in mind, the very first thing he had his defense team do was start combing the city's building codes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">While all this research was going on, Mayer used the outrage against his clients in his favor to request a change of venue, Stating that there was a huge level of prejudice against them in Chicago-land, and that a change of venue was absolutely essential if they were to receive a fair trial. He actually had a valid point here, and the request was granted, moving the trial to Peoria, Illinois. Almost in the same breath as the Change of Venue request came a request to dismiss the charges against Will Davis...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Now, before we get to the result of <i>that </i>request, we're going to take a look at the <i>biggie</i> that Mayer was counting on...the fact that, as they say, 'Time Heals All Wounds. He figured...rightly...that if he delayed the case long enough before trial, other newsworthy events would push the Iroquois Disaster out of everyone's conscious memory, diluting the outrage against his clients. And it was working as new events and horrors...not least among them them the Sino-Japanese War, and the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904...displaced the Iroquois both in the headlines, and in the minds of the populace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">On top of that, then as now court calendars were packed full, and the courts had to take into consideration the complexity of this case...this was no minor trial for, say, disturbing the peace. This trial would require a huge outlay of resources and time, therefore a large block of calendar-time had to be reserved far enough in the future that it didn't interfere with other cases. This scheduling process was likely already underway in Chicago. The Change of Venue turned the process on it's head, delaying the trial even further as, now, that block of time had to be found in the Peoria County Court Calendar, delayed the trial even further.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Mayer's delaying tactics were working like a charm. The change of venue wasn't granted until September 1904, nine months after the fire, and the decision on quashing Will Davis' charges wasn't handed down until February '05, over a <i>year</i> after the fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">When that decision was handed down, Will Davis breathed a sigh of relief...the judge granted the dismissal, clearing him of all charges. The trial hadn't even started yet, and the State's case had already taken two very damaging hits. Then came the crowning blow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Judge Kersten, in Chicago, delivered the opinion that the ordinances did not specify who was responsible for providing the proper appliances and apparatus for fire protection, nor did they specify who was responsible for keeping such appliances and apparatus in good working order, therefore no one could be charged with manslaughter, because it was impossible to determine who was responsible in order to charge them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As if that wasn't enough to derail the State's case, Judge Greene, in Peoria opined that the deaths were <i>not</i> caused by the theater's complete lack of fire safety, but rather by the fire itself, and therefore by the sparking of the Arc Light.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And with that, the prosecution was dead in the water. All of the charges were dropped, at least for the time being. Mayer stated that, thanks to the various decisions handed down thus far, any new indictments wouldn't be worth the paper they were written on. The trial ended before it even got underway...they didn't even get to seat a jury</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Davis immediately regaled the press with his relief at having the charges dropped, and the unfairness of being indicted in the first place. The public was <i>not</i> sympathetic at all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Nor, as you can imagine, was the Prosecution moved to say 'Oh, well...That's the ballgame', and just let it go. Even as Davis was publicly complaining about the unfairness of it all, the State was working on getting all of those who were considered responsible for the fire to appear before a second Grand Jury. It took 'em under a a month to do just that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">On March 7, 1905 The Grand Jury re-indicted Will Davis, Building Inspector Laughlin, and Building Commissioner Williams. None of the other major players in the disaster were re-indicted due to insufficient evidence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Mayer once again moved to have the indictments quashed, but this time, again due to The State of Illinois' overloaded court calendar he and his clients had to wait almost another <i>year</i> to find out if his request was sustained or denied...January 13, 1906 to be precise. This time, all of the indictments were sustained, and Mayer was finally able to begin preparing his defense as the preparations for the trial got underway.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, this delay would also work for his clients, as the fire slipped further and further back into the past to be over-shadowed by more current news, even as Mayer repeated yet another tactic from the previous trial by asking for a change of venue, producing 12,000 affidavits attesting to the fact that there was no <i>way</i> his clients could get a fair trial in The Windy City.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And as this request wound it's way through the legal system, the Iroquois Disaster was overshadowed both on the front pages and in the minds of the citizens by yet another disaster when, on April 18, 1906, one of the worst earthquakes to hit the North American continent slammed San Francisco with a double-whammy, first collapsing many of the city's buildings, then setting the ruins on fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So, when the Change of Venue was granted in June of 1906, it barely made a squeak in the papers, relegated to being a filler on a back page somewhere. And the trial would again be delayed further, this time by both crowded dockets and Mayer's delaying tactics...it would be three years and change after the fire before a jury was seated and a trial date set, this time 134 miles south of Chicago, in Danville, Ill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Rumor had it that The State was planning to produce as many as two hundred witnesses, all either injured victims of the fire, or grieving relatives who had lost loved ones. As the trial neared, the Iroquois story began to edge its way back towards the front page. This, it was surmised, was going to be one of the longest, hardest fought trials of the century</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Thing is, only one of those two hundred witnesses would get to testify. Mayer was about to blind-side the State with yet another twist on an already-used tactic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The trial was finally scheduled to begin on March 7, 1907. An overflow crowd was packed into the Vermilion County courtroom when The Honorable Judge E.R.E. Kimbrough smacked his gavel down and called the court into order., He...and the rest of the court officers, as well as any spectators with any knowledge of Courtroom Protocol...knew something was up when Mayer declined to make an opening statement, stating he'd make his opening statement at the close of the State's evidence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The State swung right into the ball game, calling as it's first witness Mrs Maude Jackson, the mother of 16 year old fire victim Viva Jackson. Mrs Jackson began her testimony bravely, State's Attorney John Keesler setting up background, asking the grieving mother about her daughter...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">...And four questions in, Mayer rose and called 'Your Honor I Object! This entire line of questioning...the State's entire case...is built on invalid assumptions...The City of Chicago did <i>not</i> have the power to issue or enforce the great majority of the fire safety ordinances that the case was built on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Ok, I know, I know...they didn't exactly try to enforce them in the <i>first</i> place...but the wild thing is, according to the way the law was written at the time, technically at least, he was right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The whole legal argument he used is far, <i>far</i> too complicated to go into here...Mayer introduced a <i>134 page </i>legal brief outlining his argument...but the gist of it was, in Illinois (And very possibly the majority of the states at the time) The City Council didn't have the power to issue or enforce ordinances unless those powers had been granted to them by the State Legislature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So, his challenge to The State was, basically and stripped down to it's simplest terms, show The Court where The Great State of Illinois granted the Chicago City Council those powers. Spoiler alert...they couldn't, because it hadn't.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Davis couldn't be required to abide by ordinances that were invalid, nor could he be convicted of criminal negligence (If he was even charged with it) because, without the ordinances, he wasn't required to take every possible precaution against fire...only those that would be taken by a 'Reasonable and prudent individual'. Likewise, Williams and Laughlin couldn't be expected to enforce ordinances that were, technically, illegal themselves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Yeah, it was a very, <i>very</i> technical argument, but it was still valid. And...much to his chagrin...Judge Kimbrough had to accept it. And in accepting it he had to dismiss the Manslaughter charges against all three defendants, He didn't like it...and he made it more than <i>clear</i> that he didn't like it...but he had to follow the law.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Long Drawn Out, Hard Fought Trial Of The Century was over and done with in two days flat. Rather than just dismissing the charges outright, Judge Kinbrough directed the jury to return a 'Not Guilty' verdict (I think a little judicial ass-covering may have been afoot there), the jury did as directed, and the three defendants were free to go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Once again, Will Davis spoke of his relief ...this time both of his acquittal, and of the fact that the criminal trial was finally over, while Mayer very bluntly stated that 'The judge had no other choice...the law was against the State'. The State's Attorney stated to the press that it had been a <i>close</i> decision, hinging, of course, on the validity of the ordinances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The State's <i>witnesses</i>, however...the surviving victims and family members who'd lost loved ones...felt like they had been screwed royally, and for good reason...they had. While laws of that era required that the public be protected when attending events in places of public assembly (That the various fire protection devices and exits, for example, be present and operational), they didn't specify who was ultimately responsible if those devices failed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This was a <i>major</i> fail for the legal system that allowed the obviously guilty parties to smugly declare that they weren't at all responsible for a single one of the over 600 deaths caused by the fire. Then, taking 'We're not responsible' to yet another level, they declared that the deaths...and the fire that caused them...were simply an Act of God. And no, I'm <i>not</i> kidding...the fire was equated to 'A hurricane lifting the roof off of the building.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As if the victims and grieving family members didn't get screwed over badly enough by the criminal trial, they were in for yet <i>another</i> shellacking in the inevitable civil trials resulting from the fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The early 20th Century wasn't even a tenth as litigious as the present day, but there were still over 200 lawsuits filed by injured survivors as well as by the families of deceased victims, and given the level of greed, incompetence, and plain long criminal shenanigans that caused the fire, you'd think that the theater owners would get slammed in Civil Court, even though they were acquitted in the criminal trial. After all, it'a not that unusual at all for those who were acquitted in a criminal trial to <i>still</i> get their butts handed to them in a civil trial.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">OK...it's not that rare for that to happen <i>today. </i>Back in 1903, things were a bit different. The truth of the matter is, the great majority of the claimants weren't awarded a single red cent. They had a couple of things working against them from the git-go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The theater's liability insurance (Carried by Maryland Casualty Company) had a coverage limit of $10,000 (Just shy of $300,000 today) for any one occurrence, and $5,000 (About $150,000 today) for the loss of any one life...but here's the kicker. The policy didn't pay out <i>at all</i> in the event of loss of life by explosion or fire. This meant that the theater's policy explicitly denied liability coverage for injury or death resulting from the most common type of loss facing early Twentieth Century theater owners...fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">No biggie, you may think... the principles in the ownership and operation of the Iroquois were all wealthy people, and The City of Chicago, whose actions made them at least partly responsible for the injuries and deaths, had plenty of money. Sue the crap out of them, and drain the deep pockets...it'd be far more satisfying to make those directly responsible for the deaths pay up rather than accepting a check from an insurance company, anyway...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">...Not so fast, gang. First lets look at a prior court case...and those pesky ordinances were the culprit once again. Federal Judge Kenesaw Landis held that the ordinances didn't place any responsibility to provide and install the proper equipment on the theater owner directly, and only provided for a fine if said equipment was absent or inoperative, and <i>did not</i> provide for liability or consequences arising from said absence or fault. In other words, the ordinances didn't demand any restitution for deaths or injures resulting from the violation of the ordinance. The courts took this very literally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">On top of that, the prevailing legal opinion of the day held that, by buying a ticket granting admission to a place of public assembly, the ticket holder accepted any and all risks that might arise from attending the event.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Or, to put it in simpler terms, you know that theaters have a tendency to burn, therefore by buying a ticket to a play, you accept the risk that the theater might catch on fire while you're attending that play, and as a result, you might be injured or killed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Oh, that wasn't put down in writing anywhere, but civil law at the time was most definitely favored the business owner over the customer. Which meant that the victims of The Iroquois Theater Fire were pretty much screwed. The very great majority of the civil cases were dismissed outright because of this very principal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">That, of course, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">definitely</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> didn't keep people from </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">trying </i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">to hold the owners of The Iroquois financially as well as criminally responsible, but they might as well have been trying to put out a forest fire with a bucket brigade. One excellent example of this was attorney Henry Shabad, who lost both of his kids in the fire. He tried his best to have indictments brought against Klaw and Erlanger, with no success. Then he tried bringing suit against them, but they likely declared that they were </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">not</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> the principal owners and that even if they </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">were</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">, the above quoted...and now thankfully long overturned...legal principal protected them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Speaking of Klaw and Erlanger, rumors persisted for <i>years</i> that they paid off several families despite that theory of accepted responsibility, but this was never confirmed, and apparently no record of said payments exists...anywhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Two women did sue Fuller Construction for $50,000 (Just shy of 1,4 Million in 2017 dollars) but there's no record of how that trial turned out, if it, indeed, ever went to trial. If it <i>did</i> go to trial, they may have had a marginally better chance of winning because it was known that Fuller Construction not only didn't finish the roof venting system, they attempted to destroy the evidence proving that it wasn't finished. All the plaintiff's attorneys had to do was subpoena the records from the coroners inquest. And this actually <i>may</i> have happened...six years after the fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The last news of the civil cases resulting from the fire came in 1909, when wire services reported that Fuller Construction had made out of court settlements of $750 ($20,765 today) apiece to thirty families who had lost loved ones in the fire. Thirty out of six hundred.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Had this fire happened today, someone would have gone to prison, and <i>millions</i> would have been paid out in Civil trials, but as I noted above, attitudes were far, <i>far</i> different in the early 20th Century, though the level of outrage caused by the deaths, and more importantly the perceived <i>cause</i> of the deaths, was pretty much on a par with what we would have seen today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">That outrage, in fact, is why Mayer immediately started working to delay the trial while petitioning for a Change of Venue. He well knew that if he defended his clients in front of a Chicago jury seated only a couple of months after the trial, he'd be facing a serious up-hill battle. I'm convinced that if that had happened, at least one of his clients would have been convicted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The civil trials, sadly, would have likely yielded the same results no matter <i>when </i>the trials were held, simply due to the very pro-business owner..and anti-consumer...attitudes that the Civil Courts held at the time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It would be nice to think that the same outrage that prompted Mayer to delay the trials and ask for changes of venue also inspired immediate change in the both the law and the legal attitudes of the time, but that didn't happen either. It took decades for the principal of assumed risk to completely disappear from the civil courts, and likely took nearly as long for the laws regarding Manslaughter and responsibility for same to morph into the modern laws we have now. Examples of both the Iroquois Fire era Civil <i>and </i> criminal legal principles still existing well into the middle of the Twentieth Century still popped up, as we'll see as I cover other disasters from that era.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">One thing that <i>did</i> change for the better was theater fire safety, though that was <i>still</i> like pulling teeth. After all you were asking business owners to spend money in order to make their buildings safer...but ultimately that <i>did </i> happen as theaters installed actual fire curtains (Many higher end theaters installed steel 'fire curtains' that were actually true fire doors that closed off the stage from the auditorium). Sprinkler systems that were mandatory on paper became mandatory in actual fact. Regulations and codes on exits, seating, required fire apparatus were finally paid more than a passing glance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">While it wasn't...and indeed <i>isn't...</i>perfect (We'll take a look at that in 'Notes, too) something must've worked. While, sadly, the Iroquois was far from the last large loss-of-life structure fire in U.S. history, it was <i>almost</i> the last one to occur in a theater in the U.S. There was one more large loss of life theater fire...the Rhoads Opera House fire, in Boyertown, Pa., in January 1908, which resulted in 171 fatalities. That was the last major lost of life theater fire the U.S. has seen, though, and there are those that argue that this wasn't actually a theater as such, an argument that actually has a great deal of merit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, the Iroquois Theater Fire could claim one thing that neither of the nation's other two big loss-of-life theater fires could claim...the building didn't burn down. CFD, in fact, made a pretty awesome stop on it. Not only did it not burn down...it was repaired and back in use with-in less than a year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The theater was repaired, remodeled, and reopened as a vaudeville theater called Hyde and Behman's Music Hall, operating under this moniker for about a year. Apparently Hyde and Behman's didn't do all that well. In 1905 it closed, to be acquired by (Drumroll, <i>please!!</i>) Klaw and Ediger's Theatrical Trust. The Trust completely remodeled the theater (And we can only hope, included functional fire protection features and equipment this time) and reopened it as a legitimate playhouse called The Colonial Theater.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Colonial apparently <i>did</i> do fairly well...well enough to stay open at any rate...but it was still sold by The Theatrical Trust in 1913, to be purchased by the Jones, Linick, and Schaefer Theatrical Syndicate, who immediately remodeled it yet again, keeping the name Colonial and turning it into (Again) a vaudeville house, but they added something else...a movie theater. Just how long it lasted as this second coming of The Colonial, I'm not sure, but by 1924 it was closed, all but abandoned, and becoming dilapidated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">That was also the year that The Colonial...along with most of the block it was on...was purchased by the Masonic Temple, and demolished to become the site of the United Masonic Temple Building, which would also be home to The Oriental Theater. The Oriental...still open to this day...has a pretty interesting, if thankfully less deadly, history of it's own...but we'll tackle that in 'Notes'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">How well has The Iroquois Theater Fire been remembered?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Today, The Iroquois Theater Fire is better known than the Brooklyn Theater Fire...but that's because The Brooklyn Theater Fire has been all but completely forgotten, not because The Iroquois is so well remembered. Trust me on this, if you ask a hundred people who aren't theater history geeks, or fire buffs, or in the fire service if they've ever heard of the Iroquois Theater, ninety-nine of them will say something like 'No...What's it, an Indy house or something????'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This is actually kind of interesting because, compared to The Brooklyn Theater Fire, the Iroquois Theater Fire passed into history with barely a whimper, while the Brooklyn theater fire kept piling on the memories for nearly a month after the fire itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Unlike the victims of the Brooklyn Theater Fire, all of the Iroquois victims were buried by their own families at private funerals. (Though there was some question as to whether every family burying a loved one got the right body, as many of the bodies were either trampled or burned beyond recognition). Because of this, and again unlike the Brooklyn Theater Fire, there is also no actual major memorial anywhere today for the Iroquois Theater victims as there is for both the Brooklyn Theater Fire <i>and</i> The Richmond Theater Fire victims (The Richmond Theater Fire victims, in fact, were memorialized with an entire church, built on the theater site, with most of the fire victims buried in a crypt in the church basement). There <i>was</i> a hospital built as a memorial for the victims of the Iroquois Theater Fire...and I'm going to look at it in some detail in 'Notes'...but it's been gone for almost seventy years, and is even <i>more</i> forgotten than the fire it was built to memorialize.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">By 1935, only those directly involved with the fire, be they injured victims and families who lost loved ones, or firefighters, and the Mr Bluebeard cast, really remembered the fire. It wasn't completely forgotten by those who were alive but not actually involved when the fire occurred, (Especially those who lived in Chicago at the time) but it had definitely been filed in one of those dusty file drawers in a little-used backroom off of a dead end corridor of memory that was only accessed when something...say the yearly spate of 'Anniversary Articles' that any major disaster yields...reminded them of it. The articles would be read, the obligatory 'That was <i>so</i> awful!' comments would be made, and then the fire would be forgotten again, often before the newspaper with the anniversary article was thrown out, until late December of the <i>next </i>year rolled around.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As the people with direct knowledge of the fire aged and passed away, the fire dropped further and further back into the murky depths of time-gone-by. By the mid 1960s even the youngest of the survivors were all pushing seventy years old. One of the last living survivors, who was also very likely the one of the last living souls with any direct knowledge of the fire, was Harriet Bray, who was eleven at the time of the fire. Her dad was likely on par with Superman in her eyes for the rest of her life...he's the dad who broke open a balcony fire escape door, then jumped from the lowest landing of the balcony fire escape so he could catch her. She passed away in 1978, at the age of 86.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><***> NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF <***></b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">WOW...This post took me <i>far</i> longer than I thought it would, becoming the first (And hopefully, the last) post to take over a year to get published while it was at it. But then again, it also ended up being <i>way</i> more complicated than I thought it would be, which is saying something, because I went in to this post <i>knowing</i> I was digging into a pretty convoluted, complicated incident.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Befitting it's title of 'Post That Took Forever To Write', this post also blew past the Brooklyn Theater Fire early in the ball game to become the longest post so far as well as the first to bust a hundred pages. This, BTW, is <i>after</i> I went through it several times trying to cut unnecessary and overly florid prose, get rid of redundancies, and generally fool everyone into thinking I knew what I was doing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It also ended up being a far longer read than I intended for it to be, and I thank each and every person who hung on and made it this far.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">All of that being said, and despite headaches, frustrations, and life occasionally getting in the way of progress, it was also a hoot to research and write, and the very fact that it was such a complicated subject is the reason <i>why.</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Every answered question seemed to yield two more that were unanswered, a few of which will very likely <i>remain</i> unanswered. I'm going to try and delve into some of them...both the answerable and the unanswerable...here in 'Notes'</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The fire itself, tragic as it was, was pretty straight forward, both cause and firefighting wise. If you, for a very brief moment, set aside the rescue problem and the huge death toll, along with the body recovery operation those deaths created, the fire itself was actually a pretty routine backstage fire in a theater, a type of fire that occurred dozens of times annually in the US during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. In fact, had this exact fire occurred during an afternoon rehearsal before the play opened, with no audience, no rescue problem and no delayed alarm, it's a good bet that the backdraft wouldn't have occurred, the fire wouldn't have extended to the two balconies, and that CFD's guys would have held it to, at most, a second alarm with even less damage to the building than actually occurred. Take away the audience (And the deaths), this was <i>not</i> a complicated fire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The events leading up to and following the fire, however, <i>were. </i>Not only complicated, but interesting, especially the events occurring <i>after</i> the fire. A law and trial buff would have a field day digging through those transcripts!! I just hit the high spots on the legal wranglings that occurred over the two or so years following the fire, trust me on this.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then we have the stories from inside the theater...there were around 2000 or so of them of them, and a huge number of those stories have been recorded thanks to a single web site in particular. I am forever indebted to Judy Cooke, Owner, Webmaster, and as she puts it, Chief Cook And Bottle-Washer of the absolutely phenomenal </span></span><a href="http://www.iroquoistheater.com/">http://www.iroquoistheater.com</a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">, which is the absolute go-to site for anything having to do with the Iroquois Theater Fire. The site has over 560 pages of info, and is still growing. Judy has done a phenomenal job of researching the fire and the many people involved. I'll expound even more on the awesomeness of this site in 'Links'. Suffice it to say that a huge percentage of my research was accomplished by simply going to Judy's site.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The nice thing about researching the Iroquois Theater Fire was the amount of info available...There are loads of sites and articles, Judy Cooke's site chief among them, about every facet of the fire, meaning there are entire on-line libraries of info available....so much, in fact, that I had to pick and choose what I was going to include (A far sweeter kind of frustration than having to figure out how to expand a minuscule amount of info into a decent length post.). But what's even <i>more</i> interesting about this one...and more than a little frustrating from a historian and/or a fire-buff's point of view...is some of the stuff that's <i>not</i> available.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As anyone who's read my posts knows, I try to delve into the firefighting operations more deeply than most sites do. Firefighting is my love and passion, and I like to know how the fire was were fought. Fairly easily done for an incident occurring within the last half century or so. Not so much for an incident...even a legendary incident...occurring 115 years ago.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Written fire reports were most definitely generated by every incident in salaried departments... especially those of major cities...well before 1903, and they very likely followed much the same basic format as modern fire reports (With additions made as time passed for such things as EMS, Hazmat response, etc) and you'd think that the fire report for a legendary and tragic incident such as the Iroquois Theater Fire would have been preserved. Didn't happen. And, while human nature would love to attach a more sinister reasoning for the report's absence, there is very likely a very good if far more mundane, and even very practical reason why it no longer exists.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Anyone want to try and make a guess as to just how many fire reports were generated by the Chicago Fire Department annually in the years before such reports went digital? A <i>huge</i> amount of physical storage would be needed to store them, even if the reports were all put on microfiche. Remember, we're talking over a century of hard-copy, hand and typewritten fire reports from a fire department that had 101 engine companies and was was already averaging several thousand runs annually nearly a century and a quarter ago. They simply didn't have room to hang on to everything.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The fire report for the Iroquois ended up being just another old piece of paperwork taking up valuable storage space, and was likely thrown out well over three quarters of a century ago, in one of the many purges of old paperwork that every department performed annually for years. There was likely a maximum number of years old fire reports were kept, and once that magic number was reached, they were taken...very likely and more than a little ironically...to an incinerator. Trust me, I wish it wasn't so, because I would have <i>loved</i> to have seen that fire report. Without it, I had to do <i>loads</i> of speculating as to the actual firefighting operation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Inspection reports were among the missing, too, of course, but I have a feeling <i>they </i>went missing long before any maximum number of years of retention was reached. If they ever existed at all.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Trial transcripts may or may not have been easier to come by, and I know for a fact that details pertaining to both the Coroners Jury inquest and both criminal trials were easy to come by because, well, I found them. Actually read about them, in both of the excellent books about the fire that I ordered, as well as on Judy's site, so I can pretty well vouch for the accuracy of the trail information I posted...any mistakes are mine, probably out of either laziness or working on this thing after getting off of a midnight shift.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The two books I mentioned are <i>Tinderbox, </i>by Anthony P Hatch, and <i>Chicago Death Trap </i>by Nat Brandt...I literally kept both close at hand the entire time I was working on the post. I also kept Iroquoistheater.com conveniently open in another tab as I worked on this 'Epic Tome'.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I've prattled and pontificated far too much here, so, as always, hopefully I've made this an informative and interesting read...on to 'Notes!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Lets kick this off with the basic Iroquois Theater facts and figures...Iroquois 101 if you will.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The theater was located at 24-18 West Randolph Street, on a 'L' shaped double lot near the corner of Randolph and Dearborn Streets, in Chicago's legendary 'Loop'. It cost 1.1 Million dollars to build (<span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 244);">Just shy of </span><i><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 244);">30.5 million</span></i><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 244);"> in today's dollars), and had </span>17,430 square feet of floor space (stage: 5,790, foyer: 5,400, auditorium: 5,790)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As noted in the body of this post, it incorporated just about every piece of early 20th Century era high-tech convenience and safety equipment that existed at the time, very likely one of the first times this had been done in any building in the U.S. If all had gone as planned, the Iroquois would have been a benchmark to be emulated by builders world wide.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, as it turned out all of the convenience features (Elevator, electric lights) worked as planned..(Oh, wait, that <i>one</i> arc light)...And literally <i>none</i> of the safety features worked at all.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">If you take a look at The Brooklyn Theater Fire and The Iroquois Theater Fire side by side, so to speak, you realize there are an almost eerie number of parallels between the two (As well as a few triple-parallels between those two incidents and the Richmond Theater Fire). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Lets take a look at the things all three fires had in common first:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*All three occurred in December.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*All three were started by a piece of lighting equipment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*All three fires involved the fly gallery before extending into the auditorium.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*The greatest loss of life occurred in the balconies in all three.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*Almost everyone on the first level escaped in all three.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*Inadequate exits caused theater goers to become trapped in all three (This, BTW, is a factor in almost <i>every</i> major loss-of-life fire.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">And now for the factors common to both the Brooklyn Theater Fire and The Iroquois Theater Fire:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*Both theaters were considered to be the finest in their respective cities at the time they burned.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*Both fires were ignited by a piece of lighting equipment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*Both fires started on the Stage Right side of the stage.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*A curtain was the initial ignition point in both fires.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*The fire raced up the curtain into the fly gallery in both fires.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">*The stage crew unsuccessfully attempted to extinguish the fire it's the early </span></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">stages in both fires.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*The show's star tried to calm the crowd and convince them to remain in their seats in both.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*Firefighting equipment had either been removed or had never been installed in both fires.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*The stage door was opened during the fire, intensifying it exponentially, in both fires.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*The greatest loss of life occurred in the top-most balcony in both.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">While doing research for possible topics for this blog I was amazed as well as saddened at the number of major loss of life incidents that took place in December, a month that should be full of joy and merrymaking and fellowship. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">All three of the nation's worst theater fires (The Richmond, Brooklyn, and Iroquois theaters in Richmond,Va, Brooklyn, NY, and Chicago, Illinois) occurred during December, in the years 1811, 1876, and 1903 respectively. I counted nineteen major loss of life incidents between 1811 and 2000 in just the US, Canada, and the UK. This is j</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">ust major loss of life structure fires, by the way....such incidents as major transportation accidents, building collapses, etc aren't counted in that total, though there are a bunch of 'em. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">Granted I didn't go through and count those in the other months...I just went down a couple of pretty inclusive 'Lists of major building fires' and marked all of the December incidents. To be realistic, the total number of incidents is probably fairly evenly distributed among the 12 months, but December is, in my mind, the the most tragic month for any death, much less a catastrophic incident that takes dozens or hundreds of lives.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">We're also going to deal with a bit of long term controversy...or at least confusion...right out of the gate. Hard as it may be to believe, no one knows for sure just <i>how</i> many people were in the Iroquois when the fire started, nor are they absolutely sure exactly how many people died...this despite official records that allegedly nailed down both.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Before I start, I'm going to throw a quick little caveat in here...I've found three different sources that quote three different totals for the number of tickets that were actually sold for the fatal performance. Thankfully, one of them was the official figure, straight from the Coroners Jury Inquest, so that's the one I went with.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Depending on where you read it, and who you believe, there were as many as two thousand people attending the play...a full four hundred more than the theater's actual <i>seating</i> capacity, but not <i>legal</i> capacity. The Iroquois officially had a seating capacity of 1,606 (698 on the first level, 421 on the second level, 447 on the third level, and 32 in the box seats) plus standing-room for an additional 119, or about 40 standees along the back wall of each level if they were divided equally among the three levels of seating. If the theater had a legal, standing-room-only full house, there would have been 1725 tickets sold, and according to the transcript of William Noonan's testimony from the Coroner's Jury there were actually only 117 standing room tickets sold, for a total of 1723.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The ticket-bearers wouldn't have been the only ones in the audience, though. Eight employees of neighboring theaters were allowed in for free...we're up to 1733 in the audience. Another eighty...probably families of cast members...had free passes, for an official total of 1,811 in the audience...just under a hundred over legal capacity, and still <i>way</i> shy of the 2000 plus tickets that source after source <i>insists</i> were sold. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The ticket-holding standees weren't distributed equally, so we're not sure just <i>how</i> many people were on each level. If the transcript of the Coroners Jury Inquest are accurate, we <i>know</i> how many standing room tickets were sold (Or, at any rate, how many were recorded as sold)..117. But what we <i>don't</i> know for sure is which level twemty-one of them ended up watching the play...and attempting to escape...from. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">This is because there were actually two types of standing room tickets...one that allowed access to both the Parquet(First)level and Dress Circle, and the other, less expensive ticket that allowed access to only the Gallery. There were only 21 of the Parquet/Dress Circle Standing Room tickets sold, and 95 Gallery standing room tickets sold, putting an unknown exact total number of ticket bearing occupants on the theater's first two levels and 542 ticket-holders in the Gallery, so the Gallery could very well have been grossly over-crowded.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">And it gets worse...</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">I also have a feeling that </span><span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">those twenty one roving ticket holders weren't the </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">only</i><span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;"> standees on the first two levels. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">I can't see any of the owners/management of the Iroquois dedicating a block of 80 seats to </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">free</i><span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;"> passes, so we can just about bet that the 'Freebies' that were handed out were likely also standing-room passes, adding an additional eight-eight standees. Now we don't know where they were standing, but I'll also bet that as many as possible shoehorned themselves into the back of the Parquet level...it was the least crowded and had the best view of the stage. Those that couldn't fit on the Parquet level climbed the steps up to the Dress Circle.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">SO lets say that fifty of them stood at the rear of the Parquet level and another thirty-eight stood at the rear of the Dress Circle, with the twenty-one ticket-holding standees roving form the Parquet Level to the Dress Circle. That creates a level of overcrowding that wouldn't happen today, and <i>should</i> have even given fire marshals from that era gas, but still wasn't unsustainable in an emergency, assuming (And this is a <i>biggie!</i>) that all of the exits are functional, all of the safety equipment functions as designed, and panic is avoided.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">OF course, none of the safety equipment functioned at all, most of the exits <i>weren't</i> functional, and panic ran rampant, and this meant that even that lower official number of audience members made a difference in the fire's outcome. There were, potentially, between seventy and one hundred extra people per level trying to make it out of a very limited number of very small exits, making the fire's tragic aftermath all but inevitable.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But what if 2000 tickets actually <i>were </i>sold?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Two thousand tickets would have been <i>275</i> extra tickets...91 <i>additional</i> standees per level, plus the 'legal' standees for a potential total of 130 or so standees on each level (Ok, I got lazy and distributed them equally this time.). This is before the freebies are added, for another thirty, for possibly as many as <i>160</i> standees per level.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This would have redefined 'Unsafe', and definitely <i>shouldn't</i> have happened but it's <i>not</i> impossible. For this to have actually happened, though, the ticket sellers may have had to have gotten a bit creative. The ticket office was given instructions to 'Keep selling standing room tickets', possibly after the show was, legally, sold out. The problem facing the ticket-sellers, though, was that 'Sold Out means just that...there are no more tickets of <i>any</i> kind to be had.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">In order for the ticket sellers to abide by those 'Keep On Selling Tickets' instructions, they had to take money, then issue some kind of 'token'...perhaps a sheet torn from a notepad...as a substitute for a ticket stub. And it's a good bet that, if that was the case, the ticket takers in the lobby were issued instructions <i>not</i> to record the 'unofficial' tickets. The theater's management wouldn't have wanted a record of massive overcrowding to exist, no matter <i>how </i>corrupt Chicago's city government was. Many sources note that there were people standing/sitting in the aisles, so there could very well have been a grossly overcapacity crowd in the theater that day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But there could be another explanation for that 'Two Thousand Plus in the audience' figure...what if all of these sources confused the terms 'Occupants' and 'Audience'. There were people in the theater who actually <i>worked</i> there. And, even more importantly, numbers-wise, performed there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Iroquois had 30 employees inside the theater that night. That number was <i>dwarfed </i>by Mr Bluebeard's cast and crew, though...350 strong. Hmmm...350 plus 30 for 380...add that to 1723 legal ticket-holders and 88 freebies and pass-holders and we're up to 2166, or 166 <i>more</i> occupants than the universally claimed '2000 in the audience'.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">SO either way you look at the figures there were well more than 2000 people in The Iroquois when that arc light shorted out on Dec. 30, 1903. And at least 602 of them lost their lives. And that was beyond tragic no matter which figures you use.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Now for the death toll. The official figure's been 602 ever since a final toll was publicly released a couple of weeks after the fire. Problem is, no ones sure that's absolutely accurate.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Officially, 591 bodies were recovered from the theater the evening of the fire, and another eleven, according to the official death toll, died in hospitals over the next week or so. That should nail it down, right?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It <i>should</i>...and officially, it <i>does</i>, But the problem is, just about every agency that had anything what so ever to do with investigating the fire came up with a different total. That 'official' total is from the National Fire Protection Association, and is actually the highest of the numerous totals that various agencies came up with, with the lowest total coming from the <i>Chicago Daily News Almanac</i>. (475) while the Coroner's Office...who should have had the official, absolute, accurate total...listed just shy of a hundred more deaths (571).The Fire Department's total was 601...just one fewer than the NFPA's official total.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, just how did we come up with so many different totals? Could there, possibly, have been <i>errors</i> in counting the bodies?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh, yeah. Loads of them. Lets take a look at just <i>where</i> errors could have occurred, and most importantly, how probable it is...or isn't...that they <i>did </i>occur<i>.</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The first, and IMHO, most likely place that counting/logging errors could have been made was at the scene. Remember this was an intensely active and complicated incident scene, with <i>lots</i> going on. Bodies were being staged in two different places (Couch Place, at the rear of the theater, and Randolph Street, at the main entrance.) and I can't guarantee for sure that there was someone with a clipboard logging each and every one as it was removed, or that he manged to log each body as it came through the doors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then at least two totals had to be tallied and added (Couch Place Sector, and Randolph Street Sector). It would have been well into the Oh Dark Hundred phase of the operation by the time that tally was finalized. So, errors could have been made in tabulating, transcribing and logging, and a body or two or three may not have been logged before it was removed to one of the morgues.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But an error logging bodies at the scene, in theory, <i>should </i> have been caught later. The body count was actually made several times...at the scene as the bodies were removed and logged, at the various morgues as they were brought in, and by the coroner's office as burial permits were issued. Of course, the more times the bodies were counted, the more opportunities there were for error. Remember there were possibly as many as <i>thirty</i> funeral homes and morgues receiving bodies, each using their own system to log them in, and some handling more bodies in a single night than they usually handled in a year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Errors could have been, and in fact, most definitely <i>were</i> made in the process, compounding any errors made in the count at the scene. Numbers were probably inadvertently skipped, and just as likely (And in a couple of cases, confirmed) two bodies were assigned the same number.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">There were other types of logging errors, too. Some bodies were logged twice not because of a numbering error, but because of multiple possible spellings of the same name. In other cases, bodies were misidentified as theater-goers who later turned up very much alive, and the names weren't removed from the list.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then there are those who feel that there could be even more deaths than the official 602 because of unreported deaths, and it's possible...some parents found the bodies of their children, and removed them from the scene, very possibly before they were officially logged. Of course, then as now, there was a bureaucratic procedure that had to be followed before a body could be buried. A representative of the Coroner's Office first had to view the body and determine the official cause of death, then the family had to apply for a burial permit, which had to be approved before the family could take possession of the body for burial. The absolute only way such a death <i>might </i>go unrecorded is if the family buried their loved one in a private cemetery on their own property.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This process should even have cancelled out any skipped numbers, 'double numbering' or any other type of error at the morgues. If all was done properly, there would have been one burial permit for each body. The number of burial permits should have been the same as the official death toll.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It's pretty obvious, though, that errors <i>did</i> manage to slip through, and the multiple reported totals are proof. The body count kept changing...not always increasing, but actually see-sawing by ten or so deaths...daily for a week or so as errors were caught and corrected, which could well account for the many varying reported totals.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And, as I noted at the start of this note, we're <i>still</i> not absolutely sure exactly how many deaths the fire caused other than 'far, <i>far</i> too many.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">There are dozens of stories about parents struggling to find their children's bodies so they could take them home, but two stuck out to me, both of them among the many heartbreaking stories in <i>Tinderbox, </i>both of them confirmed (And made more accurate) by info from Judy Cooke's site<i>. </i>The first of the two proves that shoddy reporting by the media is most definitely not a new thing. The second proves that errors on recording did indeed happen...and this particular error lead to one of the most bazaar episodes to come out of an already profoundly tragic incident.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i>The first story involves Marshall-Fields employee Harry Blackman, who's 13 year old daughter Ethel had attended the play along with her younger brother and sister, the three of them accompanied by their Aunt Florence (Their Mom's sister). They were seated in the Dress Circle, and when the audience began evacuating, Florence herded the kids towards one of the fire escape doors. She and the two younger kids made it out and down, but Ethel got separated from them, and never made it out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Florence went to Marshal-Fields, where the kids' dad Harry Blackman was a freight manager, and informed him of the fire and the fact that Ethel was missing. After taking the younger kids home, Harry Blackburn, Florence, and Harry's brother in law William set out on that heart-rending search that multi-victim incidents subject parents and loved ones to to this very day, finally finding Ethel's body in the umpteenth morgue they searched.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Harry claimed his daughter's body only a few minutes before the morgue was to close for the night, and in one of the most heart-rending episodes among dozens of heart-rending episodes, Harry Blackman wrapped his daughter's body in a coat, hailed a cab and had the driver take them to the North-Western train depot at Wells and Kinzie Streets, where he caught a train back to their home town of Glenview, Ill, just north of Chicago...holding on to his daughter's body the entire ride. That's the kind of tale that puts your heart in a bench-vice and tightens it down about five turns. The family should have been allowed to grieve in peace...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And then the The Media got hold of the story...then as now, The Media just loved a sad story (They call them 'Public Interest Stories) because they bring more attention to that particular Media outlet. Today such a story boosts views and ratings. Back in 1903, a sad story sold more papers, and the tragic tale of Harry Blackman holding the blanket-wrapped body of his oldest daughter on that train ride ended up being one of the stories that the papers keyed in on (And, in fact, it ended up being the only 'Parent Finding Their Child's Body and Taking Him/Her Home' story that was covered in any detail.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It was bad enough that reporters hounded the family during what should have been a private time of mourning...then one of the most renowned newspapers in the country completely botched the story.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Chicago Inter-Ocean, a daily paper that was published from 1865 until 1914, got the story <i>mostly</i> right...they got the boy's name wrong, and added a bit of drama, but they got the gist of the story right, which means that one of the Inter-Ocean's reporters apparently actually made the 18 mile train ride to Glenview, searched out the Blackmans, and interviewed <i>someone </i>(Right in the middle of one of the saddest, most private times a family can experience) in order to get (Most of) the facts right. And all of this was done, very likely, on New Years Eve...the day after the fire, because the Inter-Ocean published the story on Jan 1, 1904...two days after the fire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The legendary Chicago Tribune, however, apparently didn't bother to do <i>any</i> research of <i>any</i> kind, because when they covered the story on Jan 3rd, a full four days after the fire, they only got two things right...there was a fire and a young girl lost her life in it. Note I didn't say Ethel Blackman, because that's one of the things The Trib. got wrong...they got her first name wrong, printing it as 'Edith' rather than 'Ethel, then printed the family's last name as 'Blackburn' instead of 'Blackman. While they were at it, they also listed her age as 17 rather than 13</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They also got her dad's first name wrong, printing it as 'James' rather than 'Harry' and apparently made the story up as they went because the story printed in the Trib...which reported that Ethel attended the play with her dad, who escaped, then went back in the burning theater and found his daughter's body, removed it from the theater, and took it home...bore absolutely <i>no</i> resemblance what so ever to what really happened.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Ironically, The Trib's shoddy reporting and unintentionally fictionalized version of the Blackman Family's tragedy very likely <i>finally</i> gave them a bit of privacy simply because, by mis-identifying the family, they hid them in plain sight. Think about it...anyone asking where 'James Blackburn' lived would simply be met with blank stares.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This shoddy reporting even had an effect on modern literature. In one pretty well known book about the fire, the author was limited to the resources he could find at the time he was working on the book. And he apparently grabbed the tragic story of 'James and Edith Blackburn' from the Trib's archives, and published it, just about error-filled word for error-filled word.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">In the second story of relatives searching for loved ones, things took a turn towards the shady, and down right weird.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Thirty two year old LuLu Greenwald and thirty five year old Mathilda Goss were likely neighbors and possibly what's referred to today as 'BFF's, and their kids...Ten year old Leroy Greenwald and the Goss Sisters, thirteen year old Verona and five year old Helen, likely played together regularly. Their moms decided to give them a treat for Christmas...a trip into Chicago to see <i>Mr Bluebeard </i>at the city's newest and coolest theater..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Getting glammed up and blinged out when you go out is <i>not</i> a new-age thing BTW...people have been doing it for centuries, and LuLu Greenwald loaded herself down with bling for the trip, to the tune of $1000 worth of jewelry (That'd be just over 27.5 Grand worth of jewelry today, folks).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The two Goss sisters made it out, but sadly, LuLu and Leroy Greenwald and Mathilda Goss all died in the fire. Mathilda's body was identified the next day. LuLu and Leroy were still missing six days later, leading their husband and father, Frank Greenwald, to hope they were in a coma, and therefore unidentified, in one of Chicago's numerous hospitals, or possibly under a doctors care in the home of a charitable stranger. Pleas for any such person to come forward were made in the Chicago papers, giving one very identifiable feature shared by both mother and son as an identifying feature. Both had a pair of syndactyly (Webbed) toes on one foot.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">What had <i>actually</i> happened was even stranger. First, Leroy's body was misidentified, and claimed by another family, who buried the child, thinking they were burying their own son. That's horrible enough, for <i>both</i> families. But it got worse.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then, someone apparently found out that <i>another</i> victim's body had a large sum of money on it, intentionally misidentified both that body <i>and</i> LuLu's body as that of a relative who didn't even exist, tried (And failed) to take possession of the first body in order to get hold of the money, then claimed and buried LuLu's body as his nonexistent relative so he could cover the theft attempt. Or maybe take possession of all that jewelry. Or maybe even <i>both.</i> Told ya it was gonna get weird. And shady.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">That 'someone' was one John Mahnken, a con man of some (ill) repute who, by means to this day unknown, had discovered that the body of fifty-nine year old Emelia Mueller been brought to Jordan's Funeral Home with $500...that'd be 12 grand and change today...on her person. Her body had yet to be identified or claimed, and had simply been issued the number '34'. And here's where the logging errors I noted earlier come in, because LuLu Greenwald's body was <i>also</i> issued the number '34'.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Now, apparently Mahnken knew nothing of the jewelry that LuLu's body had come in with, but he was determined that he would get the $500 that Emelia Mueller's body had on it. Mahnken quickly claimed 'Body Number 34', identifying it as his fictitious fifty year old Canadian aunt Elizabeth Kouth, He was issued a burial permit for Body number 34, then went to a Dearborn Street storefront that had been set up as a collection point and claim center for personal belongings...where he claimed neither money <i>or</i> jewelry, though he did obtain the services of undertaker Bernard E. Arntzen, proprietor of Arntzen's Funeral Chapel, to bury his fictitious aunt, promising to pay when he met up with, er, <i>other</i> wealthy relatives. He was apparently planning to take possession of Emelia Mueller's body, also taking possession of the $500 when he did so, but he never got the chance. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />While Mahnken was setting up the theft, Emelia Mueller's <i>actual</i> relatives claimed both her body <i>and</i> the money...and the reason that the double claim wasn't caught, very likely, was because there were <i>two</i> Body #34s. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Mahnken found out that his 'Aunt Elizabeth's' body had been claimed by Emelia Mueller's real family, and, nonplussed, he snagged both a loan and a ride back to Jordan's from Arntzen, where he promptly claimed LuLu Greenwald's body. Arntzen then removed the body from Jordan's, and took it to his own facility, embalmed, and buried it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />My question here is why did Mahnken even bother with doing that...he , IMHO, would have been better off to cut his losses and go anywhere that <i>wasn't</i> Chicago for awhile, because he'd been all but busted. Unless he was, indeed, trying to claim LuLu Greeenwald's jewelry, which no one knows what became of all of to this day, though though it is known that she was buried still wearing two of the four rings she'd been wearing. All of the other jewelry...a solitaire diamond ring, a wedding band, a ring bearing a ruby surrounded by diamonds and a ring with twenty stones including diamonds, emeralds and opal, along with a sunburst broach with an amethyst in the center...disappeared. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><i>Still </i>yearning for that $500, Mahnken would contact Arnbtzen's lawyer and try to persuade him to compel the Muellers to turn over the 500 dollars to him by convincing them that <i>they</i> had buried the wrong body...an attempt that only managed to <i>(Finally!)</i> make Arntzen and his attorney begin to smell a rat, especially when Mahnken could give no details of where his aunt had been staying. Mahnken apparently <i>finally</i> decided it was time to quit Chicago...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Meanwhile, as all of this was going down, Frank Greenwald was enduring a sad, traumatic, search for the bodies of his wife and son, a trauma the likes of which <i>no one</i> should ever have to endure. He did his own detective work, and pretty decent detecting it must have been because it led him to the Muellers, Arntzen, and his attorney. Stories were exchanged and checked out, 'Aunt Elizabeth' was disinterred, and a check of her toes confirmed her identity.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />But what about Leroy. His body was easier to find, but it's disappearance and rediscovery just added another layer of bizarre to the whole situation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Leroy's disappearance was a case of a legitimate and honest mistake. His body had been trampled badly, to the point that it was unrecognizable, as had the body of another boy his age...Norman Corbin...and both boys were apparently wearing similar clothing, because Norman's uncle identified Leroy's body as that of his nephew. Leroy was interred...as Norman...in a family vault at Mt Hope Cemetery.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Descriptions of missing bodies were being published in the Chicago papers, and Norman's uncle read Leroy's clothing description, and realized how similar that description was to the clothing his nephew had been wearing, and thought '...Ya don't think???' It bugged him enough that he contacted the proper authorities, who contacted Frank Greenwald. Leroy's body was disinterred, and a check of his toes proved that he was, in fact, Leroy and not Norman. The Corbins went in another search for Norman, finding his body at the same morgue where they had misidentified Leroy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Frank Greenwald <i>finally</i> got to bury his wife and son on Feb. 13,1904, a month and a half after the fire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />OK, I know...you're not going to let me finish this up without letting you know what happened to Mahnken. CPD's assistant chief, a pretty decent cop, apparently, named Scheuttler, made it his pet project. He tracked down Mahnken, and nabbed him with a classic switch and bait by sending a general delivery letter to him, and waiting for him to pick it up at the post office, where he was, as today's media outlets would report 'Apprehended without resistance'.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Upon being questioned, Mahnken gave them a convoluted (And patently false) story about crooked doctors and will-invoking drugs, and a doctor George something or other who injected him with the afore mentioned drug, oh and by the way, he had a wife and hungry children back in New York who he committed the crime to feed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">No one believed any of it (Though there <i>was</i> a crooked M.D....he just wasn't connected to <i>this</i> particular plot, other than being known to Mahnken, apparently thereby inspiring the creation of Dr. G. Somethingortheother.). Mahnken even provided addresses for the good Doctor...one of which was a public school, with any others being equally bogus. NYPD even watched Mahnken's house, hoping the elusive Dr G.S. would show up. Needless to say, he never did.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mahnken ended up standing trial charged with perjury and being convicted....and after that the trail hits a sheer cliff...there is no info about a sentence, or anything else that may have happened to him.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As for what <i>should</i> have happened to him for what he put Frank Greenwald through, I believe it would be considered unconstitutional on the grounds of cruel and unusual punishment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Those infernal accordion gates!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The accordion gates. No one knows for sure just exactly where the things were, but you can see here that they were on a 90 degree stairway landing, and the 'hanging landing' between the Gallery and Dress Circle is the only place I could see where one of those existed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Where ever they were, given enough time, one or two people at a time could have gotten around the gates by lowering themselves from the flight of steps above the gates to the one below them. In a panic situation with hundred of people trying to get out as the building filled with smoke, however, those gates <i>should</i> have just created another pinch-point where hundreds of bodies were found...but they didn't.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">While a few bodies were found near the gates, most of the Gallery occupants who died did so long before they made it to the gates.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As I noted in the body of the post, accordion gates...a more ornate version of the exact same type of gate that closes off school corridors during high school and middle school basketball games and Drama Club plays to this very day...were locked across stairway landings between the Gallery and Dress Circle after the performance started to keep people from scoring better (and more expensive) seats than they paid for. These gates actually didn't end up being as big a factor in the death toll as you might think because just about everyone who died did so before they could even get that far.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">These gates <i>do </i>raise a pretty frustrating issue for history buffs and historians wanting to accurately document the fire, though. You see, <i>no</i> one can figure out where the things were. Everyone who's got an interest in the fire has their own ideas as to where they were, but, even though there are photos of the <i>gates</i> themselves, there are <i>no</i> photos showing the exactly where they were located.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">There seem to be two favorite trains of thought as to where they were, though.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">One theory...and the one I like best...is that they were on either side of the hanging landing between the Dress Circle and the Gallery. This would make sense considering that the reason the gates were there in the first place was to keep the people in the gallery from grabbing better seats in either the Dress Circle or the Orchestra section. Also, if you look at the first pic, you can see that the gates were closed across a 180 stairway landing, and the hanging landing is the only place I can see in any of the pics of the lobby where such a landing existed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This pic of the lobby illustrates the two favorite theories on where the accordion gates were. The two red circled locations are on the 'hanging landing' between the Gallery and Dress Circle. The blue circles are the entrances to the stairway leading down form the Gallery. Speaking of those blue circles, t</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">he artist actually got one thing wrong . The two stairways leading <i>up </i>from the gallery stairway entrances<i> </i>didn't exist in reality, which makes the hanging landing even <i>more</i> probable as the location of the gates..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Theory two is that the gates were on the third floor promenade, closed across the top landing of the stairway coming up from the hanging landing, but I have a problem with that theory...there is no 180 degree landing there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">No matter where the gates were, it begs the answer to an important question. While a great majority of the people in the Gallery died, quite a few...somewhere around 220 people...<i>did </i> make it out. With the gates blocking the stairs, where ever they may have been, how did the people who made it out get past the gates?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Ok, forty of the Gallery survivors were rescued over the plank bridge, and a very few, likely following the lead of Harriet Bray and her dad, may have jumped from the lowest part of the Gallery fire escape onto Couch Place, but this still leaves somewhere between 160 and 180 survivors from the third floor. So, how did they get out over those gates?.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It wasn't impossible to get around them...if you weren't being pushed by a couple of hundred panicking people while you yourself were panicking as the building filled with smoke. All you had to do was climb over the stairway banister just above the gate and lower your self to the flight of steps just below the gate. This would require some physical agility and, most importantly, time, but it was possible...for one or two people at a time. But <i>180</i> people trying to climb around those gates while in a blind panic as the building filled with smoke would have lead to a <i>huge</i> jam-up, resulting in dozens of bodies piled up at the gates, just as had happened at several Dress Circle and Gallery exits. Thing is, not only did that <i>not</i> happen, in actuality, very few bodies were actually found at the accordion gates.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">There was another promenade on the west side of the theater that basically mirrored the more infamous east side promenade, right down to having a stairway on the end nearest the front...but that stairway, according to floor plans of the theater, seemingly ended in an alcove behind the ticket offices, where anyone using it would have found another, very likely, locked door.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Could some people have made it out of that door? Certainly. They wouldn't have faced the same problem as the Strong party as they would have been below the smoke at the bottom of the stairway. <i>But </i>(there always seems to be one of those) there are no actual reports of anyone making it out that way, and I'm not even absolutely certain that the west side stairway actually led directly from the west side promenade to the first floor in the first place.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So that's yet <i>another</i> mystery about this fire that just <i>might</i> go unsolved.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">What we <i>do </i>know is that, while over half of the fatalities came from the Gallery, two hundred and twenty or so people <i>did </i>somehow make out of that Hell-on-Earth alive. and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, had they not done so, the death toll would have been even more horrific than it already was.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">While the number of deaths at the Iroquois was absolutely horrific, there <i>were</i> several miraculous escapes as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;">If the story of their rescue is accurate, a young lady named Ruthie Thomson...the daughter of Thompson's Restaurant owner John Thompson...along with one of her aunts and her grandfather, came with-in seconds of being </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>under</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> that massive pile of burning scenery when they, somehow, exited through the scenery door. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;">They were attending the play, along with another of Ruthie's aunts and her little brother, and were seated on the theater's first level, near the front of the orchestra section. The Thompsons remained seated when Eddie Foy begged the audience to do </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>just </i></span><span style="color: #222222;">that...at least until the stage became fully involved, the fire curtain hadn't dropped yet, and it became obvious that the fire was beyond any hope of control. They decided the time had come to leave the building at about the same instant as everyone else in the theater, and were instantly caught in the crush as the audience went into panic mode. The Thompson clan immediately became separated.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /> One of Ruthie's aunts tried to hang on to Ruthie, but lost her grip to be swept towards the parquet level exit by the terrified throng of terror-driven theater goers. She managed to make it out of the auditorium into the lobby, and exited through the main entrance, convinced that she had lost her niece forever. Ruthie's little brother was picked up by someone and passed, from person to person, over the heads of the crowd until he, too, made it out of the main entrance.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Meanwhile Ruthie glanced around madly, looking for one of her aunts or grandfather as she, too was swept along...then she stumbled and almost fell. All she remembered about the next couple of minutes was someone picking her up, then seeing 'What looked like black cloth rolling above her (Obviously the heavy smoke rolling from the backstage area,) and the next thing she remembered was being outside, behind the theater, where she hid beneath the scenery entrance loading dock until someone found her and carried her over to her dad's restaurant, where she was soon joined by the rest of her family. One of her aunts and her grandfather (Who was found with the spectators in Couch Place, watching the firefighting efforts.) also escaped through the scenery door. They were later joined by her other aunt and her crowd-surfing little brother. All made it out unscathed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /> To be honest, I think Ruthie was carried out of the Couch Place stage door...the 'Wicket Door' that was embedded in the scenery door...well before the backdraft occurred and the burning scenery fell. But, if Ruthie </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>was</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> carried out of the scenery door itself, after it was opened, she, along with her unknown rescuer, missed being in the middle of the backdraft by mere seconds, as did her grandfather...and if that </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>is </i></span><span style="color: #222222;">how it happened it was one of the few instances of </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>good</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> timing that entire night.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Personally, I have no idea if that's the way she actually got out of the theater...but the important thing is that she, along with the rest of her family, <i>did</i> make it out, and her dad...who, after being told she was missing and was convinced that he'd lost her, got his own miracle when he found her in his office, none the worse for the wear.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />There was at least one other miraculous escape...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Nineteen year old Emil Von Plachecki was seated in the rear of the gallery, and decided the time to leave had come as the smoke grew heavier and the temperature rose past the 'Bake-Broil' range. From all accounts he made it out of the Gallery just as or much more likely, just before the backdraft occurred. He managed to bull his way through one of the exits only, like James Strong, to find the stairways blocked by accordion gates. Earlier, he had visited one of the washrooms...on the promenade, near the front of the theater...and remembered that there were skylights in the washroom ceilings.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />He ran down the east side promenade...the same one used by James Strong and Party...even as smoke rolled from the Gallery and Dress Circle exits, rapidly filling the upper part of the theater with heat and smoke, visibility and breathing both worsening by the second. He made it to the restroom on the east side...very near where the Strong party was dying in the utility stairwell...pushed inside, and found it, thanks to it's heavy door, relatively smoke free. The skylight was operated by a heavy cord so, with no ladder available, he probably climbed up on a sink, then grabbed the cord and pulled himself up, hand over hand, seventeen feet until he reached the skylight. With no other tools to break it, he hung on for dear life with his left hand, made a fist with his right, and punched through the glass (Cutting himself badly in the process). Then he pulled the rest of the glass from the frame, and pulled himself onto the roof, where he made his way to an adjoining roof (Either the Delaware Building or, most likely, Thompson's Restaurant...no one's sure which) and made his way to the ground via a fire escape. Once down he was taken to a nearby drug store for treatment of both the burns he'd received as he raced the fireball, and the cuts he received taking out the skylight.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">While we're on the subject of John Thompson and Thompson's Restaurant, let's take a quick look at that restaurant chain, and more specifically, the Randolph Street location's role in the fire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">...John Thompson owned an extremely popular chain of lunchrooms in Chicago, with dozens of locations, one of which was right next to the Iroquois. Lunchrooms were the great-great-grandfather of today's fast food restaurants, serving up sandwiches such as hot tongue, cold ham and cheese, and the ever popular 'Frankfurter', and was just the kind of place theater-goers would hit to grab a bite to eat before or after a performance. All of the locations were clean, well run, and served good food with good service, making them extremely popular.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I'm not sure if the Randolph Street Thompson's was the firm's headquarters or not, or if John Thompson just happened to be there because his kids and sister/sister-in-law were attending <i>Mr Bluebeard, </i>but he was indeed there when the fire started, and even as he worried about his kids, he quickly went into action, turning Thompson's into a first aid station/triage area. OK, true Triage hadn't actually been developed yet, nor would it be for decades, but Triage of a sort was indeed taking place as several medical students from a nearby teaching hospital were brought to the restaurant, and began treating patients, and sending the worst injured to hospitals. Yeah, that pretty much sounds like the Webster's Definition of Triage to me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Once all of the living patients were cared for and cleared out, it became a morgue as some of the bodies lined up outside were brought inside the building. I also have a feeling that, late in the operation, the restaurant also became the Fire/Police Command Post, simply because it was warm, had food, and most importantly, hot coffee inside...remember, temps were hovering right around 0 degrees Fahrenheit during the fire...and it also very likely served as a forerunner of what we'd call 'Rehab' today as firefighters ducked inside for a few minutes to warm up for the exact same reason.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">By the next day, it had been cleaned up and had reverted to being a restaurant, very likely serving lunches to the army of investigators who descended upon the Iroquois.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">What of the restaurant chain itself? It became one of the largest early restaurant chains with well over a hundred locations in Chicago, New York City, and even up into Canada. The chain would run into controversy in the mid twentieth century for refusing to serve Afro-Americans, finding itself the subject of more than a few lawsuits over this policy, including one fairly well known...in legal circles anyway... Washington D.C. case that went all of the way to the Supreme Court, which found for the plaintiffs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Thompson's bought several other chains and was bought several times themselves before fading away.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> </span><a href="https://restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/2010/06/10/early-chains-john-r-thompson/">They have a pretty fascinating history</a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">, even </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>without</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> their connection to the fire. Go take a look!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">One of the best known stories from the fire is the oft-related tale of Eddie Foy staying on stage and trying to calm the audience until after the scenery fell. There's a reason that I referred to the story as a 'Tale'. I think that just may be what it was.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to cast any shade on Eddie Foy. He very probably <i>did</i> try to calm the audience, and likely stayed until he decided that he needed to get out of the building lest he leave his son...who he also rescued as you may recall...fatherless and his wife a widow. But you guys know I'm not going to just leave it at that.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">First let me give you guys my reasoning on <i>why </i>I think he was out of the theater well before the scenery collapse...short form, if he hadn't been, he would have ended up being one of the fatalities because he would <i>not</i> have made it out of the theater. In fact, I don't think he would have survived the fireball.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222;">If he had still been on stage when the backdraft occurred, if the fireball hadn't gotten him, the falling, burning fire curtain would have. First, the fireball. It was as wide as the stage when it blew out of the proscenium arch, and was moving </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>fast. </i></span><span style="color: #222222;">There would have been no Hollywoodesque diving out of its way or diving into the orchestra pit to get under it as it rolled upward because it would have been on top of him before he could even begin to </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>consider</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> trying to dodge it. Before anyone quotes certain laws of physics at me, while it's true that the fireball rolled upward as soon as it was clear of the arch, it was still generating more than enough radiant heat to set his clothes on fire. Had Eddie Foy been on stage he would have almost definitely burned to death. And he would have actually had </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>two</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> chances to do so...remember the 'fire curtain'?</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: #222222;">An instant after getting hit by the fireball, the fire curtain lit up and fell, and when it fell, it would have fallen on top of him, burying him under many square yards of burning cloth. It fell before the scenery collapsed, so he would have had to have been missed by the fireball, dodged the falling, burning curtain, stayed on stage long enough not to be caught under the collapsing scenery, and </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>then </i></span><span style="color: #222222;">made it back stage and out.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: #222222;">But for the sake of argument, lets say he </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>did</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> manage to get under the fireball. Dodging that burning curtain would be the next problem...the thing was </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>huge</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"> and there is no way he could have dodged it. He would have, at the least, been seriously and probably fatally burned when it fell on him.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But let's say, for the sake of that same argument, he <i>did</i> manage, somehow, to dodge both the fireball <i>and</i> the curtain. Then we have problem three. He wouldn't have hung around on stage. He would have made a bee-line for a stage door. Just about the time the scenery collapsed. Putting him under tons of burning, falling scenery. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ok, we can explain that one away, somewhat...let's say the curtain lighting off and burning, and the scenery collapse happened all but simultaneously (Which isn't at all improbable).</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So he got under the fireball, dodged the curtain and wasn't under the collapse...how would he have made it to either stage door to get out after the collapse?</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If the collapse took out the switchboard, it's just about a sure bet that it also blocked the Dearborn Street stage door. This would have been a <i>huge</i> pile of burning debris, already nearly the size of the backstage area itself, and it would have 'pancaked' a bit when it struck the stage<i>, </i>the bottom of the pile spreading so it <i>did</i> cover the entire back stage floor area.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.And it would have been burning.. While the collapse partially snuffed out the burning scenery flats...that's just it, it only partially snuffed it out. There was still a good bit of fire, much of it was just temporarily buried, which meant that the pile of collapsed scenery (Like the pile of leaves I discussed to demonstrate the 'Snuffed itself out' concept) would have been pumping heavy, dense smoke and extreme heat out into the back stage area like nobody's business.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Eddie would have had to have worked his way around and through all of the burning debris on stage, and made it to the scenery door.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Possible...remotely.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Likely...not so much.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We'll never know exactly what <i>did</i> happened, of course, but my bet's that Eddie Foy was outside of the theater before the backdraft occurred. He was very likely on stage, trying to calm the crowd for a while, but I have a feeling that, when the curtain jammed, he ducked under it and made a run for one of the stage doors. If he was on the Stage right side, and I believe he was from the descriptions I've read, he likely headed for the then still unblocked Dearborn Street door.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The thing is, the story didn't </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">need</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> to be exaggerated, because staying on stage any length of time after the fire hit the fly galleries required some </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">serious</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> cojones. And Eddie </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">did</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> do some good, or at least tried. Besides calming the audience, he had the orchestra conductor rally the musicians who hadn't bailed and get some calming music going, and he tried to get the fire curtain (Useless as it ended up being,, but he had no way to know that) lowered. SO, truthfully, the story didn't need to be puffed up for Foy to be portrayed as a hero. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Of course, he actually <i>wasn't </i>the only person trying to calm the audience. Several people hung back for several minutes in an effort to calm the audience and get the fire curtain lowered. The others, though, were described by Audience members as 'workers. AKA 'Stagehands' . Due to the fact that Foy was in costume and the star of the show, he was just the most memorable. And when then story was retold and re-re-told, the others on stage got left out, very possibly for the sake of simplifying the telling of the story.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The reason Eddie Foy's role in the fire got puffed up is the very same reason that the tabloids love to ...er...exaggerate stories about <i>today's</i> celebs. The fans and the public love a good story. Whether it's true or not. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Another big factor in the story's likely exaggeration is equally likely the fact that it would sell more papers. Eddie Foy's fans <i>wanted</i> to believe that he was the hero of the night. He was one of the most popular actors of that era, and had a <i>huge </i>and <i>rabid</i> fan following, and, with the above fact in mind, the story of Eddie Foy <i>initially</i> staying on stage got grabbed by the media, and as the story was retold he became the <i>only</i> person who was trying to calm the audience, and as the tale spread, he was on stage longer and longer, until he basically became all but super-human in the eyes of his fans.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Media took the 'Eddie Foy As Superhero' version of the story and ran with it, and his fans ate it up. As Judy Cook noted in one of the E-mails we exchanged as I was researching this post, <span style="color: black;"> Foy was so beloved in Chicago that, had he claimed to have put out the fire by spitting on it, they’d have given him the benefit of the doubt.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And this, of course, is the version of the story that's been told for 115 years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">A(nother) quick word or two about the 'Fire Curtain'. To me that thing <i>really</i> represents both the corruption and incompetence that hung over the fire like a second pall of toxic smoke. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The curtain may have worsened the death toll (I can hear everyone going 'No DUHH, Rob), but <i>not </i>in the way you're thinking. That curtain's the reason why Eddie Foy and several of the stage crew were trying, at first, to persuade the audience to stay in their seats.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They were convinced that the curtain was a legitimate, wire reinforced, mostly asbestos fire curtain, and that if they could get it lowered it would hold the fire back stage and make evacuating the theater a simple matter of walking out of the doors. And, had the thing been a real fire curtain, and had it been lowered successfully in the first minutes of the fire, they just may have been right.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This very understandable belief that the curtain was the real thing probably lulled them into a false sense of security (All we gotta do is lower the fire curtain and we're good to go...) in those critical first five or so minutes of the fire, when what <i>should </i>have been happening was some serious theater evacuation. You know, actual, calm evacuation rather than the panicked kind that tramples people and piles bodies to the top of door frames.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">We'll look briefly at three possible scenarios.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(1) The curtain isn't lowered but the evacuation starts <i>immediately</i> after the fire starts.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(2) The bogus fire curtain is lowered successfully early in the fire, and</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(3) A legitimate fire curtain was lowered early in the fire.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">(1) If someone had told the crowd that there was a 'problem' back stage immediately after the fire started, and that everyone needed to leave calmly, more people would have definitely made it out, even without the fire curtain being lowered...but it would have still been bad.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By the time smoke began entering the auditorium several minutes into the fire, the evacuation would have been well under way, and the main exits of the Dress Circle would have probably been opened correctly, so both the Orchestra and Dress Circle would have likely been nearly completely evacuated.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">More people would have made it out of the Gallery, but, unfortunately, would have <i>still</i> found themselves trapped on the promenades by the accordion gates. Sadly, the same people who were trapped on the Gallery fire escape, would have still been trapped there by the frozen lower fire escape section, so when the backdraft occurred, the horror that occurred on the promenades and in Couch Place would have still happened just as it did anyhow. So there would have <i>still</i> been a horrendous death toll, but it wouldn't have been as high as the deaths would have probably been confined to Gallery occupants.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">(2) What if the curtain that they <i>did </i> have hadn't jammed, and had been lowered early in the fire?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />I think even if they had successfully gotten the bogus 'fire curtain' lowered in the first couple of minutes of the fire it would have made a difference. It would have bought the audience a critical five or so minutes by greatly reducing the amount of smoke in the galleries, allowing an orderly evacuation to be well under way by the time the back draft occurred. The Orchestra Level and <i>maybe</i> the Dress Circle would have been evacuated, if they were able to get that deadly main Dress Circle exit opened.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, the backdraft would have still probably occurred, and when it did, the 'fire curtain' would have still burned through just as quickly...the fireball would have rolled into the auditorium a split second later than it did anyhow, which wouldn't have made a bit of difference to the people who would have been trapped on the Gallery promenades and fire escapes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So there would have <i>still </i>been a horrendous death toll.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">(3) What if that fire curtain <i>had</i> been the real thing?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Lets say that all of the other hazards <i>except</i> the fire curtain existed just as they did anyhow, and the fire curtain <i>was</i> the real thing. An actual, legitimate, wire reinforced fire curtain would've blocked smoke from entering the auditorium. The evacuation of the orchestra level would have been a calm, ordered affair without trampled victims and separated families. Up in the Dress Circle the audience would have had time to get the main exit opened properly. In the Gallery, someone <i>may</i> have even remembered that the accordion gates needed to be unlocked, allowing the Gallery occupants to just walk down the two grand stairways. In short, almost everyone would have probably made it out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">A legitimate fire curtain <i>may</i> have even held when the backdraft occurred. And, yes, I think the backdraft <i>would </i> have still occurred, if not because of someone opening the scenery door, when the glass skylights finally blew from the heat (I'm actually amazed that this didn't happen fairly early in the fire anyway.).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Conditions back stage would have been just as bad if not worse...the smoke would have mushroomed all of the way to the floor of the stage much more quickly rather then venting out of the proscenium arch and into the theater...and the stage crew and actors would have been just as panicked, so there would have possibly been <i>more</i> deaths among the performers and crew. The burning scenery flats, of course, would have still fallen once the ropes holding them burned through.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, the curtain they <i>did</i> have was a useless sheet of wood pulp-derived cloth with a few threads of asbestos fiber sewn in so they could use the word 'asbestos' in advertising the theaters safety features (Wouldn't want any false advertising!). Then the thing jammed when they finally lowered it, rendering it even more useless than it already was.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And, because of that useless fire curtain, Eddie Foy and the stage hands who were begging the audience to stay as they tried to get the fire curtain lowered were actually unknowingly signing their collective death warrants.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Memorial-wise, it's hard to beat the one erected for the victims of <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-richmond-theater-fire-americas.html">The Richmond Theater Fire</a>...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">They, after all, got an entire church, erected on the site of the fire, with the majority of the victims interred in a brick crypt in the church basement.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The memorial to the Iroquois fire victims came <i>close, </i>however...they got a hospital. Only thing is, that memorial no longer exists and has been all but completely forgotten.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The idea to erect some kind of memorial to the those who died in the fire likely took root before all of the victims were buried, but I found absolutely no record of how the idea came to be, nor how the decision 'Let's build a hospital!' was made. In fact, I found very little about the hospital itself...the absolute <i>only</i> places I found <i>anything</i> about the hospital, in fact, was at Judy Cook's site, and at chicagology.com, where some of the newspaper stories related to the fire were detailed..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Robert T Crane, who lost two cousins in the fire, headed up the hospital's board, and Maude Jackson, who lost her daughter Viva in the fire, then had her testimony in the second criminal trial interrupted by the defense objection that ended the case, was named as head of the hospital's women;''s and Children's department.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Construction on Iroquois Memorial Hospital probably started about six years after the fire, because the hospital was opened at 87 Market Street...today's East Wacker Drive... in 1910, and was officially dedicated and turned over to the city's Health Commissioner in December of that same year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It was a four story, 60 bed hospital, and was small for a hospital building, reassuring only 81' by 20 ', with the first floor used as an ambulance station. the second floor as a dispensary, and the third floor dedicated to what would today be called the surgical suite. The 60 patient beds were likely in a pair of big multi-bed wards on the top floor...one for men, one for women.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">This building at 87 Market Street...Today's East Wacker Drive...housed the Iroquois Memorial Hospital.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The hospital was conceived and built as an 'Emergency Hospital' to treat accident victims in Chicago's legendary 'Loop', and was used in this capacity for just over twenty years, and it was a <i>busy</i> place during that two decades and change. It's biggest claim to fame was treating 250 patients from yet another infamous Chicago disaster....the <i>Eastland</i> disaster in 1918 (And yep I plan to cover that one, too), but it also treated a cornucopia of injuries and ailments before being converted to a tuberculosis sanitarium in the mid 1930s..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The TB Sanitarium was closed after WW II, and the building sat empty until 1951, when it was torn down. Today, if you look at a Street View of that stretch of E.Wacker Drive, you cant's see a building under about twenty stories anywhere...not s single solitary sign that the hospital ever existed...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But that's not <i>quite</i> the end of the story...when the hospital was dedicated in 1910, a six foot high Bass Relief bronze tablet, designed by Loredo Taft, was also dedicated, to be mounted in the Hospital waiting room.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The tablet was still there in 1951, when the hospital was demolished, and as the building was still owned by the city of Chicago, they city took possession of the tablet...and immediately lost it. Or at least forgot about it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The tablet was rediscovered in the basement of City Hall decades later, cleaned up, and remounted on the wall of the LaSalle Street entrance to City Hall, where it still is, thankfully accompanied by an eye-level plaque inscribed with an explanation of the tablet's context and a memorial to the fire's victims.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The bronze memorial tablet that was placed in the hospital's waiting room, designed by Loredo Taft, was removed from the hospital in 1951, when it was torn down, and put in the basement of Chicago City Hall, where it sat, unnoticed for decades, before being rediscovered and mounted on the wall above City Hall's LaSalle Street Entrance. Then it sat unlabeled for a good while until the Chicago Union League commissioned the plaque seen here was mounted below it, at eye level, inscribed with an explanation of the tablet's context and a memorial to the fire's victims.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">With the exception of the hospital, no major memorial has ever been erected. The Iroquois Memorial Association...which was formed to provide relief to those who'd lost loved ones as well as survivors...erected a small diamond-shaped monument in Chicago's Montrose Cemetery in 1908, and a small brass plaque was placed in the lobby of an office building near the theater, only to disappear when the building was torn down many years later.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The small memorial in Chicago's Montrose Cemetery was erected and dedicated the the fire victims in 1908...it still stands at the cemetery, which is located at 5400 N. Pulaski Rd in Chicago</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Iroquois Memorial Hospital tablet at Chicago City Hall and the small monument in Montrose Cemetery are the only marked monuments of any kind left. Unfortunately, the great majority of people entering Chicago's City Hall are too busy to even notice either the tablet or it's explanatory plaque, and you pretty much have to know about the small monument in Montrose Cemetery to find it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">While we're on the subject of hospitals, The Iroquois Theater fire has a connection to a modern entertainment phenomenon, though, admittedly it's a pretty weak one.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">One of the hospitals that received the injured and dead from the theater was Cook County Hospital...the very same teaching hospital that (In more modern form, of course) the fictional County General Hospital in the long running medical drama ER was based on.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Oriental Theater was incorporated into the Masonic Temple's story United Masonic Temple Building in 1924, when that building replaced the former Iroquois as well as most of the rest of the North side of West Randolph Street's '10' Block. The new United Masonic Temple Building itself replaced the Masonic Lodge's ornate 21 story tower at Randolph and State Streets, which was built in 1892, and was Chicago's tallest building when constructed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Oriental opened amid great fanfare on May 8, 1926 as one of several very ornate deluxe movie houses operated by the firm of Balaban and Katz, who operated a slew of high-end movie palaces in Early-20th-Century-Chicago. The theater was designed by the architectural firm of Rapp and Rapp. and had a seating capacity of 3,259, with the auditorium actually located behind the United Masonic Temple Building's 24 story tower, and the main entrance, ticket windows, and grand entrance occupying a good hunk of the tower's first floor.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The former United Masonic Temple Building...now the Cambria Hotel...and the Oriental at night.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">The United Masonic Temple Building, which replaced the Iroquois (In fact, replaced most of the '10' block of Randolph Street.) as it appeared shortly after construction (L) and today (R). The Oriental's lobby and grand entrance take up much of the left side of the building's first floor. The tower itself was recently remodeled and converted to the 15 story Cambria Hotel.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Oriental's entrance and marquee, at 24 W. Randolph Street...the same address which had been assigned to the Iroquois.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Oriental had the same street address as The Iroquois...24 W. Randolph Street...and, also like the Iroquois it fronted on Randolph Street, and Couch Place (Which had already been given the nickname it bears to this day...Death Ally'). The interior of The Oriental managed to outdo the Iroquois without even breaking a sweat.The place was gorgeous inside, with decor inspired by the art of India and the Far East. It was richly and beautifully detailed, with many of those details being beautifully gilded. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">While the motion picture industry was still on the tail end of 'The Silent Movie Era' when the Oriental opened, the theater opened well in time for 'The Jazz Singer', which was both the first feature length</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">'Talkie' and a major hit, to to open there in October 1927.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The theater showed major first run movies for over forty years, then switched over to live shows in the early 1970s . And when I say live shows I mean the likes of Stevie Wonder, and Gladys Knight And The Pips.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And then the bottom fell out. The exact same thing happened to The Loop that happened to the down town areas of many major cities in the '70s...businesses fled to the suburbs and the areas declined. And as they declined, they became more dangerous. And as the became more dangerous, attendance at businesses such as theaters nose-dived.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The live shows didn't help as much as you'd think. Though the Oriental's 3,250 seat capacity was <i>huge</i> for a movie theater, it was small for a music venue, and lots of major artists wouldn't perform there simply because, even with a full house, the venue likely didn't generate the profit they (Or actually their management) was looking for. Major acts stopped booking the Oriental, then the second, third, and tenth tier acts that followed quit playing there as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Oriental then suffered the dreaded end-life fate of many a down-town movie house, reverting back to being a movie house for a couple of years in the late '70s/early 80s. These were <i>not</i> the kind of movies you'd let your eighth-grade son take his first date to, however. The Oriental showed....er... adult themed movies for a couple of years, then closed in 1981, and sat empty for a decade and a half, sliding further and further into decline and disrepair.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The place likely became one of those vacant buildings that firefighters in The Loop companies (Including Engine 13, which I'm pretty sure was still located in the same house on Dearborn Street when the Oriental closed) just <i>knew</i> was going to come in at Oh Dark Hundred one night and become a deluge set and ladder pipe intensive 'Surround And Drown' operation...but thankfully that never happened.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">We <i>still</i> almost lost the Oriental, though. Even though it had been added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1978 (Ironically, just before it's thankfully very brief stint as an adult movie house), when the City of Chicago started to get serious about revitalizing The Loop in the mid-late 90s, restoring the Oriental was <i>not</i> originally part of the game plan. Developers were looking at the site, licking their money-hungry chops as they pictured a two story, 50,000 square foot shopping mall, complete with a 1600 seat movie theater.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I have a feeling that theater buffs the nation over were horrified, but it looked like the Oriental was on borrowed time and a new mall (Ya just <i>know</i> the place would have been named something like 'Oriental Square' to 'Pay Homage' to the once beautiful old theater) was all but a done deal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then more legal and financial maneuvering took place, and a Canadian theatrical firm firm named Livent bought the theater, and conspired with Chicago City officials to restore the grand old movie house to it's former splendor...but this was a <i>good</i> conspiracy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">See, Livent wasn't going to restore it as movie theater...they were going to convert it to a stage theater. The City of Chicago pledged 13.5 million to the project, and then Ford Motor Company entered into a partnership with Livent and the City...for the pittance of one Million yearly, and their name on the venue, they'd sponsor the project.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This was pretty much like having a money faucet available if a major influx of funds was needed, so the deal was made and contracts signed almost before the idea fully formed. It became what's sadly rare these days...a match made in heaven.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So major restoration and renovation work began. As the theater was built as a movie house it didn't have a real backstage area, so that was one of the first problems that was tackled. The Oliver Building at 159 North Dearborn (Built shortly after the fire for the Oliver Typewriter Company, and occupying the vacant lot that had been on the corner of Couch Place and Dearborn) was purchased and gutted to give the theater a huge back stage area...and, consequently, make it 'L' shaped just as the Iroquois had been. The Oliver Building was also a beautiful old building, so Livent's plans included preserving it's unique facade.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxTcd83yUdKTYKmNu9H2c0ccQdjUe6skHwfKX0HUFQqcoCR1V1IOpgerIHbrhkaJiZIR1s58n0tCXiEL3vKMSaw7Yo4dauf_L6qL3AmZCvTEn0dDYOfqqvxxm8d8JEZhnho6Lz2J7RIo/s1600/Screenshot+%252853%2529.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxTcd83yUdKTYKmNu9H2c0ccQdjUe6skHwfKX0HUFQqcoCR1V1IOpgerIHbrhkaJiZIR1s58n0tCXiEL3vKMSaw7Yo4dauf_L6qL3AmZCvTEn0dDYOfqqvxxm8d8JEZhnho6Lz2J7RIo/s640/Screenshot+%252853%2529.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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The Dearborn Street facade of the former Oliver Building, at Dearborn and Couch Place. The building occupies the vacant lot that was located at that intersection in 1903, and was gutted by the crew who restored the Oriental in order to give the theater a usable back stage. The crew who did the work took great pains to preserve the Oliver Building's unique facade.</div>
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Note the posters advertising coming plays at the Oriental in the first floor windows.</div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">To restore the interior of the Olympic Theater to it's former glory, Conrad Schmitt Studios, along with with architect Daniel P. Coffey and Associates, Ltd. and consultants Roger Morgan and Associates, researched the Oriental's original decor and detailing...and went to work. . In the process of patching, painting, gilding and glazing the interior details they used 4000 gallons of paint, 62,500 sq. ft. of aluminum leaf, and 12,500 sq. ft. of gold leaf. The results are awesome...they redefine awesome in fact.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6YfPSNEmgzrf0esRwZh8Vau-r8FILCLK6FdDqVsBP9gbI3bgY99H23Dt0m7aQOiOan1LKLDk2VvG2kBRvxL2FFf5achgoSMXnfJmpFXgZIvTYFW-reIL6tGid6XWftl8lnmS-DjZ8Y-Y/s1600/Oriental+Entrannce+Foyer.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="1600" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6YfPSNEmgzrf0esRwZh8Vau-r8FILCLK6FdDqVsBP9gbI3bgY99H23Dt0m7aQOiOan1LKLDk2VvG2kBRvxL2FFf5achgoSMXnfJmpFXgZIvTYFW-reIL6tGid6XWftl8lnmS-DjZ8Y-Y/s640/Oriental+Entrannce+Foyer.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A composite photo showing just how beautiful the entrance foyer and grand staircase of the Oriental is. Looking at these, I can understand the statistics noted in the paragraph just above. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photos by Eric Allix Rogers</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ7LqkZ7MVemEWBX-GLXu23EBtmTgFDzI7SYfbSWsHk1OFdr8h2g00jlEHgybOcHXX_NkUj27x6piRxD8FEJdIGpLO8TmTfQWmrILWLgAMoA3FfzZMEhfg2_pYM4Ty6ol9bOr22wIpxzo/s1600/Oriental+Auditorium.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="1600" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ7LqkZ7MVemEWBX-GLXu23EBtmTgFDzI7SYfbSWsHk1OFdr8h2g00jlEHgybOcHXX_NkUj27x6piRxD8FEJdIGpLO8TmTfQWmrILWLgAMoA3FfzZMEhfg2_pYM4Ty6ol9bOr22wIpxzo/s640/Oriental+Auditorium.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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Another composite photo, showing the Oriental's auditorium as viewed from the stage Left, and the stage as viewed from the stage left side of the top balcony. Again, you can see just how absolutely beautiful the interior of the theater is. No expense was spared when it was originally built, and the crew that restored the theater and converted it from a movie theater to s stage theater did a truly top-drawer job.</div>
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Note one other interesting little fact about the two angles shown here...interestingly, both of these shots are from nearly the exact same angle as two of the investigative photos of the interior of the Iroquois, taken after the fire.<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Photos by Christian Dion</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The seating capacity was downgraded by 1000 seats to 2,253, the interior was immaculately and completely restored to it's former beauty, the latest technology of all kinds, safety included, was either repaired or installed, employees were hired, advertisements ran in papers, and on electronic media, and the City of Chicago held it's breath, waiting...waiting...(Sounds familiar, don't it?)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The theater opened to much deserved fanfare as the Ford Center For The Performing Arts Oriental Theater on October 18, 1998 with the Chicago Premiere of <i>Ragtime. </i>The theater and the play were both hits.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The only minor glitch was Livent filing for bankruptcy protection in November 1998...a month after the theater's Grand Reopening...but the company's assets were snapped up by SFX Entertainment, and that firm has apparently done a bang-up job running the joint. Major Broadway productions play there while on tour on a regular basis. To packed houses I might add.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I'm not even a theater geek and I hope the place is around, in it's present awesome state, for another century or so.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Hello Dolly's</i> being performed at The Oriental this month (November, 2018), and just for the fun of it, I checked ticket prices...they range, depending on the day you want to attend, where you want to sit, and just how much you want to pay, from $56.00 to $538.00. A far cry from the prices on the tickets to Mr Bluebeard even if you factor in inflation...that $1.50 Orchestra Level ticket to Mr Bluebeard would have only cost you $41.00 in today's money.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Remember that vacant lot at Dearborn and Couch Place? Well, Klaw and Erlanger had some plans for that, too. Originally, they were going to erect a hotel there, but those plans fell through when the Iroquois burned. The Theatrical Trust sold the property to the Oliver Typewriter Company, and that firm had the the Oliver Building built on the lot, then added a couple of floors around 1920. As noted above, The Oliver Building was gutted to provide the Oriental with backstage and dressing rooms, leaving the facade restored and intact.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">That Hotel idea didn't completely die though...it just took about 112 years or do for it to happen.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">A few years back the former United Masonic Temple Building was renovated and converted to the 150 room Cambria Hotel to cater to those attending plays at The Oriental and other Chicago theaters.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Theater-goers staying at The Cambria enjoy a far, far better deal than those who would have stated at Klaw and Erlangers abortive hotel would have gotten. The Cambria features a restaurant, roof-top bar, valet parking, and those attending a play at the Oriental don't even have to go outside to get to the theater.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It's all but inevitable that a tragedy of this magnitude would generate a ghost story or rumor of a haunting or two. The ghost stories started early in the ball game, when the first investigative photos started appearing, most particularly that panoramic view of the the auditorium, taken from the stage. Several ghostly, translucent beings are seen in their translucent glory, apparently watching the investigators at work.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This one was refuted easily and quickly. The lighting in that particular shot is pretty good, actually, but the thing in, flash units capable of creating such good lighting were <i>decades</i> in the future back in 1903. The shot required a lo-o-o-n--g exposure time...several seconds at least...to achieve that quality. And the photographer couldn't exactly ask the team of investigators to freeze while he took the shot. (Or possibly shots, as this may have been several shots stitched together.). These 'ghosts' were simply people who'd moved while the picture was being taken, creating a blurred, translucent image.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">There are a few other ghost stories, however, that aren't quite so easy to refute...and the favorite haunting ground of these ghosts even has a name...or at least a nickname...that all but demands that spirits reside there, if they do indeed exist.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Couch Place occupies the exact same strip of real estate today that it did on Dec 30. 1903, and the 125 people who died in the ally inspired the nickname Death Ally, which it also bears to this day. And at least some of those 125 people are said to be roaming around the ally as ghostly specters today.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="hoverZoomLink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Zrb_tpVzTHBng29v0MGAiLme_Pu3wIiutKbGs537eeC18Y6pM8txWbvpVzAWsU3q_Nf8HFAG38LFptwMedsVf1n6tGS9fdMD2AADFORG4YbMhd0Prt1IHZ4HdMnl-2z9N9BWQCClR20/s1600/Couch+Place+Composite.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="1600" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Zrb_tpVzTHBng29v0MGAiLme_Pu3wIiutKbGs537eeC18Y6pM8txWbvpVzAWsU3q_Nf8HFAG38LFptwMedsVf1n6tGS9fdMD2AADFORG4YbMhd0Prt1IHZ4HdMnl-2z9N9BWQCClR20/s640/Couch+Place+Composite.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A composite photo of Couch Place as it appears today (Left) and as it appeared the morning after the fire (Right). The two pics were taken from the same angle, over a century apart, though the photographer who took the modern photo is standing further down the ally than the guy who took the 1903 shot...which, as I noted earlier, is likely the best known photo of the fire.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Considering the scene straight out of Hell that the ally hosted, if ghosts do indeed exist, that would be a perfect place for them to take up residence, and according to those who <i>do </i> believe, there is a raft of evidence out there that they've done just that. There are more than a few people who swear that, as they were walking or working in the ally, they felt someone brush by them or grab their arm and others have claimed to feel 'cold spots' in the ally...sudden patches of air so chilly they shivered for a second, even in the middle of a humid Chicago summer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Others have claimed to see a ghostly specter or two roaming the ally on chilly nights, and a few others have taken pictures in the ally to discover a shadowy figure photo-bombing their shot...a being who they say didn't appear in their viewfinder when they framed the shot.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Interestingly enough, all of this paranormal activity doesn't seem to ramp up on the dates you'd expect just that to happen...Halloween, or the adversary of the fire, but rather seems to be a year round activity...a fact that mildly disappoints the show-runners of a couple of 'Haunted Chicago' tours that charge a fee to take ghost-hunters on tours of The Windy City's spookiest sites. My bet is this oversight on the part of our ghosts doesn't hurt business too much though...these tours are likely still packed come Halloween.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And to close out this note, I'll let you in on a personal opinion...I think one young lady who, IMHO, is among the most likely to haunt the former Iroquois theater has been overlooked...and she doesn't hang around outside, in Couch Place. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Even though The Iroquois...or most of it...is long-gone, the Oriental Theater itself has played host to a ghost of it's own. Apparently one basement wall remains from the Iroquois, and a young girl's crying has been heard in the Oriental's basement. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Personally I can't help but wonder if everyone who assumed this was an unidentified young fire victim sobbing misinterpreted this one. Aerialist Nellie Reed was found in the basement, horribly burned, before she was taken to the hospital, where she later died. After being inadvertently abandoned, trapped above the fire, to die a horrible death, she has every right to haunt the place. If, of course, ghosts do exist, and hauntings do occur. If they do, I'm convinced the crying young woman in the basement is none other than Nellie Reed.</span><br />
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Somehow you wouldn't think that a play based on the Iroquois Theater Fire would become a hit, much less a Chicago Holiday tradition, but there <i>is</i> such a play, and it's managed to become both.<br />
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The play's called '<i>Burning Bluebeard', </i>and was authored by an uber-talented gentleman named Jay Torrence...who is also one of the show's stars...and originally produced by an experimental theater company known as 'The Neo-Futurists when it premiered in 2011. Now produced by a troupe known as The Ruffians, it tells the story of a group of clowns who died in the fire, and spend eternity performing in the burned out theater, trying to bring about the happy ending that never happened.<br />
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As the play kicks off, hazy theatrical smoke drifts around the stage, partially obscuring the body bags that are scattered around the stage. Five of our clown emerge, tattered and soot-stained, from the body bags to gaze around the fire-seared stage, then face the audience...one of them hits the first line hard...<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>“You know how when you go to most Christmas shows and you’re sitting there and they don’t catch you on fire? Well, we did the opposite of that.”</i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">...And it's at this point that said audience knows for sure that this is no normal play. Our five clowns are soon joined by the not-so effervescent, potato chip addicted Fairie Queen, who leads them in their quest to bring about the play's happy ending.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">This not-so-typical Holiday Tradition </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">plays during the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> week between Christmas and New Years each year (With a matinee performance every year on December 30th...the fire's anniversary...at 3PM.) </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, and has managed to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">pack the small theaters it plays in without even breaking a sweat.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Not only has the play been popular with audiences, it's also struck a positive note with critics. (No mean trick, considering that many a critically acclaimed work, be it film or stage, is all but shunned by the viewing public's). <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/ct-burning-bluebeard-review-20141217-column.html">In his review</a> Chief </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Chicago Tribune </i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">theater critic Chris Jones, for example, called the play </span><i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"...T</span></i></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="color: #333333;">he most distinctive holiday show in the entire city,” praising its “ragtag, outré aesthetic” and “emotional, existential echoes.”, </i><span style="color: #333333;">giving it a solid 3.5 out of 5 while he was at it.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="color: #333333;"> </i><span style="color: #333333;">I did a little research on Mr Jones and he's pretty highly thought of in the theatrical community, and knows his stuff...as of 2014 he also heads up the <i>Eugene O'Niell National Theater Critic's Institute</i>, in Waterford Conn. Trust me when I say that this was no small praise.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">There is one thing, though, the The Ruffians would like to do that they, so far, haven't managed yet. They want to perform <i>Burning Bluebeard </i>at the site of the fire it was based on...on the stage of the Oriental Theater. I hope they manage to do it.</span></span></span><br />
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While discussing this fire with a few people, the question 'How come the backdraft didn't blow the back wall of the theater out?' was asked.</div>
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This is a valid question. I've been on the scene of two backdrafts. One, in a paper plant, blew out about 100 feet of cinder block wall. The other leveled a long, narrow, windowless dental office building, boosting a 500 or so pound roof mounted air conditioning unit over an aerial ladder rig and out about 75 feet into the parking lot while it was at it.</div>
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The backdraft at the Iroquois was every bit as powerful as those two, if not a bit more so, but there was a big difference. Those two were in completely confined spaces, so the explosive force had nowhere to go. So it blew the walls out...or in the case of the dental office building, blew the building apart..</div>
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The Iroquois backdraft, on the other hand, was able to vent a good bit of it's energy downward and out into the auditorium, greatly reducing the pressure exerted against the walls of the building...and there was still enough energy left to blow several of the locked fire exits open.</div>
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It was still a near thing though...I read at least one source stating that the upper rear wall of the theater was bulged outward a couple of inches and had to be rebuilt when the building was repaired.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Nearly three decades passed between the Brooklyn Theater Fire and The Iroquois Theater Fire, and much as the movers and shakers of the theater industry tried to give the impression that they had learned their lesson about theater safety...well, they hadn't. Oh, they took the classes and they may even have done some of the homework, but they didn't pass the final exam. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And because of that, 602 people died. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And that brings us to an important question, one that's especially </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">given that, as I finish this post up, the Christmas mega-hit season...both stage and screen...is right around the corner. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">What about </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman", serif;">today</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Have we finally learned that lesson over the last nearly 115 years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Oh, hardware wise we've definitely learned that lesson. Theaters are hundreds of times safer today than they were in 1903...or even, likely 1963. Buildings are usually sprinklered throughout. Seat upholstery, carpets , wall coverings, and curtains have to meet a strict fire resistance standard before they are installed. Theaters are riddled with well-marked exits and those multi-screen megaplexes that are so the rage now have at least two and usually more exits from each auditorium that lead directly to the outside.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Stage theaters are equipped with automatic fire curtains that have a minimum fire rating dependent on the codes of the municipality where it's located, and the codes vary from locality to locality, but rest assured that no matter what locality the theater's in, the curtain will stop smoke and fire long enough to let a full house evacuate calmly without breaking a sweat. Standpipes and hose-lines are usually available. Ditto fire extinguishers. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Fire alarm systems have been hooked in to either a monitoring agency or directly to the dispatch center since the early part of the 20th Century. And all of this stuff is inspected...properly...so it <i>has </i> to work.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Maximum capacities are posted prominently in theaters (And indeed, <i>all</i> public buildings and businesses) and overcrowding <i>shouldn't </i>happen, because fire inspectors have no problem at <i>all</i> with making a spot inspection, and </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">shutting a performance down if the theater is over-crowded.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And all of this must work, because we haven't had a multi-fatality theater fire in the US since the Rhoads Opera House fire in 1908. (Yep...that ones on the list to be covered, too). And there <i>have</i> been fires in theaters...both stage and movie...during performances that have been handled with no injuries or fatalities what-so-ever.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So, again, all of the new codes and technology <i>must</i> work. But all of that high tech hardware, and all of those strictly-enforced codes miss one important factor...the factor that has the very real potential to derail any and all of that new tech, just as it did on Dec 30, 1903. The human one. And both some things I've read and one minor incident I know about personally shine a kind of scary spotlight on the human element.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Fire lanes escapes and fire exits still get blocked...say to unload supplies or scenes, or even by a limo or tour bus bringing the Artist Of The Moment to the venue. Those automatic fire curtains are usually connected to the building alarm, so if the curtain drops, the alarm activates. And if that happens falsely during a performance more than a time or to, you can bet some yo-yo will pull the breaker so the performance won't get interrupted again. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Fire doors get blocked open for the sake of convenience, then left open after that need for convenience is satisfied. Combustibles get stacked where they shouldn't be in the hurry to get a play on-stage. Managers still try to circumvent regulations (Much less successfully today than back in 1903) both for convenience sake and to save money.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And staff training is sometimes questionable...<i>especially </i>in those afore-mentioned megaplexes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> I won't say what theater I was in, but several years ago I got a taste of <i>just</i> how well movie theater employees are apparently trained in things fire-safety, and it wasn't encouraging. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">About a quarter way through the movie I was watching, the strobes started flashing, accompanied by the brash, shrill tweeting of the fire alarm. No smoke or sign of fire (It ended up being a trash compactor fire on the other side of the food court) and at first everyone just sat there even as I got up and headed for one of the fire exits (Rescuing my large popcorn and large soda, which, of course, cost about the same as a small yacht). I headed outside (Being stared at by many in the audience) as the movie still played and the lights stayed down. It was a couple of minutes before people started trickling out of there...same with the other auditoriums. Movie still playing....I could hear it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> I had a handheld scanner back then, and had turned it on, so I knew what was happening and that the theater wasn't involved, so I stuck my head <i>back</i> inside. There were <i>still </i>people sitting there watching the movie. Not an usher or employee in sight. Movie finally stopped and lights came up a good five minutes after the alarm activated. Several people exited back into the inside of the theater. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">No one directing anyone anywhere. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of course there were no injuries or trauma what-so-ever, other than to the theater's bottom line when they had to give everyone a free movie pass, but I can't help but wonder what would have happened if the fire had been, say, in a deep fryer in the concession stand in the theater lobby. I didn't ask anyone if they had been trained, but I did mention the seeming confusion during the evacuation to the fire department's prevention division.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So it could happen again. Not to the scale of the Iroquois Theater Fires horrific death toll, but a smoky backstage fire in a theater where the breaker for the fire curtain's been pulled and a limo or box truck's blocking the bottom section of a balcony fire escape could induce a panic and a death toll the likes of which haven't been seen in a theater fire in over a century. Again, not to the level of horror that was seen at The Iroquois, but bad enough to...as has happened in other places of public assembly a couple of times a decade for that same century and change...to make us sit up, wide eyed and say 'Damn...haven't we learned <i>anything...'</i></span></span></div>
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It's always nice when you have almost more material than you know what to do with, and I definitely enjoyed that quantity of research material...both on and off line...on this post. Trust me when I say that this is not always the case, even when researching the most famous/infamous incidents.</div>
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It would literally be impossible to list ever link I've found dealing with the Iroquois, and unnecessary to boot...they tend to get a bit repetitious after a while. So I'm going to list the best of the ones I've found.<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_Theatre_fire">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_Theatre_fire</a> The All-But-Obligatory Wikipedia page.</div>
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<a href="http://www.iroquoistheater.com/">http://www.iroquoistheater.com/</a> Judy Cooke's awesome website about the fire. This site is a virtual encyclopedia of facts about the theater, the fire, and hundreds of people who were involved with the fire. Probably 75% of my research for this post came off of her site. You can very literally find yourself here for hours exploring the site.
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/IroquoisTheater/">https://www.facebook.com/IroquoisTheater/</a> Judy also has a Facebook page that syncs up with her </div>
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<a href="https://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/iroquoistheatre/">https://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/iroquoistheatre/</a> Choicagology page with reproductions of several period newspaper articles about the fire.</div>
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<a href="http://chicagology.com/PDF/IroquoisProgram.pdf" target="_blank">http://chicagology.com/PDF/IroquoisProgram.pdf</a> Yet another Chicagology page featuring the entire Mr Bluebeard program. It's a PDF file, so you need a PDF reader to view it, but it's also downloadable. A seriously interesting read. Like most programs of any kind, to this day, it's mostly ads, but these are ads from 1903.You can spend an hour or so just looking at them.</div>
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<a href="http://bighoststories.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-iroquois-theater.html" target="_blank">http://bighoststories.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-iroquois-theater.html</a> Another...much <i>much</i> shorter...blog post about the fire.</div>
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<a href="http://www.performingartsarchive.com/Theatres/Theatres-I/Iroquois-Theatre_Chicago/Iroquois-Theatre_Chicago.htm" target="_blank">http://www.performingartsarchive.com/Theatres/Theatres-I/Iroquois-Theatre_Chicago/Iroquois-</a><a href="http://www.performingartsarchive.com/Theatres/Theatres-I/Iroquois-Theatre_Chicago/Iroquois-Theatre_Chicago.htm" target="_blank">Theatre_Chicago.htm</a> Another short blog post about the fire.</div>
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<a href="http://mysteriouschicago.com/the-iroquois-theatre-fire-or-how-bad-was-mr-blue-beard/">http://mysteriouschicago.com/the-iroquois-theatre-fire-or-how-bad-was-mr-blue-beard/</a> Mysterious Chicago page about the fire.<br />
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<a href="https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025138/1904-01-01/ed-1/seq-53/">https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025138/1904-01-01/ed-1/seq-53/</a> A period newspaper article about the fire, from the Jan 1, 1904 <i>Morning Origonian,</i> that includes a victim list.</div>
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<a href="http://topofshow.com/2013/12/30/110-years-later-lessons-still-not-learned-lest-we-forget/">http://topofshow.com/2013/12/30/110-years-later-lessons-still-not-learned-lest-we-forget/</a> A sobering article from <i>Top Of The Show' </i>that makes you wonder whether we've really learned the lessons taught by The Iroquois...or not. An interesting, and again, sobering read.</div>
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/theater/burning-bluebeard-becomes-a-holiday-tradition-in-chicago.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/theater/burning-bluebeard-becomes-a-holiday-tradition-in-</a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/theater/burning-bluebeard-becomes-a-holiday-tradition-in-chicago.html">chicago.html</a> New York Times article about <i>Burning Bluebeard. </i>Goes into a little more detail than my note about the play does.</div>
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<a href="http://www.hellenicaworld.com/USA/Literature/Various/en/ChicagosAwfulTheaterHorror.html">http://www.hellenicaworld.com/USA/Literature/Various/en/ChicagosAwfulTheaterHorror.html</a> Full Text of '<i>Chicago's Awful Theater Horror</i>', a book written about the fire in 1904</div>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dionnemusic/albums/72157624160598457">https://www.flickr.com/photos/dionnemusic/albums/72157624160598457</a> Photographer Christian Dion's Flickr album of theater pics. There are over 250 pics of American theaters here, including a<br />
bunch of the interior of the Oriental. This guy's a photographer. I take pictures. There is a <i>big</i> difference! Definitely worth a look.<br />
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<img id="hzDownscaled" style="position: absolute; top: -10000px;" /><img id="hzDownscaled" style="position: absolute; top: -10000px;" />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-41247464979185256052017-07-24T18:28:00.000-04:002018-11-13T10:38:20.168-05:00The Brooklyn Theater Fire. Brooklyn, N.Y. Dec 5, 1876...America's Fourth Worst Loss Of Life In A Building Fire. <div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Brooklyn Theater Fire</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>December 5th, 1876</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> </b><b>Brooklyn, New York </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Entertainment Industry is <i>not</i> a
new invention...not by a long shot. By the late 19th century entertainment was very much a part of the urban life-style and, while no one who attended a play in 1876 could have even <i>dreamed</i> of the technology we take for granted
today, many of 'The Industry's' best-loved quirks and features were still already in
place by that time, and had been for a century or three. You just had to substitute the word 'play' for the word 'movie'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Actors and actresses who were worshiped as celebrities?
Check.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Large corporations that owned several theaters, each competing for business? Check.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Plays
advertised for months in advance as absolute-mega-hits that you
didn't even want to <i>think</i> about missing? Check.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Theater owners,
writers, actors, and theater patrons checking out reviews to see how
their play's doing<b>/</b>if the play's worth buying tickets to? Check.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Crowds
camping out for hours before the box office opened to snag a ticket
to the first performance of the latest potential mega-hit? Oh <i>hell</i>
yes...that's probably been going on since Shakespeare's time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, the shows that these crowds camped out to
get tickets for 140 or so years ago were the cloth from which all
entertainment has been cut and sewn...the stage play. Stage plays
have been around for centuries, and many of them were (And indeed,
<i>are</i> ) pretty elaborate productions, with logistics that can rival those of an Army battalion on the move. In order to
facilitate these productions (And ensure that they can be attended by large enough crowds to be profitable) large, elaborate theaters were built
in every major city as well as in many smaller burgs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most larger cities could even brag of having a theater district, with several large and well known theaters there-in, and The City of New York was unique in this respect...in 1876, New York had <i>two </i>theater districts. Everyone probably already knows where <i>one</i> of those theater districts was. While the name 'Broadway' hadn't been coined yet in 1876, that legendary street was still the main drag of New York's theater district and that area was where most of New York's better known theaters were located...but what about that <i>second</i> theater district? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ever heard of the <i>City </i>of Brooklyn? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Back in 1876 the City of New York consisted only of what we know as Manhattan today, and it's cross-river neighbor of Brooklyn was not only an independent city, it was the nation's third largest city. Among it's other accomplishments, Brooklyn was also </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">making a bit of a name for itself as an alternate destination for the NYC theater crowd. While Brooklyn's first theater didn't open until 1864, by the mid 1870s there were several well known theaters in Brooklyn, most of them clustered around the area of </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Brooklyn's City Hall</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Fulton Street which, conveniently, led to the ferry that crossed the East River River between Brooklyn and New York.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Unfortunately though, when New Yorkers crossed the East River to attend a play in Brooklyn, in their minds they were slumming it. They weren't completely wrong, either, and their opinion had a lot to do with the size and quality of Brooklyn's theaters. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">One of these theaters was the Park theater, located on Adams Street at Fulton Street and managed by the well known husband and wife team of Sarah and Frederick Conway. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Conways had been around the New York and Brooklyn theater scene for a couple of decades, both as managers and performers, and they well knew that theater-goers across the river, in NYC, had a tendency to turn their noses up at the Brooklyn theater scene. The theaters in Brooklyn weren't as large or upscale as their counterparts in NYC, and the performances were reputed to be lower quality as well. The sad thing was, the Conways well knew, the theaters in Brooklyn...the buildings themselves, at any rate...</span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">weren't </i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">as nice as those in NYC, and their own Park Theater was a good example.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Brooklyn was actually late in on the 'theater' game...The Park, which opened in 1864, </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">was actually Brooklyn's first theater and was located on the second and third floors of a building that wasn't even originally built as a theater. The biggest problem with the building was that it was </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">way</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> too small. The first floor was occupied by a couple of retail shops, with the main entrance, lobby, and box-office shoe-horned in between them, and the auditorium, dressing rooms, and stage/backstage areas were all somehow stuffed onto the two remaining floors. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This not only made <i>any</i> performance there a very cramped affair, it also gave the Park a seating capacity of well fewer than one thousand. This small seating capacity became a major problem if a particularly popular play was being performed, because everyone who wanted to see the play, well, <i>couldn't</i>. This, in turn, had a tendency to eat into potential profits, something, then as now, to be avoided at all costs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Conways desperately needed a new theater, and they already had a game-plan under development with that exact goal in mind. In 1869 they approached a group of affluent Brooklyn business owners with the idea of building a truly grand new theater in Brooklyn. The Conways, being veterans of the theater business, knew <i>exactly</i> whet they needed, and apparently had no trouble convincing the men...who had formed a consortium called The Brooklyn Building Association...to go along with them, because within a year they were breaking ground for a theater that was intended to out-shine anything on the other side of the East River.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">They bought an 'L' shaped lot at Washington and Johnson Streets, only a block from the Park and formerly owned by St John's Episcopal Church, and built a state of the art, 'L' shaped 1600 seat theater building, wrapping it around the already extant Dieter hotel when they did so. Interestingly enough, 'L' shaped theaters such as the Brooklyn Theater were pretty common back then, and like pretty much all of them, the Brooklyn Theater's main entrance, box office, and lobby were in a smaller wing that sat at right angles to the much larger wing containing the auditorium.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An excerpt from a Brooklyn, New York plot map from the mid 1800s, showing the area where the Brooklyn Theater was located...I drew in the approximate footprint of the theater, at Washington and Johnson, and cross-hatched it. Though a couple of the street names have changed and a couple of others have disappeared, the basic street pattern has remained pretty true to this map over the past century and a half or so.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There was a reason that most of Brooklyn's theaters were built in close proximity to Fulton Street, BTW...that thoroughfare was the direct access to the ferries that crossed the East River between New York and Brooklyn before 1883, then to the Brooklyn Bridge after 1883. Using traffic patterns to determine the best location for businesses is not a new thing.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiBKUlgZnZ0UZAgzyb2miADKCsNtIUdWIIzIF1PoK7kSrvAIEH0uXGGD2hmS0P0JMkWnifvRi9QnhQYaMujfdsrj4b190qgu1kCoAAcUyIeWOoyjK90vd8Q3q0I4SkQtTjvjxJj62IGs8/s1600/Brooklyn+Theater+Site.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="748" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiBKUlgZnZ0UZAgzyb2miADKCsNtIUdWIIzIF1PoK7kSrvAIEH0uXGGD2hmS0P0JMkWnifvRi9QnhQYaMujfdsrj4b190qgu1kCoAAcUyIeWOoyjK90vd8Q3q0I4SkQtTjvjxJj62IGs8/s640/Brooklyn+Theater+Site.png" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Satellite view of the same area today, with the theater's footprint added in red. You can still easily see the old street pattern, though there have been changes over the last century and a half or so, Washington Street is now Cadman Plaza East, and Fulton Street is now Cadman Plaza West. Floods Alley is long gone, and was probably covered over for most of it's length when the Brooklyn Eagle building was built in 1893. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In 1957, The Brooklyn Eagle Building, along with the rest of the block, was torn down, and Cadman Plaza, Columbus Park, and the new Kings County Courthouse were built in it's place. The Courthouse and Columbus Park were built over the west end of Myrtle Street, </span><i style="font-size: small;">but</i><span style="font-size: x-small;">...look to the right of the Kings County Courthouse...directly east of the Christopher Columbus Statue...and you'll see Myrtle Promenade. If you could look another block or so east, it becomes Myrtle Avenue, on the same footprint Myrtle Street's occupied for a century and a half or more.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Cadman Plaza West, meanwhile, becomes Old Fulton Street a few blocks north, and still leads to the area where the old ferry landing was located, now part of East River Park.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> The old plot map matches up perfectly with the satellite view, BTW. How perfectly?, You may ask. Scroll down about halfway through the post to find out.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit1moPvSwqKtVCRZkic8mW3i3q2aIvREykIqoE1oFNBrtpaLWl7MDsKS2w6oLbAqg-K3Qf0laGdao_yYHwBP0zbzyBgaccFNANXo8GzReBAkLr1GAddqBQiYZ8GAdwd6if-mM6oRZFXps/s1600/MNY279591.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="445" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit1moPvSwqKtVCRZkic8mW3i3q2aIvREykIqoE1oFNBrtpaLWl7MDsKS2w6oLbAqg-K3Qf0laGdao_yYHwBP0zbzyBgaccFNANXo8GzReBAkLr1GAddqBQiYZ8GAdwd6if-mM6oRZFXps/s640/MNY279591.jpg" width="516" /></a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An illustration of the theater's main entrance, on Washington Street, that was included in a period article on an anniversary of the fire. Note that the death toll they list is higher than the historically quoted toll of 278.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> This gives a decent idea of 'The Lay of The Land', so to speak...but it still isn't isn't entirely accurate either. The box office was inside the theater, and the artist (Probably to simplify the process) didn't give the BPD 1st Precinct station...next door to the theater... an entrance. He also compressed the post office...the brick building on the near side of the 1st Precinct..to about a quarter of it's actual size.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><br />Be nice if there was a bit more accurate pic...a photo maybe...<br /><br /><br />↓Take a look below↓</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A period photo of The Brooklyn Theater's' Washington Street entrance from just about the exact same P.O.V as the illustration above. One of the most prominent features of the theater was it's distinctive mansard roof. This wing contained the main entrance, box office, and lobby and was the shorter and narrower of the the 'L' shaped theater's two wings. The theater actually wrapped around two sides of the Dieter Hotel, which is the building that's partially obscured by trees on the far side of the theater. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The light colored building next door to the theater is the 1st Precinct Police station, while the building on this side of the 1st Precinct is Brooklyn's main post office.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />The two tall, narrow sign boards on either side of the main entrance were probably advertisements of coming attractions. The entrance to the ill-fated Family Circle would have been just beyond the signboard furthest from the camera. The second floor of this wing contained the theater's offices, while the third floor contained an apartment for the manager. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: center;">The much larger wing that housed the auditorium was behind the Dieter, and fronted on Johnson Street.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />The
27' X 40', 3 story lobby wing. with it's distinctive mansard roof,
fronted on Washington Street. between the Dieter Hotel and Brooklyn
P.D.'s 1st Precinct station. It not only housed the main entrance, lobby
and the box office on the first floor, but also housed </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">offices on the second floor and an apartment for the manager on the third. There was also a</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> separate entrance for The Family
Circle...the highest and least expensive level of seating...as well as a private entrance for the offices and apartment off of Washington Street,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The
auditorium wing measured 127 'X 70' and fronted on Johnson Street, with
the stage door and twenty foot wide scenery doors opening onto Johnson.
A narrow street called Flood's Alley bisected the block back then,
running between Johnson Street and the no-longer extant Myrtle Street, along the east wall of the theater and behind the 1st Precinct station
and Brooklyn's post office, which was two doors down from the theater. A
trio of double-doored emergency exits opened onto Flood's Alley...one from the rear
of the lobby, one from the middle of the auditorium, and one from the
area of the stage. Keep these emergency exits in mind...they're going to
play a pretty big part in what's about to happen.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The theater's 1600 or so seats were situated on three levels, with the ticket prices dropping as you climbed. The ground floor seating...known as the Parquet circle...was the most expensive and seated 600 while the mid-priced Dress Circle...the first balcony...seated 550. The lowest priced seats were located in the Family Circle gallery, which seated 450 and was tucked <i>way</i> up almost into the rafters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Access to...and, more importantly for our purposes, egress from...the Parquet and Dress Circles was pretty straight-forward, but access to<b>/</b>egress from the Family Circle was far, <i>far </i>more convoluted.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You could enter or leave the Parquet Circle through any of three doors directly off of the lobby, plus you had all three emergency exits opening out to Flood's Ally...two directly off of the auditorium and the third at the rear of the lobby, beneath the stairway leading up to the Dress circle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">That stairway was at the right rear of the lobby and was seven feet wide with a single landing, featuring a 90 degree turn. (Keep that landing in mind, too...it was about to become an issue). Once you got to the bottom of the steps you had either a straight shot to the main entrance, about 110 feet away, or the exit directly beneath the stairs, maybe fifteen feet away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Dress Circle ticket holders also had another alternate exit...a second stairway that descended from the north-east corner of the Dress Circle down to the second... middle...Flood's Alley emergency exit. At least they had that exit available to them as long as it was unlocked. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So the Parquet and Dress Circles had plenty of exits available to them, all of them pretty direct and easy to navigate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Access to and egress from the Family Circle, on the other hand, involved a whole series of twists, turns, and stairways. First, The Family Circle had it's own private entrance, a few yards north of the theater's main entrance, as well as it's own box office.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To get to The Family Circle you walked through the Family Circle entrance and down a short hallway, then up a flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs you reached the box office, then turned right into a short corridor that ran above and across the lobby, probably hard by the rear wall of the second floor offices. At the end of this corridor, you turned left, onto another flight of steps, set against the south wall of the theater (Next to the 1st Precinct police station). At the top of this flight of steps you reached a landing, where you turned left, climbed another short flight of steps, then entered a small vestibule and walked through a curtained doorway and into the Family Circle gallery.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> To leave, of course, you simply reversed this process...not that big a deal under normal conditions. If, however, you were trying to keep your family together in rapidly increasing darkness while trying to breathe as the building filled with smoke and heat and everyone around you was panicking, it quickly became a whole 'other ballgame.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLsAqTFl_juEAca0RhALNnj2mVU7R3T3FY-2oexrZSY1Gn1lPWzagGH54zl-CBtPcrGc2uyDVl3jopfQ_tVrCbBAjT2uo_SVdNHRZKNEqSjjg4dtvTV36UX8rx464q5iDwo6ZzfEi8Jek/s1600/Brooklyn+Theater+Floor+Plan+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="886" height="624" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLsAqTFl_juEAca0RhALNnj2mVU7R3T3FY-2oexrZSY1Gn1lPWzagGH54zl-CBtPcrGc2uyDVl3jopfQ_tVrCbBAjT2uo_SVdNHRZKNEqSjjg4dtvTV36UX8rx464q5iDwo6ZzfEi8Jek/s640/Brooklyn+Theater+Floor+Plan+3.png" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A floor plan of the theater's first floor, included with one of the
many newspaper articles published after the fire...I added the south
stairway, leading to the family circle, as well as the short
corridor...above the lobby...that connected the Family Circle's entrance stairway and box
office with the south stairway. Almost all of the fatalities were from
the Family Circle, and a huge number of them were trapped in that
corridor and on the south stairway, and were carried into the basement when the auditorium collapsed, which is why the majority of the bodies were found in a huge pile at the location indicated.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The doors leading from the lobby to the auditorium, as well as the three emergency exits leading out to Flood's Ally are also shown.The private stairway indicated on the plan had an entrance off of Washington Street and led up to the offices and apartment in the lobby wing, and I believe a hallway to theses stairs also opened off of the passage to the dressing rooms Also, note that the passage from the dressing rooms to the box office is noted as an underground passage here, I've also read that it was simply a corridor separated from the auditorium by a conventional plaster wall</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">For a more detailed look at the lobby, take a look below.<span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #222222; font-size: small; text-align: center;">↓</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFanKVlzZFWCqG3-qFtD0tjjAQvWx5Ir-u8hL_wzz9lspmT1FWIyWK7KQhqlNRMSFGipErSfj9skwGtZ0CjB3vG2IRQ2A1lzkSUerHfqZuyhTosMuraGOD4p9OQpJmiDz1UybHNaTCmvg/s1600/Brooklyn_Theatre_Floor_Plan_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="1600" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFanKVlzZFWCqG3-qFtD0tjjAQvWx5Ir-u8hL_wzz9lspmT1FWIyWK7KQhqlNRMSFGipErSfj9skwGtZ0CjB3vG2IRQ2A1lzkSUerHfqZuyhTosMuraGOD4p9OQpJmiDz1UybHNaTCmvg/s640/Brooklyn_Theatre_Floor_Plan_2.png" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A floor plan of the lobby, again indicating where the majority of the bodies were found, in the basement, after the fire was extinguished. Needless to say, this isn't to scale, but it gives a pretty good illustration of the basic layout. The corridor above the lobby and south (Family Circle) stairway, where hundreds of Family Circle occupants were trapped, were both about the same width...seven or so feet...as the dress circle stairway. From what I gathered, The South Stairway had a landing and turn directly above the dress circle stairway.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: center;">The one emergency exit that got opened was directly beneath the Dress Circle stairway, which created a problem when many of the occupants of the Parquette Circle (The theater's first level) turned as they entered the lobby and headed for that exit rather then the main exit to Washington Street. This created a massive flow of cross traffic just as the Dress Circle occupants came down the stairs. This prevented the the Dress Circle occupants from getting off of the stairway, stopping movement on the stairs and causing a huge jam </span><span style="text-align: center;">and</span><span style="text-align: center;"> pile up on the stairway landing. This stopped <i>all</i> movement on the stairway, and trapped about half of the Dress Circle occupants on the stairs and in the Dress Circle itself.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br style="text-align: center;" /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: center;">Only the fact that Brooklyn PD's first precinct officers got there very early in the fire and broke this pile up, restoring movement and allowing the Dress Circle evacuation to continue, kept the death toll from being even higher than it already was.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Being state of the 1870s art, the Brooklyn Theater used gas for lighting, both for the building's interior lighting and the stage lighting, such as border lights and foot lights. Each individual foot/border light was surrounded by a wire screen to prevent any combustibles (and indeed, actors) from coming in contact with the gas light's open flame. The stage lighting was electrically ignited and controlled from a gas table, and could be brightened/dimmed and focused just as electrical lighting could, though not as efficiently, effectively, or, indeed, safely.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now lets talk about the backstage area. Back then, backdrops and scenes were painted on canvas stretched across light wooden frames, with the scenes for any one given play stored overhead in a huge open attic called the rigging loft and accessed using a system of pulleys and ropes known as a 'Fly system' that allowed each individual scene to be lowered and raised as needed. The entire backstage area was also spanned by a wooden painters bridge, used to paint back drops, and also mounted on a rope-and-pulley system that allowed it to be raised and lowered as needed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The stage/backstage area was separated from the auditorium by a proscenium arch that wasn't integrated with the structure of the theater but was instead built of plaster over a light-weight wooden frame, The arch also housed a 35 by 50 foot drop curtain...please note that the words 'fireproof' or 'Fire retardant' do <i>not</i> appear anywhere in that description.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Back in the day, back stage areas of theaters were multi-purpose, and not necessarily in a good way. They were used for storage of <i>and</i> construction of backdrops, scenery flats and other scenery, and could and often <i>were</i> used to store and build the scenes for multiple shows. This meant that the area was also loaded down with paints, turpentine, and oils. There's a reason, gang, that almost every theater fire started back stage.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Conways...who were picked to manage the new theater early on in the planning phase, and who oversaw it's construction...were well aware of just how quickly that backstage area could become an inferno, so they <i>insisted</i> on having a standpipe with fire hose backstage. I don't know if it was a true standpipe system...one with a fire department connection that would allow a pumper to supply the hose line...but there was indeed a dedicated 2 1/2 inch standpipe with several lengths of 2 1/2 inch hose connected to it, and the Conways decreed that it would be properly maintained, remain clear and unobstructed, and that their backstage crew would know how to use it. Once the theater was opened and running, they also required water-filled fire buckets to be located backstage, positioned so that a stage hand never had to go more than ten feet or so to grab one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">While we're at it they also required that the emergency exits remain unlocked, with clear access paths, during a performance, and they absolutely forbade anyone to use a match to light any of the gas-lights. On top of all of this, they lived on site, in the theater's third floor apartment, so they could very literally stay on top of things while drinking their morning coffee.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Conways were, in fact, a little ahead of their time when it came to fire safety. So, you may ask, with that being the case, how did the Brooklyn Theater become the scene of one of the worst fires in U.S.history? Read on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The theater opened on October 2nd, 1871 with a performance of a Lloyd Lytton penned play called <i>Money</i>. Some things haven't changed in 140 years...the new theater was advertised as 'The New Crown Jewel Of Brooklyn Theaters' for<i> months</i> before it opened, and a capacity crowd showed up to check the new venue out. The theater itself got rave reviews...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...But the performances, not so much, and the Conways had a hard time keeping the theater profitable. Much of the reason why may have been Sarah Conway's refusal to book big stars in her productions. She much preferred a cast of stock players who worked with each other all of the time rather than having to change things up every couple of weeks to accommodate the next star </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">performer...and having to</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> pay said big star appropriately big bucks...and this may well have have been both more efficient and less expensive, but it didn't fill seats.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then as now. people wanted to see <i>stars</i>...and keep in mind that, back then, there were no photo-crammed tabloids, no paparazzi, and the <i>only</i> way people got to actually<i> see</i> the stars they were fans of was to actually see them perform in a play. Also, the use of stock players had a less than stellar effect on both the quality of the performances and, </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">fairly or unfairly,</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the reviews that The Brooklyn Theater's shows received.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>All</i> of this cut into attendance, which had a pretty nasty effect on revenue, so bad that the Conways weren't able to meet the first $18000 annual rent payment (That'd be about $340,000 in today's money.). The theater's owners forgave several thousand dollars of the debt (The Conways, after all, were running the place for them) but that forgiven debt would ultimately come back to bite their kids in the butt, and would, very indirectly, set up the events leading to the fire.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Also, Frederick Conway, who was nearly twice his wife's age, suffered a variety of health problems which took away from Sarah Conway's time to manage the theater. Frederick Conway left New York a couple of years after the theater opened, moving to Manchester Massachusetts, where he passed away on September 6th, 1874, and I have a sneaking suspicion that stress related to The Brooklyn Theater's financial ups and downs had more than a little to do with his failing health.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sarah Conway continued as manager after he left, and made some changes after his death She had apparently learned one very important lesson over the last couple of years...One of the first things she did was to hire a new business manager, and give him authority to hire well-known stars to headline plays performed at the theater. She also gave him authority to contract use of more popular plays and scripts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">One genre of play that was enjoying near-runaway popularity at the time were French plays that had been adapted to the America stage, and two of the masters of this type of adaptation were a pair of gentlemen named Albert Palmer and Sheridan Shook. In what would be one of the more subtle twists of irony in history, one of the first plays to be performed in The Brooklyn Theater after the new business manager was hired was one of Palmer and Shook's more popular plays, named <i>The Two Orphans</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">With the new policies and a hit play onstage, The Brooklyn Theater finally began to show a profit, but Sarah Conway didn't get to enjoy it for long at all...she fell ill in April 1875, and died in her apartment at the theater on April 28th.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Oldest Daughter Minnie Conway took over management of the theater (And, apparently, promptly fired the business manager, which turned out to be a <i>really</i> bad decision.). Her goals were to keep the family legacy alive, as well to keep a roof over hers, her sixteen year old sister Lillian's, and her eleven year old brother Frederick Jr's heads, as all still lived in the apartment on the theater's third floor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Minnie reopened the theater after a short break for her mom's funeral and some business dealings, continuing the performances of <i>The Two Orphans</i>, with her and and Lillian assuming the roles of the titular orphans. They apparently did a pretty decent job with the roles, because the theater remained profitable. There was, however, one major problem...Sarah Conway's creditors rescinded the loan forgiveness and demanded the payment of all back rent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">From what I could gather, when Minnie closed the theater for the season in May of 1875 and announced that they were reopening in the fall, her mom's creditors showed up out of a clear blue sky, saying 'That's absolutely wonderful, and sorry for you loss, but <i>speaking</i> of your mom, we need every red cent she owed us or we're changing the locks on the building...'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Things got for more complicated...not to mention nasty...real quick. Possible shady dealings on the part of the creditors and the holding of scenery for ransom by the Conway kids was involved, with Minnie loosing big at the end of the dealings. The kids also lost their home, but events would prove this to very probably be a blessing in disguise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Albert Palmer and Sheridan Shook immediately bid on and won a new lease on the theater at a pretty hefty discount. Shook and Palmer were also the owners and proprietors of New York's well known and popular Union Square Theater, and they had their hands in the operation of a couple of other New York houses, so they were basically adding to their chain...and a chain of businesses is <i>always </i>more profitable than a single stand alone business.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (That being said, does anyone </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">not</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> think this was their game plan from the second Minnie Conway took over as manager?)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I can just about bet that the Brooklyn Theater's reopening was advertised as that of 'The <i>new</i> and <i>improved </i>Brooklyn Theater (Or the 1870s version of that much-used claim) and when it did reopen, Shook and Palmer continued the performance of <i>The Two Orphans, </i>this time casting a bonafide star...popular actress Kate Claxton...in the role of the blind orphan Louise. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This play would run until the close of the 1875/76 season in May of 1876, and it's run would continue when the Theater opened back up in the Fall for the 1876/77 season, though the decision had been made that it's run at the Brooklyn Theater would end midway through the season, in December of 1876.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja8H0ly0VrQIGn65FzDnurOX9LQDT-n2yzDPiNaFsXrbQOeoAvINscgSwUSa5T7l79pU9AyKLJlndYruA7hGGOQ10SZEdH1lYOT5vW7ACOydlttevYplSrXVrx0gcShFwzr4tnmlxNSoQ/s1600/KAte+Claxton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="439" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja8H0ly0VrQIGn65FzDnurOX9LQDT-n2yzDPiNaFsXrbQOeoAvINscgSwUSa5T7l79pU9AyKLJlndYruA7hGGOQ10SZEdH1lYOT5vW7ACOydlttevYplSrXVrx0gcShFwzr4tnmlxNSoQ/s400/KAte+Claxton.jpg" width="311" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kate Claxton</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBiWY8ELjPLr6-WUstW81eu0USbL1R171bMEqthQ2Ae-kNaUQZJ4zGCfASeQZ5v-BqS7VWpFhMd_6ohFmpl89gwR1RE9l2_aonTp9WpGaC0CZ5Q3VCRxK_FGWguTEVA1AnWzlyG-o1IYM/s1600/claxtonsarony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1051" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBiWY8ELjPLr6-WUstW81eu0USbL1R171bMEqthQ2Ae-kNaUQZJ4zGCfASeQZ5v-BqS7VWpFhMd_6ohFmpl89gwR1RE9l2_aonTp9WpGaC0CZ5Q3VCRxK_FGWguTEVA1AnWzlyG-o1IYM/s400/claxtonsarony.jpg" width="262" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kate Claxton in her signature role as Louise The Blind Orphan</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, when the theater reopened in October of 1875, things started going down-hill. Oh, the theater remained successful and profitable, but Palmer and Shook did something that sadly, <i>still</i> happens to this day. They, very literally, pushed safety into a closet somewhere, and let profit take the forefront. Remember all those fire buckets that were kept filled and spotted around the back stage areas? They were removed...probably after one of them was tripped over and spilled...to be very likely banished either to the afore-mentioned closet, or possibly the basement. Then the Flood's Alley emergency exits were locked, to prevent freeloaders from getting inside after the show started. The fire hose? It <i>may</i> have still been connected to the standpipe...or it may <i>not</i> have been. And if it <i>was </i> still connected it <i>may</i> heave still been usable...or it may <i>not</i> have been... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...And this brings us to the cold Tuesday evening, over a year later, of December 5th, 1876. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Christmas was </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">fast</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> approaching</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, and though it wasn't the uber-commercialized holiday we know and love today...that particular beast is very </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">much</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> a 20th century invention...it was still very much recognizable as Christmas. Carols...the beautiful old standards such as </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">'Silent Night'</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, and </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">'Oh Come All Ye Faithful</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">'...drifted out of churches as choirs warmed up. Christmas was already renowned for featuring good food by the ton, and a certain Jolly Old Elf, renowned for his utilization of flying reindeer while filling chimney-hung stockings with treats, was already a much-beloved tradition among the kids.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have a feeling that, at least in the big theater towns such as New York and Brooklyn, taking the kids to a play was another beloved tradition...especially for the kids, and, in New York and Brooklyn, <i>especially</i> if they were going from one side of the East River to the other. Going out to eat, a moonlight ferry ride, and getting to stay up until the unheard of hour of <i>midnight! </i>What <i>wasn't </i>to love if you were a kid, especially on a week-night!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is probably why the Family Circle...the highest and cheapest seats in the theater...ended up being the most crowded part of the theater that evening, with about 400 people queuing at the Family Circle entrance on Washington Street to climb to the second floor box office, pay fifty cents a head, and make their way through the long, winding passage to their seats. Meanwhile, around 250 people bought tickets for a buck and a half, and made their way through the trio of entrances to the Parquet circle while around 360 people ponied up a dollar apiece and climbed the stairs to the Dress Circle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Two Orphans</i> was still playing, and was near the end of a long and very successful run. Curtain time was around 7 PM, and everything went just fine up until around 11:15, as preparations were under way for the play's fifth...and final...act. If you've ever been a part of even a high school play you know that scene changes between acts are basically tightly controlled chaos. Multiply that exponentially for a professional stage production. You've got costume changes going on as stage hands hoist old backdrops and lower new ones, and push set pieces into place using long, 'T'-shaped scenery poles.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's hectic enough when only <i>one</i> play's scenes and backdrops are back stage, but on that particular Tuesday night, there was scenery and stage settings for as many as <i>five </i>different productions stuffed in the theater's backstage area. This made for some very crowded, hectic, and as it turned out, dangerous conditions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Stage hands were readying a box set...a set with walls and ceiling so it resembles a room...to be pushed on-stage while another group strained at the ropes raising the back-drop for the previous scene into the flies...and that's where things suddenly started going south.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The top right corner of the backdrop probably snagged on something...we'll never know just what...and as it was raised the canvas started tearing, pulling the backdrop crooked as it tore. More importantly and completely unnoticed, the canvas <i>kept</i> tearing as the backdrop was raised. By the time the backdrop was almost all of the way up into the flies, a strip of painted canvas several inches wide and as long as the backdrop was tall had torn loose to hang downward, it's end still stuck on whatever had snagged it. Then finally, the stage hands manning the ropes raised the backdrop far enough to yank the end of that strip of canvas free of the snag. And when it yanked loose, it started swinging, describing an airborne arc with each pull of the ropes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Remember those gas-fired border lights? The ones with the wire cage surrounding them to keep flammable objects away from the flame? That strip of canvas managed to swing right into one of those border lights. On top of that, when it swung into the border light, it also managed to slip through the tiny space between protective cage and wall...right into the flame.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As this was going on, the actors were taking their positions in the box set, which was set up to represent an old boathouse. Kate Claxton, in her signature role as the blind orphan Louise, lay upon a pile of hay as J.B. Studley and H.S. Murdoch found their marks and took their places. Just out of sight, Mary Ann Farron and Claude Barrow awaited their cues. Then they glimpsed Stage Manager J.B Thorpe, moving fast...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As you read these next few paragraphs, keep one thing in mid...<i>all </i>of the next several events happened in the space of a few short minutes. Thorpe spotted the fire at about 11:15, and the final act went for, at the most, five minutes before the panic started at around 11:20. By 11:35, everyone who would make it out alive, had....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyfGomU2bQJCwBwvYNfQvYzXwuYF0Otw2PdQcZsn3m44pzL3h9e5DhfM0bO7myld_Izx_rW3Ivp5aUQdDRDWelzdQ6Desn0FvKx6JxfC1kVkscq-joJrKERrLYbXMB9DRmzochg6PY_LY/s1600/Brooklyn_Theater_Fire_Schematic.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="921" height="566" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyfGomU2bQJCwBwvYNfQvYzXwuYF0Otw2PdQcZsn3m44pzL3h9e5DhfM0bO7myld_Izx_rW3Ivp5aUQdDRDWelzdQ6Desn0FvKx6JxfC1kVkscq-joJrKERrLYbXMB9DRmzochg6PY_LY/s640/Brooklyn_Theater_Fire_Schematic.svg.png" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A schematic of the theater (Not to scale) that both shows the
layout of the building and highlights some key events during the fire. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (1) The fire started when a scenery flat snagged on
something while being raised into the flies, tearing loose a strip of painted
canvas that came into contact with a gas border light. Attempts to extinguish
the fire were unsuccessful, as were the actors' attempts to prevent a
panic. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(2) As the fire grew, most of the stage crew escaped through the
stage and scenery doors ...these doors are left open, further setting up the
disaster. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(3) The parquet level, with plenty of exits, evacuates in under four minutes, helped along by Thomas Rocheford opening the emergency exit
beneath the Dress Circle stairway...the only one of the three emergency exits
that would be opened.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (4) Getting that door open, though, nearly doomed the
occupants of the Dress Circle, as cross traffic jammed them up as they came
down the steps (Shown in Orange), creating an human log-jam on the stairway
landing, and trapping everyone behind it. Only the timely arrival of Brooklyn
P.D and B.F.D to break the jam saved them. One group in the Dress Circle tries
to use the emergency stairway (Also in orange) and middle emergency exit, but
find it locked...they have to climb<i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> back</i> into the
now smoke filled Dress Circle, and exit down the main stairway. Thankfully the
jam-up's been broken by then.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(5) Opening the emergency exit probably sealed the fate of the
Family Circle occupants when a cross draft, entering the 20 foot wide scenery
doors, shoves the fire, smoke, and heated gasses into the auditorium, where
they rise and boil into the Family Circle. Hundreds are trapped in the
circuitous stairways and corridors leading form the Family Circle to the exit
(Shown in red) where they die.</span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The canvas probably smoked for a couple of seconds before it lit up, and when it did light off it flared brightly...but it wasn't an inferno just yet. It was just a flickering glimmer, about the size of a man's hand, when stage manager Thorpe spotted it at about 11:15, while in the middle of getting things set for the play's climactic boathouse scene. He probably went saucer eyed as he spotted the small, flickering flame, and hot-footed it across the backstage area, dodging props and soundly cursing whoever decided to remove the fire buckets, which would have made quick work of the still tiny fire. But it wouldn't <i>stay</i> tiny...it was already grabbing hold of the narrow vertical strip of painted canvas, vertical being the key point. Heat rises, and fire <i>loves</i> to climb.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">He yelled for a stage hand and headed for the fire hose, (</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">If it was even actually connected to the standpipe and in serviceable condition in the first place...more on that in 'Notes')</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> probably thinking he'd make quick work of the fire yet until he saw the stack of scenery flats, or possibly a stack of crates, that they'd have to either move or climb over to get to the hose line. That's when he made what just may have been one of the biggest mistakes of the entire night...he abandoned even </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">trying</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> to get the hose in operation, or even trying to </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">get </i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">to it...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Instead he spotted stage hands Hamilton Weaver and William Van Sicken, both of whom were holding scenery poles, pointed to the fire, and and told them to 'Try to pull it down!'. By then, the fire was out of the border light's protective cage and going up the hanging strip of canvas with a vengeance, heading for the rigging loft and flies, both packed with vertically-hung scenery flats and both only a dozen or so feet above.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Weaver and Van Sicken started beating at the flames with the scenery poles, only managing to spread it faster as they did so, while Thorpe likely told them to 'Pull it down...pull it <i>down!...</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i>
But the poles were meant for pushing rather than snagging and tearing, and in under a minute the fire had reached the scenery flat that the strip had been torn from. Flames hit that vertical slab of painted canvas like a runaway train, tearing across it and attacking the flats on either side. There were literally dozens more canvas scenery flats up there as well...Thorpe knew, when he saw the first flat light off, that the theater was doomed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Even as Thorpe extorted the two stage hands to 'Pull it<i> down!!..', </i>he signaled for the final act to begin, and the curtain rose on Kate Claxton, Studly, and Murdoch, <i>all </i>of whom had heard the commotion back stage. As they tried to figure out what was going on, Actress Lillian Cleaves, who was standing behind the box set, soto-voiced something to the effect of 'We've got a fire back here, you guys may want to think about getting out of there.....'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But the actors were scared of starting a panic, which they were pretty sure would result if they broke character and announced the fire right then, and which they well knew could be just as deadly as the fire itself, so they tried their best to preserve calm...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">All of the actors rolled right into the scene as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on, even though it was becoming more and more obvious to the audience that <i>something</i> was going on, and not something good. The cast, of course, already knew exactly <i>what</i> what was going on, figured it was bad, and had this confirmed for them when Mary Ann Farren made her entrance, recited her lines, then turned and whispered 'It's getting away from them'. Kate, in fact, had already figured that one out...the canvas ceiling of the box set was thin enough to see through, and she could see the burning scenery flats and watch as falling bits of flaming canvas landed on the box set to be swept aside by one of the scenery poles.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">When a puff-ball of smoke rolled out from beneath the proscenium arch to hang over the audience like a malicious storm-cloud, the already restive crowd began leaving their seats, some in the rear of the auditorium bailing out of one of the three doors to the lobby. Kate Claxton and the rest of the cast broke character at that point and rushed to the edge of the stage, Kate calling to everyone to keep their seats, that the fire would be under control in a few minutes (There's no way she actually <i>believed </i>this of course...she was just trying to calm the crowd down).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And that's when a burning piece of scenery flat, complete with a piece of flaming wooden frame, fell from the rigging loft, bounced off of the top of the box set, and slid across the stage, straight for Kate, who did a frantic two-step away from the burning debris as it careened into the orchestra pit...and that was all it took.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Even as the actors begged them to stay calm, telling them that they had plenty of time to get out if they remained calm, the audience members on all three levels pretty much bolted, becoming one many legged, many headed creature fighting for survival. The aisles were suddenly and all but instantaneously packed with people, and several patrons...some of them mothers holding their kids...bypassed the jammed-up aisles and climbed from seat to seat to get to one of the three exits out to the lobby. Smoke was now rolling out and up from beneath the proscenium arch to gather at the ceiling, then piling <i>downward </i>as it mushroomed. The building was filling up with smoke <i>fast, </i>and the price of your ticket had a very direct correlation to your likelihood of making it out of the theater alive...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0l2lPLmbVGlDqmiUOk1c74lwpwLSLTU46LVDhgh9WwRz2aI8WLtl1coa-MgFq5o9-qIXtW8C322Fee8B17L6BoUOB6pHIHVfhKoaLLuyt12Vgi2t7EPd2SYWCjpiNtJblfPbGdrBLoAE/s1600/KateClaxtonBrooklynTheaterFire1876b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1358" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0l2lPLmbVGlDqmiUOk1c74lwpwLSLTU46LVDhgh9WwRz2aI8WLtl1coa-MgFq5o9-qIXtW8C322Fee8B17L6BoUOB6pHIHVfhKoaLLuyt12Vgi2t7EPd2SYWCjpiNtJblfPbGdrBLoAE/s640/KateClaxtonBrooklynTheaterFire1876b.jpg" width="542" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One of two artists renditions, from two different angles, that I found of the actors trying to prevent a panic.<br /><br />That attempt, though both noble and brave, was less than successful, and the artist absolutely nailed the sense of terrified panic that erupted in the theater, though he may have exaggerated the level of panic in the parquet circle, if only slightly. The Parquet level, being on the ground floor and having the most exits, actually emptied pretty quickly, in less than four minutes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The artist also included the burning debris that Kate Claxton had to quick-step away from, though his time-line's off by a few seconds...the panic started in earnest immediately after that happened. Here, the panic is in full-swing as it's falling. I understand why he took this liberty, though...it both adds drama to the pic and explains what did indeed actually happen. This drawing, BTW, is likely the more accurate of the two in illustrating what the interior of the theater looked like. </span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxQJR5IASsU87theQqhL0BVY4dA98OAygcx3uoVB-xtnS5LipY67XFVTcSgunuu8sb5K61CmytppI3NbReJikQImhlIvow6gza4crK6zoFiNqojhA1exTsFvYeSxfoUKrukOyL-7ulJ9k/s1600/brooklyn+theatre+fire+1876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="517" data-original-width="802" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxQJR5IASsU87theQqhL0BVY4dA98OAygcx3uoVB-xtnS5LipY67XFVTcSgunuu8sb5K61CmytppI3NbReJikQImhlIvow6gza4crK6zoFiNqojhA1exTsFvYeSxfoUKrukOyL-7ulJ9k/s640/brooklyn+theatre+fire+1876.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The second artists rendition, from, I believe, a book on famous disasters from that era. This artist took a lot of liberties here. The decor wasn't quite that grandiose, the building wasn't this heavily involved yet when the cast was trying to calm the crowd, and the balconies were nowhere <i>near</i> this large. The Dress Circle had a capacity of 550, and the Family Circle 450, far smaller than the balcony in this drawing, which looks more like the home-side stands at a college football stadium.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One thing the artist <i>did</i> get right, though, was the fact that the parquet level emptied quickly, while the balconies became scenes of desperate bedlam. </span></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The actors took one look at the human logjam at the exits and absolutely <i>knew...</i>wrongly in this case...that going out with the crowd would just get them trapped. Of course, they were scary-close to being trapped anyway. The rigging loft and flies were fully involved by then, fire had extended to the stage, the box set was likely burning briskly, and every couple of seconds the stage would shudder as another burning scenery flat slammed down to the floor backstage. The stage crew had already evacuated through both the stage door, and the twenty foot wide scenery doors (Its quite possible, in fact that they tried to save some of the scenery or props stored back stage while they were at it) but it only took one look to convince the four actors that there was no way they'd make it to the stage door.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Passage between the dressing rooms and the box office!" Kate Claxton exclaimed, but they had another problem </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">that would lead to the demise of one of their number</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...their costumes were </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">not</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> designed to be worn outside on a cold late fall evening. Their dressing rooms were in their own passageway on the left side of the backstage area as you faced the stage, and to reach them, according to a couple of sources, they had to go up at least one flights of stairs. All four of them bailed up the already smoke choked stairway, and Murdoch ran towards his dressing room to grab a heavy coat...it would be the last any of them saw of him. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kate Claxton feared that several of her cast mates were still in their dressing rooms, so she started knocking on dressing room doors, yelling that the theater was on fire and they had to get out <i>now!.</i> Fellow actress Maude Harrison opened her dressing room door, going wide-eyed when she saw the fog-bank of smoke, and hurried out...she, Mary Farren, and Kate Claxton hauled ass back down the steps, and nearly got lost in the thickening smoke as they searched for the door to the private passage between dressing room hallway and box office. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">All but blinded and coughing their lungs out, they finally found it, racing down the narrow passageway towards the front of the theater. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There was very likely a side passage that led to the private stairway to the offices and apartment, which would have led to an exit out to Washington Street, but it was useless to them because it was probably guarded by a locked door, with only those authorized to use it having a key. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">They didn't even try the door to the stairway passage, knowing it would be locked, but they still had yet <i>another</i> maybe-problem, a big one at that. The door by the box office, Kate knew, was on a spring lock (Probably a dead bolt that needed a key on both sides) and if it was closed, they were trapped...but as they approached the door, Kate was almost gleefully relieved to see it sitting ajar by a couple of inches. The three women hit the door like Notre Dame's Four Horsemen hitting the opposing line, and burst into the throng coming from the parquet circle. They weren't at all bothered by the cold as they stumbled out of the theater's main entrance...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As the cast was struggling to escape, chief usher Thomas Rocheford was hustling. He first tried to calm the panicked throng trying to force their way into the lobby, but only managed to come scary-close to getting trampled to death for his efforts. Then he remembered the emergency exits out to Flood's Alley, the closest of which was diagonally across the lobby, beneath the stairs up to the Dress Circle. Rocheford forced his way out of the panicked mob </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">tumbling through the </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">parquet circle's </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">exits and </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">scrambling towards the main entrance, also managing </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">to avoid the leading edge of the mob tumbling down the Dress Circle stairs as he ducked under the staircase, yelling 'I've got another door!!' as he tugged on the latch...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...Only to find it frozen. Not just locked...frozen by corrosion because the thing had been closed and locked since Palmer and Shook took over the theater well over a year ago. And now a <i>new</i> crush of people, all of them all but insane with panic, was slamming him against the door as he tugged frantically at the latch. They'd be saved by one of those chance occurrences that almost had to have been fate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A couple of hours earlier, Rocheford had found what sounded, from the description I read, like a mini-prybar, about four or so inches long and sturdy, in the box office as he talked to the ticket-taker. Without even thinking about it, he shoved it into a pocket. He instantly remembered his mini jimmy-bar, yanked it out of his pocket, shoved the chisel end in between the latch and the jam, and heaved on it for all he was worth, face contorted with effort. There was a metallic 'SNLINK! as the latch broke free, but <i>then </i>Roche had to force the inward-swinging doors open against the frantic crowd of people pressing against it and him. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Somehow he managed to force it open, then did some seriously frantic footwork to avoid being either trampled to death or carried outside as the crowd surged through the door like soda spurting from a just shaken, just opened bottle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">His <i>next</i> thought was the middle of the three emergency exits, about halfway between the lobby and the stage, and serving as a secondary exit for both the Parquet Circle <i>and</i> the Dress Circle. He turned and tried to force his way </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">through the on-rushing crowd and </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">back across the lobby to the nearest Parquet Circle entrance, but probably didn't even make it out from under the stairway before the panicked, rolling human avalanche rolled over him, carrying him with them. This time they </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">did </i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">drag him him through the emergence exit and out to Flood's Ally, where the though 'try to open it from the outside' apparently never occurred to him. The third emergency exit...hard by the stage...was already surrounded by fire and totally inaccessible at that point. If Rocheford had looked towards Johnson Street as he tumbled out of the emergency exit, he would have probably seen an ominous orange glow reflecting off of the fronts of the buildings on the other side of that street...fire was already rolling out of the stage door.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The crush of people boiling through the three exits from the Parquet Circle to the lobby thinned out to a trickle, then petered out entirely in something under four minutes from the time Kate Claxton danced away from that falling piece of scenery. Thanks to it's being the least crowded section of the theater, with plenty of exits into the lobby and two available exits from the building, everyone made out out of the Parquet Circle quickly, and alive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">While Rocheford opening the emergency exit likely saved many of the Parquet Circle's occupants, it also caused two <i>more</i> problems. First, the crowd coming down from the Dress Circle would, for a critical couple of minutes, run head on into a cross-current of humanity surging across the lobby from the Parquet Circle exits to the Flood's Alley exit, causing a jam on the stairs. And second, that same open door would help set up the event that would ultimately doom almost everyone in the Family Circle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The 350 or so Dress Circle occupants were further away from the stage than the people in the Parquet Circle, but they were also up close and personal with the heavy smoke that was rolling out from the backstage area, piling up at the ceiling level of the theater, and mushrooming downward to roll into the Family and Dress Circles like a malignant fog-bank. This was some <i>nasty</i> smoke, too...loaded with byproducts of burning turpentine and paint as well as wood and canvas, it was dark, putrid, caustic, and entirely unbreathable, and the Dress Circle crowd nearly trampled each other to death in the balcony as they tried to get away from it, crowding aisles and climbing across seat backs...and each other...as all 350 or so of them tried desperately to get down the stairway at the same time, panicking just as hard and desperately as the Parquet Circle patrons below them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This avalanche of humanity tumbled down the seven foot wide Dress Circle stairway like a flood down a spill-way, the leading edge of the crowd somehow making it around around the ninety degree turn at the landing and slamming into and merging with the crowd coming out of the Parquet Circle and heading towards Washington Street. Then Rocheford got the emergency exit opened, and a good half of the Parquet Circle crowd wheeled around and headed for that exit...straight into the panicked mob tumbling down from the Dress Circle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Movement on the Dress Circle stairway first slowed, then stopped as it pressed against the crush heading for the emergency exit. but those not yet on the stairs were desperate to escape the thickening smoke boiling into the Dress Circle itself, and kept pushing onto the stairway, pushing those on that 90 degree landing either against the wall, or around the turn and down the steps. It was inevitable that a couple of people would fall. Problem was, after these first couple of people fell, more people kept coming, clamoring and climbing over those ahead of them, and while a very few made it through, most just tripped and fell over those already on the floor, then became inextricably stuck as <i>more</i> people climbed over or fell on <i>them</i> until there was a human log-jam as high as the railing and almost as large as the landing on that stair way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And then movement in the dress circle just...stopped, and no amount of shoving, pushing, or screaming and cursing could get the crowd moving again. Screams of terror and despair from <i>above</i> them...the Family Circle...just made their situation even more desperate and horrible. Even as the people still trapped in the Dress Circle just stopped moving, the smoke kept banking down relentlessly, rapidly filling the balcony. A coupe of people remembered the second emergency exit, and the emergency stairway, and they, along with a dozen or so others, rushed through the arched doorway onto the emergency stairs...probably a straight shot down, possibly with a small 'straight-thru' landing midway...and fell up against the middle emergency exit. And, when they tugged desperately at the latch, they found the exact same thing that Rocheford found at the first emergency exit...the latch was not only locked, but also corroded and frozen tight, and, unlike Rocheford, they didn't have a mini-prybar or any other tool to break it free.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A wall separated the stairway and emergency exit from the Parquet Circle, probably with an archway allowing access from the Parquet circle to the exit, and the very next thought this crew likely had was 'Everyone made it out of the Parquet Circle, we'll just go out of those exits', which seemed like a good plan until the wheeled through the arch, and stopped short, staring at a scene straight out of hell. The stage crew had bailed out of the stage door early in the fire, leaving it wide open and possibly trying to save some of the scenery while they were at it, and the twenty foot wide scenery door was not only open, it was <i>blocked</i> open, by either a crate or a scenery flat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">That big scenery door hanging wide open was bad enough by itself, but it quickly got worse. See, when Rocheford popped that emergency exit open, he also gave the fire just what it needed most.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fire loves oxygen the way a kid loves candy, and with both doors opened, a brisk cross-draft shoved the fire bodily across the stage and into the auditorium, so when the crew at the middle emergency exit looked out of the arch between the exit and auditorium, they saw what looked like a horizontal volcano. A seething mass of flame had rolled over both the box set and the proscenium arch leaving only burning frames. The fire roared out of the backstage area and boiled upward into the smoke filling the auditorium, lighting the free-space between the bottom of the fast-lowering smoke cloud and the seats in an unholy orange glare straight from hell. Flames were taking off across the first several rows of seats like a forest fire. The heat was like ten thousand summer days rolled into one...there was absolutely <i>no</i> way they could make it through the auditorium and to the lobby.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">They only had one choice...go back up the steps and try to fight their way down the Dress Circle stairway. Their timing, I have a sneaking suspicion, was very possibly the luckiest of the entire night.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kate Claxton possibly headed directly to the BPD's First Precinct station, next door to the theater, when she made it out of the main entrance, and I have a feeling several of the first people who made it out were right behind her, so it's a toss up as to who was the first to frantically yell...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i> 'The theater's on fire and there are still people inside!!!!' </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...as they rushed through the front doors of the police station. BPD Sgt John Cain was on duty and in charge of the First Precinct's evening shift, and as soon as he heard 'Fire' and 'People Inside' he grabbed several men, sent one to pull a street box (Or possibly pulled what would be called a 'Building Box' or 'Local Box' today, inside the police station), then hit the front doors of the station at a dead run, hanging a right and bailing down the sidewalk towards the theater's main entrance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There were several dozen people milling around on the street, but otherwise Sgt Cain was wondering if he and his crew had just gotten pranked. There was absolutely <i>nothing</i> showing from the Washington Street side of the building. But stragglers were still coming out of the open front doors, there was a nasty smell of smoke in the air (Structure fire smoke has a distinctive aroma that you never <i>ever</i> forget once you smell it) and there was yelling and screaming coming from inside the building. He and his men ran inside (Noticing the haze hanging in the gas lights, which were still on....for now...) and then saw the stairway landing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">People were stacked to the height of the stairway railings and packed tight between railing and wall, covering every square inch of the landing. Building janitor Mike Sweeney was desperately pulling people from the pile, but the panicked crowd kept coming down the stars, and it seemed that three more people would would pile on for every one he pulled off. Cain and several cops ran up the steps to the landing...glancing in one of the exits from auditorium to lobby to see the mass of flames that used to be the stage while they were at it...</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and started roughly and quickly yanking people off of the top of the pile and sending them down the steps and towards the main entrance. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">That glance in the auditorium told them they didn't have much time. so, working <i>fast,</i> they untangled the pile from top down, threatening anyone who tried to rush forward with a pummeling-by-nightstick and, probably within a minute or so at the most, got the crowd on the stairway moving again. By the time they heard the thundering hooves and clanging bells announcing the arrival of first due BFD Engine 5 and second due Engine 6, twin floods of frantic people were again pouring from the main and emergency entrances, this time from the Dress Circle. (Sgt Cain strikes me as having a pretty good grasp of what he was doing...I'm willing to bet he and his crew split the crowd, sending them to both exits so as not to create another jam-up).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Smoke and heat were rolling into the Dress Circle balcony as the group who'd gone down to the emergency exit, only to find it locked, hustled back up the steps to the balcony. Smoke was probably banked down almost to the tops of the seat backs, so they probably had to crouch to see where they were going and, more importantly, breath air that wouldn't kill them. as they made their way up the side aisle, between the seats and the east (Flood's Alley) wall, to the main Dress Circle stairway. As they crab walked under the smoke, they noticed two things...first, the gas lights were getting dimmer...<i>far</i> more light was coming from the burning stage than from the lights, and second, and far more importantly at that moment, they weren't running into the back end of the crush of people. In fact, they didn't see anyone else until they got almost to the stairway, and when they ran into the back end of what had been a crush, they were moving, and moving pretty quickly, assisted by both BPD and BFD's guys..</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have a feeling the lights went out for good about the time they got on the stairs, but this ended up being all but a non-issue for them because smoke hadn't mushroomed all the way down to the first floor yet (And fire may have cooked through the roof over the stage by then, venting the building, and actually pulling some of the smoke <i>out</i> of the theater) and the eerie, flaring orange glow issuing from the three exits from the parquet circle was lighting the lobby up all the way to the box office. Thanks to Brooklyn PD's First Precinct officers, Brooklyn FD, and more
than a little luck, everyone in the Dress Circle made it out. Our intrepid crew who had to fight their way <i>back</i> into and through the smoke-filled hell that was the Dress Circle were very possibly the luckiest ones of the bunch.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">BFD started arriving in
force at about 11:22PM...about the same time the crush broke and people started moving
again and soon enough for some of the first arriving firefighters to assist with the final bit of the Dress Circle evacuation. Brooklyn's fire department had been a paid department since 1869 and I have a feeling, just from things I read while researching this one, that as of Dec 5th, 1878, they didn't yet have gongs in the stations. They probably had citywide bells in several locations...possibly even at the stations...with the street boxes kicking in mechanical bell ringers that sounded the box number on bells that could be heard city-wide.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">However the guys were alerted, everyone other than the firefighters on 'House Watch' were probably in bed when the bells started banging out a box number right around 11:20 PM. In a tradition that lasted in one form or the other for a century or more in Brooklyn and the FDNY, the house-watch man at, say, Engine 5, counted the bell strokes, determined that they were due on the box, quick-walked to the side of the foot of the stairs and shouted the box number, followed by something like:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>'First Precinct, Building Box, First Due on da box!!!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">He was at the<i> side</i> of the stairs because the guys were already pounding down the steps to the apparatus floor...most if not all firefighters knew the boxes they were due on by heart...and the iconic fireman's pole wouldn't be introduced for nearly another decade, so a night time run meant a scramble down the stairs to the rigs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This was taking place in probably four stations...Engines 5, 6, and 8 and ladder 3. As the bells bonged into the night firefighters dropped harnesses on well-trained horses who had already trotted into position by the time the crews got down stairs. Burning tapers were tossed into oily waste in a trio of fire boxes as the horses, as eager to go as the firefighters, pawed cobblestone floors while</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">drivers and officers mounted seats and firefighters mounted hose wagons and back steps, A quick flick of the reins as the officer called 'GO!, and they were rolling.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">First due Engine 5 had a <span style="font-family: inherit;">short run</span>...the theater was only about a third of a mile from their station on <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Pierrepont St, less than a five minute run even in the horse-drawn era... so all they had to do was hang a right coming out of the station, go a </span><span style="color: #222222;">couple</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> of hundred feet, hang a left on Fulton Street (Cadman Plaza West today), go north for less than a block, and swing right on Johnson just a half block or so shy of Washington Street. </span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcIrM_GXRmHGH4M8r8UYgYh7xVp4oRwOOnN-tSpgVEMjWQg8q64NwypzoxEaQHACOrdIGWQIiWQ06qNv61JWnZjP-0-TRytPj2AfT5QqTkabLn0wPZ8rJKEdNySHSWJaZCFTspWU5n9qk/s1600/Brooklyn+Theater+Site+overlay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="748" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcIrM_GXRmHGH4M8r8UYgYh7xVp4oRwOOnN-tSpgVEMjWQg8q64NwypzoxEaQHACOrdIGWQIiWQ06qNv61JWnZjP-0-TRytPj2AfT5QqTkabLn0wPZ8rJKEdNySHSWJaZCFTspWU5n9qk/s640/Brooklyn+Theater+Site+overlay.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The satellite image of Cadman Plaza (Washington Street) and Johnson Street today, with the 19th Century plot map overlaid...the crosshatched area indicated the theater's former footprint. As I noted earlier in the posts, the street grid still matches up perfectly, save for Myrtle Street, which no longer exists in the area of Cadman Plaza. Look directly to the east of Myrtle Street on the overlay, though, and you'l see Myrtle Promenade, which becomes Myrtle Ave.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I've also indicated the locations and distances from the theater of the Brooklyn Fire department stations that existed at the time. Brooklyn Engine 5 was literally just around the corner from the theater, on Pierrepont Street...Only about a third of a mile away. Even in the horse drawn era, they had only about a two or three minute response time. Engines 6 and 8 were almost as close, located 4/10s and 6/10s of a mile away respectively.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In that era, the entire block containing the theater was packed with three and four story buildings, while frame houses were both hard by and directly across both Johnson Street and Floods Ally from the theater. The theater in fact, surrounded the Dieter Hotel...BFD's guys did an awesome job holding the fire to the building of origin. Keep in mind that, for the first several hours of the operation, they though just about everyone had gotten out of the theater. Finding out that in reality, <i>hundreds</i> of lives had been lost <i>had</i> to have been a brutal and horrible shock the next morning</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">First due BFD Engine 5 in their original quarters on Pierrepont Street, right around the corner from the theater. </span></td></tr>
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<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Second due BFD Engine 6, in front of their original quarters on High Street, 4/10s of a mile from the theater. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Third due BFD Engine 8 in front of their original quarters on Front Street, just over half a mile from the theater. Stations were <i>much </i>closer together back in that era<i>.</i> These pics were taken some time after the theater fire, but it's still possible that some of the same guys who responded to the theater were still assigned to these companies. Paid firefighters very literally lived at the stations back then, but they were still transferred between stations fairly regularly. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It's also very possible that the three steamers pictured in these three photos are the very same rigs that responded to the theater fire. Then as now fire apparatus was highly specialized and crazy-expensive, and when a municipality bought new rigs they generally meant for them to be in service for a decade or so, at least.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There's something interesting about Engine 8's original house.BTW...but we'll hit that in 'Notes'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">All three of the above photos courtesy NYFD.com, originally sourced, I believe, from the FDNY's Fire Museum.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">A high, wide column of smoke, darker than the night sky and orange-tinged by the flames roiling out of the stage doors, was already surging skyward as Engine 5 made the turn onto Fulton, and, as the guys spotted it and shouted 'We got us one!' or similar words they were also speculating as to just which of the several buildings near that box they had going. <i>That</i> question was answered in dramatic fashion when Engine 5's two-wheeled hose wagon and big Amoskeag steamer wheeled to the right onto Johnson, and the crew spotted flames boiling out of both the stage door and the 20 foot wide scenery doors, rolling halfway across Johnson Street, then curling upward, lighting the narrow street up like daylight. Even from a block away they could hear the crackle and rumble of fire over the clatter of wheels, pounding of hooves, and clanging of the apparatus bells. Something...maybe a scenery flat or a crate...was protruding from the scenery door like a burning tongue sticking out of a fire-breathing demon's mouth, and several men were backing away from the door, facts that Engine 5's veteran foreman (Lieutenant today) Fred Manning made note of </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">even as he spotted a couple of hundred people milling around on Washington Street.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Second Due Engine 6 was only about a tenth of a mile further away, coming from the east, off of Jay Street, and just may have been coming down Johnson Street from the other end as Engine 5 pounded towards the burning theater from Fulton Street...Manning probably had his crew hold up at Johnson and Washington...they could start hitting it from two sides and hopefully keep it confined to the theater...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">"Fred!!!' Manning looked around to see a BPD 1st Precinct officer standing next to the pumper, pointing and gesturing towards the theater's main entrance. "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">'We still got people inside on the stairs!!!" </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">And <i>that</i> changed the game plan in a big way...Life has always come before property. Engine 6 could start setting up the fire attack...Manning probably took his crew and headed for the main entrance of the theater. I have a feeling that, even as the crew headed for the main entrance, the sky suddenly lit up as flames cooked through the roof above the stage and boiled upward into the smoke column, lighting it from within.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Crown Jewel of Brooklyn's Theaters wasn't long for the world, nor were nearly 300 of it's occupants.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">Smoke rolled across the theater's high ceiling and into the Family Circle early on in the incident, and it's very possible the Family Circle's occupants realized just how bad the situation was a minute or so earlier than everyone else, They didn't believe Kate Claxton's declaration that it was a minor incident for even a second, panicking and bolting as acrid, eye and lung burning smoke began banking down and filling the gallery. Four hundred people were all trying to get through the curtained exit and down that first short stairway, around the turn, and down the second stairway, against the theater's </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">south wall at the same time. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">The curtain in the archway at the Family Circle entrance probably got ripped down early on as parents tried to shield their kids, only to be separated from them, and people literally climbed over each other to get out. Charles Straub and Joe Kreamer had seats in the back of the gallery, very near the exit, and they both decided that the time to un-ass the building was 'now' when smoke boiled into the gallery, so they were on the leading edge of the seething mob pouring out of the Family Circle. They made it down the first short stairway, around that first ninety degree turn at the landing, and rode the crest of the panicked human wave down the south stairway's steps, stumbling and catching themselves a couple of times until they hit the bottom of the stairs and had to hang a right into the corridor that crossed over the lobby.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">A panicked mob moves through a passage very much like a flood-swollen river crashing through a street, bouncing off of obstacles or rolling over them rather than going around. Charles Straub somehow made it around the turn to ride the crowd down that corridor, but I have a feeling that his friend Joe Kreamer got slammed into the wall, and trapped there by the crowd. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">Straub actually fell once, and felt the soles of his fellow theater-goers' shoes slamming across him for a second or two until he somehow managed to drag himself up and regain his footing. Smoke had followed them into the corridor, and he noticed the gas lights getting dimmer as he pounded towards the final turn and last flight of steps, thinking that the lights were dimming due to the smoke, but actually</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> the gas lines had been breached, and gas pressure was dropping (Even as the escaping gas helped feed the fire).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;"> Somehow Straub managed to keep his footing and ride the crest of the human wave down the corridor past the Family circle box office and around the turn onto the stairway down to the entrance (Managing also to avoid Joe Kreamer's likely fate),<i> then</i> down the stairway itself, likely stumble-tumbling the whole way, finally emerging into the chilly chaos of Washington Street about the same time the first of the Dress Circle survivors emerged from the main entrance. He'd later tell investigators and reporters that he thought that around 25 people got out before he did and a similar number after him...he waited for about 45 minutes, but his friend Joe Kreamer never came out, nor did Straub ever see him again. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Charles Vine had been sitting in one of the Family Circle's front rows when Kate Claxton claimed that the fire was minor, and while Vine applauded her nerve and bravery he knew she was lying, because he could see the smoke already wafting across the ceiling as well as the flicker of flames backstage. When the Family Circle occupants all but stampeded the exit, Vine was right behind them, at least for a second or so, until he saw men literally running over women and pushing kids to the floor. He quickly realized that the stairways and corridors leading to the street were becoming death traps, so he stopped and looked for another way out. He first made his way across the gallery, to a window on the Flood's Alley side of the building, thinking he could jump. He shoved the window up, looked out...and realized that he'd have a 40 or so foot drop onto a cobblestone street if he jumped. Most likely instant death when he slammed into the pavement, horrible, debilitating injury at the best. He quickly scrapped that idea, and looked around for a plan 'B', knowing he 'd have to work fast to have <i>any</i> chance of making out of the building alive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The din had become unimaginable in the few seconds since he'd left his seat, with mothers calling for children and husbands, men cursing and calling for their wives, and children scream-crying high-pitched wails of terror. Smoke was really beginning to roll into the balcony, finding it's way into lungs and adding seizure-like coughing to the shouts and screams. He had to get out of here <i>now</i>, Vine knew...he quick-walked to the half-wall at the front of the balcony and looked down. The Dress Circle extended several rows farther out than the Family Circle, so he was actually looking down at the third or so row of the Dress Circle's seats, and that would only be a 15 or so foot drop . He climbed over, then hung on to the edge of the half wall, hanging for a second or two before letting go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">When he landed he managed to straddle a seat back, and the decorative iron filigree on the seat ripped his trousers and tore into his thigh before he flipped over backwards and folded into a heap between two seats, smacking his head on something while he was at it. He pulled himself upright and found himself bleeding but alive. And wonder of wonders, he found the Dress Circle all but empty. He turned towards the exit, jumping as someone with the same idea but far less luck than him bounced off of the Dress Circle's half wall and plummeted into the parquet circle. Vine limped to the exit and down the steps just as Sweeney, Cain, and Engine 5's guys were getting the last of the Dress Circle occupants off of the stairway. He looked down to see a woman who had been trampled by the crush, picked her up, and carried her to the Washington Street exit. He was probably the last Family Circle occupant to make it out alive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As Charles Straub all but tumbled down the steps leading to the Family Circle's street exit in a controlled fall, one of the panic-crazed patrons in the deadly passageway behind him also fell, and as he or she fell, everyone else kept stampeding over them, trampling them, until finally another person tripped over them, and <i>that</i> person's fall brought down a third person, then a fourth and fifth tripped over them... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...And suddenly it was a deadly game of dominoes as more people fell while everyone behind the fast-growing pile up kept coming and trying to pile, climb, or jump over the fallen mass of people, only succeeding in adding to the pile as everyone behind <i>them</i> piled on, fell, and trapped <i>them</i>. This in turn trapped the people who were still on the south stairway, who <i>still</i> tried to push their way into the corridor. With-in seconds there was a pile of intertwined, tangled, terrified people stacked 4 feet deep for nearly the entire length of the corridor...and it only got worse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;">First, the lights finally dimmed to inconspicuous glimmers, then died completely as the gas lines burned through, and gas pressure dropped to zilch, leaving them in pitch black darkness, sending wails of pure animal terror echoing through the corridor. Then, when Rocheford opened the emergency exit and that cross </span>draft from the stage doors turned the burning stage into a raging inferno, shoving the smoke and fire out into the auditorium, all that smoke and fire rolled across the theater's ceiling and directly into the Family Circle. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222;"> There was enough pressure behind the smoke to slam a solid horizontal column of heat and smoke bodily down the stairs and into the corridor at tremendous speed, One second the panicked mob fighting their way through the twisting passageway were in clear, breathable air, the next second an avalanche of thick, caustic smoke boiled through the passage, engulfing them, and the next breath they took was a lung full of caustic acid, their eyes burning as smoke mingled with tears. And it was at that second that many of those who died breathed their last.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">When the fire popped through the roof over the stage it ventilated the building, actually drawing smoke <i>out </i>of the structure and clearing the Dress Circle of smoke </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(This may have even happened as the group who tried to use the center emergency door made their way back up to the Dress Circle, facilitating their escape)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...but not the Family Circle or the twisting passageway to the Family Circle exit. After they cleared the stairway, BFD District Chief Engineer (Equivalent to a Battalion Chief today) Farley took a crew up and into the Dress Circle to make a quick search, Crouching through that doorway was like walking into a scene form Dante's Inferno, with crazy shadows, swirling smoke, and a boiling, rolling smoke ceiling flaring orange at them as it reflected the flames from the burning stage and parquet circle. The balcony itself was orange hued from the flames and even with the building vented, they felt like they were touring the inside of an operating furnace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Farley and his firefighters called '<i>Anybody in here</i>!' several times to be answered only by the rumble of flames and ominous crashing sounds from back stage...the building was beginning to come apart on them. Another crew made it maybe a quarter way to the burning stage in the Parquet circle, watching flames leapfrog across seats as they also called out to anyone still inside the theater...neither crew found anyone, and Chief Farley, knowing exactly what those ominous crashes meant, told everyone to back out.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Out on Washington Street, a third crew made it into the Family Circle entrance and up the steps, but no further, probably meeting a wall of smoke and definitely meeting a wall of darkness as soon as they hit the corridor...they never got within yards of the pile-up of bodies, and even if they had, it wouldn't have made a difference.. Needless to say, they got no response when they called out. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Brooklyn Chief of Department Tom Nevins probably recognized the box number when the bells banged it out, knew it was in the high value district near City Hall, and decided to respond from home, or he may have been responding from a station, but which ever it was, he arrived on scene at about 11:26 PM, probably as the Dress Circle evacuation was finishing up and just before the searches took place. He <i>knew</i> the building was lost as soon as he rolled up, and on top of that he had an <i>evil</i> list of exposure problems facing him.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"> The Dieter Hotel was <i>severely</i> exposed, butting up to the burning theater on two sides, while the First Precinct station, which butted up against the burning theater's south wall, was only slightly less severely exposed. There was a row of frame houses across Flood's Alley from the fire, and the wind was threatening to take the fire across Johnson Street. The very <i>first</i> thing he did is send an aid to the nearest box, telling him, basically, 'Hell with a second, strike the third alarm', and and told him to, after he struck the third, make a lap around the building to report on conditions. (In these long ago, pre-radio days and right on up to the mid or late 1950s or so, the OIC of a fire would stay pretty much rooted, where he could be found, and have an aid come to him to report on conditions. While the Incident Commander still stays at the Command Post today, modern communication technology makes it far easier for he or she</span><span style="color: #222222;"> to keep themselves aware of conditions on a fire scene, especially a large, complicated scene such as the theater fire.).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">I'm guessing here, but Chief Nevins probably set his command post up at Washington and Johnson, or maybe at the First Precinct...both were centrally located and away from the main body of fire. The roof was in over the stage and possibly over part of the auditorium by then, and fire was probably blowing thirty or more feet straight up, rolling into the smoke column that it was punching skyward, and the entire area was lit up like noon-time. The aid ran down Johnson Street, past Engine 5, (whose engineer was setting up a water supply as other firefighters pulled line off of the hose wagon), and the hotel, trotting towards the orange-lit rectangles that had been the stage and scenery doors (With the roof gone, the fire was rolling straight up and no longer rolling out of the doors.) He stopped short when he cleared the hotel, and looked over at the Johnson Street side of the building. The doors were not the only openings showing fire...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">"Holeeee Sh..." The aide spun and hauled ass back down Johnson Street...in the background he could hear the citywide bells banging out '3-3-3' and the box number as the second and third alarms were dispatched together. 'Were' gonna <i>need</i> em' he thought as he yelled 'Chief...<i>Chief!' </i>Chief Nevins turned to look at him; "If we've got anyone in the building we need 'em out, Johnson Street wall's getting ready to go!' </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">District Eng. Farley had already pulled his people out of the building (And probably also reported to Chief Nevins that they found no one inside) so Chief Nevins began setting up for a long, <i>long</i> defensive operation, and even as he made sure everyone <i>was</i> out of the theater, then sent crews into the Dieter Hotel to make sure it had been evacuated, and deployed the incoming second and third alarm companies, they heard a crunching crash...the upper portion of the Johnson Street side of the theater had folded in on itself and collapsed inward, kicking the lintels over the stage and scenery doors and the wall between the two doors outward as it did so. When the wall fell in, it probably took most of the back stage and stage into the basement along with it, as well as a hunk of the parquet circle and some of the Dress and Family Circles. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The collapse opened the auditorium wing up wide, allowing a humongous influx of air to pour into the building, shoving the fire all the way through the wing and out into the lobby. As the auditorium wing became fully involved, Chief Nevins made a decision. This was decades before there were any master stream devices or aerial ladders/water towers capable of delivering 'Big Water'...500 GPM plus in a single stream...and their only option was 2 1/2 inch hand lines capable of flowing around 250 GPM apiece. Most of Brooklyn's engines were probably 2nd size steamers, capable of pumping 600 GPM, and Brooklyn had 13 engine companies at the time. With 3 alarms in, Nevin probably had 9 of them on scene.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The theater, he well knew, was lost, Let it burn out and use his resources to keep the fire from taking the entire block. OF course, fire was lighting up the night sky and punching an orange-bottomed smoke column skyward that was visible for <i>miles</i>, and people were showing up in groups to watch the fire, even catching the ferry over from New York. At one point as many as 5000 people were watching the theater burn as firefighters fought...pretty successfully, I might add...to contain the fire to the building of origin. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The fight to save the rest of the block turned into an all-night battle, and Chief Nevins' exact tactics and just how he deployed his resources have been lost to history, unless there's a nearly century and a half old fire report hiding out in some New York City basement somewhere. I can just about bet, though, that put lines on the roof of the First Precinct, possibly put lines </span><span style="color: #222222;">inside</span><span style="color: #222222;"> and possibly on the roof of the hotel, and had engines on hydrants on all four corners of the block, with firefighters pouring water onto the exposures, and possibly into the fire. They not only kept the fire from taking the block, thanks to the fact that the theater's smaller entrance wing was separated from the auditorium by a solid wall, they actually kept it out of the theater's second and third floor offices and apartment.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Brand control would have been a huge part of the job as the burning theater spit sparks and firebrands the size of dinner plates skyward, and firefighters kept a Niagara of water on the exposures to keep the brands from lighting them off. Pumpers chugged loudly, punching smoke columns skyward that rivaled the smoke from the fire itself . Then, sometime around 1:00 AM there was a drawn out, clattering crash as the Flood's Alley wall kicked out and collapsed into the narrow passageway, exposing the houses across the alley to massive radiant heat, and likely causing the quick redeployment of lines to protect them. At least, Chief Nevins likely thought to himself as the cold, fiery night dragged on and on, it looks like everyone got out...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">OF course, the Chief didn't know that, as the balconies and that convoluted set of stairways and passages that provided access to the family circle collapsed into the basement, they took the bodies of nearly three hundred people with them. They wouldn't realize this grisly fact for hours.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Kate Claxton, if she did indeed go to the 1st Precinct station immediately after she got out of the theater, slipped out sometime later, and silently freaked out. A reporter found her wandering on Washington Street an hour or more after the fire started, still dressed only in her costume and shivering with cold. and assisted her back to the police station, where she was placed in the Captain's office under the care of a police officer. She was sobbing softly, wondering where H.S.Murdoch (Who had perished in his dressing room, unbeknownst to anyone at that point) and asking them to search for him. Ultimately a coat was found for her and she was driven to the Pierrepoint House, at Hicks and Montague Streets, where the cast was staying.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">As Kate Claxton was taken care of and driven to her hotel, the fire slowly burned out. The south wall above the 1st Precinct station, which wasn't subjected to as intense a fire as the North and East (Johnson Street and Flood's Alley) walls held and fire never extended to the hotel. By 4 AM or so, there was nothing left but soggy, smoking remains and <i>lots</i> of overhaul. The crowds had gone back home, and reporters with deadlines to make had left the scene to file their stories so reports of the fire could appear in the early editions of the morning papers...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">...Which reported that the theater had been destroyed, and that there had been injuries, but no deaths.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">HUH???</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The papers needed to get the story into the early editions of the morning papers...they had a major fire that a majority of people in two cities were aware of. That fire that had destroyed a well known and well regarded entertainment venue while a play was in progress, chasing hundreds of people into the December cold and imperiling a beloved actress who had risked her life to try and calm the fleeing theater-goers. To <i>not</i> get a story about the fire into the early editions would be a major journalistic fail on any number of levels. So the papers went with what they knew as of about 3 AM. And that was that there were no reported deaths.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The thing is, by the time the fire burned almost out, the cops and firefighters seriously suspected otherwise. People were showing up at the 1st Precinct in droves, asking about relatives who hadn't returned home. And at about 3 AM, Chief Nevins tried to get into the Lobby from the Washington Street entrance. The three story section of the Lobby wing containing the offices, apartments, box office, and Family Circle street stairs was almost a separate structure, separated from the auditorium and rear portion of the lobby by brick walls that were only pierced on the 1st floor by the archway into the rear portion of the lobby, where the Dress Circle stairs were, and the entrance to the passageway that Kate Claxton and her group used to make their escape. While the Auditorium and rear portion of the lobby had completely collapsed, the small three story wing facing Washington Street was still standing, even though the lobby itself had been pretty well involved at one point.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnN0coTVrHFZeXS9zoSDGNo1slDqMNGfjHYJDWgGRk0rsGo3rqVXXUkFSTt-V-XktPfLoNEBlaggT9gSXqTZqgQeNsBn_7iEcQLA_SEFZ-yATae-7tcqtTp5dWZQlkLfOK5JAQ9slvvzI/s1600/Brooklyn_Theatre_After_Fire_Washington_Street.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1163" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnN0coTVrHFZeXS9zoSDGNo1slDqMNGfjHYJDWgGRk0rsGo3rqVXXUkFSTt-V-XktPfLoNEBlaggT9gSXqTZqgQeNsBn_7iEcQLA_SEFZ-yATae-7tcqtTp5dWZQlkLfOK5JAQ9slvvzI/s640/Brooklyn_Theatre_After_Fire_Washington_Street.jpg" width="550" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The main entrance on Washington Street the morning after the fire...note the large group of people at the entrance to the 1st Precinct's station, all of whom are very likely seeking information about loved ones who didn't return home after attending the performance the night before. The entrance to the Family Circle</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> stairway is visible immediately to the left of signboard nearest the camera. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This was <i>hours</i> after the bodies had been discovered, most likely, and if you Look at the upper left of the frame you can also see a couple of men on the roof, apparently surveying both the the damage to the auditorium wing and the body recovery operation from above.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This section of the theater was basically a separate building, and very little fire entered the second and third floors...the windows aren't even broken. From this side of the building it's difficult to imagine that almost 300 people had lost their lives only hours earlier.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">There was still a good bit of fire in the lobby when Chief Nevins tried to make it inside the first time, so I have a feeling that on his next try he had a crew bring a line in, or possibly more likely, play a stream through the main entrance to knock the remaining fire down.. By then the theater had been burning for nearly 4 hours...there wasn't that much left in the lobby to burn, and a 2 1/2 inch line with a 3/4 inch or so straight tip on it probably made quick work of any fire left. When the line pushed the fire back, Chief Nevins made it all the way to the far end of the vestibule, </span><span style="color: #222222;">as the Washington Street end of the lobby was known, and </span><span style="color: #222222;">got an eyeful of a grisly sight...a badly burned body. It appeared to be the body of a woman with her legs burned away and her face burned beyond recognition, just inside the vestibule, back to the south wall of the building, probably huddled in the corner formed by the south wall and the back wall of the vestibule,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">He backed out of the building, and called a quick meeting of the rest of the district engineers (Battalion Chiefs) and higher ranking members of the command staff who were at the scene (One thing that likely hasn't changed in 150 or so years...a major fire brings the high-ranking members of the department command staff out of the woodwork, no matter <i>what</i> department it is.) He told them of his discovery, opining that there were more...likely <i>way</i> more<i>...</i>bodies to be found, and told them to keep that information away from the press and public for now.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Chief Nevins probably started cutting units loose a short time later...they had succeeded in holding it to the theater at its height, the fire had just about burned out by 4AM, and was no longer a threat to the rest of the block, and he really needed to get some units back in service to cover the rest of the city.. Other fires wouldn't take a hiatus just because they had a major incident going.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">As the sun rose, allowing them to see what they were doing, </span><span style="color: #222222;">Nevins took another crew in through the main entrance, and found one thing he was definitely expecting...complete and utter devastation once you reached the arch separating the smaller Washington Street wing from the Auditorium wing. The entire Auditorium...balconies, stairways, and all...as well as the far end end of the lobby, had collapsed into the basement, leaving a smoking pit choc full of charred wood, broken bricks, and burned rubble. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">They immediately spotted a number of charred bodies...eight to ten of them...hard by the south wall and Chief Nevins immediately had a crew start removing them. The interior partition pierced by the three exits leading from auditorium to lobby, had survived the fire and Nevins and the rest of the command staff, as well as the firefighters removing that first ten or so bodies, looked into the debris-filled pit at a huge pile of burned rubble, extending from the interior partition to the south wall, and probably twenty or so feet out from the vestibule...and then all of them gave a shudder as separate pieces of rubble took on form and substance and they realized just exactly <i>what</i> they were looking at...a <i>huge</i> mass of burned bodies.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajR-tBFXXKbcIhdeR2GpkxT8aSCSZEQyF_dxZVTrKvyD-YAtF4XxkNtGmeTRVME_X5tNmspn1jmrj0o3qFe37dtXZqZVY-qmy8n7abN61kRoebDlGr1sUtXUFROLqO1sqKxJ_qXU7eRU/s1600/Brooklyn+Theater++ruins+from+Johnson+Street.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="1534" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajR-tBFXXKbcIhdeR2GpkxT8aSCSZEQyF_dxZVTrKvyD-YAtF4XxkNtGmeTRVME_X5tNmspn1jmrj0o3qFe37dtXZqZVY-qmy8n7abN61kRoebDlGr1sUtXUFROLqO1sqKxJ_qXU7eRU/s640/Brooklyn+Theater++ruins+from+Johnson+Street.png" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A very accurate pen and ink, drawing of the devastated Johnson Street side of the theater, looking straight in from Johnson Street. You can see the Washington Street wing's mansard roof on the upper right of the frame. The three story white building to the right of the theater ruins is the Johnson Street side of the Dieter Hotel. The far wall is the south wall...hard by the 1st Precinct station..and the diagonal scar is the scar left by the south stairway as it collapsed. The corridor where so many were trapped would have run a short distance along the west wall, at the bottom of the scar, towards Johnson Street, and then made a 90 degree turn onto the stairway leading to the street...there would have been another archway, just this side of the white partition, at the head of the south stairs, though the artist didn't include it.<br /><br />.The white partition in question, directly beneath the stairway scar, is the partition separating the lobby from the auditorium. I <i>think</i> the small arch on the far right side of this partition was possibly the lobby end of the passage Kate Claxton and her crew used to escape, the three larger arches are the exits from the Parquette circle. The huge pile of bodies would have been beneath the stairway scar between the white partition and the south wall.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrlV9_Gd9WBrYJexvjqJ1FUaOZqSwfhXFNmBsmqjqHjSoecf_GFLglUKJi3U5hbeyqMIa7Y1n68LZ-vZHRftR9Yy_omcCPLoOZZSFVv4p94tBlEJ5xmlg4pGKdIqOJ2A3iPrjKYHrRC8A/s1600/BrooklynTheatre_From_Johnson_Street.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1055" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrlV9_Gd9WBrYJexvjqJ1FUaOZqSwfhXFNmBsmqjqHjSoecf_GFLglUKJi3U5hbeyqMIa7Y1n68LZ-vZHRftR9Yy_omcCPLoOZZSFVv4p94tBlEJ5xmlg4pGKdIqOJ2A3iPrjKYHrRC8A/s640/BrooklynTheatre_From_Johnson_Street.jpg" width="606" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A period photograph of the south and west walls, taken from Johnson Street, looking towards the lobby from the backstage area. Once again, you can see the scar left by the collapsing stairway on the south wall, directly above the gentleman in the light colored cape. The archway near the bottom of the stairway scar would have been the entrance to the stairs leading to the street...perspective makes the distance between stairways seem shorter than it actually was.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">When
they got back in the basement and really started examining the pile of
bodies, they were in for a horrible shock. The bodies were piled four to five feet deep, and covered an area twenty feet by ten or so feet, if not larger. Removing the bodies was a slow, sad, and gruesome task as the bodies were so badly burned that they fell apart if you looked at them hard, much less moved them. On top of that, many of the bodies were <i>already</i> in pieces, inhibiting both the removal process and getting an accurate body count.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Reporters
who had arrived back on the scene were quick to jot down notes and then
beat feet to their offices (New York reporters had to cross the East River on the ferry) and over the next three days, newsboys on corners shouted
out:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"> 'EXTRA!! EXTRA!! MORE BODIES RECOVERED FROM THEATER!! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">...As they
hawked the 'Breaking News!!' of then day...the extra editions of
newspapers...when the body counts were updated. It was obvious that it would get far, <i>far</i> worse...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Around
a hundred and forty bodies had been removed from the cellar by four
o'clock on the sixth, with at least that many still visible in the
ruins.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">People wondering about their missing relatives gathered both at the 1st Precinct station, next door to the Washington Street wing of the theater and at the city morgue, which filled to over-capacity well before the first day was half over. Henry Simms, Brooklyn's chief coroner, knew of an empty market </span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="color: #222222;">only a couple of blocks away </span>on Adams Street, between Fulton and Myrtle and he, fortuitously, also knew the building's owner. He wasted no time arranging use of the building as a temporary morgue, and before three o'clock wagons carrying the covered remains of bodies were heading for the market rather than the City Morgue.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg84_ocmDr3GPELdNlR2e7mD___R5OZ4MzllhSHVmOv9s4a7OWU1q33rXuemYod-SbZBIT8xhyphenhyphenQahBs2mgE_JfsQAe2PJKjfzA4eruEk4lT0AoxfECEtc6LOfWaW8GwCTia9Xa5EoqpcUA/s1600/bklyntheatrefire-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="776" data-original-width="1200" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg84_ocmDr3GPELdNlR2e7mD___R5OZ4MzllhSHVmOv9s4a7OWU1q33rXuemYod-SbZBIT8xhyphenhyphenQahBs2mgE_JfsQAe2PJKjfzA4eruEk4lT0AoxfECEtc6LOfWaW8GwCTia9Xa5EoqpcUA/s640/bklyntheatrefire-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The temporary morgue, set up in a vacant market on Adams Street, from a period newspaper article...Newspaper articles back then were <i>far</i> more graphic than modern articles, both in written description and illustration. The candles on each body's chest was to illuminate the face to assist in identification.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgViCIMABYkmcWpfwc1Z-1FzzN_hN1DQwxph-_d6F427kVUrcy2Td5BoWhWUZ6jGXDNDpPoWl4rc_0Jtx4Rh8ZzdNWOrJTOy47h9NZIKpinEGQQ7QmEcpTvCMikEexMVRqrYz-mPOEL8OE/s1600/brooklyn-theatre-fire-02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="381" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgViCIMABYkmcWpfwc1Z-1FzzN_hN1DQwxph-_d6F427kVUrcy2Td5BoWhWUZ6jGXDNDpPoWl4rc_0Jtx4Rh8ZzdNWOrJTOy47h9NZIKpinEGQQ7QmEcpTvCMikEexMVRqrYz-mPOEL8OE/s640/brooklyn-theatre-fire-02.jpg" width="486" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Relatives going through personal effects found with the bodies, attempting to identify their loved ones...most of whom were burned beyond any hope of recognition...by finding something that belonged to them. This was the <i>only</i> way that the great majority of the bodies could be IDed, and 103 bodies were <i>never</i> identified, and were buried in a single mass rave at Green-Wood Cemetery four days after the fire, on December 9th..</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There were some truly heart-breaking episodes during the three day process of body recovery, and one of them was early on. The twelve year old brother of a 1st Precinct officer was found in the rubble, and the officer insisted on helping to recover the body...Chief Nevins and District Engineer Farley accompanied him into the gruesome pit that had been the theater's basement and helped him bring the body out. He was relieved of duty immediately after the recovery.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The fire also resulted in a Brooklyn P.D Line of Duty Death, when 1st Precinct Officer Patrick McKeon apparently became lost, then overcome with smoke when he entered the building to make a final search. He was found to be missing, and his body was found just inside the collapse area, and was IDed because of his billy club and a Brooklyn P.D. Book of Bylaws found in a pocket of the remains of his coat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Forensic Science was, at best, in it's infancy and more than likely still in its fetal stages in that era, which made identifying the bodies a long, drawn-out affair that was immensely painful for relatives of the victims. Identifying the bodies would <i>not</i> be as quick <i>or</i> easy as it had been a year and change earlier after the <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2017/03/precious-blood-church-fire-holyoke-ma.html">Precious Blood Church fire</a>. There were four times as many deaths in the theater fire, and the bodies were in far worse shape.<i> </i> Just as had been the case at Precious Blood, most of the identifications were made through personal belongings found with the victims, but unlike the church fire only a very few ID's were made through scraps of clothing because the majority of the bodies had burned for hours. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="color: #222222;">One hundred and three bodies...a third again the total number of deaths at Precious Blood...were so completely incinerated that they</span> were never identified, and a final accurate body count was never reached. Historically, the number of deaths has always stood at 278, but Brooklyn city coroner Henry Simms wrote death certificates for 284 bodies (This included a single death certificate for the 103 unknown bodies) and estimates of the death toll range from the oft-quoted 278 all the way up to 350. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222;"> Four days after the fire, on December 9th, dozens of hearses lined up at the two morgues, where they loaded the simple pine caskets containing the 103 unidentified victims of the fire, then formed a</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> mile-plus long procession as they drove</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> to Green-Wood cemetery, where the bodies were to be interred in a mass grave. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The mass grave was shaped like a Bundt cake pan, circular with a cylindrical pillar of unexcavated earth in the center, that pillar to be the foundation of a monument memorializing the victims. The coffins were placed in the grave head to foot in a 'double row radiating circle'.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6WrHKZ9ylrZRqvOTnaeEM-hU6i_GCxzUZv8CGZWz25CCmvH9kpbrPtAf0u8Jtbg-S9h8gRJrMlNKH0RypQmGb80NjWQnkFOGxrwEutMd5yzVeNVlaG7rKE-vsWLW5WeuUB6kN_LnTFOU/s1600/Harpers-Weekly-1876-December-30.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="1036" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6WrHKZ9ylrZRqvOTnaeEM-hU6i_GCxzUZv8CGZWz25CCmvH9kpbrPtAf0u8Jtbg-S9h8gRJrMlNKH0RypQmGb80NjWQnkFOGxrwEutMd5yzVeNVlaG7rKE-vsWLW5WeuUB6kN_LnTFOU/s640/Harpers-Weekly-1876-December-30.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">An Artists rendering, included in a news article of the era, of the unidentified bodies being interred in the mass grave in Green-Wood cemetery, in Brooklyn four days after the fire. The grave was circular and shaped like a Bundt cake pan, with the caskets laid within head to foot in two circular rows. The unexcavated cylinder of earth was left as a foundation for the memorial that the city erected to honor the victims of the fire.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">So the victims...known and unknown...were buried. But that didn't mean that it was over. In fact it was </span><i style="color: #222222;">far </i><span style="color: #222222;">from over.</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The the twin cities of Brooklyn and New York were in a state of shock, not to mention more than a little enraged. Several hundred families had gone out for the iconic 'Dinner and a show' only to be decimated by the theater fire, and people wanted to know just <i>why</i> this had happened. As soon as the bodies were removed and identified or buried, Henry Simms convened a Coroner's Jury that sat throughout December 1876 and January 1877, hearing testimony from several hundred witnesses...fire survivors, firefighters and police officers, citizens who'd watched the fire, and pretty much anyone who could possibly cast some light on the cause.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">After hearing all of this testimony, the Coroner's Jury pretty much slammed Shook and Palmer, casting more than a little shade at the building's design while they were at it. They noted that Shook and Palmer failed to keep fire safety equipment in good order, accessible, or even (In the case of the fire buckets) extant, that they didn't even <i>try</i> to train any of their stage crew in fire safety or handling incipient fires before they became major fires, and noted strongly that there wasn't even an effective chain of command in place, </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">While they noted that the building had more exits than <i>most</i> public buildings in Brooklyn, they also noted that those exits did little good if they were locked. Then there was that deadly and circuitous route from the Family Circle to the outside. I never found anything that stated as much, but you just <i>know</i> someone had to have asked why an emergency exit of some kind wasn't provided for the Family Circle. And really, it wouldn't have taken that much effort or expense to have included an exterior fire escape from the Family Circle, or, for that matter, the Dress Circle. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Of course, to be useful, the exits have to be usable, as in unlocked. As we all recall, the emergency exit from the Dress Circle proved to be worse than useless...the fact that it was locked actually almost added a couple of dozen to the death toll.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">While the Coroner's Jury was hearing testimony, the Brooklyn Fire Marshall (Actually a police function back then) began it's own investigation into the fire, and they got right to the crux of the matter...why wasn't the fire hose utilized, and why wasn't the evacuation started the <i>instant</i> that the fire was discovered.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The reason we always hear that the hoseline wasn't used is always because it was blocked by scenery flats and/or props, and that could very well be, I don't know how much water that line would have flowed, as it was on a domestic water line and almost definitely not pump-boosted as modern standpipe systems are, but still...had Thorpe pulled that line, gotten it in operation, and started hitting the fire, he could have at least bought the occupants of the theater enough time for more...or even all...of them to get out.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">There's a caveat, though...if we go with the 'Because it was blocked and inaccessible' excuse, we're assuming that the hose was indeed usable, and that it was, in fact connected to the standpipe in the first place. Problem is, it very well may <i> not </i> have been...either connected to the standpipe, <i> or</i> usable. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">More detail on <i>that</i> little tid-bit in 'Notes'</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">As for why the evacuation wasn't started early on in the incident...Managers and actors both claimed a fear of starting a panic. IF they had said 'The building's on fire', that's exactly what would have happened, and in fact, is exactly what <i>did</i> happen. Of course, had they simply stated that there was a problem of some kind...an illness among the cast, a problem with the lighting...that wouldn't allow the show to continue, they may have gotten by with it, and the death toll would have been far lower. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Kate Claxton actually said as much in an interview several years after the fire, stating that, had they </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">kept the curtain closed, hiding the fire from the audience as well as at least slowing the draft that shoved the fire into the auditorium, and said there was a problem that kept the show from continuing but didn't endanger the audience, they could have probably prevented a panic and maybe</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> even managed to get everyone out. Sadly, we'll never know if such a ploy would have worked.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Coroner's Jury found that</span><span style="color: #222222;"> Albert Palmer and Sheridan Shook were primarily responsible for the disaster...not only did the two of them get rid of any and all fire safety equipment in the theater, they compounded this by locking the fire exits from the inside and refusing to train their employees in any fire prevention or first aid fire fighting protocols. Criminal charges were suggested, but both men managed to avoid them, in no small part due to their wealth...a situation that still occurs, though not as frequently or blatantly, to this very day.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span>The Fire Marshall's and Coroner's jury's investigations were deep, probing, and far ranging, and answered an indignant public's hunger for answers...but the public still didn't necessarily get the answers they wanted, because, first they <i>wanted</i> someone to actually answer for the tragedy, which didn't happen, and they <i>wanted</i> the Brooklyn Theater's fire-trap qualities to be an isolated situation, which it wasn't. Unfortunately, inspections of<i> </i>both Brooklyn's and New York's numerous theaters immediately after the fire found that <i>all</i> of them had problems, and some were as bad...or even worse...fire traps than The Brooklyn Theater had been.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Coroner's Jury took these dismal inspection results into consideration when they made recommendations at the end of their investigation, and recommended several sweeping, and ground breaking changes in theater design, most if not all of which could be retrofitted to existing theaters though it would have been pretty expensive to do so.. Among them were more and wider exits, </span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="color: #222222;">multiple, </span>more direct exit paths from the balconies, exterior fire escapes, and brick firewalls separating the backstage area from the auditorium. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The industry and public alike were quick to applaud these changes...but not to adopt them. Oh , sure, several theaters added some exits, and the Coates Opera House, in Kansas City, added a brick firewall between back stage and audience, but these changes were <i>not</i> wide-reaching. Then as now, the public demands change immediately after a disaster while owners of the venues involved in said disaster resist the changes due to cost, and the business owners knew that, as long as the changes remained recommendations and didn't become law, they could wait things out and allow our old nemesis complacency to work in their favor</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">While theaters burned regularly in the late 1870s (Nationwide it was estimated that between ten and fifteen burned annually between 1870 and 1880) none occurring in the couple of years immediate after the Brooklyn Theater Fire were fatal...not in the U.S. anyway...and the public fell back into that always dangerous mindset of 'It hasn't happened for awhile, maybe it won't happen again', coupled with the 'It Won't Happen To Me' mindset that's part of human nature..</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">And as these two mindsets took hold, the public let the theater fire slip out of their consciousness and the great majority of theater owners made absolutely <i>no</i> changes at all. By the time the new Brooklyn Theater opened, on the exact same footprint as the old theater, fire safety in theaters had devolved again until things were just as bad as they'd been four years earlier. In fact, it </span><span style="color: #222222;">was theoretically still perfectly legal to build scenes and store paints and scenery back stage.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Perfectly legal, but not very smart, and the new theater (Also known as Haverty's Theater) was very possibly the safest theater in the Brooklyn/New York area simply because the The New York Daily Mirror...which </span><span style="color: #222222;">had started a campaign to improve fire safety in theaters very shortly after the Brooklyn Theater Fire...</span><span style="color: #222222;">was very likely watching them like a hawk. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that, when the new theater opened on the very lot once occupied by the ill-fated Brooklyn Theater, The Daily Mirror reported on them in great detail, very likely comparing and contrasting the two buildings feature for feature.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Even then, the new theater still wasn't </span><i style="color: #222222;">that</i><span style="color: #222222;"> safe. In 1881, the Insurance Times...a premiere Insurance Industry trade magazine of the era...noted that there wasn't a safe theater in the New York area, and suggested that insurance premiums be kicked <i>way</i> upward as a result.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">But the event that finally kicked off change in theater fire safety didn't happen in the U.S. It happened in Vienna, Austria when, five years almost to the day after the Brooklyn Theater Fire, an almost exact repeat of that fire tore through Vienna's Ring Theater, killing somewhere between six hundred and nine hundred people, or between two and three times as many as died at the Brooklyn Theater.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Daily Mirror pointed out the many similarities between the two fires...again, very likely point-by-point, and Brooklyn's newly appointed Director of Public Works ordered BFD's Chief Nevins to update and implement the long dormant Coroner's Jury recommendations with an addition that was actually more than a little ahead of it's time...all theaters were to have a 'Building Box' connected directly to the Fire Department.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">It was the Mirror's harping on the subject that helped get a total rewrite of the city's building codes on the books in 1882, with numerous mentions of theaters through-out..but that didn't come about with-out a fight. Even after the cataclysmic Ringtheater fire, theater owners insisted that the changes that the new code required were just too expensive and impractical to implement, and even attempted to enlist the help of the general public by stating that the cost of implementing the changes would require them to raise ticket prices so high that the common working man and his family couldn't afford to attend a play.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Imagine their surprise when said general public and working man fully supported the new changes, higher ticket prices or not...they, rightfully, felt that being able to attend a play without having to worry about dying a horrible death before the final curtain was well worth more expensive tickets. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">These new building codes forbade the manufacture and storage of scenes back stage, forbade the storage of flammable liquids backstage (Very possibly one of the first haz-mat related laws), set minimum standards for for exit paths and doorways, made exterior fire escapes mandatory, and required an on-duty firefighter be present at every performance to inspect exits and fire equipment.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">These new codes and regulations actually came at a very pivotal time. Broadway, as we know it and referred to as such, was coming into being at about the same time the changes became regulation. Without the new building codes and some serious advertising, the public may not have embraced Broadway as they did, and the Entertainment Industry...while it would have never died completely...would have likely suffered a serious slump until theater owners realized that they needed to spend the money to improve safety, whether they wanted to or not.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Of course safety improved even further as the years went by. with the addition of innovations such as automatic sprinklers (Theaters were the first buildings to be required to install automatic sprinklers, in New York...but not the rest of the country) fireproof curtains that could be dropped to protect the auditorium from a back stage fire, smoke vents over the stage...devices that, coupled with better and more exits, <i>should</i> have made catastrophes such as The Brooklyn Theater Fire all but extinct, and in a perfect world, that's exactly what would have happened.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Sadly, we've never lived in a perfect world. <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-iroquois-theater-fire-fireproof.html">And Theater owners still had a major lesson to learn....</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b><***>NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF<***></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Brooklyn Theater Fire is somewhat of a paradox...while it's well known among Theater historians, Fire Service historians, Fire buffs, and history geeks in general, and there is <i>plenty </i>of information out there about it, I'll bet you that not more than one or two of the several thousand people daily who walk through Columbus Park or Cadman Plaza, or who walk through the doors of the King's County Courthouse have a clue that the theater ever even existed or that they're on the site of the fourth worst single building fire in U.S. History. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Everyone's heard of The Chicago Fire and The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Pretty much everyone's heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Most everyone's at least heard of the Coconut Grove fire. The even deadlier Iroquois Theater Fire is <i>far</i> better known. Most people, however, have never heard of the Brooklyn Theater Fire.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"> Hopefully this post fixes that, even if only just a little.</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">..I hope that at least a couple of people who </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">didn't </i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> know about it...now do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">As for research, there was almost more info than I could even use, which made researching the fire a bit complicated, but in a good way. </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Half the fun of writing these posts is digging up the info for them.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">That being said...I still had to do some speculating on this one...OK, I had to do a <i>lot</i> of speculating on this one. I had to do some educated guessing on the fire-ground operations (There supposedly actually <i>is</i> a fire report somewhere in the encyclopedic archives of the FDNY, BTW...I just couldn't access it.) as well as the conversations among the actors and the details of the beginnings of the fire.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I had to speculate...but I bet I was at least in the ball park as to what happened.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">However close I may have been to the actual events of that long ago, tragic December 5th, I hope, as always, that I made this one an informative and interesting read!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">On to the Notes!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The City of Brooklyn would remain an independent city until 1898, when it, along with portions of three counties, would consolidate with the City of New York to form the five boroughs of New York City. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">As you can imagine, there were <i>lots </i>of politics involved with the consolidation, with strong emotions on both sides. Consolidation was voted on by the citizens of Brooklyn in 1894, and won by an <i>extremely</i> narrow margin. The motto 'Greatest Mistake of '98' was coined by those opposed to the consolidation, and you <i>still </i>hear it from old-timers today. Even though there is no way anyone who actually remembers the consolidation could still be alive today, there <i>are </i>some septo- and Octogenarians whose parents were kids in the 1890s. These (18)90s kids, of course, inherited their parents opinion of the consolidation, then passed that opinion on to their own kids...the old-timers of today. And that opinion is <i>still</i> being passed down from generation to generation today.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is why Brooklyn is, to this very day, </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">still</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> the most independent minded of the five boroughs, and why they </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">still</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> elect a 'Mayor', though he or she are now called the 'Borough President'. OK...</span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">all</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> of the boroughs elect borough presidents, to act as liaisons between the borough residents and NYC's city government, but Brooklyn's residents are, as far as they're concerned, electing Brooklyn's mayor!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The history of the city and borough of Brooklyn is pretty fascinating in it's own right and is definitely worth a look. Here's their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn">Wiki Page</a> to get started.</span><br />
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The very great majority of the Brooklyn Theater fire victims were dead long before the flames ever reached them, most of them succumbing to the effects of both toxic smoke and super-heated gasses. Even <i>without</i> the super-heated gasses added to the mix, the smoke from the burning paints, and turpentine, plus all of the ordinary combustibles (Wood, cloth, paper, etc) created a deadly mix that entirely displaced the breathable air in the Family Circle corridor and stairway, and was all but instant death if breathed in. Add super heated gasses that turn lungs to charred crisps the instant they're inhaled, and you have a horribly efficient mechanism of mass death. When that burst of smoke and super-heated air blasted through the corridor, it likely suffocated everyone in the tangled pile of panicked theater-goers with-in seconds, both from the effects of the smoke, <i>and</i> the super-heated gasses crisping their lungs as it was inhaled.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But this tends to minimize what <i>really</i> killed nearly...or possibly even over...300 people that night. What killed them was that evil companion to all occupied building fires, panic. The corridors and stairways were actually fairly wide...around seven feet...and should have emptied both balconies in around or even under five or so minutes...<i>should</i> have. But this is, of course, if everyone remains calm and calmly but quickly negotiates whatever the exit path for them might be. And that is <i>not</i> going to happen if a large crowd thinks they are going to burn to death. Humans are, after all, animals, and one of the instincts hard-wired into every animal from the tiniest mouse to the largest elephant, to us humans is that fire hurts <i>real</i> bad and will <i>kill</i> me, and that I must get far, far away from it as quickly as possible..There doesn't even have to<i> be</i> an actual fire,...people have died in panics inside crowded buildings because someone yelled 'Fire'. Or someone <i> thought</i> they heard the cry of fire.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Panic removes all reason from the human mind and focuses it on survival and escape, which works great in the wide open out-doors where running away from a threat is possible, but really bites in a confined space with limited exits. In the confines of a building, everyone tries to get down the same stairway, or through the same door at the same time, and the result is always the exact same...a huge pile up of bodies, stacked like logs and jammed against each other like the contents of a trash compacter, blocking doorways and corridors. Those at the bottom of the pile can <i>not</i> extricate themselves, and the crush only gets worse as more people try to claw, and climb over...only to have even <i>more</i> people end up on top of <i>them.</i></span><br />
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Even <i>before</i> this deadly pile-up forms, people fall in the midst of the stampeding crowd and get trampled...hundreds have died this way. People in panic mode trying to get out of a burning building will run slam over frail old ladies and small children alike in their ultra-focused, fear-driven quest to escape.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This has happened at <i>every</i> large loss of life structure fire, right up to the present day.. Every. Last. One.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is why fire alarm systems in modern buildings are designed to notify the building occupants <i>early</i> in the incident. so that crowds can exit the building while the fire is small, and not a threat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> And it's also why Kate Claxton and her troupe of actors should have done <i>anything</i> other than tell the theater's occupants to stay put. She even admitted as much in a later interview.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">If, as she stated in that interview, they had kept the curtain closed...hiding the fire from the audience... and told the theater occupants that some illness or malfunction had caused the evening's performance to end early, everyone just<i> might</i> have made it out. Unfortunately, we'll never know.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Not all of the fire victims attended the play. We know for sure that at least one Brooklyn Police Officer lost his life when he became trapped while searching the building, and at least one or two other citizens lost their own lives while attempting to rescue trapped theater-goers. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Amazingly enough, multiple rescues were made from inside the buildings, all of which were well involved, in all three of the major structure fires I've blogged about so far...The Richmond Theater Fire, Precious Blood Church, and The Brooklyn Theater Fire. Keep in mind that these fires occurred <i>long</i> before modern breathing apparatus and protective gear were available or even dreamed of. Of course, these rescues were all helped along by certain factors.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> In the Richmond Theater Fire, the roof was probably entirely in, allowing heat and smoke to go straight up and out of the building, and all of the rescued victims were immediately inside the main entrance to the auditorium.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the Precious Blood Church Fire, all of the rescued victims were immediately inside one of the entrances to the building.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> in the Brooklyn Theater Fire, the trapped occupants were actually on the opposite end of the building from the fire when they were rescued, and the smoke had not mushroomed downward to fill the entire building yet. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">That points to another factor in the rescues...all three of the buildings featured open interiors with high, <i>high </i></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ceilings that allowed heat and smoke to stay above the victims who were rescued long enough for them to breath breathable air and unprotected fire fighters, police officers, and in the case of the Richmond Theater, civilians to get inside and get to them,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">I found one source that stated that the Orchestra exit was also opened by the chief doorman...a man named George Price...and that several Parquet Circle occupants did manage to escape through it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">They could have only been talking about the emergency exit closest to the stage...but again I only found that single source, which also stated that Mr Price came close to being trampled to death for his efforts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As the Flood's Alley wall collapsed during the fire, there really wasn't any way to confirm or dismiss the possibility. Even if the door frame had been found intact enough to determine if the door was open or not, and the door was found popped open, the force of the collapse could have done that. More telling is the Police Fire Marshall's report stating that, while the exit under the Dress Circle stairs had indeed been opened, there was no conclusive evidence that either of the two other exits was opened, and no audience members stated that they exited through the emergency exit nearest the stage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Lets take a look at that fire hose for a second. There's no doubt at <i>all</i> that, had it been accessible and usable, and had someone who even had an inkling of what they were doing put it in service in the early minutes of the fire, I wouldn't be writing this because all that would have happened would have been some soggy scenes, wet actors, and a postponed performance. But it would have not only had to have been accessible...it would have had to have been serviceable as well to be useful at <i>all. </i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Wait a minute, I hear everyone saying...if it had been connected to the standpipe, and accessible, how could it not be usable?<i> </i>Bear with me here...</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;">C</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">otton jacketed, rubber lined fire hose, common as it is today, was<i> just</i> coming into use about the time the Brooklyn Theater opened. It was brand new technology, and a lot of city departments were still using leather hose into the early-mid 1870s. I can just about bet that the fire hose in the Brooklyn Theater...which opened a couple of years before the first cotton jacketed rubber lined hose went in service in Cincinnati, Ohio...</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">was probably 2 1/2 inch riveted <i>leather</i> fire hose. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Not only was it leather (We'll get to why that's an issue shortly) we don't even know for sure it was even connected to the standpipe.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"> While most of the accounts of the fire I've read make it sound as if the hose was indeed connected to the standpipe, but blocked, (</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14px;">in fact that's the way I wrote the post), </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14px;">another source claimed that it wasn't even present, and had been tossed up into the flies somewhere. If that's the case, it was even worse than useless...it actually added to the fuel available to the fire.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM02iQp9OeLdQ6P26LlESxC-neUFWDEDdKiDMtVEPlIaicY3NYiabaKiQXbcLO7VHZQNVF2tA45F3UgxtM3b7LbY4haNW-K5dUZU4kLBg5q6z_nSzemYPFCflnr2BdlX-Yqc_Tij6Kaio/s1600/2010-06-17-hose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="400" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM02iQp9OeLdQ6P26LlESxC-neUFWDEDdKiDMtVEPlIaicY3NYiabaKiQXbcLO7VHZQNVF2tA45F3UgxtM3b7LbY4haNW-K5dUZU4kLBg5q6z_nSzemYPFCflnr2BdlX-Yqc_Tij6Kaio/s640/2010-06-17-hose.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A length of riveted leather fire hose, very possibly much like the hose in the Brooklyn Theater. This hose weighed 85 pounds per 50 foot length...that's <i>without</i> brass couplings , BTW...add couplings, and each length probably weighed closer to 100 lbs.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">This is also the way the hose in the theater was likely stored when connected to the standpipe...coiled on a staff, or possibly on a reel. Leather is <i>high</i> maintenance. You would <i>have</i> to pull it off of the staff, or reel, straighten it, treat it with something like neatsfoot oil or beef tallow then recoil it at least weekly to prevent it from drying and assuming a near permanent coiled shape. If not maintained it would dry, become permanently coiled (Or would permanently assume what ever tangled shape it was stored in) and ultimately, rot.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Also this stuff was not at <i>all</i> flexible. You couldn't flat-pack it the way hose was packed on hose wagons once cotton jacketed rubber lined hose became common, and indeed, the way hose is still packed on fire rigs today. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: xx-small; text-align: center;">The fact that leather hose couldn't be flat-packed is why it was coiled when attached to standpipes rather than flat-packed in racks as seen today, and why early hose carts were all big hose reels.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The coiled hose illustrated in the picture, BTW, is probably on the type of small reel that was sometimes installed on 'Hand Tubs'...hand-pumped fire engines...before steamers became common, and they were installed for the exactly same reason modern rigs have preconnected attack lines...so firefighters could get a line in operation more quickly while lines were being pulled off of the hose carts and set up.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">We </span><i style="font-size: 14px;">do</i><span style="font-size: 14px;"> know that the hose hadn't been used to flow water but maybe once since Shook and Palmer took over the theater, probably very shortly after they did so. That one time was likely </span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 14px;">a good a year and a quarter or so before the fire,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> at the request of an insurance company inspector, (Likely with someone from the Fire Department or Building Department present as well) to prove that there was sufficient water pressure at the standpipe, and that the hose was still usable. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">And then they, at best, left it on the reel at the standpipe untouched for over a year, and at worst, removed it and tossed it up into the flies. If it was still on the reel, attached to the standpipe, it was probably unusable. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Why? You ask. simple...leather, as anyone who owns anything made of leather can tell you, is a high maintenance material. With their reputation RE: maintaining fire protection equipment I'd say it's a safe bet that once Shook and Palmer tested the hose, they just ignored it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> Leather, left unmaintained, has a tendency to stiffen, become brittle, and rot. If this was indeed leather hose, as I suspect it was, and it went unmaintained for over a year, it </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;">would have...at best...</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">leaked like a sieve if it had been charged, and at worst, would have literally just fallen apart once it was charged, or maybe even as it was uncoiled or pulled off of the reel.. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">So if the hose </span><i style="font-size: 14px;">had</i><span style="font-size: 14px;"> been connected to the standpipe, been accessible, and someone who had a feel for what they were doing pulled it and called for water, it's highly possible that it would have </span><i style="font-size: 14px;">still</i><span style="font-size: 14px;"> been useless, and done absolutely <i>nothing</i> to control the fire.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Speaking of Sheridan Shook and Alfred Palmer, what, you may ask, ever happened to them? In a perfect world...which again, just does not exist...they would have at least been charged with something, but this never happened, in large part because of their wealth and influence. Face it, then and now, it really </span><i style="font-size: 14px;">is</i><span style="font-size: 14px;"> all about who you know.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Sheridan Shook pretty much fell off of the radar after the fire, though I did find out that he retired from theatrical management after the fire and that he passed away in 1899, in Dutchess County, N.Y...also his birthplace. His obituary is included on his </span><a href="https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=137700353" style="font-size: 14px;">FindaGrave page</a><span style="font-size: 14px;"> and includes an interesting little note RE: his wife. It seems that they had some marital problems and separated...and as soon as this happened, the former Mrs Shook married one Mr Albert Palmer...</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">As for the 'Palmer' half of 'Shook and Palmer', Albert Palmer apparently suffered no ill effects of any kind, other than having shade cast towards him by the Brooklyn Fire Marshall and the Coroner's Jury. As noted above, no charges were brought against him, he continued managing the Union Theater in New York for another decade, traveled in Europe for a couple of years, managed a number of well known actors of the era as well as managing some well known traveling shows, and served a president of the Actors Fund of America...which he originated in 1882.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Oh...he even has his own <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Marshman_Palmer">Wiki Page</a>, as skimpy as it is.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Once the investigations were complete, reports filed and hearings held, the site was cleared, leaving the Washington Street facade, and possibly the outer portion of the lobby standing. Then, as I noted above, a new theater was built, called Haverty's Theater. The new theater utilized </span><span style="color: #222222;">the Brooklyn Theater's old Washington Street</span><span style="color: #222222;"> facade, but that was about the only thing the two buildings had in common. Though the new theater was also 'L' shaped like it's ill-fated predecessor, the new theater's</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> main entrance was off of Johnson Street while the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">stage was on the south end of the Auditorium wing...where the lobby was in the old Brooklyn Theater. The stage entrance and dressing rooms used the Washington Street entrance. With the stage being on the south end of the auditorium, and the main entrance being on the north end, off of Johnson Street, the exit paths were far shorter and more direct, especially for the Family Circle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Haverty's was probably the safest theater in the New York area, simply because they were being watched like a hawk. It was also, like it's predecessor, considered to be Brooklyn's premiere theater. Thing is, Haverty's Theater still wasn't around but about 11 years...and no, this one didn't burn. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Brooklyn Daily Eagle...at the time Brooklyn's premiere daily paper...was looking for a site for it's new headquarters. They negotiated with the owners of the theater as well as the Dieter Hotel (Known by then as The Clarendon Hotel), bought both, and razed them to build a magnificent new eight story headquarters building, designed by architect Frank Morse. At the same time the new Brooklyn Eagle Headquarters was being built, a huge and equally handsome new post office was built across Johnson Street, and the two buildings were often photographed together.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5TKYrjJFKZil-AHp7tdr19TyyV_voe8frPIzsT54iuCLrn3IQRhOyg7vPlYe1XIEIwVpKkEfifAc2ZIW8KvHkwOzG9z0b-QA7TAZme8lKblCDdjFpWv1CErfZrf33-mAujpJuX1w57a0/s1600/Brooklyn+Eagle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="432" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5TKYrjJFKZil-AHp7tdr19TyyV_voe8frPIzsT54iuCLrn3IQRhOyg7vPlYe1XIEIwVpKkEfifAc2ZIW8KvHkwOzG9z0b-QA7TAZme8lKblCDdjFpWv1CErfZrf33-mAujpJuX1w57a0/s640/Brooklyn+Eagle.jpg" width="502" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Building, at Washington and Johnson Streets...the former site of The Brooklyn Theater </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was a Brooklyn icon, and it's headquarters a landmark until 1955, when the paper closed after 114 years of publication. And again, the land it was sitting on was in great demand, for both a new Kings County courthouse as well as a new public park. The entire block bounded by Johnson, Washington, Adams, and Myrtle Streets, as well as the block south of Myrtle was purchased by the city, then razed. A new Kings County Courthouse was built on part of the block, with the remainder used for Cadman Plaza and Columbus Park. All three were opened in 1957. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, when the new courthouse and the parks were built, they forced some changes to the street grid as well...the south end of Washington Street became Cadman Plaza East, Fulton Street became Cadman Plaza West, and the west end of Myrtle Street, as well as the ally formerly known as Flood's Ally, were built over and ceased to exist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Brooklyn Daily Eagle has a pretty fascinating history of it's own, BTW, one well worth plugging the name in the old Google Machine. Be prepared to spend an afternoon reading though!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">To give ya a start on it: <a href="http://www.brownstoner.com/history/past-and-present-the-brooklyn-eagle-building-housing-the-eyes-and-ears-of-the-city/">Brooklyn Eagle History from The Brownstoner</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Shook and Palmer's removal of all of the fire safety measures that the Conways had included, compounded by their refusal to train any of their employees in the basics of fire safety, was easily the worst controversy associated with the fire, but it most definitely wasn't the <i>only</i> controversy.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The relief efforts after the fire, as good intentioned as they indeed were, created their own bits of controversy, especially when they were being handled by the city.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (What?? A local government mishandling funds?? Say it ain't so!!!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Many of the men killed in the fire were their family's sole provider, and their deaths left their families all but destitute. The women who were now head of their households came to the city government seeking temporary financial help, and the city's mayor...wealthy cigar magnate </span><span style="color: #442200; font-size: 14px;">Frederick W. Schroeder</span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">...jumped to the plate. One problem...he used city funds without authorization, after pledging to cut city spending. While he was digging into the city coffers, The churches and various other aid organizations were <i>also</i> providing relief, and several families were found to have gotten aid from multiple sources.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">To make matters worse, it was found that more than a few of the 'bereaved' individuals seeking funds well...weren't. As in they weren't even vaguely related to </span><span style="font-size: 14px;">anyone who'd even been </span><i style="font-size: 14px;">near </i><span style="font-size: 14px;">the theater on the night of the fire. Even as </span><i style="font-size: 14px;">The Brooklyn Daily Eagle </i><span style="font-size: 14px;">reported this fact, Schroeder discontinued all city aid to the families, instead using a memorial service for the deceased, held on December 12th, to call for the creation of a private aid organization so the relief efforts could be better organized, as well as asking for donations.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Political shenanigans are </span><i style="font-size: 14px;">not</i><span style="font-size: 14px;"> a new thing by any means, and if anything, the politics of the late 19th century were even shadier than those of today. There were worries that the political 'bosses' of the era would use the disbursement of relief funds to buy influence, ignoring those who actually needed the funds while they were at it. The Brooklyn Theater Fire Relief Association (BTFRA) was organized to try and circumvent those problems while managing and dispersing relief funds.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">BTFRA also asked for donations so they'd have the funds available to disperse, and, in Brooklyn, large donations were made by several wealthy individuals and corporations while hundreds of smaller donations poured in from individual citizens. The theater industry itself also took on the task of of assisting the families affected by the fire, with benefit performances being held as far away as Charleston, S.C. Money poured in...to the tune of around $28,000 ($640,520 today.) Donations would continue to come in, in fact, and BTFRA would distribute around $50,000 ($1,143,786 today) to those in need after the fire</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">In order to prevent fraud and make sure all of that money went to people who actually needed it, BTFRA required individuals requesting aid to go through an application process that would have made any federal application today look simplistic. Then. once the application was completed and turned in, a home visitation was required before it would even be looked at. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">There were still problems. If someone influential didn't particularly like an individual, a word to the administration of BTFRA, accusing the recipient of, for example, excess drinking, could render them ineligible. Each ward of the city had 'visitors'...AKA inspectors...whose job it was to investigate the recipients' home situation, and they could and often did adjust said recipients' biweekly stipend, or even declare them no longer eligible for funds based on as little as a whim. </span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Thankfully that type of misconduct wasn't a regular occurrence, and there was an appeal process if it </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 14px;">did</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> occur.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">There was another problem with the application process and dispersal of relief funds. If you were a dude, you need not even apply for assistance in the first place...it was meant for the widows and children, not the widowers. Unfortunately, with most of the families receiving assistance being poor immigrants, this practice ignored some financial realities of the era. (Financial realities, BTW, that would be even more prevalent </span></span><i style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;">today</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> with the number of single parent households out there.)</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">All of this is not to say that the organization didn't do good work...they most definitely did. A total of 188 families received assistance, to the tune of an average of $250 per family (around $5500 today) and many families were saved from homelessness and worse by this assistance</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Not only did BTFRA assist the families of the fire victims...even after the organization dissolved after two and a half years it served as a model for the relief efforts aimed at all of the city's poor </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Of course, I was only able to hit the high points here, and only touched on BTFRA's efforts, In the same article where I found this information, there was more detail on their efforts as well as a lot of detail about the other relief efforts that BTFRA inspired, detail that's really not the scope of this post. </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;">For a more in depth look at the subject take a look <a href="http://www.common-place-archives.org/vol-13/no-04/britton/">HERE</a> . </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I'll also include the link down in 'LINKS'</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">By 1876, advertising was already a major industry, and attracting publicity was already an art form. The citizens and corporations of both the city and the nation would be more likely to show their sympathy for the victims by sending donations if they had an equally tangible subject to feel sympathy for. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">With that being said, it should be no surprise at all to find out that the media was quick to assign a face to the disaster and the relief efforts. That face was Mrs Mary Jackson, whose husband Robert died in the fire. She had eight kids (One of whom was borne shortly after the fire), and she became a media sensation, both locally and nationally, as she was interviewed numerous times about her experiences, trials, and tribulations after the fire. The wire services had been around for a couple of decades by then, and the interviews hit all of the major daily papers, making Mrs Jackson one of the earliest Media Darlings. She also sang the praises of BTFRA, saying that the aid that she received from the organization allowed her to "...Provide for my children without sacrificing my womanhood."</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Needless to say, this positive publicity was a <i>huge</i> boost to BTFRA as well as other relief efforts aimed at assisting the fire victims, and was an early example of just how effective good publicity can be.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Controversial as the relief efforts may have been, they did show that the city was trying to do the right thing. The relief efforts turned out pretty well, actually, especially once The City of Brooklyn handed them off to BTFRA.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The city outdid themselves in another way as well, when they erected a memorial at Green-Wood cemetery to honor all of the victims.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As you recall, the grave was built in a circular 'bundt cake pan' shape, with an unexcavated island of earth in the center as the foundation for a monument. This circle of earth stayed barren for four years as the design of the monument was discussed, approved, and finalized, then as financing was discussed, approved and budgeted, then as it was contracted out...anyone who's had to deal with local government knows the drill...really some things </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">haven't</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> changed that much in 140 or so years. The process took a while.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">When the monument was finally erected, it measured about 30 feet tall and featured a dark grey tooled granite obelisk mounted on a pedestal consisting o</span></span><span style="background-color: #f6f4ee;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #2c2c2c;">f a plinth, sub-base, base, die and capital. Bands of stylized leaves decorate the principal components of the monument, with the background tooled back to give contrasting shades of grey. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f4ee;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #2c2c2c;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f4ee;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #2c2c2c;">Each side of the pedestal's die is rendered as a plaque, engraved with polished block letters that tell the story of the fire. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f4ee;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #2c2c2c;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f4ee;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #2c2c2c;">The area encompassing the circular grave used to be surrounded by a stone and iron fence which was taken down sometime in the 1960s, after vandals damaged it, and stole a couple of sections of the iron fencing, but the monument still stands, near the entrance of Green-Wood cemetery at the intersection of Battle and</span></span></span><span style="background-color: #f6f4ee;"><span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Bayview Avenues. This is the only physical reminder left of either the theater or the fire.</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqm2wrXHkc2bWyc6KzxTaV9hF7rHSVmMi-omN5Y0fdBMRnTFtoHJGDhGetjyN63sQKyVnFUvDk-TveWUrGGcCpYvwqiDAdfS8KCKz-ONDpNLgbRziOPuY1Nke8EJq64dDdqaomkd0jatU/s1600/Memorial+and+plaques.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1449" data-original-width="1600" height="578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqm2wrXHkc2bWyc6KzxTaV9hF7rHSVmMi-omN5Y0fdBMRnTFtoHJGDhGetjyN63sQKyVnFUvDk-TveWUrGGcCpYvwqiDAdfS8KCKz-ONDpNLgbRziOPuY1Nke8EJq64dDdqaomkd0jatU/s640/Memorial+and+plaques.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The memorial, along with the plaques on each side of the pedestal's die.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><***></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Legend has it that Sarah Conway was totally against building the theater where it was built. And she</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 14px;">just</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> may have been justified...depends on whether you believe in ghosts and such.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">'A ghost story attached to America's fourth worst building fire?' You ask.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">'Certainly!...Read on' Says I.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">As I noted at the beginning of this post, the group of investors who built the theater bought a lot formerly owned by St. Johns Church, said to be the pioneer Anglican Church in Brooklyn. This lot was also...allegedly...occupied by the church's cemetery. In 1869, St. Johns built a new church in Park Slope (But interestingly enough, apparently didn't make any effort to move the cemetery). They still also still owned the old building, along with the cemetery</span><span style="font-size: 14px;">. They, in fact, had been trying to sell it for awhile, so The Brooklyn Building Association probably got it for a song. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>If</i> the cemetery was indeed still there, The BBA probably did everything legally and maybe even ethically required to notify the families who had loved ones buried in the cemetery so the coffins could be moved, and it's said that several families <i>did</i> move their loved ones' remains...but not all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Again, according to popular legend, some families were too poor to be able to afford to move the remains, and other families had either moved away or all died off, so, when the BBA tore the old church down and leveled the lot and started construction on The Brooklyn Theate<span style="color: #222222;">r, an unknown number of bodies were still buried under it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Sarah Conway basically freaked, stating that they were desecrating Holy Grounds, and that nothing good would come of the enterprise. While her husband didn't fully go along with the 'Desecrating Holy Ground' theory, he still wasn't all that happy with the location.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The BBA said this is where we're building the theater...and they did. And strange things began happening.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The dressing rooms were said to have been built directly over the graves, and it's said that noxious fumes would rise into the dressing rooms on a regular basis. The scenery flats hanging in the flies would sway and move and creak when there wasn't a breath of air moving, the lights would act up, and Sara Conway would <i>not</i> leave her apartment and go into the theater when the lights were off. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Lets not forget, either, that the theater never was all that profitable, and Sarah Conway would readily say that this misfortune was, again, punishment from the spirits of the disrespected dead (Though I think it was more then likely because of the Conways' refusal to cast big name stars in their productions.)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Then we have the deaths of <i>both</i> of the Conways, about a year apart. Legend holds that, when Sarah Conway's body was discovered, some horrible apparition scared the carpenters working on scenery backstage so bad the they did a panic-run out of the scenery doors and absolutely refused to go back inside until her body was removed. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Then, after Sarah's death we had Minnie Conway's continued misfortune at the hands of her mom's creditors.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">And then of course...the fire.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">OK, every one of these misfortunes could be...and very probably <i>were</i>...the result of things that are as un-ghostly as it comes. The ventilation was bad in the dressing rooms, there was a problem with the gas table that they couldn't quite diagnose and fix, both of the Conways became ill because of the stress of running the theater, the carpenters were just superstitious, Minnie Conway didn't have good business sense, and the theater burned for all of the reasons I've already noted...</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">But...</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Who am I to say that there <i>wasn't</i> some influence from the pissed-off souls of long buried people who had their long and peaceful rest disturbed when someone went and built a theater over top of them. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">For a much more detailed look at the Ghostly Possibilities, go <a href="http://hauntedohiobooks.com/news/ghosts-brooklyn-theater/">HERE</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><***></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The old cemetery <i>may</i> have caused a more practical problem. It's been suggested on a couple of occasions that at least a few of those 103 unidentified bodies may have actually been already interred bodies that were inadvertently dug up in the process of body recovery. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Possible, perhaps...but, IMHO, not very <i>probable. </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Remember, just above, when I threw the caveat '<i>If</i> it was even there' into the mix? Lets explore that.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">First lets take a look at the size of the lot. The original church was built in 1827...before most of the development in the area had taken place...and was fifty feet by fifty feet. The lot wasn't but about 110 feet by 130 feet or so, and the church was right on top of Johnson Street, which it fronted on, so that left an area about 30 feet wide on either side of the church and an area about seventy feet by 130 feet to the rear of the church for a cemetery. While that doesn't leave much room for a cemetery, if you figure an area of 50 square feet per grave (Grave plus spacing between) you could still get around 150 graves in that area, and still have a strip behind the church not committed to the cemetery.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">So yes, there <i>could</i> have been an old cemetery under the south end of the theater...at one time.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_rdw_L9NXcfn1VxAm8awe8aol740VnAG55MQZBCd-Kt148nJ7Z-qVilfV-tVkff-zASonp4IFoWRV00GNddAo7uxLRbBoiq8Guw8G0g5E787AiY0voA6Qw4pU-RqTknUh5ww8D_H8v1s/s1600/StJohnEpisPkSl1866Ext.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="813" data-original-width="1000" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_rdw_L9NXcfn1VxAm8awe8aol740VnAG55MQZBCd-Kt148nJ7Z-qVilfV-tVkff-zASonp4IFoWRV00GNddAo7uxLRbBoiq8Guw8G0g5E787AiY0voA6Qw4pU-RqTknUh5ww8D_H8v1s/s640/StJohnEpisPkSl1866Ext.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">The original St John's Episcopal Church at Johnson and Washington Streets, in Brooklyn. The building fronted on Johnson Street and was pretty well show-horned onto that lot...that's probably the First Precinct station behind the church. This building was built in 1827, then vacated when the congregation built a new church in Park Slope in 1869. Looking at this pic, I can't help but wonder if the theater and Dieter's Hotel weren't built at the same time, as there definitely doesn't appear to be enough room for the hotel between the church and Washington Street., Those trees along Washington Street, beside the church, are the same ones you can see in front of the hotel in several views of the Washington Street entrance of the theater.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Also remember the theater had a full basement, which would have been excavated deeper than the graves when the buildings were built...seems to me that the graves would have been discovered while construction was in progress.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Which causes us to take a <i>real</i> close look at the possibility of already interred bodies being inadvertently counted as victims. The church actually fronted on Johnson Street, and the auditorium wing of the theater was built right on top of the church building's footprint, though it was much bigger, covering the eastern two thirds or more of the lot, extending from the back wall of the Dieter Hotel to Flood's Alley, and from Johnson Street to the lobby wing. Most of the old cemetery...if it was still there...would have been beneath the south end of the collapsed auditorium.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The lobby wing, and the area under the south stairway and corridor leading to the Family Circle, where most of the bodies were found, <i>was</i> built over part of the area that could have once been a cemetery, so it <i>possibly</i> have been built on top of a few old graves.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, yes, there <i>could </i>have once been a cemetery under that collapsed south stairway and connecting corridor, <i>but...</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...that full basement, which is where the bodies of the fire victims were found, again throws doubt into the possibility of already interred bodies being counted as victims. Again, any old graves <i>should</i> have been discovered as the basement was excavated during construction. And, if somehow any bodies buried in the cemetery <i>weren't</i> discovered during construction and <i>were </i>inadvertently exhumed during the body recovery process, they should have been in coffins, which would have made confusing them with fire victims impossible.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's beginning to look like the cemetery...and possibly Sarah Conway's histrionics...just may have been made up by some one who <i>really </i>wanted a ghost story to be attached to the theater fire.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><***></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Strangely enough, the Brooklyn Theater Fire wasn't the only major fire that Kate Claxton survived...it was simply the first, and by far the worst. The <i>second</i> one though, is the one that caused the press to unfairly brand her as a jinx.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">After recovering from the trauma of the theater fire, Kate Claxton went on tour (By then with her own production company) performing her signature role as Louise The Blind Orphan. In late April of 1877...only four months after the theater fire...they arrived in St Louis, Missouri, to perform in that city's Olympic Theater. The show's cast was put up right across the street at the city's finest hotel, the Southern Hotel, at Fourth and Walnut Streets. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">At about 2:00 AM on April 28th, screams and calls of fire rang out as flames roared up a freight elevator shaft from the basement all the way to the sixth floor. Kate Claxton and the rest of the cast of The Two Orphans all made it out early in the fire, though Kate lost several scripts and contracts (Which she managed to recover ) and her entire wardrobe (Which she didn't).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Twenty-one would die in the fire...eight of them when they jumped to escape the flames...and several rescues were made that became the stuff of legend, and are <i>still</i> talked about in the StLFD.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This would have been a huge news story <i>any</i>way, but then the media realized just <i>who</i> one of the people who escaped was. Now they could have reported that, by some miracle, popular young actress Kate Claxton had escaped the fire, and was un-injured...or they could have gone all tabloid and declared that, this being the second building that has burned with a heavy loss of life while she was inside, she was a jinx.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Wanna guess which one they chose?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The rumor that Kate Claxton was at best a jinx and at worst a possible fire-bug spread from coast to coast with-in a week, as well as stories claiming...falsely...that numerous other theaters where she had performed had also burned.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It got to the point that, when she checked into a hotel, people would stare at her as if they expected her to burst into flames herself, and on a couple of occasions people, upon seeing her, checked out of a hotel she was staying in. Though I could't find any evidence of it, it's not at all improbable that the rumors may have adversely affected attendance of The Two Orphans and any other play she may have starred in.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then as now, people ate up <i>any</i> scandal about a celebrity, whether or not it was true, so every new story about 'The Fire-Jinx' boosted newspaper sales. And seeing this, publishers of the nation's newspapers...especially the more 'tabloid' like papers...churned out new stories. The fact that no actual true facts were represented in these stories often did nothing to inhibit their publication.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">With-in a couple of months things got so bad that Kate Claxton bought space in several newspapers and published pleas for the public to, basically, cut her a break. Then, on June 2nd,1877, well known political cartoonist Thomas Nast came to her defense when he published a cartoon in Harpers Weekly depicting the press as a bunch of torch-bearing winged donkeys...asses...who were spreading false rumors for their own gain. A copy of a letter that the actress had written, refuting a fake interview that had been reported in (False) detail, was also published </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">along with the cartoon, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The cartoon actually seemed to slow the false stories to a trickle, and Kate Claxton wrote a letter to Nast expressing her sincere and everlasting gratitude. Interestingly, other than the couple of months immediately after the Southern Hotel fire, when the bad press was at it's worst, Kate's career wasn't hurt by the rumors, and may have actually been helped...the rumors became so ridiculous that they actually backfired and caused a wave of sympathy for the actress, sympathy that was kicked into high gear by Nast's cartoon.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
Thomas Nast cartoon, published in Harpers Weekly on June 2nd, 1887,
defending Kate Claxton from the 'fire Jinx' rumors...the cartoon
pretty effectively broke the rumor's backs. The original cartoon also
included the text of a letter the actress wrote refuting a widely
circulated report of a fake interview claiming that she had predicted
her own death in a fire of 'A magnitude never before seen by human
eyes' Having read that letter, trust me when I say Miss Claxton
was not only talented she was also very well spoken and intelligent,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">She
wrote Thomas Nast a very sincere letter of thanks in reply to his
efforts on her behalf.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kate Claxton had a long and successful career, though it was marred by some scandal of a kind much more familiar to followers of the entertainment industry...marital problems. (Again, some things have </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">not </i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> changed...)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And, still, every once in a while, an attempt to spread a new fire-rumor or fake interview would show up in a paper, enough so that she had to vehemently deny them in an <i>actual</i> interview in Harpers Weekly in 1887.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kate Claxton retired from the stage in 1904, and passed away in her home in 1924. She's buried in Green-Wood cemetery, not all that far from the common grave where the theater fire victims are interred. Interestingly, as well as oddly, nothing about her fame as an actress or the theater fire appears on her gravestone...only a single line noting that she was the former wife of actor Charles A Stevenson.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lets talk about fire photography for just a bit...a subject near and dear to my heart as I did fire scene photography for several decades.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's interesting...but not surprising...that, while there are several photos of the Brooklyn Theater both before and after the fire, there were none taken <i>during</i> the fire. All of the 'fire scene pictures' are artists renditions, and this was true of pretty much every major fire...and anything else requiring action photography...up until the very late 19th century.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The reason, of course, was camera and film technology. In 1876, camera's still used either wet or dry photographic plates rather than roll film (Which wouldn't be introduced for another decade or so) and taking a photograph was actually a pretty complicated process, especially with wet plates...glass plates coated with the light sensitive emulsion that created the photograph. The photographer had to coat the plate, load it in the camera, take the shot, remove the plate, and develop it all before the plate dried...a space of about ten or fifteen minutes. Field work required a portable dark room, exposure times were long, and the cameras were huge view cameras that were bulky and not exactly portable... not at all ideal, or even close to doable for fire scene photography.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dry plates were introduced in the early 1870s, and were far superior in that they allowed for faster exposures and could be coated with the emulsion and carried around ready to use, then transported to a lab to be processed (So you can just about bet that the famed pic of the south wall of the burned out Brooklyn Theater was a dry plate image) but they <i>still </i>required glass plates, and big, cumbersome view cameras that resembled furniture more than photographic equipment.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lenses were slow (A high end portrait lens with a minimum F-stop of F3.5 was considered <i>extremely</i> fast), shutter speeds were slow, and the exposure times required were high...cameras were basically used for portraits or stationary objects such as buildings...they just were <i>not</i> even <i>vaguely </i>set up for action shots.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Also, note that almost all outside pics from that era were day-time shots. There was no effective method to light an outside scene for night photography. Flash powder was great for inside posed portraits (Assuming it didn't start a fire, and yes, that did indeed occasionally happen) but wasn't useful for outside shots at night and definitely not usable for night action photography.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">While experiments in high(er) speed photography and sheet/roll film were both being carried out in the late 1870s, neither would become common for a decade or more. The first fire scene photographs began appearing towards the end of the next decade, and daytime fire scene shots appeared in newspapers fairly regularly by the end of the 19th century, though good night shots still had to wait for the development of good, effective, portable flash equipment,</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Newspaper photography as we know it today, with small, rugged, go anywhere cameras wouldn't really take off until the introduction of the 35mm camera in 1925, and true night photography didn't really take off until flash bulbs come on the scene in 1927.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Park Theater, originally managed by Sarah and Frederick Conway, suffered an ironic fate when it, too, burned on the evening of November 12th, 1908.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The building was built in 1860, and the upper two floors were converted to a theater in 1863. It was first operated...unsuccessfully...as an opera house, then the Conways took it over in 1864 and operated it successfully...or at least more successfully...until they opened the Brooklyn Theater.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The building passed through several owners and was a profitable house right on up to the evening of Nov 12th, of '08, when it was the oldest theater operating in the by then borough of Brooklyn. A show had ended only an hour or so earlier, and several actors were still in their dressing rooms while theater staff counted the nights receipts, cleaned up, stowed props and scenery and took care of after-show tasks when a fire was discovered, though just where wasn't specified, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find it was, once again, backstage.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Though the building was quickly evacuated and everyone got out without so much as a broken nail, I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that they tried to fight it before anyone either called it in or pulled a street box, because the building was apparently in full bloom when FDNY arrived.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiT28PhpOkibskMHBP9Use4aRN3D05QyVGQyilya97cJBV1SXKNwSekdU0GppABrsRCy1ovW5zOjhgCELWgi5ZpUIRqvqSMzwM-zzo_eWHHE69c0gmsW31DG2eR3Tq-ojm4CyTnv2Rxc0/s1600/Park_Theatre%252C_Brooklyn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1161" data-original-width="1040" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiT28PhpOkibskMHBP9Use4aRN3D05QyVGQyilya97cJBV1SXKNwSekdU0GppABrsRCy1ovW5zOjhgCELWgi5ZpUIRqvqSMzwM-zzo_eWHHE69c0gmsW31DG2eR3Tq-ojm4CyTnv2Rxc0/s640/Park_Theatre%252C_Brooklyn.jpg" width="572" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The Park Theater, taken shortly before it burned. The theater occupied the upper two floors</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"> with the main entrance, lobby and box office probably occupying the center of the first floor, at the arched doorway. Looking at the building, you can tell how crowded it would have been...seating capacity was well under 1000. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Also, note how close the buildings on either side are...The night it burned, FDNY did an awesome job holding it to the building of origin.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Park wasn't but about a block from the former site of the Brooklyn Theater, so the running assignment for the fire would have probably been identical. Of course, when the Brooklyn Fire Department became part of FDNY, there were a bunch of identical company numbers, so '100' was added to all of the Brooklyn company numbers to avoid confusion, so the Engines 5,6, and 8 and Ladder 3 that rolled on the Brooklyn Theater had become Engines 105, 106, and 108 and Ladder 103 when they rolled in on the Park.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">FDNY was renowned for being an aggressive department even 110 years ago, and they went right to work, likely calling for an extra alarm or two, and though the Park, like the Brooklyn before it, was a lost cause when the first engine rolled up, also like the Brooklyn, the guys held it to the building of origin.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Remember me saying that there was something interesting about Brooklyn Engine 8's fire house? That something still interesting is the fact that Engine 8's house is still around.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWmGP0X6rQXboVUrjTO7FLtI3PlkTheyeZq43cjcBcLmImjeXP1kSDntSScRUO7rY_gjgRXvjPvhhL554eYWSiKw1WVrRBAmzIzfizDEZRx8EHL-QQZIU5m3_EQLNUZxNBiHuWAKMHnTQ/s1600/Engine+8-108-208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="1384" height="462" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWmGP0X6rQXboVUrjTO7FLtI3PlkTheyeZq43cjcBcLmImjeXP1kSDntSScRUO7rY_gjgRXvjPvhhL554eYWSiKw1WVrRBAmzIzfizDEZRx8EHL-QQZIU5m3_EQLNUZxNBiHuWAKMHnTQ/s640/Engine+8-108-208.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
The original quarters of Brooklyn Engine company 8...later FDNY Engine 108, then 208...still stands at 227 Front Street, right where it's been since 1869...and the very house that a horse drawn steamer thundered out of at a little before 11:20 PM on December 5th, 1876, third due at the Brooklyn Theater.</div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The station was built as Brooklyn Engine 8's house in 1869, when Brooklyn transitioned to an all-salaried department, then when Brooklyn and New York consolidated in 1898, '100' was added to all Brooklyn fire companies to avoid confusion with similarly numbered companies in Manhattan.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then, in 1913, when the number of engine companies in New York City surpassed 100, the Brooklyn companies were <i>again</i> renumbered, with all Brooklyn engine companies getting '200' series numbers, and Engine 108...formerly BFD Engine 8...became Engine 208.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Engine 208 stayed right here until November 22nd, 1972, when it was disbanded to form new FDNY Engine 167. No idea what the building's used for today, but it's obviously still kept in good repair, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The most interesting thing about it, from a history buff's and fire buff's point of view, is the fact that, at a little before 11:20 PM on December 5th, 1876, the apparatus bay's then-double exit doors were swung open, and a big horse drawn steamer charged out onto Front Street along with a hose cart, and their crews looked south and slightly west to see a huge,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">already orange tinged</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> column of smoke, as they headed for the Brooklyn Theater.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">While doing research for possible topics for this blog I was amazed as well as saddened at the number of major loss of life incidents that took place in December, a month that should be full of joy and merrymaking and fellowship. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">All three of the nation's worst theater fires (The Richmond, Brooklyn, and Iroquois theaters in Richmond,Va, Brooklyn, NY, and Chicago, Illinois) occurred during December, in the years 1811, 1876, and 1903 respectively. I counted nineteen major loss of life incidents between 1811 and 2000 in just the US, Canada, and the UK. This is j</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">ust major loss of life structure fires, by the way....such incidents as major transportation accidents, building collapses, etc aren't counted in that total, though there are a bunch of 'em. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">Granted I didn't go through and count those in the other months...I just went down a couple of pretty inclusive 'Lists of major building fires' and marked all of the December incidents. To be realistic, the total number of incidents is probably fairly evenly distributed among the 12 months, but December is, in my mind, the the most tragic month for any death, much less a catastrophic incident that takes dozens or hundreds of lives.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><***>LINKS<***></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I had a very welcome 'problem' writing this one...with the <i>tremendous</i> amount of information on-line about The Brooklyn Theater Fire, I had to pick and choose, because there was far more information than I could incorporate into this single blog-post, which is already, by far, the longest post I've written so far.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There are a number of excellent sites out there about the fire, and I tried to grab the links to the best dozen or so.</span><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Theatre_fire">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Theatre_fire</a> The all but inevitable Wiki page...one of the most comprehensive, information-packed Wiki pages I've read</div>
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<a href="http://brooklyntheaterfire1876.com/">http://brooklyntheaterfire1876.com/</a> Excellent web-site dedicated to the fire, and most particularly , to the victims of the fire, with the story of the fire, biographies of victims, and more detail on the monument.</div>
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<a href="http://bklyn-genealogy-info.stevemorse.org/Newspaper/BSU/1876.Bklyn.Theatre.Fire.html">http://bklyn-genealogy-info.stevemorse.org/Newspaper/BSU/1876.Bklyn.Theatre.Fire.html</a> Transcripts of several period newspaper articles, from a genealogy site, containing a huge amount of information on the fire and the victims as well as list of names of all known victims. </div>
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<a href="http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2016/12/terrible-brooklyn-theater-fire-worst-disaster-brooklyn-history-140-years-ago-today.html">http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2016/12/terrible-brooklyn-theater-fire-worst-disaster-brooklyn-</a><a href="http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2016/12/terrible-brooklyn-theater-fire-worst-disaster-brooklyn-history-140-years-ago-today.html">history-140-years-ago-today.html</a> One of two posts about the fire on the excellent New York City history blog</div>
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<a href="http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2011/12/wretched-anniversary-brooklyn-theater.html">http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2011/12/wretched-anniversary-brooklyn-theater.html</a> Second Bowery Boys post about the fire.</div>
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<a href="http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklyn-life/walkabout-the-b-1/">http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklyn-life/walkabout-the-b-1/</a>
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<a href="http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklyn-life/walkabout-the-b-2/">http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklyn-life/walkabout-the-b-2/</a> Parts 1 & 2 of an excellent two part series about the fire from The Brownstoner.com</div>
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<a href="http://tinyurl.com/kknt26r">http://tinyurl.com/kknt26r</a> Excerpt from a book about female theater managers from the 19th century, detailing Sarah Conway. An excellent and very interesting read.</div>
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<a href="http://www.green-wood.com/2010/brooklyn-theatre-fire/">http://www.green-wood.com/2010/brooklyn-theatre-fire/</a> Green-Wood Cemetery site's article on the Brooklyn Theater Fire memorial. Green-Wood Cemetery itself has a fascinating history, BTW...well worth exploring their site and other sites about the cemetery.</div>
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<a href="http://lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/2012/04/brooklyn-theatre-fire-etched-in-stone.html">http://lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/2012/04/brooklyn-theatre-fire-etched-in-stone.html</a> Lost New York post about the monument...I included this link as much because Lost New York is such a kick-ass awesome history site as anything else. You can get lost in this site for hours on end...it really is that awesome!</div>
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<a href="http://www.common-place-archives.org/vol-13/no-04/britton/">http://www.common-place-archives.org/vol-13/no-04/britton/</a> Another excellent article about the fire, and especially the aftermath, with a very detailed description of the relief efforts to assist the families of the victims, as well as the investigation into the fire. This link was also included in 'Notes'</div>
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<a href="http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/hillsborough/2016/12/14/kate-claxton-she-didnt-start-the-fire/">http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/hillsborough/2016/12/14/kate-claxton-she-didnt-start-the-fire/</a> </div>
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A blog post detailing Kate Claxton's problems after the theater fire.</div>
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<a href="https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=vcsr&GSvcid=294552">https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=vcsr&GSvcid=294552</a> Findagrave site page on the theater fire victims, listing the names, date of birth of most, and place of burial of all of the known victims (Someone did some serious research on this...my hats off to them.)</div>
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-25129698331684366192017-03-22T11:17:00.013-04:002023-03-28T01:31:12.883-04:00Precious Blood Church Fire Holyoke, Ma. May 27th, 1875.<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Precious Blood Church Fire</b></div>
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<b>May 27th, 1875</b></div>
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<b>Holyoake, Massachusetts</b></div>
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In the sixty-three years and change between <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-richmond-theater-fire-americas.html">The Richmond Theater Fire</a> and the fire at Precious Blood Catholic Church, in Holyoke, Massachusetts America learned how to have man-made disasters. It wasn't something we <i>wanted </i>to learn how to do by any means, but the Mid-Nineteenth Century's run-away advances in transportation really didn't give us much choice in the matter. While the steam engine shortened epic journeys of days or weeks into trips of a few hours by train or a couple of days by steamboat it also brought with it new and horrific ways to kill dozens of people at a time if something went wrong. And, sadly, back in the day things regularly went wrong. Steamboats could collide, sink, their boilers could explode, and they could burn. Trains could collide, derail, run off of bridges, have bridges collapse out from under them...and they could burn. (See a pattern developing here?)</div>
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In fact, <i>most</i> of the country's first major man-made disasters were transportation-related. The largest loss of life in a maritime accident on U.S. waters...and worst transportation disaster of <i>any</i> kind in U.S. history...was caused by an under-maintained, badly repaired boiler exploding and setting an overcrowded steamboat on fire. Death and disaster also bitch-slapped the fast growing railroad industry...several times. The year 1853 became known as 'The Year The Horrors Began' when a train went through an open drawbridge, resulting in forty-six fatalities and kicking off a string of deadly railroad accidents, averaging about one or two a year, that lasted well into the Twentieth Century. Until steam heat replaced coal or wood stoves in each car, fire was a dreaded part of almost every major train wreck.<br />
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Thing is, at the same time we were having a horrible string of luck when it came to transportation disasters, we were also enjoying a six decade run of <i>good</i> luck when it came to catastrophic loss of life structure fires. This luck was tenuous, at best, and was definitely based on a technicality or two, but still, the fact remains that during the six decade and change period following the Richmond Theater Fire we didn't have a single structure fire that caused a catastrophic loss of life. Not. A. One.<br />
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Oh, we <i>still</i> had a couple of catastrophic loss-of-life disasters that involved just a single building...they just weren't fires, or maybe a better way to put that is that they weren't purely fire disasters. (Aaaand, this is where our technicalities come in.)<br />
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Confused yet? Read On.<br />
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By the mid-19th century, theaters and churches were no longer the <i>only</i> venues where a large number of people regularly gathered in a single building. The industrial revolution brought with it the construction of some huge factories, each one employing hundreds of people. These humongous heavy timber and brick buildings were virtual warehouses of fire and safety hazards, making them ripe for disaster, and all but inevitably it didn't take but so long for one to occur.<br />
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That disaster was the 1860 Pemberton Mill Collapse, which, to this day, is still listed as the worst industrial accident in Massachusetts history. It was also one of the first man-caused incidents of <i>any</i> kind in the U.S. to claim over a hundred lives. Dozens were killed in the initial collapse of the building, then a rescue worker accidentally broke an oil lantern during the rescue operation, and the resulting fire killed many of the trapped mill-workers who hadn't died in the initial collapse. This didn't happen until hours after the collapse, though, and the incident missed being a pure fire disaster because all...in fact, <i>most...</i>of the deaths weren't caused by fire..<br />
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Then in 1870 <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-virginia-state-capitol-disaster-of.html">a third floor courtroom in the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond collapsed </a>into the senate floor during a trial that had been convened to decide a controversial and hotly contested mayoral election, killing sixty-two people. Only the fact that it happened during daylight hours on a warm spring day kept that incident from being a repeat of the Pemberton Mill Disaster. Had it happened during the winter, when stoves would have been cranking to heat the courtroom, or at night, when gas lights would have been glowing, that death toll could have been at least twice as high..and it would have<i> still</i> been a collapse with fire rather than a pure structure fire.<br />
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Both of those incidents caused massive loss of life, both were tragic, but, again, neither was a pure fire disaster. Most of the deaths at the Pemberton Mill weren't fire deaths, and the Virginia State Capitol Collapse never involved fire at all. While both were single-building incidents that caused catastrophic loss of life, they weren't <i>structure fires </i>that caused catastrophic....generally defined as a death toll of 25 or more... loss of life. Our very shaky luck RE: Catastrophic structure fires still held.<br />
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That's not saying that there were <i>no</i> catastrophic loss of life fires during that period...there were, but all of them involved areas measured in square <i>miles</i>
rather than square feet. We burned large swaths of several cities (New
York several times and Chicago most famously) with high death tolls in
several of those fires, and we burned a large hunk of one entire<i> state</i>
(At the same time Chicago was burning, no less) with a huge toll in
lives, but we didn't see a single fire involving only a single building
that caused the loss of more than twenty lives.<br />
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We
came close a couple of times, most particularly with a pair of tenement
fires that occurred in New York City with-in two months of each other in early 1860, killing thirty people...mostly women and
children...between them. That is <i>still</i> a tragic, heartbreaking
loss of life by any measure, and these two fires brought about massive changes in the law...they were the reason fire escapes were an iconic feature of New York apartment buildings for over a century...but the death toll in these two fires was still well short of the seventy-two
lives lost in the Richmond Theater Fire.<br />
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All of the elements were in place for a repeat of the Richmond Theater Fire, though, and had been since that night after Christmas in 1811. By 1875, while developments in central heating were being made, both lighting and heating in buildings was generally still decidedly old-tech, utilizing either oil or gas lamps and wood or coal stoves. With all of these ignition sources inside occupied buildings loaded down with and constructed from combustible materials, working structure fires were a pretty regular occurrence. And, as the population grew and more homes were built, multiple-fatality house fires also became more common. Somehow, though, the nation's luck...based on a technicality though it may have been...in avoiding catastrophic loss of life in single building structure fires manged to hold.</div>
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But the clock was ticking...and when the <i>next</i> major loss of life fire occurred, it would seemingly open the flood gates, because after 1875 not a single decade has passed without at least one, and usually several, catastrophic loss of life building fires. When the Richmond Theater burned in 1811 there were really only two major types of venues where a large crowd regularly gathered in a relatively small area...theaters and churches. With the first catastrophic loss of life single building structure fire in the U.S. occurring in a theater, it was somehow inevitable that the second...Sixty-three years, five months and one day later...would be at a church.<br />
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To take a look at this one, we need to slip back to a warm early summer evening in 1875 in the historic city of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Holyoke is situated about ninety miles west of Boston and nine miles due north
of Springfield, hard by the fast-flowing Connecticut River and was the largest producer of paper in the U.S.for nearly a century. Between the river providing free, unlimited power for paper and textile mills, and the city's grid street system (Rare back then in New England), Holyoke was just about <i>made</i> to be an industrial city...no, really, it was literally planned as an industrial city. The paper industry, in particular, built a slew of <i>huge</i> mills, with textiles running a close second in square footage. Of course, to run all of these these mills, they needed people.<br />
Thousands of workers flocked to jobs in Holyoke, many of them French-Canadian, and a huge percentage of them were Roman Catholic.<br />
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Up until 1869, they were welcomed by the large Irish-Catholic parish of St Jeromes Catholic Church, and they were still welcome there after that year...but they decided to split off on their own. No bad blood was involved, rather the French Canadian Catholic population had swelled to a thousand plus, so they decided to form their own parish. They claimed South Holyoke as their territory, named their parish The Church Of The Precious Blood, chose <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The Rev. Andre B. Dufresne from St. Hyacinth, Canada</span></span> as their first priest, and set out to find a site for a church.<br />
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They chose a block in a heavily industrial area of the city, bordered by Cabot, South East, Park (Clemente Street today), and Hamilton Streets, and immediately built a wooden church that would serve them until a larger, more appropriately magnificent brick church could be built next door. When I say 'Immediately', BTW, I mean <i>just</i> that. Construction started on the first of December of 1869, and the building was dedicated on New Years Day, 1870. So, needless to say, it was all but literally, thrown up. Of course, it was built as a temporary building, and they weren't planning on using it for more than a year or so.<br />
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The wooden building, temporary though it may have been, wasn't exactly tiny, measuring 96' by 46 feet...this was including the rectory, BTW. The sanctuary also included a 'U' shaped balcony, hugging the east, north (Front) and west sides of the building, that doubled the buildings capacity to 800 or so people. This balcony, BTW, will figure heavily in events to follow. As people arrived, they entered the church through one of three front entrances, all of which led into narrow vestibules which, in turn, emptied into the sanctuary. The middle entrance was six feet wide, guarded by a pair of three foot wide double doors, while both the east and west entrances were single-doored and 44 inches wide. All of these doors, BTW, probably opened inward.<br />
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Location-wise, it was at the intersection of Cabot and South East Streets, fronting on Cabot Street, with the new church under construction immediately to the west of it. Following are some Satellite images and illustrations of just where the church was and how it was probably situated on the lot, as well as pictures of both the old and new churches.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixdyWPxmzq95rwZrK0IVXDQmtXIj_Z-WpyLmANpttX7pzKSHcibumjOUaBtSabUCazSjFc8ZTIFRnp72GBpDomJ1J4ZmE-ptQMDfpOq8OaSz3tvCE24LKsEev8G-hnfuxZXY2aWkJD9qw/s1600/Holyoke+Sat.+View.PNG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixdyWPxmzq95rwZrK0IVXDQmtXIj_Z-WpyLmANpttX7pzKSHcibumjOUaBtSabUCazSjFc8ZTIFRnp72GBpDomJ1J4ZmE-ptQMDfpOq8OaSz3tvCE24LKsEev8G-hnfuxZXY2aWkJD9qw/s640/Holyoke+Sat.+View.PNG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Satellite view of Holyoke with the block where the church was located...shown in better detail below...circled in red.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEwLzM9Nh9zqXVxnQ6IQbqHnY9nzOhdACl-8f2vZR6lDz32T7Zvbo_wfym8Og4IXhfYzrq5FnMbSzuhET22MxHA1xl1Mrqgu_mOXEdwKTI4fZqxypiYIs2oNHdLgoBtEcqO80xAZEFg0I/s1600/Holyoke+Sat.+View+Church+Site.PNG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEwLzM9Nh9zqXVxnQ6IQbqHnY9nzOhdACl-8f2vZR6lDz32T7Zvbo_wfym8Og4IXhfYzrq5FnMbSzuhET22MxHA1xl1Mrqgu_mOXEdwKTI4fZqxypiYIs2oNHdLgoBtEcqO80xAZEFg0I/s640/Holyoke+Sat.+View+Church+Site.PNG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Satellite view of the area circled in the satellite view of Holyoke, with the block where the church was located...bounded by Clemente Street (Park Street
in 1875), Cabot Street, East Street, and Hamilton Street, out-lined in red. The approximate locations of the new church
and the old church are also indicated...the old church in red and the
new church in blue. The churches actually fronted on Cabot Street, with
the old church sitting at the intersection of Cabot and East
Streets. I've also labeled the former site of Park Street School, which served as a temporary morgue after the fire, and was where families IDed the bodies of their loved ones.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyG6fs89rGHJzDotDaen5GywDt04bqQBDhKN7DkfumVtsnJOvrV-NUZmzAny0EaXt-45Bq1Z1edF8_wAEAauZgBdcWMXOxCcLnM6cU8-_LApu0huhk6PQN2udirawXRhdY3yNdIXfo9os/s1600/Church+Site+three+quarter+Sat+View.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyG6fs89rGHJzDotDaen5GywDt04bqQBDhKN7DkfumVtsnJOvrV-NUZmzAny0EaXt-45Bq1Z1edF8_wAEAauZgBdcWMXOxCcLnM6cU8-_LApu0huhk6PQN2udirawXRhdY3yNdIXfo9os/s640/Church+Site+three+quarter+Sat+View.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A 3D View of the block the church once sat on, with the sites of both the new and old churches labeled as well as the site of Park Street School, where the temporary morgue was located. The brick building just west of the former site of the new church, at Cabot and Clemente, was the church rectory, and was built at about the same time as the church, while the larger brick building at the south end of the block...across Hamilton Street from the school site...was once part of the catholic school affiliated with Precious Blood Church. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSUDI5zXsBqaEuvFVTSv_wPiZEJFmqssLtNIFBAghYe3toRjuyYwslirk0oBdUho5smxuEf-dwDciHdquk05lgaYjexxQQ1GNJ698RUo4UGn7k96E1atodry38t65zPeSjPkQFXXiRfMU/s1600/Church+Site+Aerial+today.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSUDI5zXsBqaEuvFVTSv_wPiZEJFmqssLtNIFBAghYe3toRjuyYwslirk0oBdUho5smxuEf-dwDciHdquk05lgaYjexxQQ1GNJ698RUo4UGn7k96E1atodry38t65zPeSjPkQFXXiRfMU/s640/Church+Site+Aerial+today.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Another 3D aerial view from the front of the former church sites...the sites actually sat on top of a low, hill that sloped sharply towards the north, east, and west. The ground between the buildings was level, and that, along with the fact that the new church was being built so close to the wooden building, allowed the people trapped on the west side of the gallery to use the construction scaffolding for the new church to escape the fire. The turreted building is the former church rectory, built about the same time as the new church.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_cPwk42VFTAKzSSlgYCgo0_yJGTUWHzlzbossc0-bP4EEZBdJYCWMZ1FvmFBUQ5pfhsge48et35rKkdp0azvGGVEx9-Dq9rKp3kLCJucmklexbBs7mo7FAFRKwdNll4YP5mnw981Nt90/s1600/Cabot+and+East+Today.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_cPwk42VFTAKzSSlgYCgo0_yJGTUWHzlzbossc0-bP4EEZBdJYCWMZ1FvmFBUQ5pfhsge48et35rKkdp0azvGGVEx9-Dq9rKp3kLCJucmklexbBs7mo7FAFRKwdNll4YP5mnw981Nt90/s640/Cabot+and+East+Today.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cabot and East Streets today...trees hide the former rectory.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipFJlUQHE6dR2xb3GqKTK4KiZbfo2Qz1BF5OT0bGs4YMdb2m11NFF-Wuf-rkjzkOqb4fGlMNxyBrc30m3T7Dqv13SHeWf6Kt1epYSSaD7mQPYDl8uvk4JLgmja5hmD-dBUT4KkxmCvAlM/s1600/New+Church+Composite.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipFJlUQHE6dR2xb3GqKTK4KiZbfo2Qz1BF5OT0bGs4YMdb2m11NFF-Wuf-rkjzkOqb4fGlMNxyBrc30m3T7Dqv13SHeWf6Kt1epYSSaD7mQPYDl8uvk4JLgmja5hmD-dBUT4KkxmCvAlM/s640/New+Church+Composite.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A pair of views of the new Precious Blood Catholic Church, opened in 1878, three years after the fire. This was a truly magnificent building, and was at least three times the size of the building that burned. Take a look at the view of the church on the right side...while it's pretty low quality, it shows how the new church...and by association, the old church...were positioned on the block. The intersection visible at the mid-bottom of the frame is Cabot and East Streets, the church fronts on Cabot.. The domed building on the far side of the church in the rectory, which was built at about the same time as the new church, still exists and is visible in the satellite views I've posted. The church that burned would have been located on the vacant plot of ground between the new church and East Street. The new church was being built hard by the wooden building, so close that trapped church-goers in the balcony on the west side of the church were able to use construction scaffolding to climb from the balcony windows and then to the ground. You can also see how the ground sloped away from the front and east side of the old church if you look closely enough. Both churches were actually built on the top of a low, flat topped hill, with the ground sloping down to the streets on three sides.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJjxt2EFyml830E6JyoapYI4KfhteWx4vAa6E-lf33jn-fL45BZrp4GKDMjT0TrwgL6eBQS6O7nItyPHGPkrs4xvUm6xWAST3RIOit4t915JgkJ0K0yBLYY0fO_jpxsZUxbEphqApxB9s/s1600/05of07.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="606" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJjxt2EFyml830E6JyoapYI4KfhteWx4vAa6E-lf33jn-fL45BZrp4GKDMjT0TrwgL6eBQS6O7nItyPHGPkrs4xvUm6xWAST3RIOit4t915JgkJ0K0yBLYY0fO_jpxsZUxbEphqApxB9s/s640/05of07.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
A contemporary sketch of Precious Blood
Church before the fire. While the descriptions of the church I
read described it as having three front entrances, with the center
one being double width, this sketch doesn't show it for some reason.
Given the number of people in the building when the fire started, and
the number who actually <i>did</i> make it out, that big central
entrance almost had to have been there.
</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
The building was built on the top of a
low hill, with the ground sloping away from the building sharply on
the north (Front and east sides of the building. The full width
wooden steps at the front of the building took care of access, of
course, but the sharp drop off on the east side added close to
another story to the drop from those second story windows, making
them all but useless for escape from the fire</span>.</div>
</div>
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EevMOk-lhYXMntMKz6VLaOKOj1ntUqhXqedlyf6dFjcVzAD3ey2vL60ikhQsOdUvHxJX5cxlT8ecOxuBqU5Xf09JwFpqbtsySOAbjMUgA8_GdgMLcZ-2g4e1EwbYCrbjr42z05AdJkA/s1600/churchplan+proper+directrtional+orientation..jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EevMOk-lhYXMntMKz6VLaOKOj1ntUqhXqedlyf6dFjcVzAD3ey2vL60ikhQsOdUvHxJX5cxlT8ecOxuBqU5Xf09JwFpqbtsySOAbjMUgA8_GdgMLcZ-2g4e1EwbYCrbjr42z05AdJkA/s640/churchplan+proper+directrtional+orientation..jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Floor plan of the church, with the
vestry alcove, where the fire started, and the foot of the stairs, where the majority of the bodies were found, both labeled. Take a look at the access paths to the
top of that stairway...now imagine trying to get to and down those
steps in a fire.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
The church sat at the corner of Cabot and East Streets, so East Street would have been parallel to the right side of the church, and Cabot Street would have been parallel to the front of the church</span>.</div>
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
east front entrance doubled as the entrance to the balcony. If you
wanted to sit in the balcony you turned right immediately as you
walked in the door, climbed a four foot wide enclosed stairway, which
emptied into a small vestibule with a blank wall directly in front of
you and a doorway to your left. You turned left as you reached the
top of the steps, walked through that doorway, and you were in the
gallery.</span></span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
gallery looked to have been about ten or twelve feet deep, with four
rows of pews, separated from both the exterior wall and the half wall
that separated those seated in the balcony from a drop into the
sanctuary by a narrow passageway.. Once you got off of those stairs,
you could, of course, go either left or right, and either work your
way along the narrow passage between <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">th<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">last pew</span> </span></span>and outside wall or
use one of the aisles to reach the similarly narrow passage between
the first pew and the half wall to get to wherever you wanted
to sit. Keep that lay-out in mind when you get a few more
paragraphs in, and imagine trying to navigate it calmly when you
can't see, can't breathe, and have several hundred other people
fighting...literally...to get through the same narrow, twisting
passageway. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Even with a capacity of 800 people the
wooden church wasn't anywhere near big enough as the French-Canadian
Catholic population of Holyoke was growing steadily, reaching a total
of around 2500 by mid-1875, They would absolutely <i>need</i> that
new brick church. So an architect was hired, plans drawn up and
construction started on what would be a magnificent and beautiful
brick church immediately to the west of the wooden building.
Annnnnd...the economy chose that exact time to go into the toilet,
slowing construction to a crawl...so much of a crawl that by May
27th, 1875 the basement of the new church had been partially dug and
some of the exterior framing and brickwork had been started, and that
was it.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">May 27th of 1875 was the third Thursday
after Trinity Sunday, making it the day of the celebration of Corpus
Christi, a Roman Catholic feast </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">commemorating</span>
the institution of the Holy Eucharist as the Sacrament, and that
evening at seven o'clock there was to be a short Vesper service to
mark the occasion. The Reverend Dufresne was planning on being
finished with the service by 7:30, but short as it was to be, the
church was decorated to the nines, including the dozens of candles
that religious ceremonies in </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>all
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">denominations
entail, along with delicate lace draperies surrounding the Statue of
the Blessed Virgin, which was ensconced, if a contemporary
illustration was accurate, in an alcove set high on the south wall,
near the southeast corner of the building, which would put it to the
left of the alter as you face it. The statue was apparently
also surrounded by the aforementioned lighted candles. </span></span>As
seven o'clock drew near <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">the
good Reverend and several other church members were opening the tall
windows that lined both the east and west walls so they could</span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">catch
a breeze during the service. No one noticed the candle flames
guttering in the breeze, or the draperies moving gracefully as the
same breeze hit them.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By
the time the church bells bonged out the call to worship at a few
minutes before seven the church was just about packed. As anyone
who's ever experienced a sermon inside an un-airconditioned church
during the summer can tell you, absolutely </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>n</i></span></span><i>othing</i>
can get much hotter inside <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">any
faster than a crowded church on a hot, or even warm, day, and The
Church Of The Precious Blood was no exception. While the classic
church-provided hand fan that we all remember from our
childhood...the ones with religious images on the front, and funeral
home ads on the back...weren't a thing yet, hand fans in general
were, and dozens of them had already been deployed by worshipers who
were engaging in the age-old practice of community gossip that takes
place</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">to this day</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> every Sunday morning in every church in the world</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">.
Little Old Ladies held court in groups as men discussed company
politics and kids became cherubic angels under the watchful eyes of
their parents.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
Good Reverend mounted the alter, and the buzz of pre-service
gossip and conversation stilled as the service started. Those on
the east side of the building were enjoying a good breeze that
occasionally made it's way in through the open windows, but those on
the west side were out of luck...their windows were blocked by the
unfinished brickwork and scaffolding hard by the west side of the
building...and entire squadrons of the afore-mentioned hand fans were
likely whipping back and forth in front of dozens of perspiring
faces. A couple of the worshipers may have noticed the breeze
moving the draperies surrounding the Statue of the Blessed Virgin</span></span>,
but thought nothing of it, other than envying those close enough to the east windows to enjoy it. At least they thought <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">nothing</span>
of it until, just before the end of the service, the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">bottom
edge of the drapery lifted high enough to come in contact with the
candle flame.</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rev.
Dufresne was just about beginning to wind the short service
down when a particularly strong breeze whispered it's way through the
east windows and got up under the drapery, billowing it upward and
outward and waving it like a flag...right into the candles.
The bottom edges fluttered through the candle flames, which at first
danced across the bottom hem of the drapery and then, as the breeze
died and the drape dropped, climbed the folds of fabric like a shot.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7HcvNVv_V07l0PznuojO3_4KlcYFp0Wr8K128OWc0yUQKkqnpXorIgwSmj3WdzFxt9fzOyrC_niZKH7WwPAiF4jmQ_9s5MQjZ7JWOLc4LFls5O0lxg5DkuVi-ZaUnuXuESyY5cAgdne0/s1600/04of07.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7HcvNVv_V07l0PznuojO3_4KlcYFp0Wr8K128OWc0yUQKkqnpXorIgwSmj3WdzFxt9fzOyrC_niZKH7WwPAiF4jmQ_9s5MQjZ7JWOLc4LFls5O0lxg5DkuVi-ZaUnuXuESyY5cAgdne0/s640/04of07.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
A contemporary sketch...and, needless to say, artists rendition...of the very start of the fire. The artist even included the young girl trying to beat out the flames with her fan.</span></div>
</td></tr>
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<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">One young lady, sitting near the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">south<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">east end</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> of the balcony, spotted the fire almost as it started and <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">hustl<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ed</span> t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o th<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e half-wall<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>lean<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ing<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> across it</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> as far as she could<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and </span>swatting at the flames with <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span>r fan <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">as she <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ried <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">desperately to smother them, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">but they basically just laughed at her, probably lighting her fan off while they were at it. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L</span>ess than a minute into the incident<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> f<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">i</span>re was <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">already</span> too <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">we</span>ll <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">advanced </span>to just manually smother, grabbing hold of the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">flammable</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">accouterments</span> inside the alcove as we<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ll as the painted walls and turning <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">statue's</span> alcove into it's own tiny room and contents fire in a matter of secon<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ds.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">R</span>everen<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">d heard the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">commotion</span> and, at first <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">suspecting</span> a couple of unruly teenagers or children</span>, turned <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">with a stern look on his face to instead see flames rolling out of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> alcove <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and the burning fo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">lds of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">drapery</span> piled in a flaming mass on the floor. The young lady had stopped trying to <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">swat</span> out <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">fire</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...her fan was probably b<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">urning on the floor along with the draperies...</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and the rest <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">of</span> the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">congregation</span> was more tha<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">n aware of the fast growing fire. He turned to<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">wards his flock.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Stay calm peopl<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e!!.." The crowd was growing <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">restive</span>. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Someone threw the big double doors of the main entrance open. "It's not that b<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ad...</span></span>" Flames were out of the alcove and<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> beginni<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ng to climb the wall <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">as smoke roll<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ed upward and gathered in a malignan<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t cloud at <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> peak of the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">roof. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">S</span>everal people in the<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> back pews...near the main entrance...were already heading for the exit<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. One of the other <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">entrances</span> banged open...</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The fire was beyon<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">d any hope of control by then<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, less then two <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">minutes</span> into the incident. While t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">his was essentially a temporary building, it was still a Catholic Church, and was as lovely inside as they could make it. This loveliness was dooming them. The walls were <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">pain<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ted wood...dry wood...and paints <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">have</span> always been flammable. As the flames rolled up and <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">out of the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">statue's</span> alcove, they <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">shoved a column of sup<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">er heated air <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">up the wall ahead of them, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">preheating <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the wall</span></span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o</span> the ignition temps of both paint <i>and</i> wood<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, so flames <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">practically</span> shot up <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">towards the roof, thi<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">rty o<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">r so feet above. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Only a </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>couple of minutes<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> into the fire, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a classic 'V' shaped column of flame was climbing the wall and<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">beginning to <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">roll across the underside of the roof. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The building was quickly filling with smoke, thick and acrid and suffocating, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">probably</span> banking down to head level in the balcony within<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">firs</span>t three or so minutes, and <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">continuing</span> to drop as flames ran the inverted 'V' of the<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> ridge <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">of the</span> roof as if it was an <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">inverted gutter.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">worshipers<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> on <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> first floor had three front exits</span></span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">to choose from, as well as a rear e<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">xit...probably thr<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ough the rectory<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> but those in the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">balcony quickly realized they had a problem. Not only was the smoke banking down, so was the heat<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, and the upper portion of the church was getting <i>h<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ot </span></i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and doing so quickly</span><i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. </span></i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A horizontal colu<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">mn <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">of</span> fire was rolling along the roof's inverted 'V' like a runaway train as well as mushrooming downward along <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">roof boards,</span> preheating the balcony<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and everything...and every one<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...in it.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Visibility was dropping, heat was rising, and <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">breathing was becoming more difficult by the second as panic be<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">gan to set in.</span> </span></span>Four <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">hundred</span> people <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">needed to navigate a narrow, crooked path to reach and descend a single stairway then m<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a</span>ke a h<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a</span>rd left and go out of a single doorway while a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">couple of hundred other people were trying to exit that very same doo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">r<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">way<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, all of them in a hurry to g<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">et out of the building. It became a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">deadly</span> repeat of the Richmond Theater.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2eYwUdc8YLaXZizr-YywzNuGF6jR9SG0z1VsGDXPRnTR07dBPLAanwE6XEqgUUtoLxR0OLazcJD0mQevgG29v0h2CpjfbvWZXip9fmUFabcOBwjPlj8tnEiU1H2DGL77iojB9_isFTQ/s1600/insidechurchlast3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2eYwUdc8YLaXZizr-YywzNuGF6jR9SG0z1VsGDXPRnTR07dBPLAanwE6XEqgUUtoLxR0OLazcJD0mQevgG29v0h2CpjfbvWZXip9fmUFabcOBwjPlj8tnEiU1H2DGL77iojB9_isFTQ/s640/insidechurchlast3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Another artists rendition that shows
the panic inside the church as the fire worsened. He used a lot of
artistic license, BTW...the stairway to the gallery was actually
enclosed, and he also has it in the wrong place. You are apparently
looking towards the front of the church here, so the stairway should
be to the right of the frame.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
He's not exaggerating the level of
panic, though...people were jumping from the balcony, though it looks
like he may have exaggerated the distance of the drop to the
sanctuary by a bit.</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Like <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the b<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">oxes in T<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span></span> Richmond Theater<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, </span>those seated in <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">church's balcony</span> had to navigate a fairly narro<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">w passage between the pews and the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">wall of t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he church to reach the stairs, and again like the t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">heater, two groups of panicked people <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">coming</span> from two (Or more) different directions<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">,<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> after winding around</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">several turns,<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> had to </span>fight their way onto that <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">single</span> stairway. And<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, again much like the Richmond Theater, those who <i>did</i> make it onto the stairway crowded into the terrified throng on the f<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">irst floor exiting through <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">very same</span></span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">entrance <i>they</i> were trying to reach.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">When the two pa<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">nicked</span> throngs met on the first floor they became jammed up in the east vestibule and </span>the line of worshipers between the pews and the wall on all three sides of the balcony came to a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">sudden</span> stop, even <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">as the people <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">in those lines</span></span> cough<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ed and gagged on smoke and baked in the heat of the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">flames</span> running the roof an<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">d no<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">rth wall of the church.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">T</span></span>heir</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> pa<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">nic went off the charts as flames mushroomed downward into the balcony.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The worshipers on the west side took to the windows and clim<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">bed out <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">onto the<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>scaffolding </span>surrounding <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> new church, the calmer <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">among</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">them</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">handing</span> children out to those who'd already escaped even as the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">more</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> panicked among them likely trampled those same children as they tried to escape<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">T</span>he</span> church was built on <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the top of a low, flat-topped hill</span></span>, so t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> strip of land <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">between</span> the tw<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">buildings</span> was level<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, </span></span>and the drop from the west windows didn't look <i>that </i>high for those who didn't want to try to reach the scaff<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ol</span>ding<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A</span></span> slew of<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> people just dropped out of t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> windows<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. S</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ome of them ended up with broken legs or trashed knees <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">when</span> they landed<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and</span> ha<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">d</span> to be dragged from between the tw<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o buildings, but that was a far, <i>far</i> b<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">etter fa<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">te</span> than burning to death.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The people on the <i>east</i> side of the church also made for the windows...but they were out of luck. They <i>didn't</i> have a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">scaffolding </span>to climb out on and </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">because</span> of the slope of that hill</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> the drop from their windows was<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> closer</span> to three stories. Several pe<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ople fought their way <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">towards t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> half wall, some literally climbing over pews to reach it<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">,</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and jumped down into the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">sanctuary</span>, most landing on pews when they did so. I <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">have</span> a feeling a good number were injured, or worse, in the jump.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Five or six minutes into the fire, flames had probably involved at least half of the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ceiling</span>...<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">actually the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">underside of the roof...<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and had entere<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">d at least the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">south <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">east end of the balcony.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The west side of the balcony was <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">emptying quickly, thanks to the windows and scaffolding, and some of the people in the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">north side of the balcony, at the front of the church, had also gone o<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ut of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> windows, but the east side of the balcony had become a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">jammed mass</span> of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">screaming, terrified humanity, barely moving at a<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ll...and it only took one<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> or two p<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e</span>ople to stop all motion.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The main f<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">loor of the sanctuary had almost<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, but not <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">quite emptied...that six foot wide main entrance<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> had saved hundreds...but many of the people on the east side of the sanctuary did what was instinctive and natural and headed for the closer and narrower <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">east exit...the same <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">one <i>everyone</i> in th<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e balcony was <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">trying</span> to use...and the two masses of people were both trying to go through the exact same forty-four inch wide door at the exact same time, and in the process, only jamming each other up. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And then someone fell. The <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">first</span> one was probably in the do<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">r</span>way, only feet from safety, </span>and when that one <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">went down, dozens of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">other panic-stricken people tried to climb over them, then each other, and people tripped and went down like dominoes...and <i>still </i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">people kept <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">coming</span>, trying to climb over the growing pile of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">humanity</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">in the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">doorway until <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">first the doorway, then the east vestibule w<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">as</span></span> an unbreakable log-jam of<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> bo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">dies, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">five or six feet high</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and all still a</span>live for the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">moment</span>, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the pile of terrified people </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">growing by the second with those at the bottom of the pile becoming mo</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">re <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">inextricably</span> stuck as the pile grew.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXn4LwD1i3RBNzcqTDhduHyI3HddwbvsjSdCni5WmpdAuDHHTifSZCPBNQtSuPnDYsLihhSA4Inz3U4rLK7FGeoKw0QakiYXWAyH9Stymd4sHjkZh_RRblXHpicVQNfOKkCD1SUNuiFwE/s1600/pblood_03.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXn4LwD1i3RBNzcqTDhduHyI3HddwbvsjSdCni5WmpdAuDHHTifSZCPBNQtSuPnDYsLihhSA4Inz3U4rLK7FGeoKw0QakiYXWAyH9Stymd4sHjkZh_RRblXHpicVQNfOKkCD1SUNuiFwE/s640/pblood_03.jpg" width="510" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Artists rendition of the crush inside the stairwell. This is probably pretty accurate, as well as far more graphic than modern news photography. Newspapers of that era were far, <i>far</i> more graphic in both written description and art and illustration of incidents. Artists drew often very detailed sketches of incident scenes and aftermaths, and in the days before photography took over, they allowed their imaginations to run wild when illustrating a story.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This human logjam was like a living...and deadly...game of dominoes as </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">movement in the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">stairwell</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> suddenly stopp<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ed, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and</span> everyone in that narrow<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, confined, and tilted space tried desperately to c<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">limb over everyone else. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Meanwhile up in the east side of the gallery, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">panic reined,<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> as <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> upper part of the church filled with fire, and those l<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">eft ali<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ve and able to do so broke and ran<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, either going out of the windows <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o</span>r jumping <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">over</span> the half-wall...nei<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ther op<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">tion was likely to end well for the jumper.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new 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style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was probably just about<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> thi<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">s time...less than ten minutes into the<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>fire...</span>that</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">dense</span>, black smoke and inte<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">nse, oven-<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">grad<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e</span></span></span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">heat <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">slammed down on the upper half of the church like the hand of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">death as the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">underside</span> of the roof and the ra<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">fters flashed over, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">turning the ent<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ire attic into an inverted <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">cauldron</span> of roiling, surging flames and filling the building with dense, hot, acrid<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
smoke. The balcony level flashed over only seconds later as everything
in the upper half of the church reached<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> it's </span>ignition temperature, and flames curled out of the second floor windows.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">F</span>ire had probably <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">bur<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ned</span></span> through the roof on the south end of the c<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">hurch, rolling up into the column of black smoke that was roiling sk<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">yward and lighting it up from the inside, painting it orange as it dan<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ced and <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">writhed</span></span></span></span></span>.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Anyone not out of the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">san<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ctuary and gallery was doomed.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Less than ten minutes into the fire the inside of the church was a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">flaming charnal house, and the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ground surrounding the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">church</span>...<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">especially</span> on the east side of the building ...wasn't much better, with a do<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">zen or more people who'<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">d</span> jumped from the balcony windows lying on the grou<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">nd, some <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">of them <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">writhing</span> and moaning in pain, others lying in that flat, still pose that can only mean death.</span></span> One of th<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e people who'd gotten out early on, and<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> was </span>able to keep a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">clear head on <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">their</span> shoulders high-tailed it to the nearest f<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ire <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">alarm</span> box...<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">because</span> I<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">'m pretty sure Holyoke had a telegraph a<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">larm system by 1875...and, while looking back over their shoulder at the flames rolling <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">f<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ro</span>m</span> the building's <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">second</span> floor windows, yanked down on the hook.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSmwLcJ86OU9PgQJOOugobT8DUmO8KM420gyZNQnlw1E3mGZ1Tf0vAlgM5Sqt7mnH7r5L5BuAdUAgmp6TvSCgMDtHnuwzvLryy9C1V-U7ElWndax0Vj9036By8jy31R2AW9T-pH9TAD0U/s1600/Amoskeag_Manufacturing_Company_-_1871_-_Waltham%252C_MA_-_1.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSmwLcJ86OU9PgQJOOugobT8DUmO8KM420gyZNQnlw1E3mGZ1Tf0vAlgM5Sqt7mnH7r5L5BuAdUAgmp6TvSCgMDtHnuwzvLryy9C1V-U7ElWndax0Vj9036By8jy31R2AW9T-pH9TAD0U/s640/Amoskeag_Manufacturing_Company_-_1871_-_Waltham%252C_MA_-_1.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An 1871 Amoskeag horse-drawn 2nd size steam pumper, which had a pump capacity of 700 GPM. This is the type of rig that Holyoke's firefighter rolled in with on the Precious Blood Fire. These rigs could supply two to three 2 1/2 inch hand lines. The horses would have probably been unhitched and taken to an area a bit away from the fire, where they were safe from injury.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuZZLZjZaEoQyeyPpBQaV5d1_D36KR2ecBa8Ev0dns8zpqC_NuOgbljQrOzAbzyiQ__2SwBJgXuol7m1THd1Pc4Co0pUOC5jX1u8Pe70IHDCal9NmzdvS5d-qwj_GNcolK71QnlwOHaow/s894/Precious+Blood+Church+Fire+Amoskeg.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="703" data-original-width="894" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuZZLZjZaEoQyeyPpBQaV5d1_D36KR2ecBa8Ev0dns8zpqC_NuOgbljQrOzAbzyiQ__2SwBJgXuol7m1THd1Pc4Co0pUOC5jX1u8Pe70IHDCal9NmzdvS5d-qwj_GNcolK71QnlwOHaow/w640-h504/Precious+Blood+Church+Fire+Amoskeg.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One of Holyoke's Amoskaegs, pictured in 1882...the shot was taken outside the Elmwood station, on South Street, though the station is behind the photographer. Note that it's got steam up, and is ready to roll to a fire. It's a pretty good bet that this rig responded to the church fire. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Thanks to Lennie Boisjolie for finding this one and allowing me to post it.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br />
<span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> Back in 1875, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Holyoke's fire department <span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>had 156 men running out of <span>five or six stations, two of them with <span>w</span>ith horse-drawn steamers and hose wagons, and one with <span>a horse drawn ladder.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> The department was also what we'd call a <span>combination <span>department</span> today, with a couple of <span>full time sa<span>l</span>aried firefighters at the stat<span>ions and paid on-call <span>firefighters</span> who responded to the station or scene when a call came in</span></span>, so it's pretty likely that <span>when the <span>gongs started banging out the box <span>number</span> in <span>the</span> stations, a larger bell or two...maybe city ha<span>l</span><span>l, and one or two on op<span>posite ends of the city...started doing so as well.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">By pure chance B. J. Mullin, Holyo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ke's <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Chief Engineer<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, as <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> Chief of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Department</span> was called back then, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">was enjoying an evening stro<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ll near Mt Holyoke Hose 2's station<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, which was first due on the church<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> W</span></span></span>hen the bells hit,<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> horses at Hose 2's <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">station, which I believe was also home to Reliance Engine 2's Amoskaeg steamer, </span>trotted <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">from</span> their stalls to <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">their</span> places in <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">front</span> of rigs <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">as drivers and officers and en<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">gineers</span> pounded down the stairs to the apparatus <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">floor (The iconic fireman's pole wouldn't be invented for another three years.).</span></span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">T</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he crews swung doors open and were surprised when Chief Mullin ran in, probably shouting that they had <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">one</span> <i>hell</i> of a column of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">smoke over towards P<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a</span>rk Street School and the 'French Church, as Precious Blood was called by the locals back then,</span> and <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">to wait for him<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, he was going to send in the general alarm. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Chief Mullin ran to the watch desk and started <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">tapping in</span> the general al<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a</span>rm</span> as<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> the </span>rigs' </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>drivers <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">dropped yokes and harnesses and snapped <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">quick-conne<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ct<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">s <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and</span> engineers shoved quick starting, hot burning oil so<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a</span>ked waste and kindling into f<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">i</span>reboxes, following with a lighted matc<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">h or taper<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. Chief Mullin trotted over to the hose wagon, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">probably</span> climbing aboard next to the driver<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> M</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ost likely<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> the </span></span></span>hose wagon<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>rolled firs<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t, after a couple of on-call men who lived near-by a<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">lso</span> pulled themselves a<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">board</span> the rig, </span>followed by the </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">bi</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">g</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Amoskeag </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> steamer</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">,</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">smoke<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">rolling f<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ro</span>m it's stac<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">k<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> as they turned towards the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">orange-bottomed column of smoke that was already high a<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">nd wide in the early evening sky.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">At homes throughout Holyoke ears pricked at the first 'BON<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">G!!!' of t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> citywide bells.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> F</span></span>a<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">m<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ilies</span> fell silent...as <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">volunteers' familie<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">s do wh<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">en <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">tones</span> hit on the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">fire</span> radio to this day</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>...as men counted out the strokes of the bell, waiting until the second <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">round</span> started, knowing the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">general locat<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ion of the fire f<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ro</span>m the box number...</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Wives called <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">quick</span> 'Be <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">careful</span>, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">honey's' as kids asked 'Where is it, Dad???' <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">an</span>d I can just about bet that at <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">least</span> one of the guys, upon looking in the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">direction</span> of the box and seeing the column of smoke already pushing skyward, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">orange tinged in the slowly fading daylight, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new 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roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span 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roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> sai<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">d 'We got us one!!!</span>...</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">T</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">hat scene had already been <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">played out for all of Hose 2 and Engine 2's firefighters, but when the bells started banging out a the general alarm bell code, followed by the <i>same</i> box<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">only a minute or so later<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, the rest of the city's firefighters absolutely <i>knew</i> they had 'em one.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> The on-ca<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ll men living closest to the stations probably met the rigs <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">on the ramp</span> and clamored aboard the hose wagons and the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">city's</span> single ladder as the horses <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">pawed the cobblestone street and pulled at the b<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">its</span></span>. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Go!!!<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Go!!</span> " The horses <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">didn't need <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">much urging...this is what they <i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">did...</span></i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and less than a minute after the first bong of gong and fire bell, steamers<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, hose wagons, and the ladder were p<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ounding towards Park Street, hooves kicking sparks on t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> cobblestones as the apparatus bells clanged<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. They <i>k<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">new</span></i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> it was going to be a long night...</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t</span>he church was in an industrial area of the cit<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">y</span>, so with that column of smoke coupled with the general <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">alarm</span> going in <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">immediately after the initial alarm ('The Chi<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ef must've been close by...' likely went through more than one head as they <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">pounded towards <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the church</span>.)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> whatever they had<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> it was <i>not</i> going to <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">be minor.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">No one could even <i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">conceive</span></i> of the nightmare they'd roll <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">in</span> on<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fire was <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">blowing out of</span> every window <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">n the second floo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">r and probably through t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he roof when Hose 2 and Reliance Engine's rigs swung around the corner onto <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">East Street <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">between ten and fifteen minutes after that curtain brushed through the candle flame, and only about three minutes after the bells hit.</span></span> A</span> good sized frame building well involved, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">with fire extending <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">aggressively<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> into the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">attached</span> rectory and likely into the wooden scaffolding for the new church <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">would</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">have</span> been enough to keep them busy for a good while <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">if it <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">had been an empty building at two in the morning<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...but the screams were <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">probably</span> what <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">clued them in that they <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">had much bigger problems than a we<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ll <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">involved</span> frame building...high pitched, terror<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">-loaded screams coming from inside the building<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> as trapped <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">parishioners</span> screamed for help, and then they saw the people stacked in the east entrance <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">like cord-wood as smoke pushed out around them. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">T</span>hen</i> they saw the people lying on the ground between the two churches...and <i>then</i> the ones on the east <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">si</span>de of the building.</span> I don't know how many <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">firefighters the first two rigs (Engine and hose wagon) rolled in <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">with, but they <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">were</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">overwhelmed</span> from the git-go, not that that stopped them. One of the firefighters who arrived with this first en<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">gine company was a guy named John J. Lynch<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, and he bailed off of the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">r</span>i<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">g and headed <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">for the east doorway along with a couple of other <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">men as the engine's driver and engineer and the driver of the hose wagon snagged a hydrant, laid a couple of lines to the scene, and got water going.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lynch and the other firefighters started pulling <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">people off of t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> top of the pile</span> that was jammed up in the doorway. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">B</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ehind him he heard their big Amoskeag start chuffing as her enginee<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">r opened the throttle up,<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>one crew was<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> likely advancing a 2 1/2 inch line with <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the s<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">mooth-bore tips that were <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the only nozzles used at the tim<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e up the steps towards the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">main entrance while another crew advanced a second line towards <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the east entranc<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e. Lynch yanked a couple of more<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> people off of the pile, then realized he had room...</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...He heard one of the firefighters on one of the lines call for <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">water as he pulled himsel<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">f through a gap in the pile, shouting to the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">firefigh<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ters with him to 'Keep pulling them off the top!' 'Jes<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">us, I'm standing on <i>top</i> of people!!" <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">H</span>e may have exclaimed when he saw the human logjam at the foot of the stairs. T</span>he flames that had worked their way <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">down into the main <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">sanctuary <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">were rolling into the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">vestibule<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> as</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> he started<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> pulling <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">people <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">from the pile and all but heaving them out of the door<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. There were far too many people to be gentle...he had to work fast...Oh. God, he likely thought, they're packed in that stairwell, too!! </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJz5hqmbhHkcpMwgcVEVStlL1QHafRVmyod2mXCTH_KS_FLBCBw1zB4kH_LmzCUarhMeixY0ZoXDPnYjqKtR1wjJH55FZYvE6TvMLtaBgzjSd2-4CjNqy2haQAFZPwgn_6SXvPNsWwIqk/s1600/firemanlynch.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJz5hqmbhHkcpMwgcVEVStlL1QHafRVmyod2mXCTH_KS_FLBCBw1zB4kH_LmzCUarhMeixY0ZoXDPnYjqKtR1wjJH55FZYvE6TvMLtaBgzjSd2-4CjNqy2haQAFZPwgn_6SXvPNsWwIqk/s640/firemanlynch.jpg" width="504" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Artists rendition of firefighters, including John Lynch, making rescues at the east entrance of the church. Note the firefighter keeping a stream on them, as well as the fact that the center entrance is included in this illustration. Holyoke's single truck company is spotted over on the east side of the building...it's over on the lower left center of the picture...but by the time it got there, there probably wasn't anyone left to rescue in the gallery. <br />
<br />
On top of that, this was almost definitely simply a ladder wagon rather than an aerial ladder, While the turntable mounted, mechanically raised aerial ladder had been invented by Danial Hayes seven years earlier, the first one hadn't gone in service but three years earlier, in San Francisco,. It would still be a decade or so before the aerial ladder became widely accepted and used. Had there been anyone left up there to rescue, the firefighters would have had to make the rescues over ground ladders. A wooden forty or fifty foot ground ladder is a truly heavy beast, requiring several firefighters to raise and position. Of course that was a task that they drilled on regularly, and they could do it in their sleep, but time would have still been against them in a big way. </span></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There was a rushing, roaring hiss as the firs<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t stream, at the main entr<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ance,</span> tore into the flame<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">s, the line at the east entrance followed <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">suite a second or so la<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ter, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">it's</span></span> stream blasting through <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> door, hitting the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ceiling</span> of the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">vestibule, and cascading for it's entire length, pushing the flames back for the moment.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> Lynch pulled <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">himself</span> into the jam packed <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">stairwell and dragged as many out as he could, handing them off to <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">firefighters at <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> now partially cleared east door. He then went <i>back </i>into the s<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">tairwell and dragged <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a couple more out, and was likely on the way for a third couple or so <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">when</span> something in the church...<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">probably</span> part o<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">f the roof...collapsed into the building, sending fire roiling into the vestibule, and causing <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lynch</span> to have to bail out of the building. When they reached the bottom of the front steps, he and the firefighters with him looked back<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> to see t</span>he east doorway<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>now belching fire, the stream from the hose line that had been protecting him tearing into it's maw. But they <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">also</span> saw something else.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">T</span></span>wo other firefighters...one of them being Chief Mullin...also dragging people away from the fiery doorway...</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Chie<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">f Mullin had assumed command of the scene early on<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, but he still got in on <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the rescues<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...even as Lynch was pulling people from the inside of the church, Chief Mullin heard a young girl shrieking in terror<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, and <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">turned to see her on the ground in that deadly east doorway<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, possibly jammed against one side of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the door frame, with <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">smoke rolling out over <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">her</span>, pushing from between the bo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">dies <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">still stacked like cord wood. The chie<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">f</span> lifted two bo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">dies enough to muscle the youngster out <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">from beneath them<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, and preceded to drag h<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">er out. Miraculously, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">she was barely injured.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This was probably about the time the roof collapse chased John Lynch from the building, and as he exited the front door, another firefighter named </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>W.T. M<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a</span>nn heard yet <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">another</span> plaintive cry...almost a mewling...from <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">pile of bodies still jammed in the lower part of the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">East doorway, and turned to see an arm<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> waving weakl<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">y.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> B</span>y <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">n</span>ow the church was all but fully inv<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">olved<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">there </span>was no way this lady <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">could</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">still</span> be ali<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ve, but <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">she was. He called for a hose s<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">tream to be directed back towards the doorway, then dived right in, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">grabbed the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">w</span>oman'<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">s arm, and <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">pulled. She probably did<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">n't budge that first time, and I don't know if he moved a couple of the bodies <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o</span>r, most likely, just heaved <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">with every ounce of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">strength</span> he could muster, but she finally popped loose from under the pile. M<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a</span>nn carried her down the front steps to where ever the injured were being t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">aken</span>...she would be the last person rescued live from the building.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">While <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lynch, Chief Mullin,</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and Mann were making multiple rescues at t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> front of the building <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t</span></span>he rest of the firefighters on scene<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, along with several<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span>parishioners who'd gotten out early<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> on<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and </span></span>several of the hundreds of citizens who'd made their way to the scene, hadn't just been standing around. While Lynch and his fellow firefighters had been pulling people from that deadly east doorway, other companies <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">had</span> rolled in, caught hydrants, and gotten other lines in service while teams consisting of firefighters and citizens pulled the injured to safety from both sides of the church...those on the west side definitely under the protection of a hose line as I can just about bet fire had extended to the scaffolding of the new church.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The city's single ladder truck had been spotted<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> on East Street, the building's east side<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, but it was a moot <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">point because by the time it was on <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">scene there was no one left in <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">balcony to rescue over a ladder<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...for that matter<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> it wouldn't surprise me if the fire had burned through the walls on the north <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">en</span>d of the building by the time the truck was on scene<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. According to the one major source I <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">could</span> find on the fire, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the bulk of the firefighting </span>was over within twenty minutes after the first <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">rig's arrived at the scene<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But the<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> scope of the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">tragedy</span> was just <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">being realized.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As the firefighters poured water on the collapsed and still smouldering ruins, they <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">also began recovering bodies, the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">majority</span> of them from that deadly <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">east entrance vestibule and the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">collapsed<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> remains of the balcony stairwell. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As the bodies were recovered, they were taken to a variety of nearby locations including a couple of nearby stores and a boarding house for the workers of the New York Mills. At some point someone...be it fire officer or city official...realized that this would put an even greater hardship on those searching for loved ones. Back then, Park Street School was located behind the church on the south side of Hamilton Street, between East and Park <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and the principal was quickly located (If he wasn't already on scene) and asked to open up the school, and a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">temporary</span> morgue was quickly set <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">up in the school's basement</span></span>. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The bodies that had been moved were again collected and moved to the school's basement<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, while </span>any other bodies found in the ruins of the church were moved to the school as well. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The problem was that this didn'<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t happen even close to immediately<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and in the mean-tim</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e relatives of those who had been killed or injured began that <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">frustrating, tear-jerking </span>search for <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">their loved ones that is <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">given in any major disaster, to this very day. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ha</span>ck drivers even do<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">nated</span> their vehicles, horses, and <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">services</span> to <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">drive <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">worried</span> relatives to the various locations to look <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">f<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">or</span></span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">children</span> and wiv<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">es or husbands.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Many</span> if not most of the victims we<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">re burned beyond recognition, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">making</span> identifying them a horrible, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">morbid task fo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">r their relatives. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Use of dental records to I.D. burned <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">bodies</span> was decades in the future, so clothing and jewelry had to be used</span></span></span></span></span></span> </span>to attempt to make an I.D. Interestingly enough, <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a couple of contemporary sources suggested that most of the bodies <i>were</i> identified,</span> thanks in part to the fact that<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> it <i>was</i> a church service and everyo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ne was dressed in their Sunday Best, and that <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> process <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o</span>f i<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">dentifying</span> the bodies and removing <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">them</span> to a relative's home pending the funeral, actually went quickly. S</span>ome of the stories were heartbreaking...and some were just plain long morbid. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">W</span>ord of the fire had spread city-wide, then region-wide almost before the fire was tapped out<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> there wasn't much in the way of entertainment back in that era compared to today, so a major fire with massive loss of life was seen as a reason for a road trip...even if you knew no one involved. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The majority of the bodies had been taken to Park Street School by six the next morning, and by that same hour several thousand people were waiting at the gates of the school yard to gain admittance. <i>Most</i> of those people were there to sight-see. If that isn't morbid enough, each arriving train brought <i>more</i> people...try to imagine parents and husbands coming to identify the bodies of children and wives (The great majority of the deceased were women and children) and having to mingle with parents showing off the remains of the church, just across the street, to wide eyed children who were asking multiple questions about the fire. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">T</span>he scene was still immersed in that <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">distinctive</span> building- fire stink with an underlying stench of burned flesh, and puddles from the hose-lines were still standing. The ruins were probably still smoking a bit...had the bereaved been the <i>only</i> ones there those ruins would have been an almost unbearably stark reminder of just why they were there. These carnival-going <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">sight-seers</span> made it all but grotesquely horrible even <i>before</i> they got inside the school.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mayor Pearsons was at the school early on and had the gates to the school opened, telling the Holyoke PD officers who were there to only let in relatives and friends of the deceased and missing (No word on just how they determined who was a relative/friend and who wasn't.) and it was here that the real heart-break happened. One young girl, for example, was I.D.ed by her younger sister, who recognized her shoes. The child's body...or at least her face...was burned beyond recognition, and the surviving sister's sobs and wails of agonized grief upon recognizing her big sister's shoes tore at t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> heartstrings of the strongest men there. There were dozens of similar stories...bodies <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ID</span>ed by a ring, or a post card found in an unburned pocket, or by a specific item of clothing.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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Artists rendition of the scene inside the basement of Park Street School, as family members attempt to identify the bodies of their loved ones. This, of course, was before all of the sight-seers were allowed to go in to look at the (Thankfully still covered) bodies. I truly can not get my mind around that one.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> And here's where everyone having their Sunday Best on when they died come in to play. There were clothes that were worn...then as now...only for special occasions, and parents could easily recognize remnants of their son's best (And likely most hated) suit, and their daughter's prettiest (And likely most loved) dress, just as husbands could pick out the pattern of their wives best dress without the least hesitation. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The last body was identified at around 9:30 AM, and here's where things got more than a little weird. According to one newspaper article, rather than immediately turning the deceased over to the families or the city undertakers, the crowd outside was allowed to go into the temporary morgue and view the now tagged bodies. And yes, this included children...OK, somehow my mind just kind of hits a wall at the thought of some father pointing out the burned bodies to his kids.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This morbid tour could have only lasted an hour or so as the cops on scene kept the crow<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">d</span> moving, and once all <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">of </span>the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">sight-seers</span> had been dispersed both the general accounting and the release of bodies began..as did the problems, some of which still linger today. T</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">here was a language barrie</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">r...remember, all of these people were <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">French-Canadian immigrants<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and lots of them spoke <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">little or no English...so there were cases of mistaken<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> i</span>dentity as well as cases of the same name being recor<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ded twice with two different spellings<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. As noted above, to this day there i<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">s</span> some question about some of the names on the official list of those killed in t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he fire.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">When the final official tally was made and put into public record a couple of months after the fire, it listed 74 dead...<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">sixty<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">-nine dead at t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> scene as well as thirty-nine who were badly injured<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">,</span> five </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">f <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">whom died </span>with<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">in<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> a </span>few days of the fire</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. Horrible as it was, the death toll was actually <i>less</i> severe than many news sources predicted...a total of twenty people were reported in newspaper articles to be so badly burned that they would die (And yes...that type of figure was regularly reported back during that era.)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Several of the bereaved families<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> wanted to take their loved one back to their home towns<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> in</span> Canada for burial, and The City of Holyoke provi<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ded rail transportation for at least nine and possibly as many as <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">eighteen</span> of the bodies at <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">city's</span> expense. The City of Holyoke also provided pine caskets, at ten dollars apiece, paid for by he city, for all of the deceased. All in all, the C<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ity donated about 800 dollars <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">worth of caskets and transportation to families of the deceased...just shy of $18,000</span></span> in today's money.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A</span> decision was made early on to bury <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the majority of the bodies...forty-eight of them...</span>in a mass grave</span> in Precious Blood <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cemetery</span> in South <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hadley, Ma.</span> The day of the funeral...May 29th, 1875...was declared a day of Mourning, with shops and mills closing both out of respect for the departed and so all who wished to attend could do so.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nearly a third of Holyoke's just over 10,000 people attended the funeral mass, which was held <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">in the still unfinished basement of the new church. The <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">basemen<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t excavation </span></span>was roughly roo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">fed over</span> by putting boards across the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">rafters for the unfinished first floor, then an equally rough framewo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">r</span>k was built to hold the coffins. </span>They managed to get 2500 people into the basement, while several hundred others listened as best they could from outside. This <i>had</i> to have been a surreal and eerie experience for many in the crowd of mourners, especially those who were related to the victims and listening from outside as they stared at the charred remains of the building where those being eulogized died only two days earlier.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjziVMAy671PHwr6NY_VV8RwEGd2Yab2o-1j684GbwcbBqghnSLvd6-VzUUy9wJbSPf1-AsTLH7VNdsu45iQZqx-TdEHyK3H8ArYmm0h3gnG-sy-nexM57Mo1QIxUEPDCFNRoAdcSPml78/s1600/07of07.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjziVMAy671PHwr6NY_VV8RwEGd2Yab2o-1j684GbwcbBqghnSLvd6-VzUUy9wJbSPf1-AsTLH7VNdsu45iQZqx-TdEHyK3H8ArYmm0h3gnG-sy-nexM57Mo1QIxUEPDCFNRoAdcSPml78/s640/07of07.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Artists rendition of the funeral in the basement of the unfinished church. They managed to get around 2500 people in the basement...modern day fire marshals would give birth if they found that many people in that small a space. Several of the victims were buried in their home towns in Canada, and a couple others were taken by their families to their U.S. home towns, so there were 48 caskets supported by a wooden frame. The frame collapsed as the service began, making everyone jump, but thankfully not causing any injuries or damaging any of the caskets.</span></td></tr>
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Then,</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> befo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">re the</span></span><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">F</span>uneral M<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a</span>ss ev<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">en got under way good, th<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">framework supporting the cas<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">kets collapsed, dropping them onto the floor (Thankfully a drop of only a foot or so) <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">with a loud crash that made <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">everyone in the congregation jump<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, but <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">thankfully no injuries <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">or damage resulted and t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">solemn</span> service continued.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The bodies were transported to the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">cemetery</span> using six hearses and twenty-one freight wagons. The <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">mourners</span> were transported in 105 <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">carriages, and the funeral<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> procession </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">was <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">said</span> to be close to half a<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> mile long<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, taking twenty <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">five</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> minutes to pass any given point. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The fun<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">eral service had started <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">at</span> around 9 AM, and it was after <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">11 AM before the caskets <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">were loade<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">d onto the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">hearses and w<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">agons and the funeral procession made it's way through Holyoke and across the river to South Hadley. They were taken to <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">what was then a brand new <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">cemetery</span> on Granby Road (Now Willi<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">manset<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t </span></span>Street, AKA Ma. State Route 33) where, as I noted earlier all of the forty-eight bodies were interred in a large mass grave. A monument was to be erected to honor <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">all of those who <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">died in <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the</span> fire.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Or maybe mak<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e that was <i>supposed</i> to be erected<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, at least according to contemporary news reports. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Several con<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">tem<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">porary newspaper articles noted t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">hat a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">monument</span> was to be <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">erected</span> to honor the church <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">fire victims, but <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">instead</span> the mass grave <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">remained unmarked for <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">127 ye<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ars. The fire, in fact, was all but fo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">rgotten<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> as the decades passed by.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">How<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> could a fire that claimed 74 lives, most of them wo<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">men and children, just pass from memory, with the grave of the majority of the victims un<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">marked<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">? The answer to that one is bot<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">h a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">sad ref<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">lection on b<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">oth</span> the times <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and human nature <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">its<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">elf</span></span>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">E<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ven<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t</span>hough this day and time U.S. Citizens barely <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">consider</span> Canada a <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">foreig<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">n country</span></span></span>, and <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Canadian citizens moving to<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> the U.S are barely considered immigrants by their new neighbors<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, this wasn't always so. Foreign nationals had a horrible time immigrating and being accep<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ted by the American <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">populace</span> back in that era (Irish immigrants regularly <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">encountered signs reading 'No Ir<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ish Need Apply) no matter <i>what</i> country they were immigrating from, and speaking a foreign language <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">without any knowledge of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">E</span>nglish made it even <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">more difficult f</span>or new U.S. residents from any <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">foreign country to fit in</span>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">may hav<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">e been</span></span> a bit easier for Holyoke's French-Canadian immigrants than it was for immigrants in other parts of the country simply because the dozens of <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">large</span> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">factories <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">needed labor so bad...<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>bit</i></span> easier, but not much. They were still looked down on by many <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">of their American counter-parts</span></span></span>, and on top of that, most were p<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">oor, adding yet another layer of discrimination<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This same <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">discrimination</span> likely carried over to the memorial. People showed up by the thousan<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ds</span> to mourn the dead...but they didn't want to spend the money to mem<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">orialize them.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It could be argued that t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> cost of a memorial was too much for the church to bear<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. </span>but keep in mind that the new church...and a beautiful, magnificent, and not even vaguely che<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a</span>p building it was indeed...was finish<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ed in 1878, three years after the fire. The parishioners bore most of the cost. Seems that a couple of hundred dollars (These are late 1870s dollars, remember) could have been set aside for a monument of some kind, or even a decent head stone.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> This same discrimination carried over to the church itself. </span>It<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">'s said that <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">when more <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">prosperous couple<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">s were marrie<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">d, the wedding took place in magnificence of the church sa<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">nctuary, while poor <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">couples </span>had to make due with the church basement for th<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">eir <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">nuptials<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. Also, pews were rented for five dollars per year by the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">church members, causing the poorer members to have to stand duri<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ng church services. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">W</span></span></span></span>ith a large number of the church fire victims being among the <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">poorer members of the church, sad as the thought i<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">s, there is a very real possibility that this discrimination against the less <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">fortunate</span> had a lot to do with the lack of a memorial...or even a marker of <i>any</i> kind...for the grave. The <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">grave</span> remained unmarked for over a century and a quarter.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This was finally <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">rectified in 2002<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">...127 years after the fire...when a </span></span>beautiful </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>polished black granite monument was finally erected at the grave site. The monument has an inscribed image of the church and the date <b>MAY 27, 1875,</b> with the words <b>PRECIOUS BLOOD CHURCH</b> at the base on one side, and a fleur-de-lis and the inscription:
<br />
<br />
<b>
DEDICATED IN 2002<br />
GIVING HONOR TO ALL THOSE<br />
WHO LOST THEIR LIVES<br />
AT PRECIOUS BLOOD CHURCH<br />
MAY 27, 1875</b><br />
<br />
On the reverse side, which also holds a bronze plaque bearing the names and ages of all of the fire victims. The words <b>EARTH HAS NO SORROW THAT HEAVEN CANNOT HEAL </b>appear beneath the plaque.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-VnCSUOdHb8XqXX38o9r2Qx4ZeLvrujhprZwQ4BOfWvQkh5BQwXU5dakwZY3DxUL0ALYGjZwo369_Yfm2FiKuNxAfM5_oxo8OYq-7FPU0CV8TYeokXbGQ69oRsLYfBssoFqWuFvDNno/s1600/Memorial+Front+and+Rear.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-VnCSUOdHb8XqXX38o9r2Qx4ZeLvrujhprZwQ4BOfWvQkh5BQwXU5dakwZY3DxUL0ALYGjZwo369_Yfm2FiKuNxAfM5_oxo8OYq-7FPU0CV8TYeokXbGQ69oRsLYfBssoFqWuFvDNno/s640/Memorial+Front+and+Rear.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front and rear of the monument that was finally erected in 2002 to memorialize those who died in the fire.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Names And Ages Of Those Who Died In The Fire</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>As They Appear On The Monument </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcI9MRfzBBf0sOCjpdDACLsU2ktk6-X77M_yKcX59Mx86iu25TiG4pjRjbAhmoio9RMyKC9MyQyZ6wPcJs8xvWGyjkBTA2VCwReHAOLbKQIKcluUds11nb98qXGbs40CMEB1U7ezWMAEM/s1600/3612412212_bf285127da_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcI9MRfzBBf0sOCjpdDACLsU2ktk6-X77M_yKcX59Mx86iu25TiG4pjRjbAhmoio9RMyKC9MyQyZ6wPcJs8xvWGyjkBTA2VCwReHAOLbKQIKcluUds11nb98qXGbs40CMEB1U7ezWMAEM/s640/3612412212_bf285127da_o.jpg" width="514" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Twenty
four of the victims were 18 or under. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fifty
one were women.</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Also
among the victims were:</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One
entire family of five,</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One
mother with son and daughter,</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Three
mothers with one daughter each,</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One
father and daughter, </span></span>
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Four
additional sets of siblings</span></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%px;">
<colgroup><col width="128*"></col>
<col width="128*"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td width="50%"><br /></td>
<td width="50%"><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td width="50%"><br /></td>
<td width="50%"></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<br />
<b> </b><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a little...no, a <i>lot</i>...sad to think that, had these 74 people been U.S. born and bred rather than immigrants, and/or had they been socioeconomically connected, this monument would have borne the patina of age, because it would have very likely been erected immediately after the funeral.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><***> NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF <***></b><br />
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I really wasn't expecting to find a whole lot of information about this one on line...and I wasn't disappointed. Or maybe it's more accurate to say I wasn't wrong. There was almost <i>nothing</i> out there about the fire despite the fact that it ranks in the 25 largest structure fire death tolls in U.S.history<br />
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Thankfully, an article written and published back in 2000 by a gentleman named Art Corbial gave me a wealth of general knowledge about the fire as well as several links to period newspaper articles. This gave me a good solid contemporary take on the incident as well as in depth descriptions of the operation of the temporary morgue (Trust me on this...newspaper articles back in the 19th century were <i>far</i> more graphic and descriptive than those written now.) so I was able to get a good feel for the general way events happened...but...I <i>really</i> had to speculate on the actual fire department ops.<br />
<br />
I <i>tried</i> to find out some info about what the HFD was like in the 1870s...this includes playing one-sided phone tag with the guy who was said to be their current department history guru ...but I finally had to give up...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">...And then, late in the ball game (Or as I like to put it, after the crowd had left and the lights had been turned off), I got some help from a fellow member of the 'Hand or Horse Drawn Fire Apparatus' Facebook group, who had a copy of the 1875 Holyoke Annual Report...and this report listed the make-up of the fire department. It also meant that I had to go back and make a few changes to the post. I was able to finally accurately note how many of what type units Holyoke had in May 1875...all of them likely responded as Chief Mullins struck the general alarm before the rigs even rolled. I still, however, had to make a few educated guesses about actual fire ground operations. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Of course, I could have been well off the mark on fire ground ops, but I hope I got it at least close to right. If anyone up Holyoke way with knowledge of that department's history wants to chime in with corrections, please feel free. All of my posts are forever 'Works In Progress', and I have no problem with going in and fixing errors and such!</div>
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As Always, I hope I made this thing informative, enjoyable, and readable</div>
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So...on to the notes! </div>
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This was a <i>huge</i> story back when it happened...The New York Times devoted several columns to the initial report of the fire on May 28th, then covered the story for several days afterwards, including a detailed report on the funeral. Several of the well known illustrated news magazines of the time, such as Harpers Weekly, covered it in equally detailed fashion, sending artists to sketch both their conceptions of the fire scene, using descriptions of the fire provided by eye witnesses, the aftermath, and the funeral.<br />
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Cities across the country took a look at the churches inside their own municipalities with an eye on fire safety, resulting in, among other things, the first push to require all exits from public buildings to be equipped with doors that open outward. <br />
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Strangely, though, with the exception of the one or two good links I found, there is very little on-line about this fire today. OK, I know, I myself have noted that, generally, the further back you go, the harder it is to find information about an incident unless it is particularly infamous or horrible. But then again, what could be more infamous <i>or </i>horrible than over seventy people, the majority of them women and children, dying while trapped in a burning church that caught on fire during a religious ceremony.<br />
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The site I found (Actually from a site dedicated to Holyoke's history...local historians generally rock in a big way) features an excellent article written by Art Corbiel as well as links to several contemporary news reports about the fire. These newspaper articles were the initial reports of the fire, published the next day, and as I noted above, they went into graphic detail, and coverage of the fire lasted several days, covering the funeral.<br />
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Then the fire all but disappeared from the pages of history. As each anniversary of the fire passed...10th, 25th, 50th...interest in remembering the fire and victims waned. A history of Holyoke, written in the 1920s, barely mentions the fire, with the heroics of the firefighters (Particularly John Lynch) in rescuing the victims getting far more very deserved mention than the victims they rescued.<br />
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A history of the Holyoke fire Department, written at about the same time, only mentions the fact that the church fire occurred, and then only to note that a future Chief of Department (John Lynch) was present at the fire and made some rescues. A biography of John Lynch, written in Fire and Water Engineering, the predecessor to Fire Engineering, gives the fire even less notice.<br />
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So, why has this one been allowed to slip off of the pages of history? Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the very same fact that delayed a monument honoring victims of the fire for nearly 140 years also caused it's fall from the history books...in the eyes of many people back in the day, these women and children really didn't count. As sad a thought as it is, many people considered the immigrant population to be expendable and any deaths befalling members of that community to be, for want of a better phrase, the price of doing business.<br />
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While numerous articles decried the deaths at Precious Blood, and expounded on the horrors of old churches with inadequate exits and spoke of the possibility that each and every church-going citizen was endangered by the firetraps they worshiped in weekly, they stopped short of memorializing the fire victims, be it with an actual physical memorial <i>or</i> written history of the incident.<br />
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Think about the way more recent incidents such as this are remembered today and contrast it with the lack of memorial of any kind for the people who died at Precious Blood Church, and it's truly sad.<br />
It was a far different time, mindset, and culture back then though, and certain groups were considered all but expendable. <br />
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The push for a Memorial only took hold after Mr Corbiel's article was
published, and the grave was still unmarked until the Memorial was
erected in 2002.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rev. Dufresne died in 1878, meaning that he <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ba</span>rely lived to see the new church completed and opened<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">. A memorial <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">was erected in his honor <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">o</span>n the grounds of t<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">he</span> church, this was moved to Precious Blood <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cemetery</span> in 1989 when the parish, and the church, was closed</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new 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style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new 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style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> 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After John J Lynch became the hero of the Precious Blood Church fire, he rose through the ranks of the fire department quickly, to become HFD's Chief of Department in 1880, only five years after the church fire. He held that position for thirty-five years, from 1880 to 1915, and is said to have been a very progressive and forward thinking Chief. Then, in 1952, The City of Holyoke named a new junior high school after him, and for 56 years, jr. high aged kids in Holyoke attended John J Lynch Middle School. The school closed in 2008.<br />
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I'm going to hit the numerous parallels between Precious Blood Church and <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-richmond-theater-fire-americas.html">The Richmond Theater Fire</a> a bit further down, but there was one way the two fires were 180 degrees <i>apart.</i></div>
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While the common grave where the victims of the Precious Blood Church fire went unmarked for over a century and a quarter, the victims of the Richmond Theater Fire not only had a church built to memorialize them, the church, built on the former site of the theater, basically acts as their headstone. The majority of the theater fire victims were buried on site in a brick crypt, and the church was built around them. That crypt, of course, is still a prominent part of the church basement.</div>
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One major, and pretty obvious. change over the years very likely made worship services far <i>far </i>safer
today than they were in 1875...fewer candles. Only two percent of the
1780 church fires per year between 2007 and 2011(The most recent period I
could find figures for) were caused by candles. Sure, candles are still
used during religious ceremonies, but I can guarantee you that when
they <i>are</i> used they are <i>not</i> surrounded by...or even <i>close</i> to...any combustible decoration or draperies.</div>
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But that's not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fire safety in modern churches..</div>
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It's more like a single ice cube from said iceberg.</div>
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If you asked any firefighter worth his bunker gear to list the five worst types of buildings to fight a fire in, it's a good bet that 'A church' would be pretty high up on that list. I responded to four church fires over a period of thirty-four years, and all four of them were lost causes when the tones hit. One of them, which was under construction when a lightning strike set the attic on fire, came scary-close to killing several fire-fighters when the roof and ceiling collapsed, trapping them. Only some serious hustling by the rest of the guys on scene along with the fact that some scaffolding inside the building partially protected them kept that one from ending tragically. </div>
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Traditional church construction features a huge wide open unfirestopped attic of wood frame construction, often with electrical wiring and a chimney or two running through it. Older churches can and often do feature balloon construction, meaning that the walls have unfirestopped vertical void spaces running from crawl space or basement to the attic, giving a small fire in the furnace room a straight, unobstructed, and highly combustible path to that big, wide-open attic.The sanctuary is wide open with high <i>high</i> ceilings that make 'pulling the ceiling' to gain access to fire in the attic difficult if not impossible. OH...and that sanctuary? It's loaded with combustibles. Picture the inside of your church, and you'll understand exactly what I mean.</div>
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All of these features mean that a fire can get rolling in concealed spaces and go for a major hayride before it's discovered. All four of the church fires I went to did just that...and all four went to multiple alarms and took the roof off of the building in the process of destroying it.</div>
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Those were unoccupied buildings, though. Make it, say, the Easter or Christmas Eve service, with the church even more crowded than usual and you <i>could</i> have a major rescue problem on your hands as well. This day and time, though, while it's not entirely impossible for the first in companies to roll up on the same kind of nightmare that HFD rolled in on 142 years ago, modern fire codes, fire service tactics and equipment have, thankfully, have made it pretty improbable.<br />
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Modern fire codes, fire/smoke/heat detection systems, alarm systems, fire apparatus, protective clothing, gear, and tactics make a huge difference if the guys roll in on an occupied church with fire showing. First off, the probability of finding a well-involved church with a sanctuary full of panicked people is infinitely smaller today than it was 140 plus years ago. Fire codes specify that interior furnishings, decoration, and finish be fire resistant and that buildings have more exits <i>and</i> that those exits be of the proper design, so even if the fire started in the sanctuary as the fire at Precious Blood Church did, it wouldn't take off in the same way, and even more importantly, the congregation would have an infinitely greater chance of making it out before conditions inside the building became untenable...or even particularly uncomfortable.<br />
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If a fire did somehow start in the sanctuary during a church service, we have one very basic tool at our disposal today that, had it existed in 1875, would have likely made all the difference in the world. We have fire extinguishers. I know of at least one church that has a pressurized water extinguisher in the pulpit, concealed from the view of the congregation but with-in easy reach of the pastor. Every church I'm familiar with has a couple of extinguishers in or very near the sanctuary. Most importantly, church officers know how to use them. (Hopefully a few of the members of the congregation should as well).<br />
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So, lets say that somehow a candle manages to ignite a drape, or possibly some Christmas decorations during the Easter or Christmas service...it's all but a given that someone will knock it down with an extinguisher before it gets a chance to do more than make a mess, put some smoke in the building, and become one of those stories that's told down through the years.</div>
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Precious Blood Church's balcony ended up becoming a death trap, but in modern churches balconies/galleries are required to have better egress through wider stairways and in many cities separate dedicated fire exits. If not separate fire exits, the existing exits and approaches to the exits are required to be both wide enough and laid out in such a way that they can handle the maximum possible crowd trying to get out of the building in an emergency.<br />
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The great majority of church fires <i>don't</i> start in the sanctuary...most in fact start in either the kitchen or the furnace room, with electrical problems third on the list of "How Church Fires Start". Most church fires also start when the building is unoccupied, but should one start while the building <i>is </i>occupied, the fire would likely be somewhere in the building where it was not readily detectable by those in the sanctuary...at least not until it gained some headway. Smoke suddenly rolling into the sanctuary in the middle of a hymn is <i>not</i> a good way to discover a fire.<br />
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Of course, none of the listed ignition sources even existed in 1875...nor did the modern methods of minimizing or eliminating the hazard<br />
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<i> </i>An automatic sprinkler system tied in to the alarm system can both detect the fire and warn the occupants while also either extinguishing the fire or holding it in check until the fire department can complete extinguishment. At the very least, fire/heat/smoke detectors should be installed and tied in to both the local building alarm and a monitoring service or better yet, directly to the fire department. In many localities, this type of system is <i>required</i> in church buildings above a certain capacity, occupant-wise, and has allowed more than a few churches to be safely evacuated while a fire's burning in another part of the building. While we're at it, these same detection and alarm systems have allowed more than a few of the still-small fires that caused said evacuations to be extinguished with a minimum of damage.</div>
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Firefighters today arrive more quickly than HFD's guys did in 1875, and, thanks to equipment that wasn't even dreamed of 142 years back, have the capability to actually go deep inside the building to assist with the evacuation and make rescues (That's actually been a given for decades).<br />
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Also, on something like an occupied church they'd arrive<i> big</i>. My home county of Chesterfield County, Va, for example, would dispatch 4 engines, a pair of truck companies, a pair of battalion chiefs and a tactical safety officer on the initial, and if the Battalion Chief so much as <i>suspected</i> they had people trapped in the building it's just about a given he'd call for the second alarm before he even got on scene. (It's <i>far</i> easier to turn 'em around if you <i>don't</i> need 'em than it is to call for 'em and be behind the eight-ball until they get there if you <i>do</i>).<br />
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Of course, it's highly, <i>highly</i> unlikely that an accidental fire in an occupied church would get as far advanced as quickly as the Precious Blood fire did in the first place. First off, Modern HVAC systems have removed one ignition source from the sanctuary as well as other occupied areas of the building, and did so in most churches nearly a century ago, though back then, when central heat meant a furnace and boiler, it just changed the type of ignition source and moved it to the basement or to an isolated first floor furnace room. Now-days, of course, the huge majority of churches use heat pumps, all but completely negating the danger of fire from the HVAC plant.<br />
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Alarm systems tied in to the smoke/heat detection system alert occupants in many if not most churches long before the fire can become a life threatening hazard. Exit technology has improved a thousandfold in the last 14 decades. Places of public assembly are required to have enough exits of the proper design to allow the occupants to exit the building quickly...as in <i>real</i> quickly...without panicking.</div>
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In fact, this day and time, if a fire gets going in an occupied church, it would<i> be infinitely</i> more likely for the first in rigs roll in on a kitchen fire in the fellowship hall with the occupants, having been alerted by the fire alarm system, milling around in the parking lot than it would be for them to roll in on the nightmare scenario that Holyoke's firefighters found when they arrived at Precious Blood Church.<br />
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Of course, even with all of these advances in fire safety, it <i>still</i> just may be that some more luck was involved <i>before</i> all of these changes for the better took place. It took decades for fire safety in churches (And every other type of occupancy) to reach the level it enjoys today. <i>All </i>of these advances in fire safety and technology, save for sprinkler systems, came along in the Twentieth Century, some of them not until the <i>mid</i> Twentieth Century but, as many tragic, catastrophic fires as this country has seen in the 142 years since the fire at Precious Blood Church, that was the <i>only</i> catastrophic loss of life resulting from a fire in a church.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new 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style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new 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style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <br />
While The Fire at Precious Blood Church and <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-richmond-theater-fire-americas.html">The Richmond Theater Fire</a> were separated by sixty-three years and involved two buildings built for entirely different purposes using completely different construction methods, the two <i>fires</i> have so many parallels that it's almost eerie.<br />
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Lets look at the two buildings first.<br />
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Ok, admittedly, there were lots of differences. The theater was brick with wood framing and roof structure, and had fewer exits, while the church was all frame, had, for that era, a decent number of exits, and was far better built than the theater. Despite being slightly smaller than the the theater, Precious Blood also had a larger seating capacity because more of it's square footage was dedicated to seating, both in the main portion of the sanctuary and in the gallery. The Richmond Theater had a dirt floor, where the church had a conventional wooden floor.<br />
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There were, however lots of similarities.<br />
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* Both were almost exactly the same size...The Richmond Theater was 90 feet x 50 feet, while Precious Blood Church was 96x46., or 4500 square feet Vs 4416 square feet, making the theater larger by 84 square feet...about the size of a very small bedroom.<br />
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*Neither building had a ceiling, leaving the underside of the roof decking and the rafters exposed.<br />
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*Both featured additional seating in a three sided gallery above the main floor that was accessed by a single stairway. There were differences in the how the galleries were configured...The theater had two levels of box seating on two sides with the third side, at the front, dedicated to the stairway and 'lobbies' leading to the boxes, while the church featured conventional pews on all three sides of it's single level gallery, with seating sharing space with the stairway and access paths on the third side. Having conventional pews on three sides is what gave Precious Blood more seating capacity than the theater despite having only a single level of gallery seating.<br />
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*Both buildings required occupants of the gallery seating to navigate a narrow winding pathway in order to access the stairway. In fact, bad as the Richmond Theater was, the church may have been even worse in this respect. Take a look at the church floor plan again...around 400 people had to make those multiple turns to get to the stairway, <i>then</i> had to make that hard right inside the mini-vestibule at the top of the steps. Of course, that became a mute point when the group coming off of the stairs and the group coming out of the main sanctuary met in the east exit vestibule, because once the jam-up became gridlocked there, no one could move. Horrible as the death toll was, it's actually a bit of a miracle that it wasn't even higher.<br />
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Now lets look at the fires. There were even more similarities there.<br />
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*The death tolls in the two fires were almost identical...Seventy-two died in the Richmond Theater Fire, seventy-four at Precious Blood Church <br />
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* Both first started high up on the left rear portion of the building among a heavy concentration of combustibles.<br />
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*Both fires accessed the roof structure <i>quickly</i> due to the lack of a ceiling. In the theater the fire got going in scenery storage that was in the flies just beneath the roof, in the church, the fire got going in the vestry alcove, which was at about gallery level and was loaded down with combustibles, then quickly climbed a painted wooden wall up into the roof structure.<br />
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*The lack of a ceiling actually gave the occupants of the first levels of both buildings a <i>very</i> little extra breathing room in both fires because the heat and smoke stayed high for an extra couple of minutes...long enough for most of the people in the first levels of both theater and church to exit the building unharmed.<br />
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*In both fires the fire ran the inverted 'V' of the roof ridge like it
was an inverted gutter, heating the roof structure to flash-over with-in a very few
minutes...this in turn heated the gallery to flash over with-in the
first ten minutes (Or possibly even less) of the fire. Once this happened, anyone still inside the building was doomed. <br />
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*The gallery levels of both buildings became untenable, filling with heat, smoke, and fire <i>very</i> quickly in both fires.<br />
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*Windows played a <i>huge</i> part in the survival of those who made it out of the gallery in both fires. <i>But</i> there were a couple of differences here also. The theater's windows were usable for escape and rescue on both sides of the building, but the occupants had to force shutters open before they could use them. The church's windows were immediately accessible...already open, in fact...but were useless on the east side because of the long drop to the ground.<br />
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*Rescues were actually made from inside both buildings, and in both cases those rescued were found just inside the front door at the foot of the stairway.<br />
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*Both buildings burned <i>fast</i> and were on the ground in well under a half hour. I believe the theater stayed standing...more or less...for a bit longer than the church simply because it had masonry walls, which stood, unsupported for a bit while the church, being all frame, just, well...burned.<br />
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*In both fires almost all of the bodies were found at the foot of the
stairway and near the exterior walls...the areas where the
balconies/galleries collapsed.<br />
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While we're at it...contemporary accounts of the Precious Blood Church fire note that it was extinguished in 20 minutes. I have a feeling, though, that the fire wasn't completely extinguished that quickly, though it's more than possible that they got a decent knock down on it in twenty minutes. Holyoke had two steamers in 1875, both Amoskaegs, one a '2nd size' (700 GPM) and one a '3rd size' steamer (500 GPM) so they they could have potentially had five 2 1/2
inch hose lines in service at about 230-250 GPM apiece...or roughly 1200GPM if all five lines were flowing water. That is, of course, if they had the manpower to handle the lines as well as time to get the lines stretched and in service, and both of the engines were on hydrants that were close to the fire building.<br />
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First, that twenty minutes was probably from the time that the first engine company arrived, or maybe from the time the box was pulled, rather than from the time the fire started. I have a feeling no one really thought to look at their watch when the fire started climbing the north wall of the sanctuary. <br />
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While they had a huge volume of fire, if that 1200 or so GPM was used right,
they could well have put a hurtin' on the fire...but given the extent of involvement when they arrived on scene, the fact that only a single engine was on scene for the first several minutes with it's crew concentrating on making rescues, and the fact that the walls on the north end of the building had very likely already burned through by they time they had a good game plan in place to attack the fire, they probably didn't get a knock down on the fire before the church was essentially on the ground. They may have left parts of a wall or two standing, but for all intents and purposes the church burned to the ground, leaving nothing to extinguish but a pile of rubble.<br />
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Really not much out there about this one gang...as I noted a couple of times, this is one of the disasters that time kind of forgot. Interestingly...and happily from a research standpoint...all of the better links were consolidated in one place.</div>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precious_Blood_Church_fire">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precious_Blood_Church_fire </a>The inevitable...and this case, pretty skimpy...Wikipedia page about the fire.</div>
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<a href="http://www.zapix.com/holyokemass/pb_fire/index.html">http://www.zapix.com/holyokemass/pb_fire/index.html</a> A very comprehensive collection of links about the fire, many pointing to period news articles. The first two links are biggies...Art Corbiel's excellent article about the fire and a very informative introduction written by Laurel O'Donnel. Make sure you read them before exploring the rest of the links.</div>
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<div id="hzImg" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: 5px; line-height: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 4472px; visibility: visible; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-59854812418638635552017-01-28T10:57:00.007-05:002023-03-31T19:14:00.505-04:00Eastern Airlines Flight 45's Mid AIr Collision And Epic Dead-Stick Landing. <div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Eastern Airlines Flight 45 Midair Collision. DC-3/A-26</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">July 1945 </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Distracted Pilots, And Serious Stick And Rudder Skills.</span></b></div>
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Many people have trouble getting their minds around the sheer number of military aircraft in the air over the U.S on any given day during World War II. It's probably impossible to come up with even an accurate <i>average</i> number of flights on any given day, but between training, testing new aircraft and technology, ferrying aircraft, and inter-installation transport of supplies, equipment, and personnel there were thousands of flights every day from December 1941 through the end of 1945.<br />
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With that many flights on a daily basis, accidents were all but inevitable, and with that era's absolute lack of <i>any</i> regional air traffic control once aircraft were beyond visual range of an airfield, it was equally inevitable that some of those accidents would be mid-air collisions. Modern aviation was still under development, and the war was forcing the volume of traffic to completely outpace the development of the technology and procedures needed to handle it.<br />
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The majority of the mid-airs over the Continental U.S. during the war involved a pair of military aircraft, but not all of them. World War II was book-ended by a pair of midair collisions involving airliners...DC-3s in both cases<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">...and </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">t</span><span style="font-size: small;">he second aircraft involved in both accidents was </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">an Army Air Force bomber.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Thing is, the <i>causes</i> of the two collisions were just about 180 degrees apart. While the first collision...<a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/11/american-airlines-flight-28-infamous.html">The Infamous Palm Springs Midair.</a>..was a blatant case of reckless flying, the second midair, involving an Eastern Airlines DC-3 and an Army Air Force A-26 Invader, was simply a case of both aircraft being in the wrong place at the wrong time as well as an early example of a problem that persists..in the air and, especially, on the ground...to this very day. </span></span>And that still-persistent problem would be accidents caused by someone operating a vehicle...be it airborne or ground-bound...while distracted by other tasks.<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">When all the investigations into this one were complete, it was determined that neither pilot was flying recklessly, but both of them were, officially at any rate, at fault. And the reason that were both found to be at fault is because both pilots became so preoccupied with tasks <i>inside</i> the cockpit that they both failed...for a critical minute or so...to pay attention to what was going on <i>outside</i> the cockpit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">That being said, this particular accident still ended on a far more positive note than the great majority of mid-air collisions, and we can thank </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eastern Airlines Captain Gaston D. Davis for that. While he may have been found to be partially at fault for the mid-air, he performed a bit of serious dead-stick flying </span></span><i>after</i> the collision that saved most of his passengers and was a precursor to the amazing dead-stick water landing, very aptly named 'The Miracle On The Hudson', made by a guy named Sully sixty-six years later. Thanks to a couple of little details and differences, though, Captain Davis' feat of dead-stick flying just might out-ass-kick Sully's landing by a point or two.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Don't get me wrong...while Chelsea Sullenberger's Hudson River landing was a truly amazing bit of flying, and while his bird had indeed lost both engines, forcing him to dead-stick it in to that now legendary water landing, his aircraft was structurally </span></span>sound and gave him a little...not much, but a little...time to pick and choose a landing spot. Davis, on the other hand, was flying an aircraft that was going down right <i>then </i>after suffering severe structural damage while <i>also</i> loosing both engines (One of them very literally),<i> </i>and, legendary as it is, was saddled with some of the worst stall characteristics of any airplane ever built. Davis, IMHO, wins that one on points.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">For this one we head back in time to the tag end of Wold War II, </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">July of 1945,</span></span> in the skies over South Carolina. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The War in Europe had ended in May (And troops not needed for the occupation of the defeated Axis nations were being transferred to the Pacific Theater en masse.). The Japanese forces were on the ropes, but they didn't want to admit it yet, and we were gearing up for an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands that, had it taken place, would have made Normandy look like a cake-walk ...</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">An option</span></span> that, thankfully, we never had to use. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">While the War in the Pacific was still very much in progress in July of 1945, the end of the War in Europe had allowed life along The East Coast to start a long, slow slide towards normal, though it would take it a while to get there<i>.</i> With the war still being fought in the Pacific g</span></span>as rationing and restrictions on driving, along with other types of rationing, were still in place and.<br />
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Even though driving restrictions and gas rationing were still very much in place, restrictions on air travel had eased to the point that people were being allowed to fly for pleasure again. The number of travelers who were flying for pleasure rather than business was still a tiny fraction of what it had been in, say, 1940, but people were indeed booking vacations and weekend get-aways again. They couldn't <i>drive </i>anywhere, but they could <i>fly</i> there and grab a cab...Taxi companies, I believe, got unrestricted gasoline allotments.<br />
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So, when Eastern Airlines Flight 45 lifted off of the active runway at Logan Airport at about 8;55 am on that warm, clear Thursday morning, enroute to Miami, it's a pretty good bet that at least <i>some</i> of the passengers were heading out of Bean Town simply because they wanted to get out of Boston for a few days.<br />
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Note, however, that I didn't say heading for <i>Miami</i> for a few days...Nonstop flights from Point A to Point B weren't a thing yet. Any given flight from one major city to another was going to have a few intermediate stops in between, both for fuel and possibly a crew change, and as a convenience for the flying public who needed to get from, say, Boston to New York or Washington...which happened to be Flight 45's first two intermediate stops...faster than by train. (The wartime National speed limit of 35 miles per hour would have made either trip a <i>long</i> drive even if gas and tire rationing and driving restrictions hadn't made intercity driving impossible for most people in the first place).<br />
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A restored Eastern Airlines DC-3 making a low pass at an
airshow. This is the paint scheme that Eastern used during that era, with most
of the aircraft left in natural aluminum. Eastern even capitalized on this
scheme by declaring it's fleet of DC-3's 'The Great Silver Fleet', and proudly
painting that slogan on it's planes, above the cabin windows.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Also note that when the DC-3's landing gear was retracted,
the main wheels protruded from the wheel wells...a common feature with early
retractable gear aircraft. This actually reduced damage some in a gear-up
landing on a runway...not sure it helped much if the plane bellied in in a
cotton field, especially considering the fact that the A-26's vertical
stabilizer tore into the left engine nacelle just about even with the left main
wheel. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Note how low the engines are mounted in relation to the
fuselage, and how long the prop blades are, and you can see how the mechanics
of the actual collision and damage worked. The top of the A-26's fuselage came
real close to kissing the underside of the DC-3 when it was kicked up into
airliner's the right prop. When the
DC-3's left engine was torn loose, it's prop probably tore into the fuselage
just about dead center of the Eastern Airlines Logo...according to the C.A.B.
report, just aft of the baggage compartment door. Only sheer luck kept it from
taking out the control cables while it was at it...the fact that they remained
intact allowed Captain Davis to belly it in in a cotton field, saving all but one
of his passengers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Flight 45 made a crew change in New York, with veteran Eastern Airlines Captain Gaston D. Davis taking over command and chief pilot duties, and Norman L Martindale taking over as 2nd Officer. They probably added fuel either there or in D.C, and when they took off from Washington's National Airport at 12:22 PM, they still had two stops to make before reaching Miami...Columbia, South Carolina, about two hours away, and Jacksonville, Florida, which they'd never reach, not on that day or on that particular DC-3 at any rate. The New York-Miami leg of the trip was probably Davis and Martindale's regular route, making the flight routine to the point of near boredom for them until they approached the small city of Florence, South Carolina.<br />
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As long as they didn't hit any of the infamous Summer turbulence that was caused by thermals rising above the sun-heated farm fields the flight was probably a pleasant one for Flight 45's passengers. Other than a few puffy cumulus clouds drifting around at or just above their cruising altitude of 5000 feet with the wispy mares-tails of cirrus clouds riding <i>way</i> above them, the weather was clear, with visibility of six to ten miles. Those passengers not reading, dozing, or talking with their fellow passengers were probably watching the rural South's summer-patchwork pass by beneath them. Mrs A.E.Williams was entertaining her two year old son, as the mother of another baby on board the flight was doing with he own child. A couple of passengers who were bound for Columbia probably checked their watches as Flight 45 approached Florence, knowing they were only about fifteen or twenty minutes out from their destination.<br />
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Little did they know they were about to share a experience that would stay with them for all of their lives. And little did Davis know that he was unknowingly getting ready to set them up for it by taking what he <i>thought</i> was a precaution that would make this part of the trip safer.<br />
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Before we go into just exactly what that precaution was<i> </i>we have to remember something.<i>..</i>Aviation in the 1940s was a far, far different animal than it is today. Radar wasn't available to civilian authorities yet, and wouldn't be for close to a decade, so there was <i>no</i> regional air traffic control as there is today because without Radar there was absolutely no way for an air traffic controller to monitor traffic that he couldn't actually see from the control tower cab. This, of course, also meant that there was absolutely <i>no</i> way to alert a pilot hundreds of miles away of possible conflicting traffic, or to even be aware of that conflicting traffic in the first place.<br />
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The airway system, however, was already in place, though it, too, was a different beast from the system in place today. There were no high altitude jet airways, because there was no need for them...the 'J' prefixed Jet airways hadn't even been contemplated yet, because there were no high-flying pressurized airliners to take advantage of them.<br />
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Back then <i>all </i>of the airways were low altitude airways because the unpressurized airliners of the day (Mostly DC-3s) cruised at altitudes ranging form 5,000 to 10,000 feet. The airways were designated using a color and a number, and the airway that Flight 45 was following as it approached Florence, S.C. that afternoon was designated Amber 6.<br />
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If you take a look at a satellite view of today's Florence Municipal Airport, look closely at the northern portion of the airport and you can see the remains of what was Florence Army Airfield. Back in July 1945 the field was the home of the 334th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Replacement Training Unit, Light Bombardment), and on July 12th at around 1:15 PM, an Army Air Force A-26 Invader attached to that unit and wearing BuNo 44-35553 left Florence Army Air Field under the command of 1st Lieutenant Steven Jones. The A-26 was en route to a training area about 40 miles Northwest of Florence for an exercise that was supposed to take them about two hours to finish. It would be an eventful two hours.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Florence Regional Airport today...you
can still see the old Army Airfield's runway pattern, also Florence
Regional's original runway pattern, at the north end of the property
(Circled in red) . Note the yellow 'X's denoting them as closed
runways. The airport's terminal and executive/general aviation
terminal are still at that end of the airport, and use one of the old
runways as a taxiway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Of course, seventy-two years ago, those
two runways and the area immediately surrounding were packed with
olive-drab painted aircraft and teemed with activity. Our A-26
departed from one of those runways, of course, it and two of it's crew of three, s</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">adly,</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> never to return.</span></div>
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The
A-26 was a twin engine light bomber/ground attack aircraft, also built
by Douglas...it was 48 feet long with a 61 foot wing span and a bomb load
of 2000 pounds. It was also armed with a trio of 50 caliber machine
guns...a twin turret on the upper fuselage, and a single tail gun...and
carried a crew of from 3-5 depending on the mission profile.</div>
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It had a top speed of just shy of 360 MPH, but just giving the dry
facts about the plane sells it short, because the A-20 was probably one
of the most adaptable and sweetest flying planes to take to the air
during World War II. Pilots loved it because they could throw it around
the sky like a fighter, and crews loved it because it was tough,
dependable, and had a reputation for bringing them home even with severe
damage.<br />
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BTW...see that high,<i> high</i> vertical stabilizer? It's going to be a factor... <br />
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Because Flight 45's New York-Miami leg was Davis' regular gig, he was well aware that the Amber 6 Airway put him just West of Florence and, more importantly, within a couple of miles of the Army Air Field and it's often heavy traffic. And this could be a problem. Florence was both a position reporting point, and the point where they began their descent into Columbia, 62 miles and, at their cruise speed of 210 MPH, just over fifteen minutes south. When he started his descent into Columbia, he'd have enough to contend with without having to keep his neck on a swivel in order to stay out of the way of any errant Army Air Force pilots and aircraft.<br />
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This is why they were actually about ten miles <i>west</i> of Florence, and eight or so miles west of the airway when Flight 45 reported over Florence at about 2:30 PM. Remember that precaution I told you that Davis took...this was it. While still a good bit north of Florence, and the Army Air Field, Davis eased into a right turn, flew diagonally away from the airway for about two minutes and change, then resumed his southerly course. Basically he was creating his own airborne bypass, something he'd probably been doing for the entirety of the war, to avoid the heavy military traffic going in and out of F.A.A.F.<br />
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So, as Martindale reported to Eastern's Columbia Office that they were 'Over Florence and beginning their descent' and Davis eased them into a very gentle 200 or so foot per minute descent and pulled the pre-landing checklist card out, they were actually eight or ten miles <i>west</i> of Florence, and well out of the way of the Army...so they thought.<br />
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When the A-26 took off from Florence Army Airfield and headed for the practice area 40 miles northwest of Florence, they were planning on spending two hours at what the news reports termed 'Combat Training'. Whether they were practicing bomb-runs or ground attack gunnery (AKA strafing), their evolution only took 30 minutes or so, and they were on the way back home by a shade before two PM. Problem...they were supposed to spend two hours training, so they had to use up another hour and a quarter or so doing <i>something </i>of a<i> </i>training-like nature.</div>
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I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that, even though it wasn't mentioned anywhere, this particular aircraft may have had some radio work done shortly before that training flight. Specifically, repair to the Radio Direction Finder. Why do I say this? Because Lt. Jones, who was in charge of the aircraft and crew, decided to practice Aural Null Procedures, which entailed using the Radio Direction Finder, hereafter referred to as the RDF. I can just about hear them discussing
what to do with the remainder of their block of training time, with one of
them remembering the radio work, then saying 'Wonder if they actually <i>fixed</i> the thing...?' So they decided to find out, and log it as training.<br />
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Of course I don't know for <i>sure</i> that's what happened, but what ever the reason, Jones' decision to practice Aural Null Procedures...a fancy term for using the signal from a radio station at a known location to determine your bearing from that location...at that particular time and place played a <i>huge</i> part in what was about to happen.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A RDF has a rotatable loop antenna, and to get a bearing using an aural null signal you rotate the antenna until the incoming signal is at it's <i>weakest</i>, then read the bearing, and that's your aircraft's bearing relative to the station where the signal is originating.<br />
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You can also, of course, turn the entire aircraft, as in make a wide, sweeping turn or three, which is the method Lt. Jones decided to use.</div>
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So he tuned the RDF's receiver to a Florence station and began a series of wide turns while checking the signal strength and null signal against the bearing to the station. Which kept his eyes in the cockpit for much of the time. But Jones wasn't worried, because he was likely aware of other Army flights in the area, and any commercial traffic should be at least eight to ten miles east of them as well as a couple of thousand feet above them. Commercial traffic was usually flying at 5000 feet or higher as it overflew Florence...they were at 3200 feet,</div>
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He must have glanced at the 8-day-clock on the plane's panel as he banked into a wide, <i>wide</i> left hand turn, because he would later be able to tell both Army and C.A.B. investigators that he entered the turn at just about 4:36 PM. Jones held the bank angle at about 20 degrees while keeping his airspeed right at 220 MPH...just shy of 4 miles per minute...as he watched the meter on the RDF receiver while listening to the radio station, waiting for both the meter and his ears to tell him when they reached the signal's lowest strength. He held the turn for a good ninety seconds, until he got the null signal, then rolled out of the turn just as sun glinted off of polished aluminum to his right...</div>
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Meanwhile, Flight 45 had dropped from it's cruise altitude of 5000 feet to about 3200 feet as Davis and Martindale went through the challenge and reply of the pre-landing checklist. In the cabin, passengers talked or read or maybe even snoozed. At that particular moment, though, no one was looking out of the left cabin windows. They were a bit south and west of the town of Darlington, itself about ten or so miles northwest of Florence, and a couple of miles east and a little north of a wide spot in the road named Syracuse when a flicker of movement...maybe sun glinting off of plexiglass...caught Davis' eye and he looked up from his checklist and out of the left corner of the DC-3's windscreen...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> '</span><i><span style="font-size: large;">Where the hell did HE come from!?!' </span></i><br />
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Davis' stomach curled itself into a knot<i> </i>when he spotted the impossible specter of an A-26 about a football field away, at exactly his altitude, and 'blossoming'...getting bigger and closer almost too fast to comprehend, coming at him at an angle that just about guaranteed it would slam into their left side in a classic, devastating broadside collision.<br />
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The instant he saw the A-26 to his left, (Even as he very likely cursed out loud) he pulled back hard on the yoke, probably fire-walling the throttles at the same instant to keep the sudden climb from slowing them below their stall speed, as he tried desperately to climb above the bomber's flight path. As rugged and reliable as DC-3's are, they <i>aren't</i> fighters and the instant or so it took the elevators to bite air and kick the nose up probably felt more like a decade. Still, they were climbing <i>hard</i> as the A-26 disappeared behind the cockpit, already the apparent size of an airborne battleship, and getting bigger by the instant.<br />
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Davis was about to prove himself to be a pilot's pilot.<br />
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With 1400 hours in the air...300 of them in the A-26...Jones wasn't exactly a rookie himself. He rolled out of his turn and spotted the Eastern DC-3 about a football field or so to his right at the exact same altitude and knew that he was about two seconds away from hitting it broadside. He shoved the A-26's yoke forward even as the airliner grew to fill his windscreen in less than an instant. The DC-3 rose above them and flashed overhead as the A-26 shot beneath it...but Jones never had time to even <i>start</i> breathing a sigh of relief.</div>
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One of the A-26's distinctive features was a high, squared off vertical stabilizer, and several things happened to it in less than an eye-blink, none of them vaguely good. First, the bomber was slewed to the right as the DC-3's left wing slammed into the upper half of the vertical stabilizer, which then slid along the wing's leading edge and ripped into the left engine nacelle, tearing the engine loose and body-slamming it against the airliner's fuselage while tearing away the top five feet or so of the stabilizer. If that had been the <i>only</i> damage the A-26 suffered, it <i>may </i>have stayed in the air at least long enough for everyone to bail out...but that damage was already on the way to becoming a mute point...<br />
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When the stabilizer slammed into the DC-3's left engine nacelle it slewed the airliner around to the right and kicked the bomber's nose upward slightly, tilting it's rear fuselage up into the airliner's right propeller, which tore into the bomber's fuselage just about even with the upper twin-fifty caliber gun turret, killing the gunner instantly as it destroyed the turret and ripped through the fuselage structure like a buzz saw on crack. The top five or six feet feet of the vertical stabilizer were gone, but that, again, was a mute point because the fuselage snapped apart like a stick, the tail fluttering and twisting as it went down while the front half of the bomber flipped over on it's back and went straight in..</div>
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Even strapped into his seat, Jones was knocked around the ship's narrow cockpit like a bean in a rattle as the two planes slammed together with a cataclysmic 'CRUMP!!! that was instantly overshadowed by a shrill metallic screeching as the DC-3's right prop tore into the A-26's fuselage. The bomber's engines were still roaring as it's tail tore away, and Jones hadn't even finished bouncing off the sides of the cockpit before the plane flipped over violently, giving him a glimpse of the shattered tail flipping and twisting as it fell. </div>
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The A-26's tail gunner had been killed in the collision, but a nose gunner/bombardier was in the plane's nose, ahead of and below (Now above) the cockpit. With the ground coming up <i>fast, </i>Jones yelled for the nose gunner to bail out even as he hit both the canopy jettison and the quick-release for his own harness. With the plane inverted, he probably didn't even have to push off...he just fell out of the cockpit, maybe kicking off of the cockpit coming to try and kick himself clear of the plane. Jones was at about 900 feet when he bailed out, so when he yanked his ripcord and his 'chute opened he was already almost kicking tree-tops...he probably barely even swung once before hitting the soft soil of a South Carolina cotton field. The bomber didn't beat him down by much, augering in in a ball of fire only an instant or two before his boots hit the field.<br />
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Bedlam erupted aboard the DC-3 at the same instant that the bomber disappeared behind and below the cockpit...Davis was thrown forward against his seat belt as the wing slammed into the A-26's vertical stabilizer, then shoulder-slammed into the cockpit's left sidewall as the vertical stabilizer cracked into the airliner's left engine. The side window smacked a starry fireworks display behind his eyes even as the engine ripped free from the left nacelle, and, trailing fuel lines, wires and the odd structural support or two, caromed into and ricocheted off of the fuselage with another heavy thud that made the cockpit shiver. Though the engine shut down the instant it ripped free, the prop was still windmilling and tore into the fuselage just aft of the baggage compartment and just below the floor of the passenger cabin, miraculously missing both passengers and control cables.</div>
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In the passenger cabin, none of the passengers saw the bomber until maybe the instant it hit them, but they felt it and heard it...The loud, apocalyptic metallic 'CRUMP!!' of impact as they were jerked sideways, the passengers in the left window seats smacking the side of the plane just as Davis had, even as the engine smacked the side of the airliner with a second solid and heavy 'Thunk!!' that probably shook the passenger cabin like the blow from a giant mallet. I'm thinking that Mrs. Williams was in one of those left hand seats with her son sitting in her lap...he was catapulted into the sidewall head first, his mom, while trying to hold him, did a header into the sidewall as well. </div>
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The violence of the collision itself lasted maybe a quarter of a second and then it was over...they were still in the air and the plane seemed to be under control, though the nose was angling downward. One engine was running, but it seemed to be racing, running far faster than normal and the plane was shuddering as if in a seizure. Then Mrs. Williams picked her son up...and started screaming....<br />
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"The hell did we hit???" Davis heard Martindale ask him as he popped back out of the head-crack induced semi-consciousness that couldn't have lasted more than a second or two.</div><div style="text-align: left;">"A bomber hit <i>us </i>This thing coming apart on us<i>??"</i> Davis asked, as if he was asking 'Is it still raining outside? The plane was shuddering and the right engine was racing...there was NO noise from the left engine because...unbeknown to them right then...there <i>was</i> no left engine any more.</div>
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The first thing Davis likely did was yank both throttles back to Idle-Cutoff, and the shuddering stopped as the right engine quit beating the air with the mangled and useless right propeller. The shuddering and racing engine was replaced by a silence that can only be that deafening in an airplane with the engines out. It wasn't absolute silence though...wind was rushing past the cockpit and whistling through the rip in the fuselage where their own left prop had eaten into the plane's skin. And there was a woman in the passenger cabin screaming about her baby.</div>
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The impact had slewed them around, and, without power and with unknown structural damage, Davis didn't want to do a whole lot of maneuvering...where ever the nose was aimed was where they were putting this crate down. Thankfully, Florence County, South Carolina was Cotton Country, so they were pretty well surrounded by cotton fields. </div>
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Of course they had to keep the airliner from stalling...loosing airspeed to the point the wings no longer provided lift...at all costs. DC-3s had (And have) a nasty tendency to drop their nose and snap over into a spin when they stall, and that would absolutely be the end of the ball game. Davis pushed forward on the yoke putting the DC-3 into a fairly steep dive ('We still have elevators!) to keep airspeed up. It wasn't so much 'Picking a field' as 'Where ever this thing's nose is aimed is where we're going to land'</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
Martindale grabbed the radio mike and told their Columbia, S.C. dispatcher that they had been involved in a mid-air and that they were going down 'Somewhere south of Darlington' as Davis gazed through the windshield, trying to figure out exactly where they were going to end up given their present glide path. Wind was roaring past the DC-3's 'V' windshield and screeching through the tear in the fuselage as he spun the elevator trim wheel, trying to find the best trim configuration for a power off, one engine gone glide. This was one of those situations that they don't have figures and procedures for in the DC-3's thick operations manual.<br />
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"I'm gonna belly it in..." </div>
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"Flaps?"</div>
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"NOOOOO...hell no, she's behaving now, lets not piss her off..."</div>
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I don't know if the field that the DC-3 basically picked for them had trees on the approach end, or maybe the inevitable road and power lines, or if it was surrounded by other fields, but however it was set up, Davis waited until the last minute to ease it out of the dive (Praying that the damaged left wing stayed with them as he did so), maybe babying the damaged plane over an obstruction before letting her pancake in on her belly, flaring...pulling the nose up...to slow them just a few feet off the ground.</div>
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This dumped their airspeed and she belly-flopped into the cotton, maybe getting one good solid bounce in before slamming back down and sliding across the field, throwing cotton plants and dirt clods aside as she went, finally slowing as she bounced across the rows. The right wing finally snagged on something, corkscrewing the plane around 170 degrees, and causing it to slide sideways for the last few yards of it's final landing. As the DC-3 finally shuddered to a stop, the right engine gave up the ghost and dropped away from it's nacelle, burying the damaged prop beneath it as it landed.<br />
<br />
They were down.<br />
<br />
Somewhere between forty-five seconds and a minute passed between the collision and Davis' epic emergency landing, very likely the longest minute any of them would ever spend. With the exception of Mrs Williams, whose two year old son was unconscious and gravely injured, Flight 45's seventeen passengers remained calm and didn't panic during that never-ending minute, even though they, too, had been bumped, bruised and knocked around by both the collision and the landing. With the exception of Mrs Williams and her son, the injuries were comparatively minor and, most importantly, all were able to get out of their seats with no assistance.<br />
<br />
In the cockpit, Davis and Martindale snapped master switches and ignition off and pulled themselves out of their own seats, making their way to the cabin. While the actual term 'Un-ass the airplane' hadn't been coined yet, the <i>concept</i> sure existed, and, as downed airplanes had this unfortunate tendency to light off and burn like a torch, I can just about bet that very concept was already going through Davis, Martingale, and their unnamed flight attendants' minds. (There were two, one male and one female, aboard flight 45). A column of black smoke to their north, marking the site of the downed A-26, reinforced that concept.<br />
<br />
It's a good bet that the flight attendants already had the cabin door on the aft starboard side of the plane open by the time that Davis and Martindale emerged from the cockpit, One of them had probably already made the short jump from the cabin to the ground and they very likely already had the evacuation of the downed airliner well under way. The right wing had snagged the ground, so they were tilted to the right, making the cabin door even closer to the ground, so getting everybody off of and away from the plane was likely a pretty quick and painless process.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Williams was both inconsolable, and one of the two worst injured of the seventeen passengers...sadly, her little boy was the worst injured, and they knew that getting him to a hospital was their top priority. Thankfully the accident hadn't happened in a vacuum by any means...there had been several witnesses to the collision and the two crashes, and the land-owner of the property where the airliner bellied in was probably among the first on scene. I don't know if he had a phone yet, but if he did it was on a party line so if he <i>did </i> have a phone, he was able to not only report the airliner's crash landing and location, he was also able to notify several neighbors of the crash while he was at it.<br />
<br />
Citizens began showing up at the DC-3 crash scene within a quarter hour or less of the airliner's emergency landing, followed closely, more than likely, by a unit or two from the Darlington Fire Department. While I couldn't find <i>any</i>thing concerning the emergency response it's a good bet that DFD faced a sudden quandary...<i>two</i> crash scenes within a couple of miles of each other...so they probably dumped the house, and very likely got some mutual aid assistance enroute while they were at it. The units...and car loads of citizens...that arrived at the cotton field where the DC-3 bellied in were pleasantly surprised to find an essentially intact airplane sitting in the middle of said field, no fire, and the passengers...most of them uninjured...standing in a group well away form the plane.<br />
<br />
This pleasant surprise was stained, however, when they realized that the two year old Williams boy was gravely injured, and that his mom had received a nasty head injury as well. Keep in mind that it would be at least a quarter century before advanced prehospital care of<i> any</i> kind was available, and the most oft-used standard of care was 'Big Engine, Heavy Foot, Fast Trip To Hospital'. With that being said, I'm not even sure there <i>was</i> an ambulance on scene, meaning that Mrs Williams and her son could well have been bundled into the back seat of a car rather than loaded into an ambulance. Whether they were transported by car or ambulance, the driver hauled ass for the nearest hospital, which would have been The McLeod Infirmary, a modern 200 bed hospital located in Florence, a good fifteen mile ride on back country and two lane state roads, so ambulance, or private vehicle, it was likely a fast and rough ride.<br />
<br />
Sadly the Williams child died very shortly after arrival at the hospital, to become the only fatality on the airliner. His mom survived her injuries, and the three other injured passengers received minor bumps and bruises. The other baby and her mother were among the uninjured.<br />
<br />
It's a good bet that as soon as Captain Davis made sure his passengers were safe he found a phone somewhere and notified the Columbia Eastern Airlines office that they were down, in one piece, and sitting in the middle of a cotton field and then told them exactly where the cotton field...and the crumpled DC-3...might be found. Meanwhile, a couple of miles away, Lt Jones, who was also bruised and banged up but otherwise uninjured, had likely also managed to find a phone and officially notify his command at F.A.A.F of the collision and the location of the crash site, even as Darlington and possibly Florence firefighters attacked the burning nose section of the bomber and the very probable field/brush/woods fire that the crash had caused.<br />
<br />
In Columbia, a couple of Eastern executives headed for Darlington after notifying the State Aviation board, who notified the C.A.B before also sending a team of investigators north. The Eastern officials arrived within two hours of the crash, followed closely by the State officials (Also coming form Columbia) and they were met a few hours later by C.A.B. investigators. The Army, of course, already had an investigative team on the ground at the scene of the A-26 crash by the time they arrived. They may not have had immediate access to the bomber's crash site though, due to the fire department operations. As soon as the fire was under control the Army investigators probably threw a cordon up around the bomber, allowing no one <i>near</i> it except for authorized Army personnel and, ultimately, the C.A.B. investigators.<br />
<br />
This investigation would actually be a fairly quick and simple one, because once they interviewed the two pilots the cause of the collision became pretty obvious. In fact, both the civilian and Army investigators probably had a strong suspicion about exactly what had happened by the time another DC-3 picked Eastern Flight 45's remaining passengers up later that evening and continued the flight to Miami.<br />
<br />
As those interviews were taking place the wreckage of the A-26 was photographed with the bodies of the two
crewmen who went down with it still in place then, once the bodies were
removed, investigators combed through the wreckage of both planes with the oft-noted fine tooth combs. While the nose section of the A-26 was nothing more than a pile of burned aluminum, the tail section was intact enough for them to examine it and note the damaged vertical stabilizer.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There wouldn't have been any paint transfer from the DC-3 to the bomber because of the airliner's unpainted aluminum finish. There <i>was </i>paint transfer from the bomber to the leading edge of the DC-3's left wing, and when the airliner's left engine was located the mangled cowling also showed paint transfer. I'll bet dinner at Applebees that it also bore the perfect indentation of the leading edge of the bomber's vertical stabilizer, so they knew what the points of impact were...the question was just exactly <i>how</i> that impact managed to occur.<br />
<br />
The answer to that one was as age-old as it was simplistic. No one was watching where they were going...literally.<br />
<br />
The first thing that the C.A.B. noted was the fact that both pilots were operating under what was then termed 'Contact Flight Rules''...what we call "VFR" or Visual Flight Rules today...therefore both pilots were responsible for seeing and avoiding other aircraft. They also noted that, because the DC-3 was flying in a straight, set course, and the A-26 was maneuvering in a way that would cause it to intersect with that course, the DC-3 had the right of way...and that's where things fell apart. See, in order to follow the rules of the road...and to avoid a collision if those rules <i>aren't </i>followed...the pilots of two aircraft have to be aware of each others existence.<br />
<br />
In order to be aware each others existence, of course, our two pilots should have simply been what rules and regulations term 'Properly Vigilant' and looked outside of the cockpit in order to 'See and Avoid' each other. But that's the problem here... they <i>didn't</i> watch out for other aircraft, therefore, they didn't see <i>or</i> avoid each other.<br />
<br />
Lets take a look at Lt Jones actions first, as his maneuver was both the most complicated and, arguably, was the maneuver that actually caused the mid-air. (My opinion there). The maneuver they were carrying out had a very legitimate purpose as the RDF was an indispensable piece of navigation equipment back in the day and making sure it was working the way it was supposed to (And, if work <i>had</i> been done on it, that said work was done properly) was a top priority task. Usually in larger aircraft a radar operator, navigator, or co-pilot will handle duties such as this while the pilot flies the aircraft.<br />
<br />
One problem though...on that particular training mission the A-26 was, essentially, a single pilot aircraft. The navigator/weapons officer who normally<i> </i>would have been part of the crew<i> </i>didn't seem to be aboard for this trip. If he had been, he would have been handling the RDF while Jones flew the plane. And there we have our problem...Jones was having to split his duties between flying the plane, and monitoring the RDF's gain meter while listening for the aural null signal. To make things even worse, they weren't in restricted airspace dedicated to military training, a fact that the C.A.B. noted when they stated that Jones should have been mindful of the possibility that there could be other aircraft in the vicinity.<br />
<br />
And, of course, there <i>was</i> another aircraft in the vicinity. When I read the C.A.B. report's analysis of the mid-air it hit me that, when the A-26 banked into that final wide left hand turn, it probably flew across the DC-3's flight path, only a few of miles ahead of it...had Jones looked to his left as he crossed the DC-3's line of flight, he'd have seen it, and realized he needed to keep clear of it. But that's not the worst of it. Not by far.<br />
<br />
As Jones came around into the last thirty seconds or so of the turn, he was flying <i>towards</i> the DC-3, at it's exact altitude and basically tracking it as he turned, Meaning that the airliner was all but dead ahead of him for almost <i>thirty seconds, </i>and within what the C.A.B. called the 'normal azimuth of vision'...the arc of sky that the pilot would have scanned had he been watching for other aircraft...for <i>another </i>30 seconds prior to that, meaning that the airliner was all but dead ahead of him for nearly a full <i>minute</i>. But Jones <i>wasn't</i> scanning for other aircraft...he was focused on the RDF, until he got the null signal, and rolled out of the turn and saw the sun glinting off of the DC'3's natural aluminum finish only a football field or so away. And by then it was too late.<br />
<br />
Now for Captain Davis. As awesome a job as he did <i>after</i> the mid-air, Eastern Airlines' Captain Davis bore his share of blame <i>before</i> the collision as well.<br />
<br />
Trust me on this...during the War Years, every pilot of every airliner flying over the Continental U.S. including Captain Davis remembered what happened to American Airlines Flight 28, and that memory popped into focus any time they were anywhere <i>near </i>a military air field. Davis had also reportedly had a couple of near misses of his own involving Army pilots, so he modified his route, flying well west of the airway...and Florence Army Airfield's traffic pattern...because he'd decided that staying as far away from them as possible was a prudent thing to do.<br />
<br />
With that thought in mind, the C.A.B. noted that he should have been mindful that, being that close to a military field, military aircraft would be transiting the very airspace he was flying through in order to access training areas, among other reasons. This being the case, they also noted, he<i> also</i> should have been keeping an eye out of the cockpit for other aircraft. But he was distracted as well...they had begun their descent into Columbia, and he was preoccupied with the myriad little tasks that had to be completed in the fifteen or so minutes before they landed.<br />
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Because of this he, like the A-26 Pilot, missed <i>two</i> chances to see and avoid the bomber...first, when it crossed his flight path a few miles ahead of him, then in the last forty five seconds to a minute of it's turn, when it, too, was in Davis 'normal azimuth of vision'. Meaning that all he...or, for that matter, Martindale...would have had to have done was looked up and scanned, and he would have probably seen the bomber in time to climb above it's flight path, and make it a near miss...or even just a miss...rather than a mid-air.<br />
<br />
Of course, Davis redeemed himself when he managed to put the damaged DC-3 down in one piece with only a single fatality, but that doesn't change the fact that he was partially responsible for putting them in that situation in the first place, not because of something he <i>did </i>do, but because of something he <i>didn't</i> do. He didn't let his eyes roam outside the cockpit, (and worse, neither did his second officer.) and not through ignorance or incompetence...Davis' actions immediately <i>after</i> the collision rule out <i>any</i> possibility that he was incompetent. He didn't look outside the cockpit due to a few minutes worth of good old distraction-driven negligence.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, aboard the A-26, another dose of distractions led to it's pilot committing the exact same act of negligence, and again, not through incompetence, but rather because he was trying to do too many things at the same time. <br />
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It would be nice to be able to say that this was a one-off incident, and that distracted pilots are exceedingly rare, but sadly, that's not entirely true. Distracted flying accidents aren't anywhere <i>near</i> as common as distracted driving accidents, of course, and airline crashes caused by distracted pilots are rarer still, but they <i>do</i> happen. This is what caused the drafting and enacting of the 'Sterile Cockpit Rule' that bans non-flight-specific conversation in the cockpit of commercial aircraft during certain critical portions of the flight.<br />
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Of course, even with all the rules, regulations, and training in the world, there's no easy and absolute fix for this one, because, again, being distracted is a unshakable byproduct of human nature. Changing human nature, as we all know, is almost as easy as moving, say, Mt Rushmore.<br />
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Has Mt Rushmore moved even an inch in the last century? No? Exactly.<br />
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We can just be thankful for the fact that fatal airline crashes have become a rare commodity, and that crashes caused by distractions are rarer still. <br />
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<b><***>NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF<***></b><br />
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If Life was always fair, and the fates always kind, Eastern's Capt Davis would be just as well remembered for putting his mortally wounded DC-3 down in a cotton field and saving all but one of his passengers as Sully is for making an Airbus pretend it was a flying boat.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
But life, of course, <i>isn't</i> fair. Back in 1945, there was no Social Media, no YouTube, no Instant News, and no smart phones with Hi Res video capability to record events as they happened, so he got a bunch of Attaboys in newspaper articles, his passengers remembered him for saving their lives, The C.A.B. said 'Awesome job getting that thing down in one piece...but you're still partially at fault', and the incident was pushed aside by more pressing news of the day...there was a major World War still being fought as you may recall. As the years rolled by the incident ultimately dropped off of the historical radar until only a few serious historians and a few equally serious Aviation History and Aviation Archaeology buffs remember it.</div>
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The end result, of course, is that Sully got a major motion picture made about his landing while Davis got a blog post in a very minor history blog written seventy six years and change after the fact by a crotchety old guy. But that certainly doesn't minimize his feat...getting that DC-3 down was one hell of a job of flying.</div>
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All of that being said, had the C.A.B. report also been a victim of time and history, and not been available, the afore mentioned Crotchety Old Guy (That'd be Yours Truly) would have dropped this one in the 'Notes...' section of the last post as a two or so paragraph note, because there is very little available on line about it. There was an article on my genealogy site, and maybe one other news paper article and that was pretty much it. The C.A.B. report allowed me to flesh out the details about the mid-air itself as well as the findings of the investigation while giving me enough data and detail to allow me to speculate about the details I couldn't find in what I hope was a reasonable and intelligent manner.</div>
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As always, I hope I managed to make this one enjoyable and informative...Now, on to the notes!<br />
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<***><br />
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This mid-air collision foreshadowed every crash caused by every person who ever blew through a light or crossed the center line while texting.</div>
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'How?' you ask. The technology needed to text just didn't <i>exist</i> seventy years ago so again...<i>how???</i>.</div>
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'Simple', I say...The A-26 pilot was distracted because he was preoccupied by the RDF receiver. </div>
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And just what was the RDF receiver? An electronic device...just as every smart phone that some driver's staring at as he or she blows through a stoplight is an electronic device.</div>
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So this incident was very possibly one of the very first accidents, on land or in the air, whose root cause can be traced back to one of the pilots/drivers being distracted by an electronic device...a problem that's become a deadly thorn in the side of every DMV or it's equivalent in the world.</div>
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<***></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<br />
Flight 28 wasn't the last midair collision involving an airliner and a military aircraft to occur in the U.S. during the 40s, and the decade's third and final such accident harked all the way back to the <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-first-mid-air-collision-in-us.html">very first mid-air involving an airliner</a>, twenty years earlier in San Diego. Both of those incidents involved a fighter pilot who was stunting, and both ended badly for everyone involved.<br />
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<br />
In another twist of irony, this incident also occurred in July and involved another Eastern Airlines flight which had also departed from Boston's Logan Airport. Eastern Flight 557 departed from Logan on the morning of July 30th, 1949...five years and small change after Flight 45's departure from that same airport...enroute to Memphis, Tennessee with several stops in between. Also mirroring Flight 45, Flight 557's first stop would be New York's LaGuardia, but there their route's and fates diverged. <br />
<br />
Flight 557 departed LaGuardia at about 10 AM with 12 passengers aboard for a short, 45 minute hop to Wilmington Delaware with veteran Captain L. R. Matthews in command and 2nd Officer J. B. Simmons flying right seat. The weather was nice, visibility 10 plus miles, and it was promising to be a smooth, routine flight. They wouldn't climb higher that 2000 feet on the short hop between LaGuardia and Wilmington, so their 12 passengers would get an up close and personal look at the passing scenery that today's airline passengers miss out on.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Navy Lt (J.G.) Robert Poe had launched from Washington, D.C.'s Anancostia Naval Air Station at 9:37 AM...twenty three minutes before Flight 557 departed form LaGuardia...flying a Grumman F6F Hellcat on a training and proficiency Flight. His destination was Quonset Point N.A.S in Quonset Point, Rhode Island. and his flight plan routed him northbound up the same Red 3 Airway that Flight 557 was using southbound. Lt Poe's flight plan called for a cruise speed of 185 knots and an enroute time of just about two hours.<br />
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Sometime in the midst of these two departures, a single engine Piper Super Cruiser took off from an airstrip somewhere in the vicinity of Chesterfield New Jersey. The Super Cruiser's a single engine, high wing, three place fabric covered aircraft that was an upgraded version of Piper's famed J-3 and J-5 Cubs. It was a docile, forgiving, and extremely popular aircraft that cruised at 105 MPH, stalled at 50 MPH, and could land almost anywhere. It was popular, beloved, and was absolutely no match for a Grumman Hellcat...so why would a Navy fighter pilot see the need to simulate a dogfight with one?<br />
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Maybe, an hour and a half or so into his flight he had gotten bored. Maybe he wanted to show off. Maybe he still hadn't worked all of that youthful 'Piss and Vinegar;' out of his system. But whatever the reason, when he spotted the also northbound Super Cub ahead of and about 1000 feet below him, Poe decided to 'Buzz' it. On his first pass he shot beneath it and hauled back on the stick, throttle fire walled and Pratt and Whitney R-2800 'Wasp' screaming as he went into a vertical climb just 100 feet ahead of the Super Cruiser, whose already startled pilot had a busy few seconds on his hands as he was tossed around by the fighter's wash.<br />
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He lost sight of the Hellcat but, emulating every fighter pilot who was ever involved in a dogfight, he craned his neck around to try to spot the Navy Fighter, maybe throwing the little Piper into a couple of 'S' turns so he could see behind him...and just as he suspected, Poe wasn't finished with him yet.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2NkePWoKT7FbWBAqfTCI-3zevGmtDPs_aRYLjZWVD7VVykR5OwDiC6pYcjHc-8Qrlu53P6JNYUq24fy9XJU2DieFK-IcjD4T5XawWQuuM8o_mbv8YLt8vf2bjKE5x-jZUu2GFoPq_YnY/s1600/337d009ce78714e0064aea204873507c.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2NkePWoKT7FbWBAqfTCI-3zevGmtDPs_aRYLjZWVD7VVykR5OwDiC6pYcjHc-8Qrlu53P6JNYUq24fy9XJU2DieFK-IcjD4T5XawWQuuM8o_mbv8YLt8vf2bjKE5x-jZUu2GFoPq_YnY/s640/337d009ce78714e0064aea204873507c.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">A Grumman F6F Hellcat, pictured in a climbing right turn just as the fighter that hit Flight 557 was. Note the three wing guns on the leading edge of each wing. When the F6F hit the DC-3, the airliner's left wing connected with the F6F's left wing just about at those gun bays, tearing most of the fighter's left wing off while also ripping away about 15 feet of the DC-3's left wing. Two of the fighter's guns fell just about straight down, giving investigators a good datum point to use in determining where the collision occurred. The fighter's pilot was either killed or rendered unconscious in the collision, then thrown clear as his aircraft tumbled after the collision.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Flight 557 reported over Freehold N.J...about 25 minutes out of Wilmington...at 10:17 AM, about six minutes later they were just over a mile southeast of Chesterfield NJ when the Hellcat made another pass at the Super Cruiser. Poe again came in from behind and beneath the Piper and hauled back on his stick, throwing the Hellcat into a climb...but this time he didn't go vertical, instead wracking the fighter over into a climbing right turn, throttle again fire walled. The Super Cruiser's pilot probably again spent a couple of busy seconds fighting the fighter's wash, but he managed to look up to see a DC-3 about 1000 feet above him, heading south...and his eyes went huge as he watched the Hellcat climb towards it on an obvious collision course.<br />
<br />
The crew of the DC-3 never saw what hit them as the Hellcat came at them from ahead and below, moving from right to left in a 10 degree bank. The fighter's left wing slammed into the airliners left wing about 15 feet in from the tip at the same instant that it's prop shredded the airliner's left wingtip.<br />
The DC-3's wing ripped into the fighters wing only a few feet out from the cockpit, right at it's gun bays, tearing two of the fighter's guns free to tumble straight down while also tearing the left wing away, leaving only a stub. Poe's head had slammed hard into the canopy when he hit the airliner, either knocking him unconscious or killing him instantly. He was thrown clear of the Hellcat as it tumbled and spun away from the collision, shedding parts as it fell to slam into the ground as a crumpled mass of
bent aluminum about a half mile away from the point of impact with the
DC-3. Poe's body was found about 200 feet away from the wrecked fighter. Though his 'chute burst open when he hit the ground, the ripcord had never been pulled., <br />
<br />
Matthews and Simmons probably tried desperately to save the airliner, but with the outer fifteen or so feet of it's left wing gone, it was also mortally wounded and inevitably fell into a graveyard spiral, slamming into the ground in a ball of fire about a mile beyond the collision point, killing all fifteen people aboard.<br />
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With a slew of eye witnesses, including and most particularly the pilot of the Piper Super Cruiser, this was another investigation that didn't take much time to close. Poe was judged to be completely at fault due to his blatant act of reckless flying, The report also went into detail in noting that aerobatics were absolutely forbidden in the vicinity of civilian aircraft and most definitely forbidden on a civilian airway.<br />
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This incident has fallen even further off the radar than Flight 45's Mid-air...I ran up on it's GenDisasters page and aviationsafety.net page while researching Flight 45, and a little digging gave me the C.A.B. report, but other than than, the well was dry on Flight 557's midair. It should be noted, BTW, that the Gen Disaster page's description of the mid-air...which was a contemporary news paper article...and the C.A.B. report differed greatly. <br />
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As well as being caused by reckless flying, it'd be easy to chalk this one up as another incident caused in part to the lack of regional air traffic control during that era...but this wouldn't be true<br />
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Why not?...<br />
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<b><***></b></div>
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<b> </b>Military air craft would be a hazard for commercial aircraft even after meaningful regional air traffic control was developed and instituted in the mid to late Fifties for the very simple reason that Civil Aviation and Military Aviation utilized two distinct and separate air traffic control systems, and the two systems did <i>not</i> communicate with each other. At. All.</div>
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This, of course, meant that when an airliner was on it's decent or climb-out into or out of a commercial airport or even at it's cruise altitude, a fighter on a training or ferry mission could just suddenly appear...and such incidents happened on a not even vaguely infrequent basis right on up to the early Seventies, causing several deadly mid-air collisions. This problem was finally mitigated in the early Seventies when regulations were enacted requiring <i>all</i> aircraft operating in U.S.airspace, be they military or civilian, to operate under the same air traffic control authority.<br />
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<b><***></b></div>
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Had radar been available to civilian authorities in 1945, and been installed in control towers and utilized by Air Traffic Control it <i>may</i> have prevented Flight 45's mid-air...but then again it may <i>not </i>have. Of course we have the above-noted hazard that military aircraft presented even after radar <i>was</i> introduced, but we also have another problem that would have existed for Flight 45 had radar been available to Air Traffic Control back then. The controller would have had absolutely <i>no</i> idea who to warn.</div>
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Transponders...devices that allowed an aircraft to transmit a unique numeric code along with it's return on the radar scope...didn't exist yet, and Flight 45 left the airway without announcing it's intention to do so, so it's 'blip' would have been several miles west of where ti was <i>supposed</i> to have been, and therefore, unidentified. The A-26's blip would have been likewise unidentified. </div>
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Short of keying up and transmitting '<i>BOTH</i> unidentified aircraft X miles west of Florence, make an <i>immediate</i> left turn!! (The DC-3 would have turned away from the bomber, which would have... Hopefully...gone behind the airliner ) and hoped both pilots realized he was talking to them in time to make the emergency maneuver. OF course, unless the A-26 was monitoring the civilian ATC frequency, he wouldn't have even heard it.</div>
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Yeah...I'm thinking it, too...they would have most likely still collided.</div>
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<b><***>LINKS<***></b></div>
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With so little information about Flight 45 out there, and even less about Flight 557 (That one doesn't even have a Wiki Page) there aren't a whole lot of links either..but I <i>do</i> have the links for the C.A.B. reports from both incidents.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_45">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_45</a> Flight 45's Wiki Page. It's actually pretty sparse, and is pretty much a repeat of the contemporary newspaper article that comprises the incident's GenDisasters page.<br />
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</div>
<a href="http://specialcollection.dotlibrary.dot.gov/Document?db=DOT-AIRPLANEACCIDENTS&query=%28select+320%29">http://specialcollection.dotlibrary.dot.gov/Document?db=DOT-AIRPLANEACCIDENTS&query=%28select+320%29</a> The text of the C.A.B. Report. There's also a link to a PDF version of the report, which is downloadable.`<br />
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<a href="https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19490730-0">https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19490730-0</a> Flight 557's AviationSafety.net Page.<br />
Aviationsafety,net has an enormous database of air crashes, with the raw, basic info about all, and some pretty informative narratives about several.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://specialcollection.dotlibrary.dot.gov/Document?db=DOT-AIRPLANEACCIDENTS&query=(select+442)">http://specialcollection.dotlibrary.dot.gov/Document?db=DOT-AIRPLANEACCIDENTS&query=(select+442)</a> Text of the C.A.B. report for Eastern Flight 557's mid-air. Like Fight 45's report, a link for the downloadable PDF version is also included.<br />
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-67256664600182193292016-11-30T12:27:00.010-05:002023-03-31T19:15:31.597-04:00American Airlines Flight 28 The Infamous Palm Springs Mid-Air<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">American Airlines Flight 28...</span></b><b><span style="font-size: large;">October 23, 1943</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">A Deadly Greeting, A Surprise Witness, And A Jinxed Bomber</span></b></div>
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You'd really think that the <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-first-mid-air-collision-in-us.html">1929 San Diego mid-air collision</a>, which occurred when an Army Air Corps fighter collided with a Maddux Air Lines Ford
Trimotor while stunting, killing six people and destroying
two airplanes while coming scary-close to taking out part of a residential neighborhood, would have been a major wake-up call for the Military Aviation community. It was a <i>huge</i> story when it happened, and the negative publicity it generated put the dangerous tendency of military pilots to perform aerobatics while flying near civilian aircraft under a microscope. The resultant pressure from the Media, the public, and the airlines to do something about the problem would have been<i> </i>tremendous, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the military brass cracked down <i>hard </i> on that tendency in the weeks immediately following the crash.</div>
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This crack-down very likely created a textbook example of a phenomenon popularly known as 'Crap Runs Downhill'. Preemptive chewing outs would have flowed from the command staff to base commanders to squadron commanders to flight leaders to the individual pilots, gaining momentum with each until the briefings in squadron ready rooms throughout the land very likely made the rantings of R. Lee Ermey's iconic Sgt. Hartman in 'Full Metal Jacket' sound like a Gospel song.<br />
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Pilots were probably told, in no uncertain terms, that exceeding a given angle of bank within a couple of <i>miles</i> of a civilian aircraft would result in punishments the likes of which they didn't even want to <i>think</i> about, much less actually experience.<br />
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And for about 12 years, at least as far as records indicate, these threats actually seemed to work. But then something extraordinary happened...and I don't mean extraordinary in a good way.<br />
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What was this extraordinarily bad event? I'll give you a hint. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">December 7th, 1941</span></div>
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That's right...the infamous December morning when the Japanese Navy managed to, as one of their own admirals put it, 'Awaken A Sleeping Giant And Fill Him With A Terrible Resolve'. And trust me on this...that Sleeping Giant was <i>pissed</i> and out for blood when he woke up!<br />
<br />
When those bombs and torpedoes started falling and running on that Hawaiian Sunday morning three-quarters of a century ago they plunged the U.S. into a war the likes of which the world had never before conceived of even in it's darkest nightmares, and which we, hopefully, will never ever see the likes of again. Here in the U.S. patriotism and a desire for vengeance were both running high, and with-in the first few months of our entry into the war, tens of thousands of young men had enlisted, and they kept on enlisting. By the end of 1942, the four branches of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard) counted just over 1.8 million men in their ranks...a number that would swell to over twelve million by the war's end.</div>
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Even as young men flooded recruitment centers, all of America's industry went to a total war footing, and with-in a couple of months of our entry into the war factories began turning out the machines of war...from bayonets to battleships...in record numbers.<br />
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Aircraft production shot up something on the order of 1000%...and yes, you read that right. Want proof? Lets just look at wartime aircraft production. Anyone want to guess how many airplanes U.S. manufacturers turned out between January 1942 and August 1945? Anyone? Bueller? Bueelller??</div>
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If you guessed 200,000, you were <i>still</i> short by nearly a hundred grand. There were just shy of 300,000 airplanes built in the US during the three years and eight months we were involved in the war. That comes out to 6,818 planes per <i>month. </i>To put that in perspective, the modern day <i>annual</i> production of airplanes in the US...of all types...falls <i>well</i> short of <i>half </i>of that figure.</div>
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To get all of those planes in the air, the same number of pilots...or at least very close there-to...had to be trained to fly them. Those tens of thousands of kids...and most were just that, kids between 17 and 22 or 23 years old...who enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces during the first few months of the war? A <i>huge</i> percentage of them wanted wings on their uniforms, and the task of training those who made the grade and became Army...or Navy...or Marine...aviators turned into a pretty daunting task. Over the course of the war, 193,000 new pilots were trained by the Army Air Force alone. The Navy and Marines added thousands of their own pilots to the mix. This would put a <i>lot</i> of inexperienced pilots in the air flying high performance aircraft.<br />
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To get all of these new pilots trained and in the air in the first place, they needed airfields. Of course, all of the service branches already had air bases, but nowhere near enough of them, so more than a few existing civilian fields were taken over...in whole or in part...by the military while hundreds of new fields were built to accommodate the nation's rapidly expanding air forces. One of these new bases was in Palm Springs, California...the airfield that, in fact, still exists in greatly expanded and modernized form as Palm Springs International Airport.<br />
<br />
But in October of 1942, it was an almost brand new Army air field, bursting at the seams with both aircraft and pilots...both seasoned veterans and starry-eyed new recruits...<i>lots</i> of starry-eyed new recruits, and...it's not where we're going just yet. Oh, we're staying in Southern California And we'll end up in Palm Springs...but first we've got to join a conversation between two friends.<br />
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We're going back to the evening of Oct 22nd...the evening before the accident I'm posting about here...to a restaurant somewhere in Long Beach, where a young American Airlines pilot named Louis Reppert and an Army Air Force pilot named William Wilson were eating some dinner, downing a few brews and telling tales. The two had trained together some time back and became friends in the process, though their paths had diverged with Fred Reppert (His middle name was Frederick) going with a career with American Airlines while Bill Wilson signed up for the full hitch in the Army Air Corps, which ended up being for 'The Duration'...until the war ended, when ever it might end.<br />
<br />
Bill Wilson had probably wanted fighters...all aspiring military aviators want fighters, no matter what service branch they go with. Really, no one really wants bombers, and <i>no</i> one wants transports, but Wilson ended up getting Air Transport Command and being stationed at Long Beach. At least he was attached to Ferrying Command...the command tasked with transferring aircraft from one base to the other...so he got to fly a variety of aircraft. The next day, in fact, he and another pilot were to ferry a Lockheed B-34 Ventura medium bomber from Long Beach Army Airfield to the Palm Springs Army airfield at about the same time that Fred Reppert was to fly right seat on American Airlines Flight 28 from L.A. to New York, with a stop-over in Phoenix. Flight 28's routing to Phoenix took them through San Gorgonio Pass so they could safely clear several peaks that soared well above their cruise altitude, and this would, in turn, take them to with-in spitting distance of Palm Springs.<br />
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It was a good bet that Wilson would also 'Fly The Pass' into Palm Springs. This would potentially put both the B-34 that Wilson was ferrying and American Flight 28 in the same area at fairly close to the same time.<br />
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Reppert and Wilson picked up on this as they discussed their schedules, and once they realized they'd be in the air at about the same time and potentially in the same general area, a plan began to take shape. At first the two of them discussed just clicking their mikes at each other, this having been a time-honored aerial greeting for as long as radios had been standard equipment aboard commercial and military aircraft. A quick review of the frequencies available to the American Airlines pilot shot that idea down, however, when they realized that the two aircraft shared no common frequencies.<br />
<br />
No problem, then...they'd just wag their wings at each other. Of course that would mean that the two planes would have to be close enough together for each pilot to see the other wag his aircraft's wings so he could return the greeting. But that wouldn't be <i>that</i> dangerous...I mean, if all they were going to do was wag their wings at each other, what could go wrong??<br />
<br />
They discussed it, decided that the wing-wag was the way to go, shot the bull as they finished their beers, paid the check, tipped the waitress, and parted company until their next meeting, over Palm Springs. Said meeting, however, would <i>not </i>go as planned.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
* </div>
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October 23rd, 1942 dawned as one of those classic Southern California days...skies of a dazzling blue with a few puffy clouds here and there, warm temps, light winds...both on the ground and aloft...and flying conditions that were just about Webster's definition of 'C.A.V.U. (Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited). In Los Angeles nine people started jumping through all the hoops that getting ready for an afternoon departure on a cross country flight requires<br />
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Keep in mind that back in that era air travel was <i>crazy </i>expensive. A cross country airline ticket could cost as much as a month's salary for a middle class American, making it pretty much the domain of the business traveler (With the flight paid for by the passenger's employer), the wealthy, and the famous (Who, of course, also tended to be wealthy).<br />
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Also, well before 1942 was over, serious war-time restrictions on civilian air travel had been put in place. Pleasure flying as well as tourism of any description came to a virtual standstill for the duration of the war. The Air Transport Command...still an integral part of the Military today...was organized during World War II, and all but took over the airlines, meaning that any civilian flying commercial was doing so in <i>some</i> capacity that was beneficial to the war effort. So. even though October 23rd was a Friday, none of the people who arrived at Burbank's Lycoming Air Terminal that afternoon were flying out for a casual weekend get-away... all nine of the passengers who who'd be boarding American Airlines Flight 28 had a good reason to be flying.</div>
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Whatever their reasons for traveling on that lovely SoCal fall day, they also had a celebrity in their midst. One of Flight 28's nine passengers was a seriously talented...as in Oscar-winning level talented...Hollywood composer named Ralph Rainer. Mr. Rainer had penned several major hits of the era, including the classic Blue Hawaii, a cover of which became the title track for the Elvis Presley flick of the same name. While he was at it, Rainer also wrote 'Love In Bloom', which would become Jack Benny's theme song, and 'Thanks For The Memories', which Bob Hope would snag as his theme song. He, along with Flight 28's other eight passengers and three crew members were beginning their last hour on earth as they boarded the American Airlines DC-3 at about 4:15 PM<br />
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For the moment though, we're going to leave our nine doomed passengers as Fred Reppert, along with Captain Charles Pedley, preflighted the big Douglas DC-3 while pretty 25 year old stewardess Estelle Reagan made sure all was ready in the passenger cabin and galley. When we leave them we're heading about 40 miles south, to Long Beach Army Airfield, still in existence today as Long Beach International Airport, and home back then of the Air Transport Command's ferrying division where Bill Wilson, along with 25 year old Sgt. Robert Leicht, were preflighting B-34 Ventura Bureau # 41-38116...the bird that they were ferrying to Palm Springs.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz_NkQN52PwcvAbqSyfJ2xm8wkJAHOIepaFd9qqTxMHUtaPYV8kwErdQ4nST_VlSTlKgenYDXo_MWr3EMGnt8UIzi1dUi-C25IIShrL4xzQlqUCAyDL_307rryEHA3Hc9_RBpty4pStag/s1600/ww2lockpv1-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz_NkQN52PwcvAbqSyfJ2xm8wkJAHOIepaFd9qqTxMHUtaPYV8kwErdQ4nST_VlSTlKgenYDXo_MWr3EMGnt8UIzi1dUi-C25IIShrL4xzQlqUCAyDL_307rryEHA3Hc9_RBpty4pStag/s640/ww2lockpv1-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">A
Lockheed B-34 Ventura similar to BuNo 41-38116, the B-34 piloted by Bob Wilson
that struck and downed American Airlines Flight 28</span>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small; line-height: 107%;">The
B-34 was a light bomber based on the popular Lockheed Lodestar airliner. At
just over 50 feet long with a wingspan of 65 feet it was smaller than the DC-3,
but was nearly 100 MPH faster. The B-34
cruised at 230MPH (Same as the DC-3’s top speed) and topped out at 322 MPH.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small; line-height: 107%;">Take
a look at the B-34’s nose and cockpit, and imagine a plane the size of the DC-3
just ahead, to the right, and below it and you get an idea of why neither
Wilson or Leicht could see it, once they inadvertently put it in the B-34’s ‘Ahead
and Below’ blind spot, until they hit it. That doesn’t even come close,
however, to excusing them for getting in that situation in the first place.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Wilson's log book showed a total of nearly 1500 hours in the air, but only eighteen of them were in the B-34...and of those eighteen, only nine were as pilot in command. Leicht was so new at flying he shined...only 100 hours, most of it during primary and advanced training, Their lack of familiarity with the aircraft just <i>might </i>have had a little bit of bearing on what was about to happen.</div>
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This wouldn't be a long flight...well under an hour at the B-34's cruise speed of 230 MPH...and as they did the walk-around inspection, Bill Wilson very likely told Leicht about his conversation with Fred Reppert the previous evening along with their plan to meet up in the air, also telling his co-pilot jokingly that he'd like to 'Thumb His Nose' at Reppert. The two of them discussed just what they'd have to do to make the aerial meeting happen. With the B-34...Also known as the PV-1 Ventura/PV-2 Harpoon in Naval service as a patrol bomber...being <i>way</i> faster than the DC-3, as long as they could spot them, they could catch them. <br />
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SO sometime around 4:20 PM Bob Wilson set magnetos, throttles, and mixture, called 'CLEAR!! through the bomber's open left cockpit window, and hit the starter for the # 1 engine, sending first exhaust-snorts, then the distinctive roar of a Pratt and Whitney R-2800 radial engine across the field. He repeated the procedure for the #2 engine, asked for and received taxi clearance, then released the brakes and cracked the throttles, sending the B-34...which, due to it's potbellied, slab-sided fuselage looked for all the world like it was pregnant... rolling across the field towards the active runway.<br />
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At 4:26 PM, according to records, Bill Wilson lifted the B-34 off of Long Beach's active runway. He called for 'Gear Up, asked for and received clearance for a departure to the east, then eased the bomber into a turn that would put it on a rough course for Palm Springs. Except they weren't <i>going</i> to Palm Springs...not directly anyway.<br />
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I can just about bet that, as they lifted off and headed just about due east east, Wilson and Leicht were discussing the fact that they were in the air a good ten minutes before Flight 28's scheduled departure time. The flight from Long Beach to Palm Spring is well under an hour. If they didn't dawdle a little, they'd be on the ground well before the airliner overflew Palm Springs.<br />
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Not a problem! Wilson banked them gracefully to the left, and headed for March Field, which, as well as being one of California's larger bases and one of the oldest military airfields in the country, was also just south of the route Flight 28 would use to enter San Gongonio Pass.<br />
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Wonder if, as they headed for March Field, they discussed things like the <i>huge</i> blind spot that the B-34 (And any large aircraft) had in front of and below it, and what effect that had on flying close formation with another fairly large aircraft? Naaaa...probably not.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
* </div>
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American Airlines flew some seriously sharp looking ships back in that era, using the same basic livery right on through the 1960s, and a version of it until about 2009. Their DC-3s were finished in natural aluminum with a bright orange shield splashed across the nose and a narrow orange lightning bolt running the length of the fuselage just beneath the cabin windows. The control surfaces were trimmed in orange, and the scheme was finished off with the cowl ring...the forward most portion of the engine nacelles...also trimmed in orange. American Airlines name and classic circular Eagle logo were emblazoned across the aft portion of the fuselage, just ahead of the horizontal stabilizer, with the term 'Flagship'...as all their DC-3s were known...above the cabin windows. The ship's name... American named<i> all</i> of their planes back than, as did most airlines...was emblazoned across the nose beneath the lightning bolt, with 'American Airlines, in slightly larger script, above it. The DC-3 assigned to Flight 28 had been christened <i>Flagship Connecticut.</i> <br />
<br />
The <i>Flagship Connecticut </i>was gleaming in the late afternoon sun as Flight 28's nine passengers walked across the concrete apron and climbed the short set of boarding stairs on the aft starboard side, walked uphill (The DC-3 was...and indeed is, as several hundred of them are still in the air...a taildragger.) and took their seats. The DC-3 was a 21 seat airplane, so they'd have plenty of room, and she'd be light when she took off.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">
An immaculately restored...and better
yet, airworthy...American Airlines DC-3 all but identical to the
ill-fated <i>Flagship Connecticut. </i>The Douglas DC-3 had already
become the workhorse of the airlines by 1942, and would become one of
the most famous airplanes of all time. It, along with the
smaller DC-2 that birthed it, was by and large the prototype for the
modern airliner. The DC-3 was 65 feet long with a 95 foot
wingspan and could cruise at just shy of 210 MPH. It was also a very
comfortable...even luxurious...airliner, with an off-set center aisle
between two abreast seating on the left side of the aircraft, and a
single seat beneath each window on the right in a 93" wide cabin
that allowed it's passengers to stand up. The DC-3 also boasted a
small galley and a lavatory aft.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">
While 607 actual DC-3s were built, just
over 10,100 C-47s...the military version of the DC-3...were built
during the war, making it one of the most prolific aircraft ever produced and flooding the post-war market with surplus transports that
could be bought, then converted to a civilian airliner, for maybe a
quarter of the cost of a new airplane. <i>Lots </i><span style="font-style: normal;">of
airlines got their start flying DC-3s, and lots of established
airlines flew them on regional routes well into the 1950s.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">With
</span><i>that</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> being said...the
Air Force flew the C-47 until 2008. The DC-3 was and indeed, </span><i>is,</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
a legitimate flying legend.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Flight 28's passengers grabbed seats, Estelle Reagan went through the flight safety speech that's been a part of air travel for eighty or so years, and Charles Pedley hit the ignition and starters for the two big Wright Cyclone radials, kicking them over with the stuttering roar and clouds of blue smoke that big radial engines are known for.<br />
<br />
He contacted Lockheed's tower, got permission to taxi, then take-off clearance and at 1636, lifted off of the active runway. They were immediately cleared for both a departure to the east, and a climb to the flight's cruise altitude of 9000 feet, just about exactly ten minutes after Bill Wilson lifted the B-34 off of Long Beach's active runway with very similar clearances.<br />
<br />
There was, very likely,<i> </i>one<i> big</i> difference, though. While Bill Wilson and his copilot had discussed the plan to meet up with the airliner at some length, it's speculated that Fred Reppert never even mentioned the plan to Charles Pedley, and in fact, may have even forgotten about it.<br />
<br />
There are two trains of thought on that subject, though. The other train of thought is that Reppert <i>did</i> mention the plan to Pedley, but Pedley forbade <i>any</i> kind of show of recognition or anything else that would tempt the Army pilot to fly dangerously close to the airliner.<br />
<br />
Whichever one actually happened, the outcome ended up being the exact same.<br />
<br />
Of course, if Bill Wilson had flown directly from Long Beach to Palm Springs, Flight 28 would have probably still been 30 or so miles out when the B-34's wheels chirped onto Palm Spring Army Airfield's runway. They were, after all, at least ten minutes ahead of the airliner, and if they had flown directly to Palm Springs Army Airfield, nothing would have happened in the first place. The problem was, Wilson didn't consider just forgetting about the rendezvous and flying directly to Palm Springs an option, nor did he consider the fact that they were ten minutes ahead of Flight 28 a major problem. He'd already worked out a solution to that problem that was elegant in it's simplicity.<br />
<br />
As noted above, the airliner's course to Phoenix would take it north of Palm Springs, and of March Field, which was only also very slightly north of the Bomber's course. So, very shortly after departing Long Beach and climbing to his assigned cruise altitude of 4,000 feet, Wilson eased the B-34 into a gentle left turn, putting them on a course that would take them west of March Field. They put March Field a couple of miles off their right wing tip, flew a couple of more miles north, then Wilson told his co-pilot to 'Keep your eyes peeled for the airliner.' as he banked the bomber into a wide circle in the sky, taking them close to Riverside to the west and Moreno Valley to the East. They had made two circles when one of them spotted the sun glinting of of all of that polished aluminum...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
*</div>
<br />
Back in the pre-radar, pre-regional air traffic control era that 1942 was smack dab in the middle of it was up to the individual airlines to keep tabs on their flights, therefore each airline had regional dispatch centers that the crews were required to keep in touch with during their flight. All these dispatch centers did was keep tabs on their position and relay weather information...they had no way of knowing where any other airlines' planes (Or military aircraft) were so they couldn't provide actual air traffic control services.<br />
<br />
One of American Airlines' regional dispatch centers was in Burbank and at just about 1702...5:02PM...Fred Reppert contacted Burbank and advised them that they were over Riverside, California at their assigned cruise altitude of 9,000 feet, and would be over their next reporting point...Indio, California...at 1722. Only thing was, they'd never make it to Indio.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuKE-2JYk-UbKWJCFbGj3csjoXHpnAtFtBg37MCtsRscG8w46vYm8UIO0D6mSX0-OHuSUDeSoR-u64vs4iLCesXULcLrfe7is1oANRQCW-3ag8FFC_KOlycvs2IY86EENy0VimWBzx6_o/s1600/Palm+Springs+Midair+Flight+Paths.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuKE-2JYk-UbKWJCFbGj3csjoXHpnAtFtBg37MCtsRscG8w46vYm8UIO0D6mSX0-OHuSUDeSoR-u64vs4iLCesXULcLrfe7is1oANRQCW-3ag8FFC_KOlycvs2IY86EENy0VimWBzx6_o/s640/Palm+Springs+Midair+Flight+Paths.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">A
Map showing the approximate flight paths pf both aircraft, and the locations
and time line of the events leading to and just after the collision. Click on
the map to see it full size.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">1)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">B-34 BuNo 41-38116 takes off from long Beach Army Airfield (Now
Long Beach International Airport) at 4:26 PM, enroute to Palm Springs. Wilson has
told his copilot, Sgt Leicht, of the plan to meet up with Flight 28, and exchange
wing-wags. They are ten minutes ahead of Flight 28<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">2)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">American Airlines Flight 28 takes off from Lockheed Air Terminal,
in Burbank (Now Bob Hope Airport) at 4:36 PM, heading for Phoenix…10 minutes
after the B-34 departs from Long Beach…and climbs to it’s cruise altitude of
9000 feet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">3)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Wilson, flying at 4000 feet, makes a course change, taking him
north and west of March field, then begins a wide circle between Riverside and
Moreno Valley in order to allow Flight 28 to catch up with them. Wilson tells Sgt Leicht to keep an eye out for
the DC-3. Guestimating here, it’s probably about 4:50 PM or a little after.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">4)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">At 5:02 PM, Flight 28 contacted their Dispatch office/Flight
Service Center in Burbank to report that they were over Riverside, and expected
to report over Indio at 5:22 PM.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">5)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">After two circles and possibly the beginning of a third, Sgt
Leicht spots Flight 28, 5000 feet above them, at about the time that or slightly
after Flight 28 makes their position report, They probably allow the DC-3 to
over-fly them to confirm it's the right plane, then Wilson begins a high
performance climb to catch the DC-3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">6)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Wilson catches up with Flight 28 at about the same time both
planes are entering San Gorgonio Pass, which at the time all aircraft flying in
and out of the L.A. area had to fly through to clear Mt San Jacinto to the
south and Mt San Gorgonio to the north. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">7)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Wilson pulls even with the DC-3, about 1.5 miles to its left and
wags his wings, getting no response. After asking Leicht if he saw any sign of
recognition and getting a ‘No’, he decides to…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">8)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">…pull ahead of the DC-3 , climbing to a slightly higher altitude, cross
over to the other side of the DC-3’s flight path, then throttle back, allowing the
DC-3 to catch up with him. The B-34 is a quarter mile or less to the right of
the DC-3 at this point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">9)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Still getting no sign that Reppert saw them, Wilson decides to
close the distance between the two aircraft, and begins a turn to the left. In
the process he loses sight of the DC-3.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->10)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Having lost situational
awareness and not realizing he’s already slightly to the left of, above and
behind the DC-3, but deciding that he’s probably closer to it than he intended,
Wilson belatedly decides to abandon the rendezvous. He rolls out of his turn,
he and Leicht briefly look for the DC-3, then Wilson trims for his decent to
Palm Springs and begins a descending turn to the right…almost immediately the
B-34’s right propeller strikes and shreds the DC-3’s vertical stabilizer…</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">11)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">... The B-34 is kicked upward and to the left, the DC-3 very
briefly rises about 20 feet, stalls, falls off to the left, and enters a flat
spin. Burbank receives a message ‘<i>Flight
28 from Burbank…CORRECTION…Burbank From Flight 28’ </i>at 5:15 PM. Burbank
tries to contact them with no success, along with the Phoenix and Tucson
dispatch offices. Flight 28 had, at that point, impacted a ridge and caught on fire,
killing all 12 passengers and crew aboard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">12)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Leicht calls in a mayday to Palm Springs Army Airfield while
Wilson briefly fights the slightly damaged bomber. Wilson quickly finds
throttle and trim settings that keep the B-34 under control, and makes a normal
descent and landing at Palm Springs Army Airfield (Now Palm Springs
International Airport).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
The bomber's crew probably spotted the airliner a minute or so either side of their position report, as it overflew Riverside. Even as Reppert was handling the position report, Pedley made a couple of minor course adjustments that would allow them to split the middle down San Gorgonio Pass...the same route that I-10 takes through the San Bernardino mountains today...and fly safely between 10,000 foot Mt San Jacinto and 11,500 foot Mt San Gorgonio.<br />
<br />
Flight 28 was probably cruising at right around 200 MPH and approaching San Gorgonio Pass as Bill Wilson started climbing towards them. They were only ten or fifteen minutes out from Palm Springs Army Airfield at that point, so the prudent and sensible thing for Wilson to have done would have been to say 'I guess I'll have to catch up with Fred next time he's in L.A.', and break off the rendezvous, but then again, if he'd done the prudent and sensible thing, I wouldn't be writing this.<br />
<br />
Wilson, instead, pointed the bomber's bulbous nose skyward, trimmed her up for best rate of climb (About 2200 feet per minute) and let her eat up airspace. He probably started climbing towards the airliner a couple of minutes after Fred Reppert gave their position report, after they had confirmed that it was probably Flight 28, then reached the DC-3's 9000 foot cruise altitude two minutes and change later...just as both planes entered San Gorgonio Pass. The Pass is just under ten miles long, at 200 MPH it would take the two planes right at three minutes to pass through it. It would be a very eventful, hectic, and tragic three minutes.<br />
<br />
Wilson leveled off at 9000 feet, a mile and a half or so to the left of, and slightly behind the DC-3. I have a feeling that both Wilson and his copilot were looking over towards the airliner as Wilson jockeyed the throttles, putting them even with the DC-3. As he'd agreed the evening before, Wilson gently turned the control wheel first to the left, then to the right, then repeated, wagging the wings several degrees up then down. The two of them continued to gaze at the DC-3 as it glittered in the sun...<br />
<br />
"...You think he sees us?" Probably from Wilson. There was likely an insightful pause for a few seconds as Sgt. Leicht, who had a more direct view of the airliner out of his window, gazed at the distant glittering dab of silver.<br />
<br />
"Doesn't look like it..." And Wilson missed a second chance to do something sensible. Instead of throttling back to let the airliner pull away from them, and trimming for their approach to Palm Springs as the DC-3 became a distant and rapidly disappearing silver dot in the sky ahead of them, he probably said something like 'We'll see about <i>that'</i>, shoved the throttles forward and eased back on the control yoke, giving them another couple of dozen yards of altitude as he pulled away from the airliner, banking into a gentle right turn as he did so.<br />
<br />
He was still climbing at a shallow angle as he crossed the airliner's nose, probably a quarter to a half mile ahead of it and very likely far enough above the DC-3 that it's upper windshield frame and cockpit overhead effectively hid the bomber from view. Wilson had a plan in mind to get Reppert's attention, but he'd have to work fast. By now he could probably see Palm Springs in the near distance, ahead and to his right. By all rights he <i>should </i>have been setting up for his descent and approach but instead he leveled off and throttled back to let the airliner overtake him on his left.<br />
<br />
Now it was Wilson's turn to watch the DC-3 ease up next to and slightly below them, still a quarter mile or so to their left. The bomber was now to the right of the DC-3, so if Reppert looked out of his cockpit window, he'd see the bomber, and to be honest, this close to both a very active wartime air base and a commercial airport, he probably <i>should</i> have been scanning the surrounding skies a bit...but I don't think Wilson ever gave him a chance to do so.<br />
<br />
We'll never know if Pedley and Reppert ever actually saw the bomber or not, or if Reppert had informed Pedley of the planned aerial meeting. If he had informed Pedley of the meeting, and if Pedley <i>did</i> see the bomber, it's a good bet that he flat out refused to participate in what was an unforgivably reckless maneuver. It's also all but a sure bet that if Pedley <i>did </i>see the bomber he was saying something to the effect of 'What the hell is this idiot doing <i>now???" </i>as Wilson pulled ahead of them, crossed over, then allowed them to pull even with them.<br />
<br />
It was also at about this point that Wilson decided that he was <i>still</i> too far from the DC-3, so he banked into a gentle left turn, babying the throttles forward a bit as well so the airliner wouldn't get too far ahead of them...<br />
<br />
You know the blind spot all cars have in front of them...the one that actually hides ten or more feet of the road/parking lot/what have you directly in front of you. Now imagine that the hood of your car was ten or fifteen feet long, that your windshield was only about a third as tall as it actually is, and that you were in the air. Just exactly how big would that blind spot be?<br />
<br />
Bill Wilson was about to find the answer to that question as, somewhere during this gentle turn that was meant to bring him closer to the airliner, he realized that he'd lost sight of it, Not only had he lost sight of it, he'd lost all situational awareness...he though he was still to the right of the DC-3 when, in reality, he'd already overflown it and was to the <i>left</i> of it. On top of that, as he turned, the airliner <i>had</i> pulled away from him, but only very slightly.<br />
<br />
What he <i>did</i> know was that he suddenly couldn't see the DC-3 even though he was in a left turn and, as far as he knew heading towards it, which meant he was getting closer to it by the second. When he realized this he immediately rolled out of the turn and looked out of his cockpit window.<br />
<br />
No Airliner.<br />
<br />
He probably asked Leicht if <i>he </i>could see the DC-3, but Leicht couldn't see it either.<br />
<i><br /></i>They couldn't see it because they'd managed to pull one of those 'You couldn't have done that if you'd tried' tricks. As they overflew the DC-3's flight path while it very slowly pulled away from them, then rolled out of their turn, they managed to tuck themselves in close formation with the airliner. They were maybe a hundred or so feet behind, to the left of, and very slightly above the DC-3, and in a perfect position for the entire airliner to be in a huge blind spot that hid it from both Wilson and Leicht. And, as they were flying on a parallel course to the airliner, at a slightly higher speed, they were also very slowly over taking it<br />
<br />
Wilson didn't know this, of course, even though the DC-3 was less than a hundred feet from him...he <i>did</i> know that he had been turning to the left, <i>towards</i> the DC-3 when he lost sight of it, which meant that he probably needed to turn to the <i>right</i>...like <i>now...</i>to put some breathing room between them and it. Ironically, he also decided to abandon the rendezvous. He trimmed for his descent towards Palm Springs, throttled back and banked to the right, into a sweeping turn, he thought, away from the airliner...<br />
<br />
...the problem was, by then he'd caught up with the DC-3 and may have even been slightly overlapping it, which meant he wasn't turning <i>away</i> from it...he was turning <i>into</i> it. As for Pedley and Reppert, they either figured that the bomber crew had decided to call off their little stunt and head for Palm Springs, or never even knew the bomber was there in they first place. <br />
<br />
...As Wilson started his turn to the right he may have even reached for the radio mike to request landing clearance from the tower at Palm Springs Army Airfield, visible ahead of them and to their right, but he never even got to unclip it.<br />
<br />
A sudden double-barreled, clanging '<span style="font-size: large;"><i> PA-PANG!!!'</i></span> rang out to their right even as the bomber was jolted upward and to the left. Sgt Leicht's head jerked around to the right as the impact's clanging resounded through the cockpit, and his eyes went huge as he glanced out of his side window and down...I can almost bet he yelled the classic scatological oath of surprise before he exclaimed 'We hit the airliner!!!' in a tone of shocked, horrified surprise...<br />
<br />
Wilson probably said something like 'Say <i>what</i>?? even as he got real busy for a second or two as the bomber began shuddering and shaking, and trying to roll slightly to the right...then I know <i>both</i> of them probably yelled the aforementioned oath as the DC-3, now minus most of it's vertical stabilizer rose up almost even with their altitude, well less than 100 feet in front of them <br />
<br />
'Our right prop got their rudder...' Leicht may have said to Wilson, who was busily hauling back on the yoke and feeding in power, praying that he still had usable power on his right side as, against every instinct he had, he turned in to what he knew was a damaged engine. The airliner, after rising just enough to make Wilson regain religions he'd never even practiced, shuddered and fell off to the left, it's shredded tail starting a slow rotation around to the right as it entered a flat spin, sun glinting off of the fuselage as it turned..<br />
<br />
"Call Palm Springs...declare an emergency!" Wilson likely told Leicht as he backed the power off on the right engine to a point where the vibration all but stopped. The engine still wasn't sounding overly pleased with them, but least they weren't going to fall out of the sky, Wilson still had a feeling that it wouldn't be a bad idea to get back on the ground, like right <i>then</i>. Next to him, Sgt Leicht had snagged the radio mike...<br />
<br />
While the actual radio traffic has, of course, been lost to history, it may have been something like:<br />
<br />
<i>"Palm Springs Tower, Palm Springs Tower, Army 116, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY!!!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
In the elevated control tower cab at Palm Springs Army Airfield, a controller dived for the desk mike, reaching for notepad and pencil even as he keyed up<br />
<br />
"Go ahead, Army 116.<br />
<br />
"<i>Palm Springs, Army 116 has been involved in a mid-air with an airliner approximately two to three miles northwest of the field...Army 116 is under control with damage to our starboard engine and wing. Requesting an immediate straight in approach...</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
"Army 116, you're cleared for any runway...we'll get the rigs rolling for you..." Even as they scrambled to clear the pattern and get crash trucks rolling, and make notifications you know they looked out of the control tower cab's windows, gazing to the north west to see if they could spot the damaged bomber. I can't help but wonder if the blinking flash of the sun glinting off of Flight 28's polished aluminum skin also caught their eye as it spun.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
* </div>
<br />
Charles Pedley and Fred Reppert were seven minutes from their next checkpoint at Indio, checking time and navigation instruments as well as spotting landmarks , the most prominent of which was a couple of miles off of their right wing tip...10,000 foot high Mt San Jacinto. You can bet that all nine of Flight 28's passengers were likely gazing in awe at the spectacle of the peak's spectacular north face soaring a thousand feet higher than their own altitude. Fred Reppert may have even glanced out at it, despite the fact that he'd flown this same route several times before...even spectacular beauty can become old hat if you see it often enough.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg76XztP3Hf-WRUL-U5bM8p57eMX7Qb_QLDrSqbs1Ugv2VwMV4lZizU6JpbrCfPeDEYi7KggJhLqI8QY4Vokp5z7VpfXBSxjKVVkkRvV4BmvpJYgpkIB2rm9IG6yZhPMJPLOcVYfg8A6E/s1600/106139588_large_d35ba4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg76XztP3Hf-WRUL-U5bM8p57eMX7Qb_QLDrSqbs1Ugv2VwMV4lZizU6JpbrCfPeDEYi7KggJhLqI8QY4Vokp5z7VpfXBSxjKVVkkRvV4BmvpJYgpkIB2rm9IG6yZhPMJPLOcVYfg8A6E/s640/106139588_large_d35ba4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The North Face of Mt San Jacinto...this was the sight that greeted crew and passengers as the transited San Gorgonio Pass, though their view was even more spectacular as they were closer and at an altitude of 9,000 feet.</span></td></tr>
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They never really knew what happened, though if they had seen the bomber, you can bet that Pedley probably yelled something like '<i>That freaking idiot hit us!!!' </i>when a sudden sharp jolt and clanging bang aft was accompanied by the rudder pedals suddenly going mushy beneath his feet. The ship started yawing from sided to side before suddenly rising about 20 feet, dumping most of it's airspeed, then dropping it's left wing and starting a slow rotation around it's nose as it fell straight down on almost an even keel. By the time the nose rotated around so it was pointing back west, they'd already lost at least a couple of hundred feet of altitude, so they probably never saw the bomber, which was above and behind them by then, after it hit them.<br />
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The passengers likely freaked out, but in the cockpit both Pedley and Reppert tried to keep their composure, and probably tried to recover from the spin...they had no idea exactly what had just happened, or how badly they were damaged. One of the two of them grabbed the radio mike and keyed up as they dropped faster and faster.<br />
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<i>"Flight 28 from Burbank...CORRECTION!!..Burbank from Flight 28..."</i><br />
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In the Burbank American Airlines office, one of the radio operators looked at the speaker for an instant...Flight 28 wasn't due for a position report for another five minutes or so, and besides the voice crackling over the speaker sounded strained. He glanced up at a wall clock as he stepped on the foot pedal that keyed his desk mike. 5:15 PM<br />
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"Go ahead, Flight 28..." No answer. " Go<i> ahead</i> Flight 28!" No answer. A cold chill fell over the personnel in the office as the radio operator tried once more. People who have worked for years in aviation can usually sense when something <i>bad</i> had happened, and this had 'BAD' written all over it. He grabbed a phone and notified a supervisor of what had happened as, in the background, both the Phoenix and Tuscon offices also tried to call flight 28, with equally little success.<br />
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The DC-3, still in a flat spin and dropping straight down on an even keel, shed it's entire tail just a second or so before it slammed into a ridge north and east of Mt San Jacinto, about three miles from Palm Springs Army Airfield. Eyewitnesses said it bounced upward twenty or so feet, then slammed back down and erupted into a fireball as it's fuel tanks ruptured, sending a column of black smoke roiling skyward. All nine passengers as well as Pedley, Reppert and stewardess Estelle Reagan were killed instantly as the airliner slammed into the ground.<br />
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At least two people actually saw the collision, a couple more saw the fireball as the plane impacted the ridge, and the Palm Springs Army Airfield tower had gotten report of the crash, so Palm Springs Fire and PD as well as, likely, equipment and personnel from the airfield headed for the source of the black smoke that was staining the pristine fall sky...but it was a lost cause. The crash scene was on a rock-strewn ridge well away from any roads, and it would have been a job getting a<i> jeep</i> anywhere vaguely near the crash scene, much less fire apparatus. Several people...a combination of residents, fire and PD, and soldiers from the airfield...made the trek on foot and managed to get to the scene while the wreck was still burning. According to reports I found, they tried to get to the passengers (So the fuselage may have still been partially intact when some of them got to it) but they couldn't even get <i>near </i>it. It would have been a lost cause anyway...as noted above, the plane's occupants were killed instantly. The DC-3 burned for about 5 hours without any application of water or foam.<br />
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The damaged bomber, meanwhile, made a routine landing and taxied to the hardstand. (Probably with one of the big army deuce and a half based crash trucks of that era following along, siren light mounted on it's left front fender winking at them). Wilson shut down both engines, then he and Leicht climbed down onto the tarmac and, almost inevitably, walked around to the right side of the plane and gazed at the right engine. An oil cooler air scoop was crushed, the rubber de-icer boot inboard of the engine was pulled partially loose and was hanging free, and the right prop was dinged and scratched, with a hunk missing from one blade. One of them may have walked around so he could look at the prop from the side...all of the blades looked like they may have been bent forward a bit as well.<br />
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Wilson sighed, looked at Leicht, and said something like 'I have a feeling that the skipper (The base commander) wants to talk to us.' The two of them trudged to the base commander's office to make the first official report of the incident. They had actually managed to come up with a story, BTW, one which they recounted to P.S.A.A.'s base commander. They had seen the DC-3, but then had flown into the smoke plume from a near-by forest fire and lost sight of it...it was while they were in this smoke plume that they hit the airliner.<br />
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Keep in mind here that the smoke column from a forest fire can be seen for as much as ten miles and often more, and that the airliner's crash scene was only three or so miles from the Army airfield. With that being said, I really hope that the base commander beckoned for them to follow him, walked outside, pointed at the pristine sky over San Gorgonio Pass (Stained by the black smoke column from the burning airliner<i>, </i>which was far darker and smaller than the high, wide wall of buff colored smoke generally generated by a brush or forest fire) and said '<i>What</i> forest fire??'<br />
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Further questioning got the truth out of them, and three investigations began all but simultaneously as the DC-3's crash scene was put under military guard until both the U.S.Army and the C.A.B. investigators could examine it. The damaged bomber was immediately grounded, and very likely moved to a guarded hanger. Wilson was charged with 12 counts of manslaughter, among other charges, and brought before a military court marshal...and that's where things got just a bit strange. As in 'Suddenly Appearing Witness' strange. But I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself here. Let's take a quick look-see at the C.A.B. investigation.<br />
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Investigators from the Civil Aeronautics Board (Or C.A.B., the fore runner to the F.A.A.) were on the scene with-in a day or so of the incident, and they likely split into teams, one team making the climb into the San Bernardino Mountains to the DC-3's crash site, another examining the damaged bomber (At least to the extent that the Army allowed them to.), and another interviewing any eyewitnesses to the collision.<br />
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Here's the thing...the C.A.B. investigators could only find <i>two</i> eyewitnesses who had actually seen the planes collide. One was a house wife who had seen the collision from about three miles away, and another was a telephone company guard, who was also a volunteer plane spotter. The second witness was a bit closer, though his exact distance from the collision wasn't noted in the C.A.B. report, Both, however, told the same story, the phone company guard/plane spotter with a good working knowledge of aircraft and aviation backing his statement.<br />
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They saw the bomber behind, to the left, and close in to the airliner, then saw the bomber turn to the right and clip the airliner's tail. They saw something fall away from the airliner, which then 'wobbled', fell away to the left and started turning slowly, falling almost straight down on an even keel until it disappeared behind obstructions that blocked it from view. A couple of minutes later, they saw the black smoke beginning to rise.<br />
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Adding legitimacy to their version of events, it was essentially <i>exactly</i> what Wilson had told his superiors had happened. To pretty much put a lock on it, investigators found the upper 3/4s of the rudder and vertical stabilizer two miles from the DC-3's main wreckage site. Being comparatively light weight, flat, and aerodynamic in it's own right, it would be no stretch at all for the stabilizer to float, glide, and flutter that far when falling from an altitude of almost two miles. At any rate, the C.A.B. didn't have a difficult time at all coming up with a cause for this one.<br />
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They concluded that the accident was the result of <i>'The Reckless and Irresponsible act of the bomber pilot in maneuvering with-in close proximity of a civilian airliner for the sole purpose of signalling the airliner's co-pilot, and that the captain of the airliner was totally without fault.'</i><br />
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Thing is, the Army wasn't having any of that...they kinda pulled a fast one.<br />
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It's a couple of days into Lt Wilson's Court Marshal and, by his own testimony, he'd not only admitted that he did indeed put the bomber in extremely close proximity to the DC-3, he also told the court <i>why</i> he'd done so. Things were <i>not</i> looking good for Lt Wilson, and it pretty much looked like the prosecution had a lock on it...<br />
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Then the defense calls the <i>third</i> eye witness...<br />
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All of the C.A.B. investigators at the trial probably silently asked 'Wait...<i>what...</i>Where the hell did <i>this</i> guy come from<i>???' </i>as one person. They only knew of <i>two</i> eyewitnesses. But sure 'nuff, there was an Army private, in his dress uniform, being sworn in and told to take the stand...<br />
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Meet Private Roy West, U.S.Army, who apparently made himself available to the Army investigators (Or maybe Bob Wilson's defense team) when he heard they were searching out eye witnesses.<br />
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Private West, in his testimony, stated that he had been batting a tennis ball off of the side of a building at the U.S.C. Campus (I'm thinking he actually meant California State) and was about three miles from the aircraft when he spotted the two planes (If it <i>was </i>Cal State-San Bernardino, it was more like five or six miles) and he took notice of them because they were flying in such close proximity.<br />
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Ok, keep in mind here that he was looking at two airplanes, each about 50 or 60 feet long, from below and as much as six miles distant, and that he was not at all familiar with aviation...he'd flown in an airplane. Twice. As a passenger. From three miles an object that's sixty feet long appears about as long as an adult's fingernail, so this leads me to ask just how much detail someone who <i>was</i> familiar with airplanes could make out from that distance, much less someone who wasn't.<br />
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As he was watching, he continued, the airliner, seeking a lower altitude, dropped it's nose and raised it's tail, colliding with the bomber. And yes, you read that right. He basically said that Captain Pedley flew his aircraft into the bomber, not the other way around.<br />
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OK, let's take a real quick look at the way an airplane maneuvers along that 'Pitch' axis. When you push forward on the stuck, the elevators swing down and this causes the nose to drop and the aircraft to descend. It does <i>not</i>, however, rotate the aircraft around the pitch Axis as if it's on a axle or balanced on a fulcrum...Or to put it in simpler terms, the nose doesn't drop, say, ten feet causing the tail to also rise by ten feet, It just don't work that way.<br />
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We won't go into the fact that, even if it <i>did</i> work that way, it would <i>still</i> mean that Wilson had to be only ten or twelve feet above the airliner's tail in order to get hit in the first place. Unless you are part of an aerobatics team called The Blue Angels or The Thunderbirds, you do <i>not</i> intentionally fly that close to another airplane.<br />
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Trust me on this, as Private West described what he supposedly saw, The C.A.B. investigators were looking at him incredulously. Anyone who knew anything about airplanes was looking at him incredulously. I have a feeling any 8 year old airplane buffs who happened upon a news article about Private West's testimony would have looked at <i>it</i> incredulously.<br />
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The Military court trying Lt Wilson, however found it absolutely believable...so believable, in fact, that they acquitted Wilson of all charges and returned him to his unit. Cue more looks of incredulity (And one look of intense relief from one Lt Bill Wilson.).<br />
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This didn't keep the C.A.B. from burning him a new one in their conclusion at the end of their official report on the crash, but those conclusions didn't have any effect on Lt. Wilson's career. His acquittal basically allowed him the get away with negligently causing the deaths of 12 people without suffering any consequences at all. He was likely transferred to another unit nowhere <i>near</i> California shortly there-after and he dropped from sight shortly after that, and I'm talking no info, other than that related to the mid-air, at <i>all, a</i>nywhere. I couldn't even find out whether he survived the war or not.<br />
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As to how he managed to escape being found guilty and sentenced...we can thank the the mysterious Private Roy West who, were I a cynical individual, I'd say was very likely coached on what to say, possibly even with the promise of some kind of remuneration when the trial was over.<br />
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As to <i>why</i> the Army would do something like this...I can't even begin to figure this one out, though the desire to avoid bad publicity comes immediately to mind. Also, it <i>was</i> war-time, and the desire to avoid the loss of a trained pilot could have well factored into it as well.<br />
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Another possibility could have been the number of complaints that the airlines had made about Army aircraft flying to close to airliners since the war began. There had been several near misses...one so close that the airline pilot's evasive action had actually thrown a couple of passengers from their seats...and this midair was one big '<i>I Told You So', </i>with consequences yet to be seen...unless their pilot ended up being acquitted of all charges.<br />
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Wilson's motivations for pulling such a dangerous stunt are a little easier to figure out. All of these thousands of young men training to be military pilots were highly patriotic, highly motivated, and full of what my grandfather and father both would have termed 'Piss and Vinegar'.<br />
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First, as military pilots, a lot of these guys considered themselves just a little bit more skilled than the average civilian pilot. They wanted action, preferably against aircraft with either black crosses or red 'Rising Suns' painted on their sides. And, as noted above, <i>all</i> of them wanted fighters...that was the glamour job, throwing a P-47, or P-51, or P-38 or Grumman Wildcat or Vought Corsair around the sky, blowing away any enemy aircraft that had the misfortune of getting anywhere near them.<br />
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Of courses not everyone could be in fighters, and not everyone could always be in a war zone. So those pilots occasionally made their <i>own</i> action happen. And when they did, that action occasionally became an accident that often ended up having tragic consequences.<br />
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I think that's exactly what happened to Lt. Wilson...he wanted to make his own action, as innocent as it seemed...to him. He'd been <i>trained</i> to fly this type of aircraft, therefore he knew what he was doing. Just how dangerous could flying a few hundred feet from a larger, slower aircraft that he could fly circles around be, anyway?<br />
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Sadly, he found out, and the answer was <i>not</i> the one he expected. <br />
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In his mind (And the minds of thousands of young pilots) the rules and regulations were merely guidelines that could be modified on the fly in order to get the job done...and yes, that's how a lot of personnel looked at it. In a combat zone, when the formation of bombers a pilot is escorting is suddenly jumped by a couple of dozen Me109s or FW190s, or Mitsubishi Zeros there was actually more than a little truth to that thought.<br />
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Problem was, this wasn't a combat zone...it was Southern California in a very tight traffic corridor, and there wasn't a plane with a black cross or a red circle on it's side with-in several thousand miles. <br />
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Also, Wilson wasn't that experienced with handling the type of aircraft he was flying...he only had 18 hours in the B-34, only half of that in the left seat, so he wasn't fully familiar with how it would react in given situations at given power settings and control surface configurations. And he wasn't entirely familiar with all of it's blind spots.<br />
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I'm not talking about the huge blind spot ahead of and below the aircraft...the only time that <i>might</i> be a legitimate issue is on landing approach in a congested traffic pattern, and only then if another pilot is somewhere he shouldn't be. In normal level flight at cruise altitude, however, no pilot should <i>ever</i> be close enough to another airplane for it to be hidden in that 'Underneath and In Front' blind spot.<br />
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There are other blind spots, however, When Wilson came up on a parallel course with and a mile and a half or more to the left of the DC-3, he was still well with-in regulations, which I believe called for a separation distance of 500 feet. He was also over-taking and passing (Though he possibly throttled back when he 'wing-wagged'). He started living loose with the rules when he crossed over in front of the airliner and throttled back to allow it to over take him, both because of the maneuver itself, and because he couldn't see where it was in relation to his own position, but he lucked out<i> that</i> time as he still had a quarter mile or so separation from the airliner.<br />
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He totally screwed the pooch, though, when he decided that they still weren't close enough. He put the bomber into a left turn, gaining a bit more altitude, and probably pulling ahead of the airliner slightly as he did so (If he'd dropped back, he wouldn't have hit it in the second turn, to the right), then slo-o-o-ly loosing that slight lead as he turned. In the process of making that left turn he lost sight of the DC-3 because it was first slightly behind and below him, then as he turned, to his left and below him, (Probably hidden beneath the wing and engine nacelle) and finally (And absolutely unknown to him) <i>just </i>ahead of him and below him, and to his <i>right</i>. Completely inside that evil 'Ahead And Below' blind spot.<br />
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Wilson didn't even try to keep the airliner in sight as he turned. and, by not keeping it in sight through-out the closing maneuver, which turned into an inadvertent crossing maneuver, he lost any semblance of situational awareness. He had absolutely no idea where the DC-3 was in relation to his own aircraft at any time during that left turn. I mean think about it...when he rolled out of the turn he thought he was still to the <i>right</i> of the airliner instead of slightly to the left...and when he finally tried to do something sensible and turn away from it...to the right...he turned <i>into</i> it.<br />
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But again, if he hadn't approached the airliner so closely in the first place, none of the above would have been a factor. But unfortunately he did, it was, and twelve people died because of it.<br />
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Then the Army let him get by with it. I couldn't find any reports of the reaction to that...and it was a far different era, keep in mind...but I can only imagine that the families of those twelve people weren't real happy about it, not that they had a lot of recourse. From the sounds of things, the Army pretty much wrote their own ending to the story, then swept it under the oft-mentioned rug, and they were likely the only ones happy with the way things turned out.<br />
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The story doesn't quite end yet, though...and it's post script was written by Lockheed B-34 Bureau # 41-38116, the very same bomber involved in the mid-air.. After the investigation was over, the B-34 was quickly repaired and put back in service. (Even as the crew repairing it were likely amazed at the concept of a plane that was involved in a mid-air collision suffering only minor, quickly repairable damage). One thing we don't know, BTW, is if those repairs included installation of a new right engine.<br />
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After it was repaired, 41-38116 was re-designated as an RB-34A-4 target tug, used to tow large cloth banners that were used by fighter jocks for gunnery practice. The bomber didn't serve in that role for long though. It was sent to the East Coast, and on August 5th, 1943...less than a year after the Palm Springs mid-air...it was being ferried from one base to another when it lost an engine near Smithfield, Rhode Island. I don't know if the pilot tried to turn into the dead engine, stalled, and spun in, or if it was loaded to a weight that was too heavy for a single engine to keep it in the air, but what ever the cause the bomber crashed into into Wolf Hill, near Smithfield, killing all three crew members. Oh...from what little I could find out, it was the right engine that failed...the same engine that was damaged in the mid air collision.<br />
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<b><***> Notes, Links, & Stuff <***></b></div>
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Ahhh, the difference something like, say, an C.A.B report makes! While there was very little information available about this one on-line, the C.A.B. report <i>was</i> on-line, and it made a huge difference. Both of the other sources that actually said <i>anything</i> about how the accident happened basically stated that the B-34 clipped the DC-3's tail after flying recklessly close to it without any further details. The C.A.B report, on the other hand, was very detailed and in-depth, both concerning the details of the accident, <i>and</i> the details of Lt Wilson's Courts Marshal. While reading it, I could almost read 'Where the hell did <i>he</i> come from?!?', referring to the mysterious Private West, between the lines.<br />
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Between the unbelievably reckless actions that <i>caused </i>the accident, and the sudden appearance of Private West, this was definitely a one of a kind accident, and the report being available allowed me to write a post that...I hope, at any rate...did it justice.</div>
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This one's been all but forgotten, save for some die-hard aviation buffs and aviation archeologists, but it's still important in the context of history and regulations. Accidents like this, as stupid as they were (Or maybe <i>because</i> they were as stupid as they were) helped develop the rules, regulations, and procedures that make air travel the safest form of modern transportation.</div>
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On to the Notes!</div>
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The flight number wasn't retired after the crash, and in fact is still in use today. Today's Flight 28 is still a coast-to-coast flight originating in L.A. (LAX rather than Burbank now) and ending in New York (JFK), but these days it's a non-stop red-eye, departing from LAX at around 10 PM, and landing at JFK at around 6:00 AM (3:00 AM L.A. Time)</div>
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While there weren't but a couple of mid-airs involving military aircraft and airliners in U.S. airspace during the war years, there were<i> thousands</i> of crashes involving military aircraft. Over 14,000 aircraft were lost in the U.S. between December 1941 and September 1945, resulting in just under 15,000 fatalities to military personnel.<br />
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I can just about bet that the number of young kids being put in the cockpits of high performance aircraft had something to do with a goodly number of these crashes, but the thing is, there is no other way to train combat pilots during a war. They have to be turned loose quickly, and many of them hadn't worked all of that excess 'Piss and Vinegar' out of their systems when they were awarded their wings. This created the same basic effect you get when you give a teenager a high performance car for their 16th birthday. Both the teenager and the young pilot with newly minted wings are going to be sorely tempted to see how far they can push the limits of their new rides.<br />
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The result was a <i>lot</i> of planes augering in before their pilots ever shipped out to a war zone over the course of the three and three quarters years we were involved in the war. <br />
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Air Transport Command...the command that Bill Wilson was attached to...ferried some 270,000 aircraft from point 'A' to point 'B' worldwide over the course of the war, losing only 1,013 in the process. One of these, of course, was B-34 BuNo 41-38116, when she augered in in her second accident.</div>
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<b> </b>If you can find the DC-3's crash site, you'd still find remnants of the plane scattered about, as well as a monument to those who died in the crash (I also posted a link, below, to some pictures of the monument and the remaining wreckage). The plane burned for five hours, so most of it was reduced to melted aluminum slag, and the larger parts of the plane that remained...the tail and wings...were probably melted down on site and removed to be recycled for the war effort.</div>
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Interestingly, all four airfields mentioned in this post are still very active airports. Long Beach Army Airfield is now Long Beach International Airport. Lockheed Air Terminal is now Bob Hope Airport/Hollywood-Burbank airport, March Field is now a California Air National Guard base as well as home to a truly kick-ass aviation museum, and Palm Springs Army Airfield<b> </b>is now Palm Springs International Airport.</div>
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Needless to say, all have been expanded and modernized greatly over the years, and Bob Hope Airport as well as Palm Springs airport have erased all hints of their earlier days as, respectively, one of L.A.'s first major airports and a bustling Army air base. If, however, you go to Google Earth and look at both March Field and Long Beach Airport and look closely you can see definite remnants of their earlier years...especially at March Field, where one entire runway from the past still exists as well as remnants of a second.</div>
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<b><***> Links <***></b><br />
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Not a whole lot available on-line about this one, but I included the best three I found, plus one other interesting general info site..<b> </b></div>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_28">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_28</a> The all but inevitable Wiki page. Includes links to the C.A.B report (First link in References) as well as several period news articles.<b></b></div>
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<a href="http://ghosttownexplorers.org/aircraft/flight28/01.htm">http://ghosttownexplorers.org/aircraft/flight28/01.htm</a> Page from <a href="http://ghosttownexplorers.org/aircraft/flight28/01.htm">Ghost Town Explorers </a>about the crash, includes pics of what remains at the DC-3's crash site today. This is an awesome site in general...just don't start exploring it if you're pressed for time, because it'll eat up a couple of hours without even breaking a sweat!</div>
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<a href="http://smithapplebyhouse.org/prelude/">http://smithapplebyhouse.org/prelude/</a> Another excellent blog post about the accident.</div>
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<a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-were-there-so-many-accidental-air-crashes-by-U-S-planes-in-WWII">https://www.quora.com/Why-were-there-so-many-accidental-air-crashes-by-U-S-planes-in-WWII</a> <br />
An interesting discussion about the high number of military aircraft crashes in the U.S during WW II </div>
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<div id="hzImg" style="background-color: white; border-radius: 4px; border: 4px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4) 0px 1px 3px; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: 5px; line-height: 0px; margin: 4px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 4405px; visibility: visible; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-54669566994539253752016-11-07T09:38:00.002-05:002023-03-28T01:19:55.292-04:00The First Mid-air Collision In The U.S. Involving An Airliner. Ford Trimotor vs Boeing PW-9<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The First Mid-Air Collision Involving An Airliner</b></div>
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<b>San Diego, California</b></div>
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<b>April 21, 1929</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There are </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>no</i></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">fender benders in the air....none. Simply put, if two airplanes try to occupy the exact same hunk of airspace at the exact same instant in time it will </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>not </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">end
well for at least one and most likely both of them. The balance of
forces that provide lift for an airplane is actually pretty delicate, and those forces are kept in balance...and the plane's kept in the air...by the wings, tail
surfaces, and the pilot's skillful and competent manipulation of the control
surfaces there-on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It doesn't take but so much collision-induced damage to knock that delicate balance fatally out of kilter, and </span>any elementary school aged airplane buff can tell you <i>why</i> it's so easy to <span style="font-size: small;">do so without even having to think about it real hard.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> The reason why? An airplane will absolutely <i>not</i> fly without it's wings and/or tail. </span> Damage them beyond a certain not-that-hard-to-reach point...or worse, tear them away completely...and the airplane stops flying and starts falling.<br />
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With that thought in mind, guess which part of at least one of the involved aircraft is going to be the first thing to get hit in a good
99% of mid-air collisions?? Everyone who guessed 'The wings and/or tail' gets a gold star.<br />
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Think about it. The wings, horizontal stabilizers, and vertical stabilizer extend several yards<span style="font-size: small;"> out to the sides and above the fuselage, so it's</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> just about a given</span> that either a wing or one of the tail surfaces will be the first point of impact in a mid-air collision, subjecting them to bending/sheering/crushing forces that absolutely <i>will </i>either<i> </i>damage them beyond function or completely tear them away from the airframe. As I noted above, once <i>that </i>happens the plane absolutely will <i>not</i> stay in the air.</span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">If a plane looses a wing, it's going to go
into either </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">a </span>spin or an unrecoverable 'graveyard' spiral into the missing wing,
and continue that spin or spiral right down to what accident reports call 'Collision
With Terrain'. Loose a horizontal stabilizer? Your damaged
aircraft is going to nose over until it's on it's back, and go
straight in, inverted. Loose a vertical stabilizer? Your
aircraft will most likely become uncontrollable and probably go into
a flat spin, where it stays upright and spins about an axis passing
vertically through the nose of the plane. It'll continue this spin all the way to
the ground. </span>There have also been more than a few cases where a plane that was damaged in a 'midair' spun around two or more axes at the same time as it fell...or, to put in more simply, it tumbled. And again, a violent and usually fiery impact with Terra Firma was the inevitable result.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">If a smaller plane manages to hit...or get hit by...a larger plane, it's a good bet that the smaller plane will just disintegrate, the separate pieces fluttering down like wind blown, possibly burning leaves while the larger plane, usually fatally damaged, augers in. We won't even go into what would happen if
either plane takes a direct hit to the cockpit...suffice it to say if
that rare, but always cataclysmic event should occur, that airplane
has just become, at best, an unguided missile. Needless to say,
<i>none</i> of the above possibilities will end well for the occupants of the
aircraft.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The very first mid-air collision occurred early in the history of flight, on
October 3rd, 1910 at an airshow in Milan, Italy when a French pilot
named Renee Thomas, while flying an </span>Antoinette IV monoplane and<span style="font-size: small;"> performing what today would be called a 'Full performance descent'...a high angle, high speed dive...slammed into the top wing of a Farman biplane flown by British Army Captain Bertram
Dickson, who was climbing at the moment of collision.</span> The two planes became entangled as the Antoinette IV literally slammed the Farman into the ground from low altitude, injuring both
pilots, Dickson badly enough that he never flew again. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhknAoSDVKma6P2MjU_sPltQm4f5RMsmLveNU1902sb0VUs6bwfRkEPWTpF23z8NfpwP0IcMQqFXzB5FKSJ26kUG_8QPaFP2YFNCxCDN8OV1mawe_kutdlRiHerF9JCN9Bl5OumYTYMeL8/s1600/First+Midair+crash+scene.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhknAoSDVKma6P2MjU_sPltQm4f5RMsmLveNU1902sb0VUs6bwfRkEPWTpF23z8NfpwP0IcMQqFXzB5FKSJ26kUG_8QPaFP2YFNCxCDN8OV1mawe_kutdlRiHerF9JCN9Bl5OumYTYMeL8/s640/First+Midair+crash+scene.jpg" width="464" /></a></td></tr>
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A newspaper report of the first ever mid-air collision, during an airshow, in Milan, Italy on October 3rd, 1910. Inset is an artists rendition of the instant of impact. If the position the planes ended up in is any indication, the artist pretty much nailed it. When Thomas' Antoinette Monoplane rammed Dickson's Farman from above and behind, it apparently shoved it right into the ground...the two airplanes ended up almost inextricably entangled. Dickson's Farman Biplane is completely crushed beneath the Antoinette...the square object visible just about mid-frame with the numeral '18' printed on it was the Farman's tail.</span></div>
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The first fatal mid-air occurred just shy of two years
later, on June 19th 1912, when Capt. Marcel Dubois and Lt. Albert Peignan of the French Army were killed near Douai when their planes collided in mid-air. Try as I might, I could find no other details of the accident, but it was very likely at another air show or demonstration, or, just as likely as war clouds gathered in Europe, during flight training. That early in the ballgame, it just about had to have taken place at a gathering of early aviators. There just wasn't anywhere near enough random air traffic in 1912 for two planes to have collided over the country side, because cross country flights just hadn't become quite that common or routine...yet.<br />
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I have a feeling, though, that as war clouds gathered, hostilities ramped up,
and hundreds of pilots were trained en masse to fly these
new-fangled, fragile, <i>still </i>very experimental, and more than
a little dangerous flying machines, more mid-airs occurred. There were definitely a few during early dogfights, both between opposing aircraft and aircraft on the same side. But, whether during training, military flight operations or air combat, these early mid-airs all involved single pilot military aircraft, or possibly as World War-I progressed and
multi-engined bombers were developed, aircraft with 3-5 man crews. So far, when two planes collided in mid-air and with the notable exception of Renee' Thomas, civilians and non-pilots had
been spared.</div>
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That record would, sadly, soon change. By the time the war ended aircraft had became dozens of times more reliable, there were some legitimately big planes flying, and business-types were taking a look at these new, more sophisticated, and larger airplanes with dollar signs in their eyes almost before the ink on the Armistice agreement had dried.<br />
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The first scheduled airlines were founded in Europe immediately after the war ended, almost a decade before air travel really caught on in the US, and the general public...those in Europe, anyway... quickly discovered that air
travel was far faster and more direct than any other form of
transportation. And, as the European skies <i>did </i>become more crowded, it also became more probable that one...or maybe even <i>two...</i>of these primitive airliners would be involved in a mid-air
collision. </div>
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And that's exactly what happened near Picardie, France on April 7th 1922, when a twelve passenger Farman F.60 Goliath
(Derived from the design for a planned heavy bomber to become the world's first true airliner) collided with an eight passenger DeHaviland
DH-18 mail plane at just under 500 feet in heavy fog. Both pilots
were navigating using the tried, true, and, during aviation's formative years, oft-utilized 'Iron Compass' (Following the railroad), both pilots following the same rail line with their
eyes cast downward, peering through the fog at the tracks. They were both also,
unfortunately, at the same altitude and flying directly towards each other. From what a couple of eyewitnesses told investigators,
the pilots apparently spotted each other at the last instant, and at
least one and possibly both of the planes started banking into a turn
to avoid, but it was far too late for either pilot to take any effective
evasive action. They collided all but head on, destroying both
planes', I believe, left wings. All five aboard the Goliath were
killed as well as both crewmen aboard the DH.18,
which was carrying only mail and no passengers, when both planes spun
in.<br />
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The two types of aircraft involved in
the very first midair collision involving airliners, over the
small town of Picardie, France on April 7th, 1922. The Farman F60
Goliath (Top drawing) and DeHavilland DH.18 (Bottom photo). At just
shy of 50 feet long, with a 97 foot wingspan, the 12-14
passenger Goliath was a legitimately huge airplane for it's day.
Don't let the front windscreen fool you though...that was part of the
passenger cabin. The pilot and mechanic shared an open cockpit,
visible directly forward of the wing strut, and directly above the
engine. I have a feeling it was a bit drafty in the cabin as
well...the pilots accessed the open cockpit from inside the plane,
and the cockpit was open to the cabin with no separating door.
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The DH.18 was a smaller, single engine
airplane. It was ten feet shorter with a wingspan twenty-five feet
shorter than the Goliath's, and could only carry eight passengers.
It's pilot, like the Goliath's crew, made do with an open cockpit
while the passengers enjoyed an enclosed cabin.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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So far, though, we'd been spared from major air crashes
on our side of 'The Pond', if for no other reason than the fact that
Europe had out-paced us by leaps and bounds in the development of air
travel, scheduled airline service and, unfortunately, air disasters.
That was about to change, however. And three events occurring over a
span of six years would ultimately come together to change it.</div>
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The first event of the three occurred in 1923, when Boeing developed a small, fast, nimble
little fighter based on the legendary Fokker D-VII that served the
German Air Force so well in World War I. How, you ask, did Boeing get their hands on an example of what many believe to have been WW-1's 'best all round fighter'? Easy...as part
of the Armistice agreement, the victors got to pick and choose just
what bits and pieces of German technology they'd like to take home
with them to study at their leisure. The U.S. took possession of 117
of the nimble little German fighters, flight-testing them
relentlessly and Boeing wasted no time in using the D-VII as a
pattern for the U.S. Army Air Corps.<br />
newest fighter.<br />
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They came up with the Model 15, which the Army Air
Corps designated the PW-9...a nimble little open cockpit biplane with wood framed, fabric covered high lift wings, of unequal span (The lower wings were shorter, with a smaller chord, than the upper wings), and a steel tube framed, fabric covered fuselage. Like pretty much every airplane from that era it was a tail-dragger with fixed landing gear...a tail skid rather than a tail wheel at that.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boeing PW-9...the 'Hot Fighter' of the late 1920s</td></tr>
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The PW-9 was powered by a water cooled 435 HP
Curtis 'D' V-12 engine, and was armed with a pair of 30 cal. machine
guns. It could also carry a single 450 lb bomb if called upon to do
so...but it's pilots really <i>hated</i> having to do so,
because that spoiled the fun of flying the nimble little fighter. It was, for that era, <i>fast</i>, boasting a top speed of just under 160 MPH, but most importantly, it was an <i>extremely</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">nimble
airplane. Pilots could pretty much throw it all over the sky at will,
and took every opportunity to do so...they absolutely </span><i>loved</i>
<span style="font-style: normal;">stunting it, and loved showing off
just what it could do. Keep that last little factoid in mind.</span><br />
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The second of our two converging events occurred in 1925 when Henry
Ford, along with his son Edsel, purchased the Stout Metal Aircraft
Company along with it's designs. At about the same time this
happened, Henry Ford bought a Fokker Tri-Motor for his son Edsel...a
gift to him for coming in first in the Ford Reliability Tour. Edsel promptly named the Fokker for his daughter Josephine, then lent
it to Admiral Richard Bird to use for his Antarctic Expedition.<br />
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After Admiral Bird returned from his expedition and
returned the plane to Edsel, Edsel based it at Ford Airfield, which
was also the home of the Stout Metal Airplane company. And
speaking of Stout...their designs were <i>not</i> working out well.
Henry Ford did not like failure...if he was going to build airplanes, he intended them to be <i>successful</i> airplanes! So he looked at the Fokker, which was one of the premier early
American airliners, rubbed his chin meaningfully, said 'What if we
built something like that, except all metal...' And several months after that insightful chin-rub...and after a few more events that I cover in a bit more detail in 'Notes'...the first example of America's first
all metal, multi-engined airliner, the legitimately legendary Ford
4-AT/5-AT Tri-Motor, lifted off of Ford Airfield's runway on it's first flight.</div>
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Ford Tri-Motor...the State OF The Art
of American airliners in the mid to late 1920s and early '30s. All
metal, with a heated, enclosed cabin and cockpit, and even available
with an on-board toilet...an option that most airlines that purchased the plane went with, much to the very literal relief of their passengers. The Tri-Motor could carry 12-14
passengers at a cruise speed of 110 MPH. Of course it had a few
weaknesses, one of which was the fact that it's control cables were
on the outside of the aircraft, therefore susceptible to damage..
Look below the cockpit, and you can see the bell cranks and cables.
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This particular example was completely
and immaculately restored by the Experimental Aircraft Association,
and wears the colors of Eastern Air Transport, the predecessor to
Eastern Air Lines, and tours the country going to airshows to show
what air travel was like eighty-plus years ago. Rides are given (For
a fee) and from what I've heard it's an awesome experience, so if you ever get the chance, go for it!</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kZf-g4CamEQ" width="560"></iframe>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">...And if you <i>don't</i> get to fly on the EAA's restored Ford Tri-Motor, you can at least watch this video, shot by a passenger. You can see how cramped the passenger cabin actually was here, as well as the way the cockpit was situated s couple of steps above the cabin. The EAA's Tri-Motor has been modernized a bit, with a more modern starting and electrical system and modern radios, but the engines are original Pratt and Whitney <i>Wasps, </i>and the sound and flight experience are both authentic. Take note of the business jet holding at the end of the active runway for the Tri-Motor finish to it's approach and touch down...how often do you think a modern pilot gets to hear 'LEAR 12X, Hold at the turnout for inbound traffic, a Ford Tri-Motor'?!</span> <br />
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Ford ended up selling 199 Ford Tri-Motors in two models before
it was outclassed by more modern aircraft in the early '30s.
The 2nd model...the 5-AT...was also the most numerous, with 116 built. The Ford Tri-Motor was just over 50
feet long with a wingspan of 77' 10”, an empty weight of 7840 lbs,
and a useful load of around two tons. It's most distinctive feature was it's corrugated aluminum skin, often
kept in it's natural color. While the corrugated skin contributed drag and reduced the airliners performance, it also, when coupled with the plane's steel tube frame, gave it outstanding
ruggedness and strength. The 5-AT was powered by a trio of 450 HP Pratt
and Whitney <i>Wasp </i><span style="font-style: normal;">9 cylinder
radial engines, which gave it a top speed, with all three throttles
fire walled, of about 130 MPH, and a cruise speed of 110MPH. It could carry
12-14 passengers and a crew of 3 (Pilot, Co-pilot, and Flight
Attendant) with a range at cruise speed of a shade over 500 miles. It
had a service ceiling of 18,500 feet, but seldom flew much higher
than 6000-9000 feet in passenger service.</span></div>
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The Ford Tri-Motor is easily the best
known airliner of the 1920s and early '30s, so it's not surprising
that it amassed a few airline industry 'Firsts'. Sadly a couple of
them...like the one I'm posting about here...were tragic.</div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">The last of our
trilogy of related events happened in 1927, when a L.A. based
Ford/Lincoln dealership owner named Jack Maddux decided he also
wanted to start an airline...being a Ford dealer it was a no-brainer
what species of airplane the new airline would fly. The airline's
first revenue generating flight was on September 22</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup>
<span style="font-style: normal;">1927, from San Diego to L.A., with
12 passengers aboard. This was apparently a daily round trip, and it
was apparently full or close to it on most of it's flights, because
1400 passengers made the trip before 1927 became 1928. A flight from
L.A to San Diego or vice-versa cost you eight bucks, a round trip ticket
would set you back fifteen dollars.</span><br />
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A Maddux Airlines Ford Trimotor in flight. Maddux would ultimately operate 14 of them...the largest fleet of Trimotors operated by any airline. They flew 40,000 passengers in 1929. Keep in mind that the Ford Tri-Motor was a 12-14 passenger airliner, so that adds up to around 3300 flights.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1l2u1luaIJUzcujmWtcE0L_0qhQnQ50b41ZTysvzji08ZNmkH6HGcO3hrhRlDqiiuJJrIlViMQmHf8VjoY4-jxZbaEl9pt7lZvgwuoTxT9R6O4F6Xk8ztjxww98PDU8d2X-S4QTV6Ozk/s1600/Maddux+Pamphlet.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1l2u1luaIJUzcujmWtcE0L_0qhQnQ50b41ZTysvzji08ZNmkH6HGcO3hrhRlDqiiuJJrIlViMQmHf8VjoY4-jxZbaEl9pt7lZvgwuoTxT9R6O4F6Xk8ztjxww98PDU8d2X-S4QTV6Ozk/s640/Maddux+Pamphlet.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Maddux Airlines schedule, route map, and fare schedule from the late 1920s. Maddux Airlines had several routes in California and Arizona, providing service to San Francisco and Oakland as well as San Diego. They also offered the very first regularly scheduled international US airline flights (Between San Diego and Agua Caliete, Mexico), and handled the western end of the first transcontinental air service (Actually a combination of air and train) in a joint venture with Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T). Less than a year after the midair collision, T-A-T bought Maddux,. T-A-T would ultimately merge with a former rival, Transcontinental and Western Airlines. This airline would change it's name years later, but keep the same initials...TWA. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
<br />
Jack
Maddux, being sharp and very astute, quickly figured what routes
would be the most popular, put his fleet of big, reliable Tri-Motors
to work, and saw to it that the flights were on time, the service good, the aircraft well maintained, comfortable, and clean.
Maddux Airlines quickly gained a sterling reputation among those SoCal residents with
the means and need to fly from point 'A' to point 'B'. As the next
year and a half went by, Maddux bought more Ford Tri-Motors, ending
up with 14 of the legendary airliners, and put them in service on several new routes. One of these new routes was from San Diego to Phoenix, with a
stop at Imperial, California, in California's Imperial Valley.</div>
<div align="LEFT">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
These three events would all
intersect violently on April 21, 1929.</div>
<div align="LEFT">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
Sunday, April 21st, 1929 along the California Coast was said to have been a beautiful day for flying, and prominent Baja California lawyer Arturo Guajardo, his 19
year old daughter Amelia, and a 21 year old newspaper reporter from Phoenix named Cecelia Kelly all three planned to take advantage of it. All three of them needed to fly from San Diego to either Imperial Valley or Phoenix, so sometime about mid-morning on that warm early Spring day they made their way to Lindbergh
Field...San Diego's almost brand new airfield, located just about exactly where
San Diego International is today, hard by the waters of San Diego
Bay. They were welcomed aboard the big Maddux Airlines Ford Tri-Motor
by Captain (Called 'First Pilot back in the day) Maurice Humphry and
copilot Louis Pratt.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKSul4WYz34zDQkVZzWWiXFCEB3WMawysJxRJDR7oAWPpBJbzPrY1qHX4-RKrZ28BPhx3DSYNWHg0PlG1w7a3mnEmx6JzcYiuVUiKQwbK3IVl2HmvHkG_dRMurxbGL3EQ59GsvRhJNxjQ/s1600/Ford+Trimotor+Interior+3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKSul4WYz34zDQkVZzWWiXFCEB3WMawysJxRJDR7oAWPpBJbzPrY1qHX4-RKrZ28BPhx3DSYNWHg0PlG1w7a3mnEmx6JzcYiuVUiKQwbK3IVl2HmvHkG_dRMurxbGL3EQ59GsvRhJNxjQ/s640/Ford+Trimotor+Interior+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Think aisle widths are narrow in today's airliners? Take a look at <i>this.</i> This is the interior of a Maddux Ford Trimotor...and yes, they are <i>indeed </i>wicker seats, which were pretty much standard passenger seating for airliners until the newer planes such as the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2/DC-3 started going in service in the early '30s. The vents in the floor you can see in the left hand pic...the one looking forward, towards the front of the cabin...are heat vents. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As young women who have to spend a
couple of hours together have done for ages, Amelia and Cecelia
(Probably Amy and CiCi to family, friends, and, with-in minutes of
meeting, each other) bonded even as they boarded. They likely grabbed
seats across the Tri-Motor's narrow center aisle from each other as
Amelia's dad resigned himself to being sort of ignored, conversions
between young women being just as indecipherable to fathers eighty-six
years ago as they are to fathers today. This would be Amelia's first time...ever...flying, so she was probably all but shivering with excitement, while Cecelia...a veteran of a couple of flights due to having to travel for work...was probably extolling the virtues of air travel (Or maybe cautioning her new friend about some of the pitfalls of air travel). It's almost a sure bet that Amelia noticed the diamond glittering from CiCi's left hand, and that CiCi gushed about her upcoming wedding, which was only a month away. And it's an equally good bet that Amelia took note of the two pilots, who, especially in her teenage eyes, looked
particularly dashing in their sharp Maddox Airlines uniforms. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Our two dashing (In a
pair of young girl's eyes) young pilots loaded their passengers'
luggage (Airline pilots literally did </span><i>everything</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">back
in that era.) and finished pre-flighting the big Ford as the girls
settled into discussion of wedding plans and dashing pilots and whatever else young women talked about in the
Spring of '29, while Arturo likely settled down with a newspaper or
book. Humphry and Pratt closed and latched the main entrance door, on
the aft right side of the fuselage, and squeezed down the narrow
center aisle, probably getting a delighted little twitter-giggle from
the girls as they said something like 'Ladies...hope you enjoy the
flight'. Humphry or Pratt likely looked at Arturo, and said something
to the effect of 'You, too, sir...we should be off the ground on a
couple of minutes...'</span></div>
<div align="LEFT">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
This particular Ford
Tri-Motor...one of the new 5-ATs, with CAA registration number
'NC-9636' painted on the vertical stabilizer and the underside of the
left wing...was almost brand new. Maddux Airlines had taken delivery
of it in early December of 1928 and it's first revenue generating
flight had been just in time for the Christmas rush that slammed the
transportation industry just as hard almost 90 years ago as it does
today. She was only five months old, her black and natural aluminum
color scheme shining in the late morning sun as pilots Humphry and
Pratt climbed the couple of steps from the passenger cabin to the
cockpit and took their seats, Humphry on the left and Pratt on the
right. They may have kept the door that separated the flight deck
(Referred to by airline crews as 'The Front Office' since the days of
the Fokker and Ford Tri-Motors) from the passenger cabin open,
allowing the three passengers to watch as they flipped magneto
switches on, set throttles and mixture, and, one by one, engaged the
electric inertia starters that the Maddux aircraft were very likely
equipped with.</div>
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<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
Arturo and Cecilia very possibility, and Amelia all but definitely, got a little excitement-buzz as the
inertia starters' flywheels spun up, filling the cabin with a
piercing, high-pitched whine for several seconds until the big Pratt
and Whitneys coughed to life with a cloud of blue smoke and a
staccato roar. Humphry and Pratt checked engine gauges (Mounted outside and behind them on
the engine mount struts for the left and right engines), waited for
the oil temps to ease up into the green, then Humphey released the brakes
and eased the throttles forward and the big 'Tin Goose' as the Fords
were affectionately called, started rolling towards the active end of
the runway.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
*</div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
There's been a naval air station on North Island, in the middle of San Diego Bay and a couple of miles
South of Lindbergh Field for just about as long as Lindbergh Field itself has been in existence. Today North Island Naval Station is huge, the home port for several carriers as well as home to North Island N.A.S., and is exclusively a Navy billet. Back in 1929, however, the Army Air Corps shared the field, which was known as Rockwell Field at the time, with the Navy. One of the resident Army Squadrons was the 95th pursuit squadron, and on that long ago Sunday morning, one of the 95th's pilots...a young lieutenant by the name of Howard Keefer...climbed into
the cockpit of PW-9 Serial Number 28-37 and started going through the
pre-start checklist, setting up for what was very likely a training
flight.<br />
<br />
There was a muted 'clank' as one of his ground crewmen
inserted a long crank into a key-way on the left rear of the
PW-9's engine cowling, mating it to the fighter's manually spun
inertia starter. Keefer flipped the twin magneto switches to 'on',
then called ' 'Switch on!' to the ground crewman on the starter
crank, who then spun the crank furiously. The inertia starter's whine pierced the late morning air as seagulls banked and circled over the field,
scolding this rude interruption of their peaceful morning's feeding. The whine
wound up the scale to a wail and stayed there until Keefer engaged the inertia
starter's gears at just the right second, kicking the big V-12 over with a series of loud 'POP's as each cylinder fired, the
big two bladed prop jerking around a couple of times, then spinning
into a disk of blurred invisibility as the big engine roared to life. The ground crewman pulled the crank from the keyway, stepped down and backed away as Keefer checked his gauges just as Humphry had done a couple of miles to the north. At his signal, his ground crew yanked
the chocks clear, then he released his own brakes, eased the throttle around it's quadrant, rolled across the
airfield and turned into the wind.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
*</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Across San Diego Bay, at Lindbergh Field, Humphry swung the big Tin
Goose around into the wind at the active end of San Diego's single
runway, and he and Pratt went through their pre-take-off checklist,
checking control surfaces, running the engines up, doing mag
checks, etc, then looked around and upward for any other traffic. Given that the very first airport to
employ air traffic control of any kind at all did so later this same year
(It was St Louis, BTW, and consisted of a guy in the middle of the field with a folding chair, and a pair of flags...one red and one green) the two pilots simply
checked visually for traffic, especially and, as it would turn out,
more than a little ironically, to their south, where North Island's
Army Air Field was located. When they
were absolutely <i>sure</i> there was no conflicting traffic, Humphry released the
brakes, and shoved all three throttles to the firewall.</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
All conversation in the
cabin ceased as all three big Pratt and Whitney Wasps...the two
mounted beneath the wings just a few feet to the side of them...wound
up to that distinctive radial engine roar and the Tri-Motor started
rolling forward. Arturio likely put his paper down, made a very
probably unheard but still fatherly comment to his daughter, and
watched out of his window as the plane started bumping across the
field. Amelia likely gave her dad, then Cecelia, that little 'I'm
kinda scared but I'm really excited, too' grimace-smile that young
girls use in new and exciting situations, and all three watched as
the sod moved faster and faster beneath them.</div>
<div align="LEFT">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT">
The cabin's back-slanted
floor leveled off as the plane's tail rose, while the field's bumps
evened out, became gentler, then disappeared altogether as the ground
started dropping away. Humphry and Pratt trimmed the Tri-Motor for
best rate of climb and, if they did indeed depart to the West as I have a feeling both planes did, banked
the big Tri-Motor gracefully to the right...once again to stay clear of
North Island's traffic pattern...to bring them around on a course
towards Imperial Valley. If Humphry, sitting in the left seat glanced
towards North Island before he started the turn, he may have actually seen Keefer's PW-9
climbing out, and may have even said (Or more likely, yelled over the engine roar) something to the effect of
'Let's give the Army some room here...' But he and Pratt may
have been feeling a little trepidation, too...see, those Army pilots
had a problem.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
*</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
At, I have a feeling, very
close to the same time that Maurice Humphry pushed his three
throttles forward, Harold Keefer was shoving the PW-9's throttle
around it's quadrant, located on the cockpit's left sidewall, and
doing a little footwork on the rudder bar to keep the little fighter
pointed down the runway as it gathered speed and finally lifted
off. When it did lift off, Keefer likely pointed it's nose skyward
and let 'er eat. Fighter pilots have been, well, fighter pilots ever
since that particular job title was created. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
They fly the hottest
aircraft in the sky, and today's F-16 and F-18 drivers will tell you that their mounts are<i> not </i>intended to be
flown like a 'Freakin' Cessna 152'. On top of that,
fighter pilots are forever training and keeping current, and
building their hours in type (The type of aircraft they're assigned
to fly). And they are <i>always </i>practicing their craft, whether
it's a purpose designed exercise, or playing around a bit while in
transit from one air base to another,..<br />
<br />
...And it was probably much
the same in 1929. The
top speed of Howard Keefer's PW-9 was only 40 knots or so faster than a
F-16's landing speed, and Keefer could only dream of having the
capabilities and technology that today's fighter jocks take for granted,
but the PW-9 was <i>still</i> the 'Hot Fighter' back in 1929, and Keefer <i>still</i> would have told you that it was <i>not</i> meant to be flown
like a 'Freakin' JN-4 'Jenny'.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
<br />
Keefer probably kept the throttle fire-walled as he
climbed out sharply, wind whipping around the open cockpit as the
bass-roar of twelve cylinders assailed his ear drums. His head was on
a swivel as he, too, watched for other traffic, both to avoid and to use as
an...er...training tool. It was as he looked around to his right that
he probably spotted sunlight glinting off of aluminum as the Maddux Tri-Motor climbed out of Lindbergh Field,
departing to the west, then banking as it turned away from him in a
long, wide 180 that would head it East...and there we have the
problem. The Army pursuit pilots just couldn't resist playing games with the airliners flying out of Lindbergh Field.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
*</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
Pilots flying out of
Lindbergh Field had been griping about the Army pilots buzzing them
and stunting too close to the airliners for months. When cautioned about it, the
Army pilots in question probably stated that they were 'keeping their
skills in engaging enemy aircraft current'...never mind the fact that
the big Tri-Motors weren't even vaguely a match for them. Once those
big old Ford Tri-Motors were trimmed for cruise, they had about the same inherent stability as a brick church, which gave setting up for a
simulated attack on one of them just about the same level of
difficulty as sitting in your backyard and setting up to shoot the
side of your garage.</div>
<div align="LEFT">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
Passengers really loved the
'Tin Goose' because of this very same rock-solid stability. If you discounted the noise from those three big radials, it was actually a pretty
pleasant ride as long as the flight was fairly short, the weather was calm, no one got airsick, and not too many people made use of the chemical toilet in the rear of the cabin (Think airborne porta-potty). Flying was still very much considered an adventure in 1929, and watching the scenery roll by several thousand feet
below was still new and exciting. Passengers probably also <i>loved</i>
the sight of the nimble little PW-9's pirouetting around the sky only
a hundred or so yards away from them, giving them their own personal airshow.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
But the Maddux pilots, on
the other hand, were really beginning to <i>hate </i>the army pilots.
That same inherent stability that made the Tri-Motors such
comfortable aircraft for their passengers also made them just about
as nimble as 'A '48 Kenworth log truck', as the pilot of a restored Tri-Motor noted in one modern
video. He also noted that the
Tri-motor would do anything you asked of it...when it was good and
ready.<br />
<br />
The unboosted manual control
surfaces made for some <i>seriously</i> heavy control forces, and any
control input was answered with a slow, plodding grace. The plane was
<i>not </i>designed to be tossed all over the sky...it was designed
to get from Point 'A' to Point 'B' safely and comfortably, and it did
just exactly that. Pilots had to pretty much plan any maneuvers a bit
in advance, which made any evasive action, should something
suddenly appear in their path, a lost ball game before the first
pitch was thrown out. Thus the reason that the Maddux Airline pilots
flying in and out of San Diego <i>hated</i> the Army pilots. Taking quick, decisive evasive action to avoid
getting hit by one of the fighters, should it's pilot screw up, was
pretty much an impossibility.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
*</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
The PW-9's very reason for
being, however, was to be thrown around the sky, and that's exactly
what Keefer did as as soon as he spotted the Tri-motor. Keefer
probably kept the throttle fire-walled, winding that big V-12 out to
a roar as he kicked in right rudder and aileron, banking the little
fighter almost vertically as he both turned inside the airliner and
gained ground on it as if it was suspended motionless in the air.
They were probably just about over Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo
as he leveled off and throttled back to fall in a couple of
hundred yards behind and probably a bit to the right of the
Tri-Motor, which was just coming out of it's own turn and
beginning it's climb to cruise altitude. Keefer centered the
airliner in his gun sight (Likely also checking to see that the arming
switch was in the 'SAFE'
position). Then he sighed in bored frustration...there wasn't even any sport in it. As I noted above, it
was like setting up to shoot the wall of your garage from your own back
yard. Time to play now...<br />
<br />
He first eased up beside the airliner, and eased in close, letting the passengers get a good look at the fighter (And maybe even getting a wave from at least Amelia) while drawing the ire of Humphry and Pratt...<i>if</i> they saw him. With the Tri-Motor's three big Pratt and Whitney radials pounding away in their ears and drowning out the fighter's engine, it's not at all improbable that they never even knew he was there, especially if he stayed back a bit. Whether they saw him or not, it's a no brainer that they had no clue what was coming next. Keefer throttled back a bit, letting the Tri-Motor gain a little bit of a lead, then pulled back on the stick and shoved the throttle around the quadrant.</div>
<div align="LEFT">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
Neither Keefer or the
passengers and crew of the Maddox airliner had more then a few
minutes to live as they approached Manzanita Canyon, which was about two and a
half miles west of Balboa Park, and between four and five miles west
of Lindbergh Field. I think I
know what Keefer was <i>trying </i>to do as he palmed the PW-9's
throttle round it's quadrant and pulled the stick back, aiming the
fighters nose skyward. He <i>wanted </i>get ahead and above the airliner, then make a tight,
descending left turn well ahead of the airliner and shoot beneath it. It
was probably a maneuver that the pilots on North Island had performed
more than a few times, but I think this time Keefer made three very
basic mistakes...the first one being unplanned maneuvering within
rock-throwing distance of an aircraft whose pilot wasn't
aware of his intentions, or even, very possibly, of his existence.</div>
<div align="LEFT">
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjboB5W7V9mpMWEwCHszH6mIyiOqLGLUK9J5JTKJKa6fCP8nCd9RMXaaqbRSnWFDAiaYVr8vNJrutXEdPskbDfsjGUftTsWiexHddrhqLgaTbTVjTe1Q_Baz0zN6CAEK7k20sNa8FKFU6E/s1600/San+Diego.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjboB5W7V9mpMWEwCHszH6mIyiOqLGLUK9J5JTKJKa6fCP8nCd9RMXaaqbRSnWFDAiaYVr8vNJrutXEdPskbDfsjGUftTsWiexHddrhqLgaTbTVjTe1Q_Baz0zN6CAEK7k20sNa8FKFU6E/s640/San+Diego.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A modern map of San Diego (Thank you Google Earth) with the probable flight paths of both the Maddux Airlines airliner and the Army fighter shown. Both Lindbergh Field (San Diego International) and North Island Naval Air Station (Now Halsey Field) were pretty much where they are today, except for being much smaller back in 1929. If the incident went down the way I think it did, Keefer took off at about the same time as the airliner, spotted it, and decided to show off for the passengers, possibly after setting up a simulated interception and attack. I think he got so carried away with choreographing the stunt that he forgot to check to see how close he was to the Tri-Motor before executing a sharp left turn.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbmZ1PscqNitHNk3kdMTEuxkAkMdqjk248zAjQCMsHpIQp-uHoyCQv_wj7Fwa-uRLYVk2cxnJIS3sEr8RvoZf_G87XdeYvD-Ax4B646SSARJCVji9-VaY53fjnx19LjInDaVx3WrxnItI/s1600/Manzanita+Canyon+3D+View.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbmZ1PscqNitHNk3kdMTEuxkAkMdqjk248zAjQCMsHpIQp-uHoyCQv_wj7Fwa-uRLYVk2cxnJIS3sEr8RvoZf_G87XdeYvD-Ax4B646SSARJCVji9-VaY53fjnx19LjInDaVx3WrxnItI/s640/Manzanita+Canyon+3D+View.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">A closer view of the east end of
Manzanita Canyon today, with the possible areas where both the
Tri-Motor and the PW-9 crashed after the collision indicated. Keep in
mind as you look at this that it's a good bet that none of the
streets east of 39th street and possibly south of Quince Street
likely existed in 1929 with the possible exception of a short dead
end piece of Quince Street...I know the plane crashed near Quince and
39th thanks to a period newspaper article. I'm leaning towards
the northern most portion of the area enclosed by the red line for
the Tri-Motor's crash site... on the rim of the small side
canyon...due to the fact that houses are visible in pictures taken
from the right side of the wrecked plane.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">As for the PW-9, and the center engine
and remains of the cockpit of the Tri-Motor, it could have been
pretty much anywhere with-in or close to the area enclosed by the
blue line...the fighter went just about straight in after the
collision, the Tri-Motor may have made it another quarter mile, out
of sheer momentum, before angering in inverted, and the remains of
it's cockpit, and definitely the center engine, would have dropped
straight down once they separated from, the aircraft. The PW-9
apparently all but disintegrated when it hit the Tri-Motor, as it was
noted that 'A large blanket could have almost covered the debris from
it's crash'. Sadly, enough was left to snag Lt Keefer's parachute
when he tried to bail out.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Tragic as the crash was, it could have
been even worse had the collision occurred just a few hundred yards
further north and west. Then the planes would have crashed in the
middle of Lexington Park, probably hitting a house, and if that had
happened all that spilled gasoline would have inevitably found an
ignition source. This is of course exactly what happened, on a much
larger and even more tragic scale just shy of fifty years later,
under a mile west in North Park, when a PSA Boeing 727 collided with
a Cessna 172 and crashed in the middle of a crowded residential
neighborhood.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The second mistake Keefer
made as he shot skyward was loosing sight of the Tri-Motor, thinking he was <i>way</i> further ahead of it than he was, then not looking to see exactly where it was before he hauled the PW-9
around in a tight left turn. He was either counting seconds or maybe just guesstimating how far above and ahead of the airliner he was, but <i>definitely </i>didn't look over, back, and down to see exactly how far ahead and above it he <i>actually</i> was. This was compounded by his <i>third</i>
mistake...I think he forgot that the airliner was still on climb-out,
which would have made it even <i>closer</i> to him as he started to
turn. Instead of being well below him, it was actually climbing with and
<i>towards</i> him. And, while the Tri-Motor may
not have been <i>fast</i>, it'd climb like a homesick angel, with a rate
of climb of about 950 feet per minute. Which means that if it took, say, fifteen
seconds to set up the maneuver, when Keefer kicked the PW-9 into that tight left turn in front of the Tri-motor it would have been 240 or so feet closer
to him than he planned.<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal;">
Keefer climbed fast, and
he thought, far enough ahead and above the airliner to give the passengers a thrill (And the pilots heart attacks) but still safely pass below them as he came at them wide open and almost head on. With the wind whistling past
him and the big V-12 roaring just ahead of him, he shoved the stick forward, kicked in hard left rudder,
and racked the little fighter over on it's left wing, banking her
into a sharp, descending left turn. G forces shoved him down into his
seat and now his head <i>was</i> swiveling...the PW-9's cockpit was
behind the top wing, which was actually fairly close to the fuselage,
so he had pretty decent vision ahead, and excellent vision above him,
and I'm thinking he was expecting to see the Tri-motor well below him and a couple of hundred yards, at least, to his left (Actually 'above' him because of the near-90 degree bank) .</div>
<br />
Instead, Keefer was already deeply into the turn when the sky to his left ('Above' him) was suddenly filled from horizon to horizon with Ford Trimotor, blossoming bigger by the instant even as he pulled the stick back <i>hard</i> against it's stop and slammed it to the right, trying desperately to reverse both the dive and turn and, maybe, go over the airliner and in that very same heart stopping, bowel loosening instant he realized that he'd
screwed the pooch <i>big</i>-time, and most importantly, that, because of the energy and
inertia he'd built up as he arced around to the left, there was absolutely no way he was going
to be able to reverse the turn <i>or</i> the dive in
time..<br />
<br />
Ford Tri-Motors had windows in the
cockpit ceiling, but Humphry and Pratt had no reason, in their
mind, to look above them while climbing out. If they <i>had </i>seen the PW-9 a few seconds earlier, they had done a quick scan of the surrounding sky, and, not seeing it, assumed that it had apparently disappeared to harass someone else, becoming a non-problem. If they <i>hadn't </i>seen it, as far as they knew they were, basically,
the only thing in the sky. They were taken completely and utterly by surprise when the Tri-Motor's windshield suddenly turned yellow as the fighter's top wing filled it from side to side, and barely had time to shout a curse before the airliner's nose slammed hard into the wing, and their world shattered...<br />
<br />
...Keefer spent a terrifying second trying desperately to level off and maybe go over the airliner but it wasn't even close...the Trimotor slammed into the PW-9's top left wing with a crackling 'crump!', center prop eating into the top wing like a buzz saw for a micro-second, as the top wing slammed down onto the bottom wing, ripping both left wings away even as the impact flipped the fighter over and twisted it around violently to the left. As the fighter flipped and twisted, <i>it's</i> prop tore into the Tri-Motor's nose, then cockpit, first ripping the center engine away, then killing both Humphry and Pratt instantly as it tore most of the cockpit away before the nose of the fighter slammed into the Tri-Motor's left wing between the fuselage and the left engine, sending the crumpled fighter tumbling up and over the left wing. The shattered fighter then probably took out the airliner's left horizontal stabilizer and damaged the vertical stabilizer before hurtling towards the ground, rolling and twisting as it went.<br />
<br />
The Tri-Motor's three passengers had absolutely no warning before they were first pitched forward into a sudden cacophony of crashing, tearing banging horror-of-noise accompanied by a hurricane-class in-rush of wind, then thrown bodily onto the cabin ceiling as the airliner nosed over violently and, nose down at about a 45 degree angle, went straight in from about 2000 feet. All they could do was hang on for dear life, and stare out of the wreckage filled hole where the cockpit had been only seconds earlier, watching the ground rush up to smite them...<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT">
<div style="font-style: normal;">
Humphry and Pratt probably had only an instant of terror before they died as the PW-9's prop sliced through the cockpit like a possessed buzz-saw, beheading Humphry as it killed both of them instantly. The two pilots' bodies were tossed from the airliner as it flipped over to fall alongside the doomed Tri-Motor</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
We'll never know if Keefer was thrown from his shattered fighter or if he actually jumped, but when he did come out of the cockpit he was conscious and alert enough to, in a desperate, last second play for survival, pull the rip-cord for his parachute. Sadly, he made one more final...and fatal...error. He yanked the ripcord far <i>far</i> too soon. The 'chute billowed, the canopy trailing and never even having a chance to start to fill before it snagged on either the stub of one of the PW-9's wings or its tail, jerking Keefer around like the end man on a violent game of snap-the-whip. Then the shattered fighter corkscrewed as it hurtled to the ground, dragging it's pilot to his doom as it went. It would slam into the ground first, probably shattering itself against the sloped canyon walls as it crashed deep inside the canyon. The one thing it didn't do was burn...had it done so in the brush filled canyon, it would have all but inevitably touched off an even bigger disaster in the form of a major brush fire.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA-lTeqqN8qWjMQBM6kX1eeypikrw5989dCUIILGLZNQqjxDJ9vXD9hqTx_qHkUcmKU5K8XX6QcDkIx7wtTH4686c2X6QQ5aeaISbM_VbgIb00OGV3IjcxTzutPCubHGEtVXodIx9C2Qs/s1600/PW-9+crash.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA-lTeqqN8qWjMQBM6kX1eeypikrw5989dCUIILGLZNQqjxDJ9vXD9hqTx_qHkUcmKU5K8XX6QcDkIx7wtTH4686c2X6QQ5aeaISbM_VbgIb00OGV3IjcxTzutPCubHGEtVXodIx9C2Qs/s640/PW-9+crash.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="LEFT"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
The wreckage of Keefer's PW-9 after it slammed into the
floor of the canyon. Note the star in a circle that was the national
insignia at the time, just to the left of mid-frame. That's probably
the remains of a wing, as most PW-9a only had the star painted on the
wing, while the squadron insignia was painted on the side of the
fuselage. If you look to the right of mid-frame you can see the
fighter's damaged propeller. The PW-9 apparently impacted at the
bottom of the brush-filled canyon, only sheer luck kept it from
lighting off and instigating an even bigger disaster in the form of a
major brush fire.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Again note the number of spectators and how close they
are to the wreck. That just absolutely would <i>not</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
happen today!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
The Tri-Motor probably seemed to take forever to fall as it plummeted, inverted, earthward. It slammed into the the ground near the north rim of the canyon's west end with a heavy, metallic thud, forward end first followed a micro-instant later by the tail, raising a huge cloud of dust as it did so, while the crushed center engine and shredded remains of the nose and cockpit slammed into the floor of the canyon between the downed airliner and the crashed fighter.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
*</div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
San Diego, like it's neighbor 100 miles of so to the North, L.A, was already well into a car culture by 1929, with both new commercial districts and new subdivisions, connected to downtown San Diego by good roads and wide streets, popping up well east of the ocean and bay. One of these fairly new subdivisions was Lexington Park, sitting hard by the north rim of a narrow, half mile or so long slash in the So-Cal landscape called Manzanita Canyon. It was a shade after noon, and the residents of Lexington Park were getting home from church, or doing yard work, or whatever else could be done on a warm, bright, early spring Southern California Sunday eighty-seven years ago, and I have a feeling that the majority of those who were outside looked up almost involuntarily as the Tri-motor rumbled over 2000 feet or so above them. They also realized that there were <i>two</i> planes up there, but this wasn't <i>that</i> unusual either...in fact the residents of San Diego were probably used to seeing both the Maddux Tri-motors and the Army Air Corps fighters. The kids especially probably enjoyed the impromptu airshows that the Army pilots put on for them. So they weren't all that surprised at first when the fighter darted ahead of the airliner, then pirouetted into a hard left turn, standing up on it's left wing as it did so. Then they suddenly, with identical gasps of horror, realized that the fighter was <i>far</i> too close to the airliner when it banked into that hard left turn...</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
All of them heard that cataclysmic, crunching 'CRUMP!!!' from on high, some of them actually saw the Tri-Motor hit the fighter, pointing upward and gasping or yelling, or screaming, or maybe just standing mute with shock as the fighter came apart like a fragile toy kicked by an angry child, watching as the once sleek, graceful little plane suddenly became a tumbling, spinning falling object even as the airliner pitched over on it's back and started dropping like the oft-referenced rock.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
Others. intent on whatever activity they were in the middle of, didn't look up until they heard that horrible 'CRUMP!!!' above them, and probably looked up just in time to see the Tri-motor flip over and start it's death-dive as objects...the center engine, the remains of the nose and cockpit, the PW-9's wings...fell away from the shattered planes to land in the canyon itself. Then they realized, with renewed and even more intense horror, what two of the falling objects were.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNsYFtLBj9WIjVEuy8qGDKQJOXhCO8a-cHACZANosK0STKptXKUtcufwbD_Yx43I2NHdFIzd9X-dYh-QM545MyZn8aQgF032B76_CyWgIpI1aZHITr-Upk7aAFWWO0kMPEhpvUnZ_H2wA/s1600/8126387882_2a1e7b3e66_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNsYFtLBj9WIjVEuy8qGDKQJOXhCO8a-cHACZANosK0STKptXKUtcufwbD_Yx43I2NHdFIzd9X-dYh-QM545MyZn8aQgF032B76_CyWgIpI1aZHITr-Upk7aAFWWO0kMPEhpvUnZ_H2wA/s640/8126387882_2a1e7b3e66_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
An overall view of the Tri-Motor's
crash scene. You can see here how close the airliner came to either
crashing in the canyon, or tumbling into the canyon after it hit the
ground. Note the number of people around the crashed aircraft and how
close they are. There was a huge problem with citizens grabbing
pieces of the plane as a souvenir until SDPD and the Army set up a
perimeter, but the wild thing is, this pic was taken <i>after</i> the
perimeter was established. Look just to the left of the tip of the wing and you can see the rope that was used to mark the
perimeter..</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
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</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkMrN3IWJDd3IYydryHGjW0oaGiV6YtwhT8UAkWd4EZ-sauwQ6MQM4AeA0EIDeqd9rBLGzYfb0xWR1MHavcLB31WKYTwREo2jpz0gkJsBFEDqmY0PgZ4QkSuP9LAjf02UYrM7EYStdiro/s1600/8126388518_c565756a22_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkMrN3IWJDd3IYydryHGjW0oaGiV6YtwhT8UAkWd4EZ-sauwQ6MQM4AeA0EIDeqd9rBLGzYfb0xWR1MHavcLB31WKYTwREo2jpz0gkJsBFEDqmY0PgZ4QkSuP9LAjf02UYrM7EYStdiro/s640/8126388518_c565756a22_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Another over-all view from directly behind the crashed airliner, probably taken from the other side of the narrow canyon. Again note how close the crowd was allowed to get...parents even brought their kids along. You wouldn't get with-in a mile of a similar incident today. This picture and the one above it was taken well into the incident, with the investigation well under way. Note that the right the right horizontal stabilizer is still attached to the plane, but that the left stabilizer...the one taken out by the PW-9, along with at least part of the vertical stabilizer, as it tumbled after the collision...is missing.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
Hundreds of people descended on the west end of Manzanita Canyon, where they found the Trimotor in one piece but mangled, upside down, and missing everything from the leading edge of the wings forward. It had missed tumbling to the bottom of the shallow canyon by a matter of yards...it's tail was, in fact, overhanging the rim.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
They very likely fully expected to see a column of smoke as they approached the crash scene, but like the PW-9, the Trimotor didn't burn after it crashed, and the fact that it hit inverted is very likely what saved it and it's three passengers from that fate. The right and left engines were suspended beneath the wings, which housed the fuel tanks. Of course, when she flipped over, the engines were then above the fuel tanks. The PW-9 probably damaged at least one of the tanks as it tumbled over the left wing and fuselage, and a good bit of fuel would have leaked out via those ripped seams as the Tri-Motor fell, anything left in the tanks after it hit the ground probably flowed out from under the crushed wings and down into the canyon...away from the still hot engines and exhaust.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
While several dozen people probably called the twin plane crashes in on the Police and Fire emergency numbers, a slew of others ran to the nearest street boxes and pulled them, and <i>all</i> of the phone calls lit up the switchboard at SDFD's nearly new alarm office at Marsten's Point at the same moment that multiple boxes started tapping in on the tape. When the phone calls started coming in reporting the crash at the same time that multiple boxes started tapping in from the same area, the alarm office dispatchers added two and two in about two instants and quickly called the ring-down lines at the assigned stations, telling the station captains '(Name)., we've got report of <i style="font-style: normal;">two</i> planes down in Manzanita Canyon...' and gave the phone-reported locations, even as other dispatchers transmitted the boxes. The dispatchers on the ring-downs could probably hear the bells starting to bang out the box numbers in the background...</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
With-in a couple of minutes of that first phone call and first box being pulled, SDFD Engine 17's crew abandoned Sunday lunch and slid the poles from the second floor of the trim two story fire station at University and 41st streets, seconds later the big Seagrave pumper that 17's was all but inevitably running at the time was pulling out of the station and swinging to the right on University, siren beginning to wail...it'd have about a five minute run...University to Central Avenue, then four blocks south to Thorn, a right on Thorn, then a left on 39th street, then a straight shot south to Quince Street and probably a left on Quince, to the dead end, maneuvering the rig as close as they could get to the crashed airliner. From what a couple of contemporary news reports said, they still had to go a hundred yards or so...and this includes hand-jacking hose...on foot.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
San Diego P.D. was likely the first to arrive, but even they were beaten to the scene by the horde of resident that descended on the crash. Engine 17's siren was probably already drawing close as these first arriving citizens ran up on a scene that was blurred by dust still hanging in the air and still reeking of spilled gasoline. The two remaining engines, tilted but still securely mounted on the wing pylons, were probably ticking as they cooled, and the landing gear...tires and wheels bizarrely intact...thrust skyward like the legs of a slain medieval dragon. A couple of the men headed for the front of the over-turned airliner, where the cockpit <i>should </i>have been only to find a gaping maw clogged with bent structural members and shredded bits of the corrugated aluminum skin, and no signs of the two pilots. They <i>did</i> however, think they heard faint moaning from inside the wrecked plane. <br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-style: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB2KtrOzPDDWoIouSd7rbfGG_aHu_2hqo0a3oIN3BSpymSmKZo-lpaGGf6TcsBMz0mLd1LTZEOAN1io4lIfvwnAiHWMI1dkezs3IJcrWf2ydrR7w_mtwgwjIFGsBrmcAqF0-iFHYdCBtE/s1600/8091607246_908650826d_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB2KtrOzPDDWoIouSd7rbfGG_aHu_2hqo0a3oIN3BSpymSmKZo-lpaGGf6TcsBMz0mLd1LTZEOAN1io4lIfvwnAiHWMI1dkezs3IJcrWf2ydrR7w_mtwgwjIFGsBrmcAqF0-iFHYdCBtE/s640/8091607246_908650826d_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
A pic of the wrecked Tri-Motor from the right side as the investigation progressed. Note that the cabin door's
open...one of the first things that SDFD and SDPD did upon arriving
on scene was force that door open, enter the cabin, and remove the
two girls, both of whom were still alive...barely. Both girls were
transported, but Cecilia Kelly died at he hospital, and Amelia
Guajardo died enroute to the hospital. Mr Guajardo, as well as the two pilots, sadly, died on scene.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
It actually looks like the three guys
at the door may be either taking a short break here or discussing
some aspect of the crash. A conversation is obviously in progress,
and one of them is even sitting in the door opening.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
What looks like it <i>could</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
be part of the vertical stabilizer is sitting on the ground mid
frame. Also note that you can read the entire name 'MADDUX' on the
side of the fuselage in this pic...now take a look at the next
picture. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span> </span></div>
</td></tr>
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<div style="font-style: normal;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinsYWQBuPoSJrPCtI_CQA2ZvHuCug1j3rAogxZdqRYkzVZ5HvoCiCjq0zb2AiNg7fzszH289jBA2EreEBre33WgKKsTbnzJ0B3IdYST8uDRQnmhmocg9_SCvJdf4bPcvs7EiC4Q1ZRV5I/s1600/8126387780_09cb9d2032_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinsYWQBuPoSJrPCtI_CQA2ZvHuCug1j3rAogxZdqRYkzVZ5HvoCiCjq0zb2AiNg7fzszH289jBA2EreEBre33WgKKsTbnzJ0B3IdYST8uDRQnmhmocg9_SCvJdf4bPcvs7EiC4Q1ZRV5I/s640/8126387780_09cb9d2032_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Another pic of the wrecked Tri-Motor from about the same angle as the pic above, taken even later in in the incident...note that in this shot, the right horizontal stabilizer has been folded up
against the fuselage, hiding the 'M' and 'A' in 'MADDUX', while in the pic above...and, in fact, in all of the first three pics...it's in it's more or
less normal position. My thought is that the stabilizer was actually folded against the fuselage in preparation of moving the wrecked plane from the area.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPaAszuG6S-Lva7pDNFttpY_nqVZUbsjJa8hIWEdxe7mK8kxRLHu20m4Ic6gF8igkEtEveGGf9qTKdOUHHhx60HnpolyE0Vbx5XUiOcZLXMhI-iXJUYBYr97YFv5I02MEXODhSQAzhf8/s1600/8126361735_7abb425e84_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPaAszuG6S-Lva7pDNFttpY_nqVZUbsjJa8hIWEdxe7mK8kxRLHu20m4Ic6gF8igkEtEveGGf9qTKdOUHHhx60HnpolyE0Vbx5XUiOcZLXMhI-iXJUYBYr97YFv5I02MEXODhSQAzhf8/s640/8126361735_7abb425e84_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A group of investigators examines the area where the cockpit and forward fuselage <i>used</i> to be. The gentleman in the white shirt appears in several pics, along with the gentleman wearing the beret kneeling next to him...they are standing at the door in the pic above. The guy kneeling to the right of our beret-wearer appears to be either an SDPD officer or an Army officer...it definitely looks like he's wearing a uniform.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Now one of a couple of things could have happened about this time...either a couple of the citizens made their way to the cabin entrance door, within a dozen yards of the canyon rim, or the first arriving police officers quickly moved everyone back from the gasoline-soaked scene and entered the passenger cabin themselves, or Engine 17's crew (Followed in short order by most of the rest of the first alarm assignment) made their way from the rig to the crashed plane, carrying forcible entry tools and likely stretching a hand line and made entry as the cops pushed the crowd back (And to be honest, I'm going with option #3)</div>
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Fire fighting and emergency response was gaining a bit of sophistication, especially in large cities, by the late 20s, and while aircraft crash response was still a new discipline, flammable liquid fires were <i>not. </i>If 17 carried foam, the rig's MPO (Motor Pump Operator) was hustling to get the foam hopper set up as well as setting up a water supply, If 17 <i>didn't </i>carry foam, the Battalion Chief quickly mentally reviewed the companies responding on the box to see if any of the engine companies had foam powder and a hopper...if none did he sent his aid to the nearest street box to use the telegraph key it was equipped with to have the alarm office special call the closest rig with foam.<br />
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Meanwhile the rest of the crew, and probably the crew of the first due truck company as well, opened the cabin door, probably having to use a pry-bar and a judicial application of elbow grease, and entered the cabin (Very likely hoping like hell that the line was charged by then, because it sure as <i>hell</i> smelled like the inside of a gas tank!) and found most of the seats torn loose, and the three passengers tangled in fallen seats and the overhead baggage racks.</div>
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Arturo was obviously deceased when they got to him, but moans and labored breathing were coming from beneath a tangled pile of fallen seats, and the fire fighters wasted no time in moving them aside to find both of the girls still alive. They gently removed them from the cabin, even as more sirens wailed the approach of more fire rigs and ambulances, but by the time they got the girls out of the wrecked plane and carried them away from the potential gasoline bomb the scene had become, Amelia Guajardo had stopped breathing. Cecelia Kelly, however, was breathing raggedly and moaning (Unknown if she was conscious or not). stretchers was called for, and both girls were carried to one of the waiting ambulances, and transported to the hospital, but Amelia would be declared dead on arrival, and her new friend Ceclia would die with-in the next couple of hours, probably without regaining consciousness.</div>
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Meanwhile, someone yelled from a half a football field away that they'd 'Found another one!'...cops and firefighters rushed to the location to find the body of one of the pilots.... A search for the other pilot was probably quickly organized, and likely with-in a few minutes, the second body was found, at about the same distance to the other side of the crashed Tri-Motor. Neither had survived the collision, and both had been thrown clear either as the fighter's prop had shredded the cockpit or as the airliner nosed over on it's back...both bodies were probably found tangled in the brush on the slope below the rim of the canyon.</div>
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The first alarm assignment was probably split...either by the dispatchers using the ring-down lines to dispatch specific units to each crash, or by the battalion chief as they rolled in on the scene of the Tri-Motor crash...and the crew of at least one engine, and probably a truck company made their way down to the shattered fighter, where they found no fire, but a gruesome scene, with Keefer's body still entangled in his parachute shrouds, the canopy wrapped around either the stub of a wing or the tail. Dozens of spectators surrounded the wrecked fighter and the body of it's pilot. Most likely the Army wanted the body in place until they could take pictures and start the investigation. The horde of curious citizens was pushed back...somewhat. The body was covered to hide it from the prying eyes of both Press and citizens, and SDPD set up a perimeter and guarded the wreck until soldiers from North Island arrived, and the investigation got under way.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK2Vel-YJqpvlhg9tILq6ufSZjDTyOigBAauJu_fy4Qs1kFc6r6XhZcxsE0lU55yeRcsUERCuB07tlakxB0eilFx5Imy_-93xsCxi9jiXrimm598hjRcTewgLAneQF0MG3YLPIzlnrKlQ/s640/8091607832_3dae6405f6_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An SDPD Officer (Probably the same one in the shot above) examines the remains of the forward portion of the Tri-Motor's traumatically truncated fuselage. The PW-9's prop chewed into the forward part of the airliner, ripping away everything from just forward of the cockpit's rear bulkhead forward. If you look closely, it looks like the remains of a couple of seats in the lower left of the pic, next to the bent piece of corrugated aluminum skin and perforated structural member...click on the pic to get the full sized image so you can see it better. That was likely the co-pilot's seat. and it looks like the remains of a second seat above and to it's right. Also, it doesn't appear as if the right engine was producing any power when the plane hit the ground...the visible propeller blade isn't bent, but the other blade either broke or buried itself in the ground as the airliner hit.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span></td><td class="tr-caption">\</td><td class="tr-caption"></td></tr>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Once they took care of any hazards and made sure that the two injured girls were transported to the hospital, SDFD was pretty much in the stand-by mode. They may have left a single engine company (Probably 17...first in's always last out) because of the gasoline that had soaked into the ground, but the balance of the assignment cleared the scene, and headed back to quarters with-in a couple of hours of the call if not sooner. Meanwhile, the cops roped off the perimeter, and, very likely with the help of soldiers from North island, moved the crowd back (But nowhere near as far back as they'd be today), and the investigation of the accident went into high gear. The bodies likely stayed in place just long enough for pictures to be taken, then were removed to a local funeral home that acted as a temporary morgue. Of course, as both a military </span><i>and</i> a civilian plane were involved in the accident, there were probably <i>two</i> parallel investigations going on, and depending on how well the civilian and military authorities got along, this could have made it cumbersome as hell, smooth as silk, or anything in between. However smooth or awkward the investigation was, we know that a dozen or more investigative types spent the rest of the day and probably part of the evening climbing all over and in both of the shattered aircraft, shooting roll after roll of photos of each, taking measurements, and interviewing dozens of witnesses to the collision and crash.</div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Interviews with eyewitnesses! </span><i style="font-style: normal;">That'll</i> get to the bottom of it! Yeeaaaah....not so much. Here's the thing about eyewitnesses to <i><span style="font-style: normal;">any</span>thing</i><span style="font-style: normal;">...just because they saw something doesn't mean they remembered it accurately. There were discrepancies as to just where the fighter first struck the Tri-Motor, how long the airliner continued to fly before it flipped over on it's back and plummeted to the ground, and just what maneuvers it performed <i style="font-style: normal;">before</i> it nosed over...according to some witnesses the Tri-Motor performed an airshow all it's own on the way down, which the aviation experts among the investigators pretty much <i style="font-style: normal;">knew</i> couldn't have happened. The PW-9 took out the Tri-Motor's cockpit<i> and</i> fatally damaged it's tail as it tumbled over the wing. </span>According to one eyewitness (And this report made it into a news article) one of the injured pilots almost got the Tri-Motor back under control, which one look at the wrecked plane would tell anyone with a tiny bit of knowledge about aviation wasn't true. There was no way that the airliner stayed in the air more than a second or so (And the location of the remains of the cockpit and the center engine pretty much proved that) but there was one thing that <span style="font-style: normal;">every</span> witness agreed on...the pilot of the fighter was stunting <span style="font-style: normal;">far </span>too close to the airliner.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif1cb52LncXco-wOGFDctltZK_2WjBNjRTrmakbZxVAE0Zdmsckwi2R1yuSUnd-rzSuKSvQ_zFuzyoqmdKGpCJ2_uUl7jDbFzW8i6R_g7YFch818SZIYvUjC_M9FKBay-KPnTyk538oMc/s1600/8126387538_fdd691c30d_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif1cb52LncXco-wOGFDctltZK_2WjBNjRTrmakbZxVAE0Zdmsckwi2R1yuSUnd-rzSuKSvQ_zFuzyoqmdKGpCJ2_uUl7jDbFzW8i6R_g7YFch818SZIYvUjC_M9FKBay-KPnTyk538oMc/s640/8126387538_fdd691c30d_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
A view of the forward left side of the wrecked Tri-Motor. You can really see how badly the PW-9's propeller damaged the forward portion of the airliner in this shot as well as the next one. The cockpit and nose of a Ford Tri-Motor normally extends about 11 feet or so beyond the wing's leading edge. The right engine was apparently either still producing power when they hit the ground or, more likely, it nicked part of the PW-9 as it tumbled over the airliner after the collision. Note the way the tips of the prop are bent opposite the direction of rotation.Also note the massive damage to the wing, at least some of which may have been caused by the collision with the fighter as it tumbled over the left wing on the way to taking out the left horizontal stabilizer. Most of the damage was probably caused by ground impact, though, as you'll see in the third pic in this set of three.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span> </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jQE9Gl0DDHqu_pu7uhlTlB8_nI_Dnqlqo4FOOsD-PCX0vL5MWmOq7eEeQvWyCwBGsEdWE4EvX-nThy58eLQRnPouW2Z7o-3SFvJ1GpoMw1cJU6rWLtslkKCM6WI_WQwAh1Gv8ZCsrHU/s1600/8126388124_ee8d452449_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jQE9Gl0DDHqu_pu7uhlTlB8_nI_Dnqlqo4FOOsD-PCX0vL5MWmOq7eEeQvWyCwBGsEdWE4EvX-nThy58eLQRnPouW2Z7o-3SFvJ1GpoMw1cJU6rWLtslkKCM6WI_WQwAh1Gv8ZCsrHU/s640/8126388124_ee8d452449_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This pic is probably the best illustration of just how badly the PW-9's prop devastated the Tri-Motor's nose and cockpit...there is almost nothing left forward of the wing leading edge.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span> </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGeejVMWXcE7SyjuW6y3Qo45ShTs0lONo_Yp13LF6-bzwhYtZkiT6Nu96hQTaZIBwkUyzNL0yQJY9kXKX3LVKWWfMDKMPoEhktqEXXNxGH_rWnl7KUbLdc70Y3xTXDHmj85mocVnqcs58/s1600/8596501454_1f94242262_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGeejVMWXcE7SyjuW6y3Qo45ShTs0lONo_Yp13LF6-bzwhYtZkiT6Nu96hQTaZIBwkUyzNL0yQJY9kXKX3LVKWWfMDKMPoEhktqEXXNxGH_rWnl7KUbLdc70Y3xTXDHmj85mocVnqcs58/s640/8596501454_1f94242262_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">From behind the left wing root. I can't decide if the Tri-Motor hit slightly left-wing-low, digging a shallow crater as it did so, or if there just happened to be a small rise right where the wing root impacted the ground, but I'm leaning toward hitting wing low. Either way, this pic illustrates how most of the massive damage to the wing root was caused by ground impact. The impact also split the fuselage just aft of the cabin...there is, I believe, a bulkhead right there, separating the lavatory from the cabin.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span> </td></tr>
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But with all the inaccuracies that our eyewitnesses spouted, one thing <i>all</i> of them said in one way or the other was right on the money...the fighter flew into the airliner while performing aerobatics ('Stunting').</div>
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A coroners jury was convened the very next day, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it didn't take them long at all to agree on the cause of the accident...all of the blame was heaped on Howard Keefer for 'Stunting and otherwise violating air traffic rules.' The official announcement of the cause was made by a gentleman named J.Alison Moore, chairman of the 'San Diego Board Of Air Control'...a regulatory organization that's long gone and, I can only assume, was folded into the domain of the C.A.B/F.A.A. decades ago.</div>
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The wrecked airliner was removed within a day or so, as was the wreckage of the PW-9, theoretically leaving no remnants of the planes to remind residents of the day death visited Manzanita Canyon.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm9JB8IR-_OvVAAtYix28g4JczCE2mtL1V7F78ye5sF5jx4xbaW_6XWclC_T6I_Ktsi_PR_1G0j4DHP3X5SfJKkTOBf1JpN1n0o-h4E-ZgIT8qx2I82wRuPnkHNtexydvqV467WyHJu7U/s1600/8126388614_f953decf83_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm9JB8IR-_OvVAAtYix28g4JczCE2mtL1V7F78ye5sF5jx4xbaW_6XWclC_T6I_Ktsi_PR_1G0j4DHP3X5SfJKkTOBf1JpN1n0o-h4E-ZgIT8qx2I82wRuPnkHNtexydvqV467WyHJu7U/s640/8126388614_f953decf83_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A wrecker crew works on removing the wrecked Tri-motor from the rim of Manzanita Canyon. Note that they've removed the landing gear in preparation of moving the wreckage. Also, note the houses visible in the background.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span> </td></tr>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">I have a feeling, though, that small bits and pieces of both planes remained in the canyon for decades (And a few small to tiny remnants may remain to this day, especially of the PW-9 and the Tri-Motor's cockpit, considering the fact that both crashed in the canyon itself). Whether or not any small bits and pieces of the planes remain in the canyon, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the current residents of a couple of the near-90-year old homes in the area occasionally gaze at the hunk of corroded corrugated aluminum or maybe a control cable bell crank tucked back in a dark corner of their garage or attic, scratch their head, and wonder 'What the heck<i> is</i> that???' </span><br />
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<span style="font-style: normal;">While it would be nice to think that rescuing the Tri-Motor's unfortunate passengers was the main thought on the collective minds of the area residents who fell upon the crash scene before the dust even settled, it wasn't. When the first San Diego P.D. officers arrived on scene, these residents were treating the crashed air liner like a garage sale, helping themselves to various airplane parts, and hundreds of bits and pieces of the Tri-Motor left with residents. So it's a good bit that a few of those bits and pieces may still be up in the attic of one of the 1920s era homes that were all but brand new when the big Ford slammed into the rim of Manzanita Canyon nearly 90 years ago.</span><br />
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<span style="font-style: normal;"> And that, gang, is where the trail goes cold.</span> Over the passing decades this one's kinda dropped off the radar. This is actually pretty understandable when you think about it. Eighty-seven years have passed since Harold Keefer banked into a hard left turn far too close to that Ford Tri-Motor. As the family members of the victims aged and passed on, and the residents of the area who witnessed the crash and snagged souvenirs and pressed against the police line to get a glimpse of the smashed Tri-Motor aged and died, and the fire-fighters, cops, and members of the military who responded to and investigated the crash retired and went End-of-Tour, the accident slowly but surely passed out of memory. Anyone who was an infant on the day of the crash would be an octogenarian today, and kids who were in Jr. High would be pushing or at the century mark, so the probability of anyone being around who has actual memories of the crash is somewhere between slim and none. With the exception of a few really dedicated aviation historians, there are few people who even remember this one at all.</div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">I have a feeling that rules against buzzing civilian air liners
that were already in existence were enforced to the letter, with
penalties for violators the likes of which you didn't even want to
ponder on,. If they weren't enough, I also have a feeling that a few <i>new </i>rules and regulations were put in place...quickly. But I couldn't find anything that actually </span><i>says</i> that happened.<br />
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That being said, you'd think that, after one of their own not only died in a mid-air collision caused by his own recklessness, but caused the deaths of five civilians as well, military pilots would have learned to keep their egos in check, at least while flying near civilian airliners, but sadly, you'd be wrong. The stunting was more low-key, but it still went on...and it wasn't entirely confined to the pursuit pilots, as fighter pilots were called back in the day. <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/11/american-airlines-flight-28-infamous.html">The bomber drivers got in on the fun too</a>.<br />
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And, with the stunting and showing off around civilian aircraft still occasionally happening, it was all but inevitable that it'd cause yet another tragedy. It would be twelve years before reckless behavior caused another mid-air involving a civilian airliner...and this time it wouldn't be a fighter pilot who screwed the pooch.<br />
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<b><***> Notes, Links, And Stuff <***></b></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">As I've noted several times before, when you go hunting for facts and such about an incident that's approaching it's 90th anniversary, you're going to be behind the 8-Ball unless that incident is particularly historic, or unusual. Newsflash...'First Mid-Air Collision Involving An Airliner In The U.S'. is only considered 'historic' among serious aviation historians. There was all but no info on line about this one. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Which means I </span><i>really</i> had to do a bit of digging to get what I got...and lets be honest here, gang, it wasn't all that much, info wise, though I lucked out <i>big time</i> with both finding the crash site, and finding photos of the scene thanks to the Wreckchasing Message Board and the San Diego Air And Space Museum's photo archive on Flickr.</div>
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But it's what I <i>couldn't</i> find...the accident report...that caused me to <i>really</i> have to do a bunch of speculating on this one. Pre-1934 Aeronautics Board Air Crash Reports are just about as rare as sharks in North Dakota...all but nonexistent. Back in 1929 the Aeronautics Board had a policy of nondisclosure of air accident investigation results and neither the media or the public could get their hands on the reports. It would take the death of a beloved celebrity to change that policy so that the reports were available to the media and general public. (Yes, I'm planning a post about that one, but here's a teaser to see if you can figure out who it was...he was a college football coach.). Interestingly enough, it was only air crash reports that were considered classified...rail accident reports have been publicly available since 1912 or so.</div>
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There were two bits of critical information that I couldn't find....the first involved the first few minutes of both the airliner's and the PW-9's flights. Full confession here, guys, I have no idea which one of them took off first, or which runway was the active runway either at Lindbergh or North Island that day, so I really have no clue <i>which</i> way either of them departed when they took off. I took what I like to call 'Author's Prerogative' , and chose the departure heading that made the most sense and seemed to fit the facts of the story best. (And, lets be honest here, made for the best narrative).</div>
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The second thing I couldn't find was the exact angle of impact between the aircraft, so I had to play the 'If the Tri-motor ended up with <i>this</i> damage, and flipped over on it's back, etc, etc, than the angle of impact almost <i>had</i> to be...' In other words, I guessed...but I have a feeling that I was close. </div>
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No matter which way they departed, or what the angle of impact was, the end result was the exact same...the Tri-Motor ended up on it's back on the rim of the west end of Manzanita Canyon, the PW-9 ended up a smashed hulk at the bottom of the canyon, six people were dead, and only sheer luck kept either or both aircraft from making it another tenth of a mile or so, burning after crashing in the middle of Lexington Park and becoming an even eerier precursor to San Diego's most infamous air disaster...the 1978 PSA Flight 182 midair and crash in North Park...than it already was. The PSA 182 crash site, BTW, is less than a mile north-northwest of the Tri-Motor's crash site.</div>
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<b> </b>This was one of the first...if not <i>the</i> first...major crash of a scheduled airline flight in the U.S. A Colonial Western airways Ford 4-AT Tri-Motor crashed on take-off from Newark, New Jerseys airport a month earlier when two of it's three engines failed. The pilot was unable to gain altitude , and the airliner slammed into a railroad car loaded with sand in a nearby rail yard, killing fourteen of the fifteen on board, making it the worst air crash in U.S. History...but that wasn't a scheduled flight, it was a chartered sightseeing flight.</div>
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Interestingly, the crash that took the 'Worst Crash In The U.S.' title from the Newark crash was<i> </i>not only a crash of a scheduled flight, it was Maddux's second...and worst...crash, detailed in the next note. </div>
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The San Diego Mid-Air collision was Maddux Airlines first and by far most infamous crash...but it wasn't the <i>only</i> crash Maddux had, or the worst. Maddox Airlines had two crashes within a year of each other, and the second one held the very dubious distinction of worst air disaster in U.S. Aviation history for several years.</div>
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This second crash occurred on Jan 19, 1930 just North of Oceanside California, on a route that was one of the very first regularly scheduled international airline routes in the U.S., from San Diego to the casino in <span lang="en-US">Agua Caliente</span>, Mexico, near Tijuana...a very popular destination because of the casino, horse races and, probably most importantly, legal alcohol. Remember, in January 1930 Prohibition was still in full swing in the U.S.</div>
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Maddux Flight 7 had departed Agua Caliente at about 5:30 PM that afternoon with all 14 seats filled and a crew of two, enroute to Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale...L.A.'s major airport pre-L.A.X. Somewhere north of Oceanside the plane ran into a wall of torrential rain and fog that had blown in of of the nearby Pacific. This was one of those dense, pea soup fogs that can instantaneously drop visibility to a couple of hundred feet and cause sudden and total disorientation if it takes a pilot unaware...especially eighty-six years ago when flight instruments were nowhere near as sophisticated as they are today, or were even fifty years ago.</div>
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They apparently didn't have much altitude to begin with, and the two pilots let the airliner loose more altitude as they fought the sudden weather induced disorientation and possible vertigo, flying blind as they made the decision to turn around and land in San Diego. Or maybe, just before they were completely socked in, they spotted the open, relatively flat strip of land between the railroad and a highway and decided to land and wait the weather out...we'll never know which. </div>
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What we <i>do </i>know is that they were in the process of making a left turn when, not realizing how low they were, they managed to snag the Tri-Motor's left wingtip on the ground, causing the airliner to cartwheel, finally slamming down right side up, nose very likely facing the direction they'd been coming from. This time the left fuel tank split open when the airliner slammed into the ground, dumping raw gasoline on the hot, still running left engine, and the fireball that accompanies the majority of air crashes ensued. All sixteen occupants of the airliner died in the crash and ensuing fire.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A view of M<span style="text-align: left;">a</span><span style="text-align: left;">ddux Flight 7's wreckage. very late in the incident, as crews work to remove the wreckage. Note the burned out fuselage on the far left of the shot, as well as the crew on the wrecker.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span> </span></td></tr>
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A news paper illustration of how the crash probably happened. All sixteen on the plane...14 passengers and 2 pilots...died in the crash, making it the worst air crash in the U.S. to that date, and for several years afterwards.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THIS PHOTO AND ALL OF THE ACCIDENT SCENE PHOTOS IN THIS POST ARE FROM THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.</span></span> </div>
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Severe weather was an ongoing serious problem for early airlines, and air travelers. Planes were unpressurized, and generally incapable of flying at an altitude that would put them 'Above The Weather', so they were vulnerable to any and all weather extremes. Even worse, airline management often demanded that pilots fly through severe weather in order to stay on schedule. Crashes were not unusual during these pioneer days of air travel, and this is one of the reasons why. A fix wouldn't be in for a couple of decades, when pressurized airliners able to fly above the weather became the norm.</div>
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As for the location on this one, all I know for sure is that it was between the Santa Fe RR and a road, north of Oceanside and eleven or so miles south of San Clemente. The site is very likely on land that's now part of the Marines' Camp Pendleton, which encompasses a huge area north of Oceanside.</div>
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This crash held the dubious title of 'Worst Air Crash in U.S. History' for several years...keep in mind that the first airliner capable of carrying more than 20 passengers (The DC-3) wasn't introduced until 1935. </div>
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This also wasn't the only mid-air collision in the San Diego area that weekend. A pair of Navy aircraft collided over Coronado...on North Island, hard by Rockwell Field...only two days earlier, resulting in the deaths of all four crew members between the two aircraft. This one was mentioned in one of the contemporary news articles I ran up on while researching the Maddux mid-air, couldn't find any more info on it.</div>
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There actually were rules and regulations regarding minimum separation between aircraft already in place in 1929, but they were far, <i>far</i> less stringent than today's regulations regarding separation between aircraft. Back in 1929, aircraft were supposed to get no closer than 300 feet from each other, either vertically or horizontally.<b> </b></div>
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Today, if you fly with-in 300 feet of another plane, at best you'll be having a long conversation with an FAA examiner. Modern regs call for aircraft flying IFR to have a minimum vertical separation of 1000 feet and a minimum horizontal separation of five miles while enroute and three miles in the area of an airport, though there are exceptions to this rule.</div>
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Pilots flying under <i>Visual</i> Flight Rules (VFR) don't have a numerical minimum, but instead are cautioned that '<i>No person may operate an aircraft so close to another aircraft as to create a collision hazard' </i>as well as that good old catch-all <i>'No person may operate an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another'</i></div>
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<i>Speaking</i><b> </b>of 'Rules of the Road...in this case, pretty much literally...the very first Mid-Air between airliners, covered at the beginning of this post, was actually caused by the difference in <i>driving</i> rules between the British Empire, and most of the rest of the world. As we all know, the British drive on the <i>left</i> side of the road, while most of the rest of the world drives on the <i>right </i>side of the road. In the early days of air navigation...the era of following roads and utilizing the 'Iron Compass'...pilots didn't fly directly above the road or rail line. Instead they'd off set to the side of the center of the road or rail line by 100 feet or so, and they'd generally offset to the same side of the road they would use if they were driving on it. </div>
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The Farman Goliath involved in that first midair involving airliners was a French plane. The DeHavilland DH18 was British. SO the French pilot was off-set to his right of the rail lines centerline. And the British pilot, coming towards him, was flying to his <i>left </i>of the rail line's centerline, putting them on the same side of the tracks, and on a collision course.</div>
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<i>Very</i> shortly after this collision, a general right-of-way rule was written that mandated that pilots following roads or rail lines would always fly to the <i>right</i> of the road's center line, therefore two aircraft flying in opposite directions but at the same altitude while following the same road would simply pass left side to left side.</div>
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Lindbergh Field, AKA San Diego International may have been in the exact same spot since 1928, but it wasn't San Diego's <i>first </i>airport, or even the first airport in that general area. The first airport was Dutch Flats Airport/Ryan Field, located at what's now the intersection of Midway Drive and Barnette Drive, just north of the Marine Corps Recruiting Station that was there in the '20s, and that still exists today. Lindbergh Field is just south of the Marine Corps Recruiting depot.</div>
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Ryan Field was built on a reclaimed mud flat, and was developed by Claude Ryan, of Ryan Aircraft fame, opening in 1923. The <i>first</i> airline providing service to L.A. from San Diego...also owned and operated by Claude Ryan...began operations from Ryan Field in 1925, using a Standard J1 trainer, modified to include a 4 seat cabin (A very <i>cramped</i> 4 seat cabin). The airline operated for about a year and a half (Until Maddux began flying that route, with the far, <i>far</i> better Ford Tri-Motor, in September 1927). Ryan had decided by then to concentrate of designing and building airplanes, and this led to construction of Ryan Aircraft's factory a couple of blocks away, and ultimately to Ryan Field's greatest claim to fame.</div>
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In 1927 a gentleman by the name of Charles Lindbergh contracted with Ryan for the design and construction of an aircraft with transatlantic capability, to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris. It had to be able to fly across the Atlantic, carry 450 gallons of gasoline, and be uber fuel efficient. OH...and he needed it to be finished in two months. Ryan, of course, knocked it out of the park. They based the airplane loosely on their M-2 mail plane, designing it, building it, and making the first flight in 60 days.</div>
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The Spirit Of St Louis made it's first flight from Dutch Flats Airport on April 28th, 1927, piloted by none other than Lindbergh himself. Interesting little factoid about The Spirit of St Louis. The plane...arguably the best known high wing monoplane in history...made 174 flights, counting the transatlantic flight, most of them in the course of a national tour after the NY-Paris flight, and 'Lindy' was the pilot on all but one. Lifelong friend and fellow pilot Bud Gurney met him on one of the tour stops, and Lindbergh allowed him to take it around the pattern (He must've had <i>loads</i> of confidence in Gurney's stick-and-rudder skills, because the <i>Spirit of St Louis</i> was <i>not</i> an easy airplane to fly!</div>
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Gurney, in fact, is said to have remarked something to that very effect when he climbed from the <i>Spirit's</i> cramped cockpit.)</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigYTAz96k1F-0d4zIZkKwx5N3GD89BApbCysM4sloj5_GLpKQe70_bCC3QfS31W9HGisQs_JewMx-tIVec73chWir6of17FrLvDnRyh4Box7YoI-8ioujDXpADzg61hcFCl3SF1AVBw3A/s1600/Spirit+Of+St+Louis+First+Flight.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigYTAz96k1F-0d4zIZkKwx5N3GD89BApbCysM4sloj5_GLpKQe70_bCC3QfS31W9HGisQs_JewMx-tIVec73chWir6of17FrLvDnRyh4Box7YoI-8ioujDXpADzg61hcFCl3SF1AVBw3A/s640/Spirit+Of+St+Louis+First+Flight.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <i>Spirit of St Louis </i>lifting off on it's first flight on April 28th, 1927</td></tr>
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Dutch Flats airport ultimately became Speers Field and coexisted with Lindbergh Field for another decade or so before closing at the onset of WWII, and being converted to base housing for the Marine base. The area's been entirely built over, with a good bit of the <i>original</i> development torn down and built over <i>again</i> in the ensuing seventy-six years, so there's not a single solitary trace of the old airport left. The Post Office on Midway Drive is supposedly built just about where the hangers at Dutch Flats Airport were decades ago.</div>
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Henry Ford was <i>not</i> above grabbing a good idea...<i>any</i>one's good idea...and running with it. Lets take the Ford Tri-Motor. Sturdy, stable, reliable airplane that had a well deserved reputation for being built like a tank. Here's the thing, though, and I mentioned this briefly in the body of the post. The Ford Trimotor basically ripped off <i>two</i> good ideas.</div>
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First take a look at the Ford Tri-Motor and the Fokker F-10 side by side:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Fokker Trimotor on the left, Ford Trimotor on the right. This Fokker, BTW, is the very one that Henry Ford gave to his son, lent to Admiral Richard Byrd, and used for inspiration...and information...while the Ford Tri-Motor was in the development stage. </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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I picked that particular Fokker Trimotor for a reason, BTW...it's the one that was given to Edsel Ford by his dad, based at Ford airfield, also the home of the Stout Metal Aircraft Division of Ford Motor Company...the actual builder of the Ford Tri-Motor. OK, it's not a line by line copy by any means, but it's easy to see where Henry Ford got the inspiration for his airborn legend...the popular story is that he basically studied every detail and feature of his son's plane, enlarged and improved it, and built his version from aluminum.</div>
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Another popular rumor is that he somehow got someone inside the Fokker of America plant where the Trimotor was built, and got measurements, drawings, the whole Industrial Espionage thing, of the Fokker F10, and <i>looking</i> at he Ford Tri-motor, that would make more sense because there is a far stronger resemblance between the F10 and the Ford, but there's <i>one</i> problem. The F10 was a later variant of the Fokker...the Ford had already been flying for a couple of years when it made it's first flight. Besides, Henry Ford <i>had </i>a Fokker Trimotor to study at his leisure.</div>
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The origins of the Ford Tri-Motor's corrugated aluminum skin is a bit more blatant. Stout Metal Airplane Co. lifted that idea directly from Junkers Aircraft, in Germany, who had pioneered the use of both all metal construction and corrugated aluminum for strengthened skin. Junkers, in fact, successfully sued Ford...<i>twice</i>...for infringing upon their patent for the stressed, corrugated aluminum skin they used on their aircraft.</div>
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The development of the Ford Tri-Motor is closely entwined with another disaster of sorts...the destruction of the original Stout Metal Airplane Company factory at Oakwood Ave and Village Road, hard by the Ford Airport in Dearborne, Michigan. The story goes that Stout's airplanes were actually pretty horrible, and that Henry Ford, as owner of the money (and reputation) loosing division, banned William Stout from the company's engineering and design department and sent him on a publicity tour. Then, in the early morning hours of 1-27-1926 Dearborne fire fighters were snatched from sleep as multiple boxes were pulled in the vicinity of Oakwood and Village, and rolled in to find the Stout Metal Airplane Company building in full bloom. Lines were laid, master stream devices set up,, 'Big Water' started flowing in earnest, and the long defensive battle that major structure fires entail even today was waged in earnest. When the fire was knocked down several hours later, all that was left were collapsed walls and heat-twisted steel beams...and the charred and melted remains of all of Stout's prototypes.</div>
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Almost before the remains stopped smouldering, Ford had contracted with Albert Kahn to design and build a pair of new buildings at Ford Airport. One would be a new, 60,000 square foot aircraft factory, where the Tri-Motor would be built. The other was a brick hotel...still in business today, and still named The Dearborne Inn...that would be the very first hotel ever designed specifically to serve air travelers.</div>
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At the same time the Stout Metal Airplane Company was renamed 'The Aviation Division of Ford Motor Company. The Stout name never again graced an airplane.</div>
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When asked about the timing of the fire, all Henry Ford would say was:</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="text-align: center; widows: 4;">"For the first time in my life I have bought a lemon, and I don’t want the world to know about it",</span> </i></span></div>
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The site of the old Ford Airport is now occupied by the Ford Motor Company Proving Ground, and, in fact, the former runways were in the middle of the test track, actually part of the roadway system, and occasionally actually used by aircraft for decades. The test track campus was reconfigured in about 2005, eliminating almost...but not quite...all traces of the old runways. According to Google Earth, the end of the runway nearest Oakwood Ave still exists, as does the former runway intersection. At least one of the old hangers is also still in existence.</div>
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Maddux Airlines<b> </b>had a pretty distinguished history other than it's two crashes. They formed the western leg of the first scheduled transcontinental travel package (An Air-Rail combination where passengers flew during the day and traveled by train overnight), then merged with Transcontinental Air Transport in 1930. T.A.T later merged with Western Air Express to form Transcontinental &Western Airlines, which ultimately morphed into air travel powerhouse Trans World Airlines, better known as TWA. TWA was absorbed by American Airlines in 2001. Interestingly, and a little sadly, Maddux is seldom mentioned in histories of TWA despite the fact that they were a big part of the airline's beginnings.</div>
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<b>***LINKS***</b></div>
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While I couldn't find but so much info on the accident itself...really, there wasn't even a Wikipedia article on it...I found all kind of interesting side facts about aviation history, planes, airports and such. I'm including the links to a few of the better sites.</div>
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<a href="http://fly.historicwings.com/2012/10/the-first-midair-collision/">http://fly.historicwings.com/2012/10/the-first-midair-collision/</a><b> </b>An article from the awesome aviation history site Historic Wings about the first mid-air collision, at the Milan airshow, back in 1910. The article was originally published in the British Royal Aero Club's weekly newsletter, '<i>Flight</i>', and detailed the crash pretty well. Of equal interest is an excerpt from that very same issue that detailed the reasons why they <i>didn't</i> support the use of parachutes for pilots!</div>
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<a href="http://fly.historicwings.com/2013/04/the-first-midair-airline-disaster/">http://fly.historicwings.com/2013/04/the-first-midair-airline-disaster/</a> Another Historic Wings article, this one covering the first mid-air between airliners in far more detail that I did. It not only covers the details of the accident, but the changes to air traffic rules that came about because of it. Among these new rules and regulations were the beginnings of the airway system that's used to this very day.</div>
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<a href="http://fly.historicwings.com/2013/03/the-goliath/">http://fly.historicwings.com/2013/03/the-goliath/</a> And a third and final Historic Wings, with an article on the development of the very first true airliner...the Farman F60 Goliath...as well as the aircraft's pivotal role in the development of regular scheduled air travel. This was a pretty extraordinary aircraft. Also a quick word about Historic Wings...this is an awesome, <i>awesome</i> site chock slam full of interesting trivea, obscure aircraft, and little known facts. If you've got a thing for Aviation History, don't start reading this site's articles unless you've got plenty of free time!</div>
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<b style="font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepTrimotor.html">http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepTrimotor.html</a> </b>If you want to know what it was like to actually <i>fly</i> a Ford Tri-Motor, read this article by the incomparable Bud Davisson, who wrote Pilot Reports for Air Classics Magazine for years. To write a pilot report, you actually have to fly the aircraft. The list of aircraft types that Bud Davisson has been able to add to his log book is an aviation enthusiasts...er...dream.</div>
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<a href="http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepPeanutFordTrimotor.html">http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepPeanutFordTrimotor.html</a> Just for the fun of it, another short Bud Davisson pilot report on the Ford Tri-Motor. When Bud did these reports there were only a couple Tri-Motors still airworthy. Since he wrote them, several more have been resurrected from junkyards and forgotten corners of obscure airfields...there are eight airworthy examples flying (Most notably the EAA's pristine bird) and five or so more under restoration.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://dmairfield.com/airplanes_type/ford/index.html">http://dmairfield.com/airplanes_type/ford/index.htm</a> A history page from Tuscon, Arizona's Davis Monthon Air Force Base's...originally Davis-Monthon air field history page, detailing the registry of all of the Ford Tri-Motors that landed at the airport when it was still a civilian field. Well illustrated, with a good discussion on the plane itself, as well as a period newspaper article about the retirement of the Ford Tri-Motor as the Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 began going in service.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">Davis-Monthon is an Air Force base now, and if it sounds kind of familiar, it's because it's the home to what's probably the largest airplane bone yard in the world. This is where all of the military branches of service send their old airplanes when they're retired. </span></span> <br />
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<a href="http://www.midamericaflightmuseum.org/Ford%20Trimotor.pdf">http://www.midamericaflightmuseum.org/Ford%20Trimotor.pdf</a> <b>Ford Trimotor Owners Manual</b><br />
Yes gang, I found the original text and illustrations of the Ford Tri-Motor owners manual. Better yet, it's a PDF file, so it's downloadable.<br />
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<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-15052266208214682992016-09-05T20:41:00.006-04:002023-03-28T01:15:52.220-04:00The Steamboats Washington, Enterprise, and Constitution Boilers Explode.<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b> The
Steamboats <i>Washington</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
</span><i>Enterprise, </i><span style="font-style: normal;"> and
</span><i>Constitution </i><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Man's
first Lessons on the dangers of modern transportation.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">Ahhh, riverboats!! The throaty, bass wail of a multi-toned steam whistle as paddle-wheels thrash the muddy waters of The Mississippi...or Ohio, or Red, or Missouri, or any of a couple of dozen or so navigable rivers...into dirty white foam as wood smoke boils from those classic tall twin stacks and the river pilot holds court in that classic boxy pilot house, feeling the river's mood through the spokes of a gigantic ship's wheel.. It's a scene that's been a staple of just about every movie about the Antebellum South that's ever been made. Heck, there was <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052506/">even a TV series about one</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">But in all seriousness, these lovely ladies of the western rivers opened up the American west long before there was anything even vaguely resembling an actual intercity or interstate road in that end of the world, giving America it's first taste of reliable, high </span><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">speed</span> (For that era) long distance travel. They transported tens of thousands of passengers and hundreds of thousand of tons of freight on America's western rivers...but unfortunately, they didn't do so without incident, drama, and...well, a disaster or two or three. Steam propulsion </span><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><i>was,</i> after all, </span><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">a brand new technology in the early 19th century, and what brand new technology hasn't had teething problems before it got on it's feet good..</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">But...before we get to said disasters, I</span><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">'ve gotta kick this one off with a short...<i>very</i> short...basic history lesson RE: Steamboats and the expansion of America, because if we're</span> gonna jump back two or so centuries to talk about the very first major accidents involving the very first steamboats to travel the very first interstate transportation network in the U.S., we kinda <span style="font-style: normal;">gotta</span> talk a little about the development of said steamboats, and the guys who developed them.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">SO, then!!! Quit talking and shooting spit-balls, eyes front and pay attention! (Rob raps chalkboard with pointer.) History class is in session!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The US began it's first
big expansion right after The Revolutionary War, with the creation of
The Mississippi Territory in 1798, and the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. These two land acquisitions gave the U.S. around 850,000 square miles of new territory...territory, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">from which </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">I might add,</span> over a dozen states would ultimately be carved</span>. This newly minted chunk of the then-still-so-new-it-shined U.S.A. measured nearly 1000 miles east to west at it's widest point, and extended </span>north to south from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico .</div>
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<span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;"> All of this brand new undeveloped, unsettled land kicked off a human stamped of hopeful land-owner wannabes that makes Black Friday at any given Walmart look like Vacation Bible School. </span><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">In all seriousness, though, these two pieces of real estate just about doubled the size of the U.S. Thing is, as people settled the new area and founded towns and cities, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">the problems of shipping and travel to these new </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">towns and cities</span></span> <i>also </i>doubled. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Two centuries ago, there were very few real roads, period, much less interstate roads,...meaning dirt paths that actually crossed state lines...</span>in the already settled and more or less developed area <i>east</i> of the Mississippi. In the newly acquired lands west of Old Man River, roads were all but nonexistent. Travel was S-L-O-W no matter which side of The Mississippi you hailed from.</div>
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OK...history lesson, such that it was, over. Now lets get to that travel problem, and how, two hundred years later, it yielded a post in a blog about disasters big and small. </div>
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While there weren't many <i>roads</i> in this newly acquired region, this entire area had one big thing...and I mean 'Big' literally...going for it, travel-wise. Pull up a good map of the Louisiana purchase and the Mississippi Territory...preferably one that shows natural features like...oh, i don't know...rivers and streams. You don't even have to look real hard to see that an obscure little stream called The Mississippi River forms the entire eastern boundary of the Louisiana purchase, and, before finally emptying into the Gulf, that same little trickle of water forms the Mississippi Territory's western boundary. The Mississippi is 2320 miles long, and all but the extreme northern-most 400 or so miles of it is navigable. Better still, Old Man River has hundreds of streams emptying into it, among them around two dozen major navigable rivers, extending navigable waters several hundred miles east and west of The Mississippi itself.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Map of the Louisiana Purchase, with the Mississippi forming almost the entire eastern boundary. Over two dozen navigable rivers flowed into the Mississippi, extending the navigable waters several hundred miles east and west of the Mississippi.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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The hearty people who ventured West were not even vaguely stupid, and they knew a good thing when they saw one...the good thing in question being the country's first interstate transportation system, already laid out and ready to use. So, when people congregated and decided to build a town, it was almost a given that it would be on the banks of one of these rivers, allowing them ready access to this natural highway system.</div>
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They had rivers, they had boats...but they <i>still</i> had a problem. Barges could move downstream with the flow of the river, with the crew pushing poles against the river bottom to keep them off of the muddy shallows near the riverbanks, fend off logs and snags that could punch through a wooden hull like it was made of wet cardboard, and generally keep the bow pointed down stream. Pretty good progress could be made <i>down</i> river, but moving a barge load of goods or a passenger packet upstream...<i>against</i> the river's flow...was another thing entirely. Just try 'poling' a good sized cargo barge from that era upstream against the Mississippi's...or <i>any</i> western river's...current and you'll see what I mean. Unless you hailed from another planet, had a big red 'S' embroidered on the front of all of your shirts, and were allergic to Kryptonite, you weren't going to make much speed getting a barge upstream using manpower alone. Oh, given enough manpower, it could be...and indeed, <i>was</i>...done, but walking along the banks would've been faster and probably less tiring.<br />
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<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An unknown artist knocked out this wood cut of a flatboat on the Ohio River. She was obviously going down stream, with the current here, as the poles are only being used to keep her in the main channel and off of the banks. If they were heading up river, against the currents, the guys lounging around enjoying the sun wouldn't have been so relaxed, and way more tha two poles would have been in use.<br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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Of course, a tow path could be built along the bank and mules or horses could <i>tow </i>a barge upstream...but this created other problems. Infrastructure had to be built and maintained, resources bought and hired, and the stream had to be dredged and cleared near the river bank. If you were going to do all of that ya might as well go whole hog and build a canal (And several, in fact, <i>were</i> built).</span></div>
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Or you could use sails...but using wind power in the narrow confines of a river while also having to deal with current brought it's own share of problems. Oh it was doable..,and was done regularly on the rivers along the East Coast...but it was <i>not</i> easy.</div>
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Happily, the solution for this problem was being worked on even as The Mississippi Territory was being acquired. Actually, the heart of that solution had been around for almost a century, in the form of the steam engine, which was developed in England and had actually been around in one form or the other since the very late 17th century...but they were <i>not</i> the same engines that powered the worlds first steamboats...not even close. Rather than using high pressure steam acting directly on pistons or turbines, these very early engines used the vacuums created by condensing steam to draft water out of mines. See, these very early steam engines were highly specialized...but <i>not</i> highly efficient...pieces of machinery. They were big, ponderous, fuel-sucking, profoundly inefficient water pumps, and were useful for absolutely nothing else.</div>
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Then in 1712 a guy named Thomas Newcomen developed a steam engine that boasted the basic layout of the engines that powered just about every side wheeler to ever ply one of America' rivers. The general <i>layout</i> you may note I said. Oh it still operated on the vacuum principle, but Newcomen's vacuum acted on a piston inside a vertical cylinder rather than directly on water. Also, like a huge majority of riverboat steam engines, the piston in Newcomen's design was connected to a reciprocating 'walking beam'. True, the Newcomen engine's walking beam operated a pump rather than the crankshaft for a pair of paddle wheels, but, again, the basic layout was there. It <i>could</i> have, theoretically, turned a crankshaft, which <i>could</i> have turned a paddle wheel, but it would have been useless for it to do so. (1) The engine was <i>huge</i>...nowhere near small or light enough to be fitted with-in the hull of even the largest ships of that era and (2) the engine ran at about 12 strokes per minute, which would also yield about 12 RPM...<i>if</i> it could actually turn a multi-ton paddlewheel. Remember, these were very low pressure (1-3 PSI) engines, whose main purpose was pumping water...about 10 gallons per stroke. (3) The engines operated in a very jerky manner rather than the smooth operation needed to run machinery of any kind, which is why the few time it was tried...running a gristmill for example...it failed.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A GIF from Emoscopes, showing the Newcomen engine in operation. the pink represents steam, the blue water. Steam pushed the piston upward, then when it reached the top of it's stroke, cold water was sprayed into the cylinder, condensing the steam and creating a partial vacuum. This allowed atmospheric pressure to push the piston down. The 'walking beam' at the top of the image was connected to the piston on one side and the pump on the other side. As the engine piston was pushed downward, it lifted the pump piston, forcing the water out to the tune of about 10 gallons per stroke.</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Newcomen's engine, therefore, was still a slow, cumbersome low pressure engine, suitable only for the job for which it was designed and used, and it would take several decades for steam engines to develop into smaller, faster running, and far more efficient high pressure engines that were small enough, yet powerful enough to propel something like, maybe...a boat..</div>
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But, by the late 1700s, work on just such an engine was developing. James Rumsey developed the water tube boiler, and, in 1784, used it on the first successful steam powered boat, which, BTW, was also the first ever jet boat...seriously...the steam engine powered a water pump that blasted a a stream of water out of a nozzle at the vessel's stern, pushing the boat forward. The engine, interestingly enough, was a smaller, somewhat modified version of a Newcomen engine, and it worked because the engine was stacked on top of a piston pump, with the engine piston connected directly to the pump piston. When the engine piston was forced upward by steam pressure, it pulled the pump piston up, which sucked water into the pump...then, when the steam in the cylinder was condensed, atmospheric pressure pushed the engine piston...and the pump piston...down, closing the water intake valve, opening a discharge valve, and forcing the water out of a nozzle beneath the stern.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detailed illustration of how Rumsey's steam powered jet boat worked.</td></tr>
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The jet boat was demonstrated successfully in Shepherdstown, Virginia (Now West Virginia) in December, 1787...the boat was able to make a good three miles per hour against the current. Despite his successful demonstration, Rumsey's design was never developed commercially, though.</div>
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James Watt had developed the separate condenser a few years before Rumsey launched his steamboat, and Rumsey gladly adapted the separate condenser to his own engine, The separate condenser allowed the cylinder to stay at the same temperature at all times, which increased the efficiency of atmospheric (Vacuum ) engines two to three fold because energy wasn't wasted reheating the cylinder on each stroke.<br />
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Watt then teamed up with Matthew Boulton to develop the double acting steam engine, with high pressure steam actually acting directly on both sides of the piston, as well as developing a way to convert the piston and connecting rod's straight line motion to rotational motion, allowing it to turn a shaft...and an engine that could power a steamboat was born.</div>
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John Fitch gets credit for the first steam boat in actual commercial service. His first design...a strange contraption that utilized (I'm <i>not</i> making this up) steam-powered oars was less than successful, and was never demonstrated successfully, but his second design replaced the side mounted oars with stern mounted reciprocating paddles, mounted on a chain driven crankshaft, that drove the boat upstream at about three knots. Fitch made some improvements and built second and third boats that were larger (About 60 feet long), faster (Around seven or eight miles per hour) and became the first commercial steam boats, running between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware three times a week during the summer of 1790.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A guy named Mike Sheppard built a working model of John Fitch's <i>first</i> steam boat...the one propelled by</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">the actual steamboat was.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A working model of John Fitch's second steamboat, which went in service on the Delaware River in 1890,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">to become the first steamboat in commercial service in the US. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The John Fitch Steamboat Museum, in Bucks County, Pa, built this awesome, six foot long working model, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">which is actually powered by an electric motor rather than a steam engine. As Rube Goldbergish as those stern paddles seem to be, Fitch's steamboat was actually pretty advanced for her time.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> She was also four miles per hour faster than Bob </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fulton's <i>North River, </i>which plied the Hudson River seventeen years later. The rudder on the model is actually</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> was still steered with a tiller, with the helmsman standing at the stern, exposed to all that spinning, chain-slapping, thrashing machinery. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Another video of the Fitch Steamboat Museum's model, showing the operation of the engine and paddle</span><br />
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Unfortunately, the boat had a pretty limited passenger capacity, very few people took advantage of the service in the first place, and the fuel-hungry boiler burned wood like it was going out of style. Lesson One was learned about commercial steamboat (And self propelled vehicle in general) operations...you have to make enough money through passengers and freight revenue to off set fuel costs, and your engines have to be fuel efficient so said fuel costs won't be too high. The nation's first steamboat service folded after only three or so months.</div>
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Then, nearly two decades later, in 1807, we have the guy who all of our history books told us invented the steam boat...Robert Fulton. Bob Fulton didn't <i>invent</i> the steam boat. He just made it commercially viable. His <i>North River Steam Boat...</i>later shortened to<i> </i> <i>North River</i>, and, due to an error by a 19th century historian, known to millions of school kids and amateur historians today as the <i>Clermont...</i> was big and fast enough to be a success and was also the first to employ that iconic symbol of the Steamboat Era, the paddle wheel. She was 150 feet long, had a beam of 18 feet, drew about 3 feet, and displaced just over 120 tons. That long slender hull could knife through the water rather than shoving it aside, so with her 15 foot diameter side wheels thrashing the Hudson River's waters, she could make a then astonishing 4 or 5 MPH.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIo61tSL0Td5FGB_xhO6oXu1CKx_4sBE7EVE7OBBTrDYGoVIKFHnqHubHSiRSOBGpoO6fLKeF8AwMIGa5WtcfP6a6FQyeuVeCXMTXYj_e0kFMPkmlA1lJ5RgTWjiPxt691ZBFSDvQEDhI/s1600/Replica+of+Clermont+1909.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIo61tSL0Td5FGB_xhO6oXu1CKx_4sBE7EVE7OBBTrDYGoVIKFHnqHubHSiRSOBGpoO6fLKeF8AwMIGa5WtcfP6a6FQyeuVeCXMTXYj_e0kFMPkmlA1lJ5RgTWjiPxt691ZBFSDvQEDhI/s640/Replica+of+Clermont+1909.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A replica of Fulton's <i>North River...</i>Better known as the <i>Clermont</i>...built for the Hudson-Fulton celebration. The replica was 150 feet long with a beam of 16 feet, and powered by a reproduction of the James Watts style engine that powered the original.. The replica was a faithful as possible, working from old sketches and paintings and was around until the mid 1930s, when she was broken up for scrap. One thing they <i>did</i> get wrong, though...as she was never actually<i> named Clermont</i>, she never had that named painted on her bow.</span></td></tr>
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She had decent speed and comfortable passenger accommodations that included berths for 56 passengers, a bar, and a kitchen, which reportedly even served pretty good meals. Most importantly, she could make the run from New York City to Albany in 32 hours versus the four days it took by sailing ship.</div>
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As if that wasn't good enough, two years later Fulton, along with his business partner Robert Livingston, put the first steamboat on Western waters in service on the Mississippi River. Slightly larger than <i>Clermont, New Orleans </i>was also successful, and was the first of thousands of steamboats that would ply the western rivers of the U.S. Her first voyage, captained by another of Fulton's business partners named Nicholas Roosevelt, took her from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers...She departed from Pittsburgh on October 15th, 1811 and reached New Orleans five days shy of three months later, on Jan. 10th, 1812. Roosevelt returned to New York and ended his affiliation with Fulton shortly afterwards, while Fulton preceded to put the <i>New Orleans</i> in service making regular runs between New Orleans and Natchez, and all was well with the world.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5deTgkyfe9TLQ6T2sP5JOHAR0cH9W-nKG4P757AgUuAGwymuUYh0MgsD1DBP0S1X0HwAuNEmS-EUNc5FVDR0yQWx8hwbLFm-n3oucKULpDGoI47qMuTYEP8NzI5_3mbnQFVYKoldaaZc/s1600/neworleans.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5deTgkyfe9TLQ6T2sP5JOHAR0cH9W-nKG4P757AgUuAGwymuUYh0MgsD1DBP0S1X0HwAuNEmS-EUNc5FVDR0yQWx8hwbLFm-n3oucKULpDGoI47qMuTYEP8NzI5_3mbnQFVYKoldaaZc/s640/neworleans.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Robert Fulton's <i>New Orleans </i>passing a flatboat on the Mississippi. <i>New Orleans</i> was a slightly larger clone of the <i>North River, </i>AKA<i> Clermont</i>, and her deep draft was pretty much completely unsuitable for regular service on most of the Western rivers, confining her to the deeper waters of the southernmost section of the river, running between New Orleans and Natchez, Mississippi.</span></td></tr>
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Actually,...no, it wasn't. Problem was, technology was having trouble keeping up with itself.</div>
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'Say <i>what?'</i> You ask. Read On, say I.</div>
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As steamboats were built, and developed, and improved, engines were built to operate at higher pressure to provide more speed (Particularly when running <i>against</i> against the current ) and be more efficient, and the boats became bigger and bigger...and boiler technology began to lag behind engine technology.</div>
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In fact, boiler technology <i>already</i> lagged behind engine technology, because the great majority of boiler manufacturers had no real clue about the forces involved in converting water to high pressure steam.. Oh, they knew that boiling water equals steam, therefore if they build a fire under this large metal container of water, it'll boil and produce said steam, and they knew how to produce more steam at higher temperatures...and pressures... for more efficient engine operation, but it's what they <i>didn't</i> know that was the problem.</div>
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They had absolutely no clue about such factors as the tensile, compressive or shear strengths of
metals, and how those forces were changed as the metal heated. Operating engineers did not know the effects of scaling, mud,
etc. They may not have initially even realized...as basic as this concept is...that if you let the water get too low, then introduce cold water onto super-heated metal you get an instant and catastrophic explosion.</div>
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On top of all of that, there were no Government safety standards in place for boilers, <i>or</i> steamboats, or, in fact, <i>any</i> mode of transportation. If someone wanted to build a steamboat out of paper and try powering it with a cardboard boiler, there was no government agency to tell him he couldn't do so, or to point out that his project was doomed to either soggy or fiery failure.</div>
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This, of course, means there was <i>no</i> governing standards of material or construction quality for the boilers, the engines, or the steamboats they powered, nor were there standards of competency for the crews of those steamboats. The general public literally believed that the benevolence of business owners would protect them, and that this same benevolence would lead said business owners to do whatever was necessary to keep them safe, no matter what the cost. </div>
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Their ignorant bliss can be understood and excused though...remember, until <a href="https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-richmond-theater-fire-americas.html">The Richmond Theater Fire</a> of 1811 there had been <i>no</i> man-made disaster in the US (And only a very few world wide) that had caused major loss of life, and multi casualty transportation accidents were all but unheard of. The <i>only</i> vehicles capable of carrying a large (For that era) number of people were ocean going ships, and their loss was generally weather related rather than equipment or human error related. Inland, large passenger capacity vehicles, be they land or water craft, just didn't exist, therefore the general public couldn't comprehend the possibility of a large number of people dying in a single accident.</div>
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This was about to change. </div>
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By early 1819, there were just shy of 40 steamboats in operation in the United States.Three of 'em...just shy of 8%...had already suffered fatal boiler explosions, and these three explosions occurred within the span of just under a year.. This is the story of those three ill-fated steamboats....The <i>Washington, Enterprise, </i>and <i>Constitution.</i></div>
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<b>Henry Shreve Gets In On The Act</b></div>
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While Fulton's <i>New Orleans</i> was the first steamboat on the Mississippi as well as the first to make a trip encompassing the entire navigable length of the river, she really wasn't well suited to the western rivers. She was basically a larger version of the <i>North River </i>AKA <i>Clermont, </i>with a length of 148 feet, a beam of 32 feet, and, most importantly a 'maximum depth ' of twelve feet. I'm betting that was measured from the main deck to the keel, which would have probably given her a draft of around six feet.</div>
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This deep draft caused <i>New Orleans</i> and her intrepid crew some problems on her first voyage, especially at the lower falls of the Mississippi and, once she made it to New Orleans and started commercial service, confined her to the lower Mississippi, which tended to run both wider and deeper than the upper reaches of the river.<br />
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Did I mention the fact that, while setting up the first regular steamboat service on the Mississippi, Fulton also snagged himself and business partner Robert Livingston exclusive rights to operate steam boats on the lower Mississippi River? At least he <i>thought </i> he did.<br />
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Enter a dude named Henry Shreve.<br />
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Shreve was born in 1785 in Mount Pleasant, N.J., then was hauled off to Fayette County, Pa. at the age of three, when his family moved (Their new home was on land owned by one George Washington, BTW). Their new home was also near the Youghiogheny River, where young Henry Shreve most likely watched man and wind powered vessels travel back and forth and, like boys the world over, wondered what it would be like to crew (Or better still, own) one of these boats.<br />
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He'd find out at in 1799 at the tender age of 14, when his dad died and he signed on to a barge crew to help support his family. He also very likely...and very quickly...found out that much of the glamour associated with crewing on one of these beasts was imaginary, especially when he was one of the crew members manning the poles when they were poling her <i>against</i> the current.</div>
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But he was studious, industrious, and tack-sharp smart, and by 1810 he'd bought his own barge. What, or even if he named her, how big she was, and how many men comprised her crew are facts and figures long lost to history, but what is known is her home port was Brownsville, Pa, on the Ohio River, and she made trips as as far south as New Orleans. On that 1814 trip, she arrived in New Orleans on February 11th, loaded, then departed for Brownsville, being poled against the current up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to reach Brownsville sometime in July of 1814.</div>
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That's right. Six months to make a trip that would take about a week on a modern freighter or tow boat today, and wouldn't have taken much longer, once steamboat service was well established on the Mississippi and other major rivers, in the mid to late 1800s. I have a feeling it was during this six month manual-labor-fest that Henry got the thought 'There's gotta be a better way!' . And, in fact, a group of investors in Brownsville were a couple of steps ahead of him as, while Shreve was on his epic journey to New Orleans and back, they decided to build, designed, commissioned, and began construction of a steamboat, to be named <i>Enterprise</i>.</div>
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I'm not going to get too far into the career and voyages of the Steamship<i> Enterprise </i>here other to say she was uber-successful<i>,</i> even becoming the first steamship ever to be used by the military in war-time, and that she deserves (And will get) her own post, and that, on that first-ever-mission-by-a-military-steamer, she was captained by none other that Henry Shreve because of his knowledge of the Mississippi River. She also became the first steamboat to make the <i>northbound</i> trip from New Orleans to Pittsburgh, still under command of Henry Shreve.</div>
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It was during this voyage that Shreve decided he wanted a steam boat or two of his very own.</div>
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<b>The Steamboat <i>Washington's </i>Boiler Explosion</b></div>
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<b>The First Steamboat Accident on America's Western Rivers. </b></div>
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Henry Shreve<b>, </b>along with four partners<b>, </b>designed a new steamboat, and commissioned her construction at a boat yard in Wheeling, Virginia (Now West Virginia...t'was still part of the Old Dominion back then!). A couple of interesting points about the <i>Washington. First, </i>everyone gets her confused with <i>another </i>steamboat named the <i>George Washington, </i>also built and owned by Henry Shreve. The<i> George Washington </i>was said to be the very first 'Classic<i>' </i>Mississippi River steamboat...You know multiple decks, forward pilothouse flanked by tall twin stacks, engines on the main deck, wide, shallow draft hull...problem is, lots of people and publications and web pages think <i>she</i> was the <i>first Washington</i></div>
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Guess what gang...she wasn't. Oh the first <i>Washington</i> still had lots of those classic features, though. The lessons of deep draft vessels on the nation's western rivers had been well learned, so she was one of the first steamboats built with a horizontal main engine that, along with her boilers...four of them... was located on the main deck rather than in the hold. This allowed her to have a broad-beamed, flat-bottomed, shallow draft hull.<i> </i>She was just over 136 feet long with a beam of 22 feet, a displacement of 211 tons, and most importantly, a draft of only three feet. Unlike the classic riverboats, however, she only had a <i>single</i> deck, if the few drawings of her that I could find are accurate. The description I (Finally) found of her describes her main cabin as being 60 feet long, and containing 'Three beautifully appointed private rooms as well as a bar room'. Her main cabin was forward, with her engine and boilers aft. She also had a single smoke stack rather than the tall twin stacks of classic riverboats, but she <i>did</i> apparently have the square, high-mounted pilothouse that was a familiar feature of classic Mississippi Riverboats.<br />
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She also boasted another feature that was unique at the time, but which would become commonplace...she was a stern-wheeler, with her paddle-wheel located at her stern rather than having a paddle wheel mounted on either side. Her engine and boilers...both designed by Shreve...were aft, on the main deck. The engine was described as being an extremely simple and lightweight affair, having neither a beam (I'm assuming they mean Walking Beam) or flywheel, and weighing only 9000 pounds ('Lightweight' was obviously relative.).</div>
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She was well appointed, well crewed, and was sort of the space shuttle of her era when she was launched in mid 1816...and she was doomed to become the very first steamboat to be involved in a major accident when, on June 9th, 1816, she also became the first steamboat to suffer a boiler explosion.</div>
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She was still apparently in the testing phase at the time, and had no passengers on board when she arrived at Marietta Ohio on June 7th, with Henry Shreve and a well trained crew aboard. The <i>Washington </i>was the third steamboat to go in service on Western waters, making her very much a curiosity, so I have a feeling that she was made available for tours to the public. As she sat wharf-side for a day, the citizens of Marietta and environs there-of trooped to the Ohio River waterfront, crossed the gangplank to board her, and admired her lines and technology, young boys as wide-eyed with wonder as young boys two centuries later would be while touring the Space Shuttle or gazing at the SR-71 Blackbird.</div>
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Things get a little muddled as she leaves Marietta...sources note that she left Marietta on the afternoon of the 7th and made it to a town called Harmar, Ohio by the afternoon of the 8th. Problem is, there <i>is</i> no Harmar Ohio today, though there is a historic Harmar Village (As well as the Fort Harmar Historic Site) at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers, both old fort and historic village <i>deeply</i> inside the small city of Marietta today. Not being able to find a modern Harmar Ohio anywhere...and believe me I looked...I'm going to make the assumption that the village located at 'Historic Harmar Village' was indeed their stopping place.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_jPDie11p-4FR6T3nGZRTB4CwvA25xItGUF61SRjhXk1FZM2fYfiUuovOcZ-v5u5wqnk6bxCn20F8PkwgghxelpABPMS-RrMueOwY-qPCnnLeSj66Mhzry3AoXY_GGJKcN6bEPhMlOg/s1600/MArietta+and+AHrmar.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_jPDie11p-4FR6T3nGZRTB4CwvA25xItGUF61SRjhXk1FZM2fYfiUuovOcZ-v5u5wqnk6bxCn20F8PkwgghxelpABPMS-RrMueOwY-qPCnnLeSj66Mhzry3AoXY_GGJKcN6bEPhMlOg/s640/MArietta+and+AHrmar.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers today...smack dab in the middle of the city of Marietta, Ohio today, but back in 1816, Marietta was a tiny village, and the area outlined in red was the approximate location of the village of Harmar. Williamstown didn't yet exist...the then-Virginia side of the river was all woods. The current on the Ohio would have been flowing right to left (West) while the current from the Muskingum would have been pushing south, shoving the disabled <i>Washington</i> towards the Virginia shore. She was probably somewhere between 'Ohio River' and the river bank near present day W 3rd Street when her kedge anchor was deployed...and her boiler exploded.<br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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At any rate, on the afternoon of the 8th, she anchored near the Ohio shore, or possibly moored at Harmer's town dock, her black gang banked her fires, and the crew settled in for an evening of rest, relaxation, and whatever else steamboat crews might have done with their down-time in the middle of America's Heartland 200 years ago.</div>
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What happened the next morning was a true case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time for several members of her crew. Bright and early, her engine room crew lit off her fires and waited for steam pressure to build as the rest of her crew made preparations to head up-river. Shreve was likely eager to get moving, and as soon as his chief engineer informed him they had steam up, he gave the order to cast off. The pilot probably gave a good long blast on the whistle, the lines were cast off, and the <i>Washington</i> eased out into the current. One problem though...they did so before her throttle was opened, therefore she wasn't under power.</div>
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The couple of articles about the disaster that I could find simply stated that '<i>a difficulty occurred in getting the boat into a proper position to start the machinery</i>' without going into any real detail about said difficulty at all, so the reason she was drifting and her stern wheel wasn't thrashing the waters of the Ohio River has been lost to history. What <i>is</i> known, however, is that the current grabbed her and took her towards the Virginia (Now West Virginia) side of the river. Remember, if Harmar was where I <i>think</i> it was, they were right at the confluence of the Ohio and the Muskingum rivers, with the Muskingum dumping into the Ohio...and <i>Washington </i>drifting in the watery mixing bowl formed by the colliding currents of the two rivers. The current was probably turning her even as it aimed her towards any snags that might be luring just below the surface of the water along the Virginia side of the river, waiting to punch a hole in the hull of any out of control watercraft that might drift up onto them.<br />
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With thoughts of just how much damage a snag could do to <i>Washington's</i> wooden hull running through their heads, things likely got <i>real</i> busy for her crew at about that point, with lots of purposeful <i> fast</i> motion, engineers accusing recalcitrant machinery of vile and despicable acts, and Shreve judging just what the current of <i>two</i> rivers would do to her and where it would take her without power...where ever the current took them, without power, and therefore out of control, it couldn't be good.<br />
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Shreve was right on top of it, though, and ordered a kedge anchor set off of the stern, then, after it plopped into the Ohio's muddy waters, he very likely ordered a second one readied in case the first one dragged. After a few minutes that very likely seemed like a few months, the first kedge's flukes dug into the river's muddy bottom, and the <i>Washington</i> jerked to a stop, water eddying around her stern as whichever stern quarter the anchor line was off of (She was a stern wheeler, remember, so the anchor couldn't have been directly off of the stern) dipped, giving her a very slight list.</div>
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Now a kedge anchor has a very specific purpose...it's primary use is to reposition a boat by pulling the anchor line in while the anchor is set, and Shreve ordered the entire crew, with the probable exception of the boat's pilot and a couple of men in the open air engine room, to the stern so they could do just that. I think I know what he was trying to do...not only was he trying to pull her back towards the middle of the river, he may have been trying to turn her so her bow was heading in the direction he actually wanted to go before trying to get her moving under her own power.</div>
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OK, keep in mind here, the the fire was still burning, which meant that the steam pressure was still building, and with the engine not running, there was absolutely <i>no</i> way...other than the safety valve...to siphon off any of that pressure. And they were completely unaware of one very vital fact...the weight that was used to set the safety valve on one of the boilers had somehow slipped to the far end of the lever that governed the valve's 'pop-off' pressure, 'gagging' it...locking it closed. So, at that point in time that boiler actually didn't <i>have</i> a safety valve... <br />
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...Would it surprise anyone to find out that the boiler with the defective safety valve was also the one closest to the anchor windlass?</div>
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So ten or twelve men are straining at the anchor windlass. bringing the line in, slowly inching the <i>Washington</i> towards the middle of the river. The river current's singing a rushing, swooshing roar as it eddies around the stern of the boat, some of it splashing up onto the deck and splattering the crew. Shreve's watching the river, gauging the boat's progress, possibly entertaining the thought of having a couple of his crew grab poles in case they were needed to swing the <i>Washington's</i> bow...<br />
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The majority of the crew were at the <i>Washington's </i>stern, most of the probably clustered around the anchor windlass, when a sudden rending, crashing 'POP!!" tore the air at the same instant the whole world turned white as all of them were suddenly immersed in a horizontal stream of high pressure, super-heated steam. The separate sheets of iron that formed the near end of the boiler ripped apart at the seams like cloth, turning rivets into bullets and filling the scalding steam-cloud with deadly, fast moving shrapnel.<br />
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Several of the crew...including Shreve...were blown overboard, but most remained aboard after getting shredded by flying metal and parbroiled by super-heated steam. The citizens of Harmar had heard the boiler let go and hauled freight to the water front, and several of them, thinking at first that the steamboat was on fire when they saw the roiling clouds of steam boiling off of it, launched boats and pulled hard towards the stricken craft, picking up all but one of the crew members who had been blown overboard while they were at it. One of <i>Washington's</i> crew was carried away by the current after being blown overboard.<br />
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The <i>Washington </i>rocked gently mid-stream, the line for the kedge anchor pulled taut,<i> </i>her hull, thanks to the boiler's location on the main deck, undamaged<i>.</i> Steam still rolled from the after portion of the boat, but in quickly decreasing volume, and it was becoming real obvious, real fast that the scene awaiting them on board the damaged steamboat was not going to be a pretty one...they could hear piteous moans and screams of pain while they were still a hundred or so feet from the boat.<br />
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When they reached the <i>Washington, </i>they found the steam-seared bodies of several men who, having been right on top of the boiler when it exploded, had been killed instantly. The injuries were literally horrible. Boiler plates had frisbeed through the crew like giant throwing stars, amputating limbs and inflicting truly horrible wounds, while the scalding super-heated steam literally cooked anyone in it's path alive, causing full body, full thickness 2nd and 3rd degree burns that weren't survivable...but left their victims to suffer hours of agony before they finally died. It's reported that one man actually offered another all of his money and worldly goods if he'd put him out of his misery.<br />
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The worst injured were gently loaded aboard a couple of the boats and taken to the town's dock, to be cared for by the town's doctor...but there wasn't anything he could do. Face it, during that era people died of things that you wouldn't even call in sick from work for today. Treatment for injuries as severe as those resulting from the explosion wouldn't exist for well over a century. All the doctor and the townspeople could do was make them as comfortable as possible, and offer compassion.<br />
<br />
Seven people were apparently killed instantly by the explosion with another five dying later, bringing the death toll in the accident to 12... significant in any era, <i>huge</i> for a transportation accident in 1816. Interestingly enough, even though 17 people were either killed or injured, the <i>Washington</i> herself wasn't destroyed...she wasn't even <i>that</i> badly damaged at all.<br />
<br />
With her engine and boilers being located aft on the main deck, it's a good bet that her after deck house was wide open. As the explosion blew the end of the boiler out. the force of the explosion was expended horizontally, the blast force and steam burst rushing aft and possibly over the stern quarters, sparing the boat's upper works. With no solid bulkheads for it to splinter, the rush of high pressure steam dissipated in the muggy summer air pretty quickly, leaving the structure of the boat itself relatively undamaged. Had she been steaming up-river, with most of her crew forward, the explosion would have been a major inconvenience, but injures would have been relatively light.<br />
<br />
Her remaining engine room crew probably quickly banked the fires in the furnaces for the other three boilers so they wouldn't explode as well, Then, once all of the dead and injured were removed from her, her remaining crew, along with, very likely, several able bodied men from the village of Harmar, horsed her back to the town dock, probably using the two kedge anchors (pulling her up to the point where the first anchor was set, then tossing the second in the direction they wanted to pull her and making sure it was set before pulling the first one up), and using poles to position her until they could get her close enough to the dock for her mooring lines to be cast, and used to warp her along side the dock. It would have been a long, backbreaking, sweat-popping process, probably taking a day to do what, even fifteen years later, would have only taken a few minutes with another steamboat assisting her.<br />
<br />
I'm of course assuming a lot here, the fact that Harmar had a town dock being one of those assumptions, but lets just assume that there was indeed a town dock, and that it indeed where the ill-fated <i>Washington</i> was moored after her boiler exploded. Shreve and his remaining crew probably wasted no time in trying to figure out why they couldn't get the engine on line in the first place, as well as cutting the damaged boiler out of the steam supply line (All ships/steamboats with multiple boilers are designed to run with one or more of them off-line...it would require only the closing of a couple of valves) Once they got her running, and what perfunctory investigations were done were completed, they likely limped her back to Marietta for repairs to her boiler.<br />
<br />
Speaking of 'perfunctory investigations', there <i>had</i> to be <i>some</i> kind of investigation because deaths were involved. A coroners jury would have been convened to
determine cause of death as well as at least a general idea of why it
happened...this is very likely how the malfunctioning safety valve was discovered and reported in the news reports of the accident. Of course, that's not the only effect the media had. While the technology was primitive, and information traveled at a snails pace if it had to go further than the town of origin, the media was, and is, still the media. <br />
<br />
Word of the accident spread through-out the area like a wind-driven brush fire, with the story getting a little bit more gruesome with each retelling. Twelve people dying in a single incident is news <i>today</i>...in 1816 it was <i>huge, </i>and had the very real potential to be devastating to the development of steamboat travel.<i> </i>If <i>Washington </i>was the Space Shuttle of her era, then her boiler explosion was her era's <i>Challenger</i> explosion, and had pretty much the same effect on steamboat
development and travel on the western rivers...though much more
temporarily...that the <i>Challenger </i>explosion had on the Space Program. The general public gave lots of thought to the dangers of steamboat
travel, and seemed to be deciding that the possibility of being parbroiled in a burst of super-heated steam or cut down by flying boiler plate just might outweigh the convenience of fast travel.<br />
<br />
Washington sat dockside for two or three months, and was probably repaired where she was moored...I'm going to make a bet that her new boiler was also built in place, the ability to transport heavy machinery over land being seriously limited to non-existent back then.<br />
<br />
It took <i>Washington's </i>repair and rechristening to breath some more life into development of steamboat travel on Western waters. She was back in service by at least mid-September of 1816, and was logged as arriving in New Orleans on October 7th...one of two runs she made to New Orleans that year.<br />
<br />
It was an 1817 trip to New Orleans that she's best known for, however...the 'Fast Trip'. She left Louisville, Ky on a March, 1817 run to New Orleans, and made the trip down-river...with the current...in six days. One of the first vollies in the legal battle between Fulton and Shreve
over Fulton's legal monopoly on Riverboat travel on the lower
Mississippi was fired while she was in New Orleans, BTW...a battle that Shreve would ultimately win when the courts declared the monopoly illegal, despite the fact that it was the State of Louisiana that granted it.<br />
<br />
After this legal fire-fight was over, she departed New
Orleans, this time with passengers aboard, for Louisville and made the trip upriver...traveling<i> against</i> the current...in just twenty-five days, tying the existing record set by the <i>Enterprise, </i>with a record 31 days for the round trip.<br />
<br />
<i>Washington</i> continued to ply the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for
another seven years or so...she appeared regularly in the warfage books
of Louisville, New Orleans, and ports in between until she just dropped
out of sight after 1824 or thereabouts, apparently finally worn out. Interestingly enough, she and Henry Shreve's <i>George Washington</i>...the boat she's so often confused with...were very possibly in service at the same time for just a brief period The <i>George Washington</i> was launched and went in service in 1824...the year that the <i>Washington</i> dropped out of sight...so it's not at all unlikely that each of their logs may note them 'Speaking'...greeting an oncoming boat with a whistle blast...the other a couple of times.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Steamboat <i>Enterprise's</i> Boiler Explodes in Charleston Harbor</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>September 10, 1816 </b><br />
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<i>Washington's</i> boiler explosion wasn't the only fatal steamboat accident during the summer of 1816...that summer was actually book-ended by a pair of steamboat boiler explosions, and the boat that suffered the second one even had a familiar name...<i>Enterprise. </i>But she wasn't the <i>Enterprise</i> that so famously became the first U.S. Military steamboat. She was yet another <i>Enterprise...</i>a name that seems to have become popular as a name for ships both well known and obscure.<br />
<br />
If her boiler had exploded on one of the western rivers only three or so months after <i>Washington's</i> boiler exploded, it could've been a <i>major</i> setback
for development of river travel by steamboat. But <i>Enterprise's </i>boiler didn't explode on a
Western River...it exploded in an eastern harbor. By the time the news of <i>Enterprise's</i> boiler explosion reached the cities and towns along the Mississippi, <i>Washington</i> was back in service and had made a couple of trips without mishap. Also, a couple of other steamboats were plugging away faithfully and so far at least, safely on the Mississippi and other western rivers. By the time <i>Enterprise's </i>boiler exploded, all was forgiven, so to speak, on the Western rivers, and things were just about back to business as usual. So, while <i>Washington's</i> boiler explosion caused, at most, a temporary set-back to steamboat development out west, <i>Enterprise's</i> boiler explosion had little effect at all.<br />
<br />
In fact, if it hadn't been for the afore-mentioned boiler explosion, this particular <i>Enterprise</i> would have likely faded into history after several years of of service, which is what happened to the very great majority of steamboats. As it is, all we really know about her is that she shared a name with her far better known contemporary on the Mississippi, and that she suffered the second fatal boiler explosion on a working steamboat. We can make a few assumptions about her though. Being in service on the east coast...and on a harbor rather than a river at that...she was probably a deep draft vessel, much closer in configuration to Fulton's <i>North River</i> than to Shreve's <i>Washington. </i>and we can safely assume that she very likely wasn't a small boat. Oh, she wasn't huge, but she was big enough to have a deck-house that could accommodate at least 70-100 people.<br />
<br />
We also know that at about 9 PM on the evening of September 9th, 1816, Charleston, South Carolina was experiencing one of those gully-washer thunderstorms that are pretty much part of everyday life during the summer in the south. <i>Enterprise </i>had just pulled away from her dock on Sullivan's Island, likely located on the east side of the 'L' shaped islands 'hook' (See the map below.). Her just-boarded passengers...all men, from the source I found...wasted no time at all crowding into the deck house to escape the rain thundering onto <i>Enterprise's</i> wooden deck.<br />
<br />
Her captain called for all ahead a quarter or so as she eased away from the dock (Through a speaking tube...engine room telegraphs were still a half century or more in the future) and the paddle wheel buckets (She was probably a side wheeler) started splashing into the water of Charleston Harbor as her pilot, captain, and everyone else in her pilothouse peered through the curtain of rain that was hiding anything over 100 yards or so away from view. Sullivan's Island slowly receded astern as her captain and helmsman started working her into the narrow channel that would take her around the tip of the Hook and into Charleston Harbor itself. A few of her braver passengers stayed on deck to...what? Experience the wonders of nature in a full-fledged tantrum?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6fld6jkrPfC9Ndz2o_AThHc048niIn3qT4thlPxfYk2s3pGojo2b8o698Fkw3Lyb6rjIV7sTfMTm2RCJWufM3Wl3Z6GnofJSdF2Whj4k0ifH1iIa1ENO_MqiWU-7Yo3PDJL9h_MYnixY/s1600/Charleston_Harbor_LT.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6fld6jkrPfC9Ndz2o_AThHc048niIn3qT4thlPxfYk2s3pGojo2b8o698Fkw3Lyb6rjIV7sTfMTm2RCJWufM3Wl3Z6GnofJSdF2Whj4k0ifH1iIa1ENO_MqiWU-7Yo3PDJL9h_MYnixY/s640/Charleston_Harbor_LT.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Civil War era map of Charleston Harbor and Sullivan's Island...the earliest one I could find. The red 'X' denotes the area where I <i>think</i> that <i>Enterprise</i> was when her boiler exploded, based on nothing more than the fact that all of the development on Sullivan's Island</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">was on that hooked west end of the island until well into the 20th century, and the fact that</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"> Sullivan's Island is located right at the entrance of Charleston Harbor and exposed to any seas that a storm might throw at them. That 'hook' </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">creates a sheltered 'mini-harbor' on the east side of the hook, sheltering that side of the island from the afore-mentioned Atlantic storms.</span></td></tr>
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<br />
Now if you've ever experienced one of these southern thunder-boomers, you know what I'm talking about. It was raining so hard that rain-roar just about drowned out any and all other sound. Lightning was giving their passengers a fireworks display that the Fourth of July could take notes on, and thunder was an all but constant booming roar., It was likely <i>not</i> a fun night to be on the water. I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't have been out on deck.<br />
<br />
And as noted most of her passengers were of the same opinion...and that, along with the constant roar and boom of the storm is probably why most of them didn't even hear the explosion when it happened. <i>Enterprise</i> hadn't made it more than 100 yards from the dock when one of her boilers exploded, and from the sounds of it, this one didn't just blow it's end plate off...this one came apart violently. It was apparently also located on the main deck, because boiler plate scythed through the crowd like murderous frisbees even as scalding steam engulfed the deck of the steamship...and everyone on the deck.<br />
<br />
The only thing those in the cabin heard was a sudden loud hiss of escaping steam (Probably the relief valves of the other boilers as the surviving members of the 'Black Gang,' as steam boat//ship engine room crews have been called since time immortal, opened them up to prevent her other boilers from exploding. The passengers in <i>Enterprise's </i>cabin may not have realized that catastrophe had just jumped aboard with them, but<i> everyone</i> on the Black Gang, along with the passengers who'd been on deck,...at least those who'd survived...knew <i>something</i> had happened, and that it wasn't good.<br />
<br />
Her Captain...identified only as Captain Howard... also realized something <i>bad</i> had just happened, and very likely immediately called for all stop, and for her anchor to be dropped so she wouldn't drift. Then, as the engine room crew both banked fires and manually opened the other boilers' safety valves he began accessing both damage to his vessel, and injuries to his crew. It wasn't good. Whatever portion of her deckhouse had housed her engines and boiler was now a splintered shambles, and bodies, both injured and dead, littered the deck. He had several small fires burning, where burning wood from the boiler's furnace had been scattered, but the rain was taking care of that problem. On the plus side, her hull wasn't damaged and she wasn't taking on water.<br />
<br />
And, just as had happened with the <i>Washington</i>, people on shore had either heard or seen the explosion...the sudden cataclysmic burst of steam, at any rate...and boats were even then pulling towards her. They found a similar scene to that found by the townspeople who'd rowed to <i>Washington's </i>aid.</div>
</div>
<br />
Grievously scalded men were lying all over the deck, many burned over 75-100 percent of their bodies, injuries that probably wouldn't be survivable <i>today</i>, much less two centuries ago. Others had the same type of horrible injuries inflicted by flying shrapnel that those on board <i>Washington </i>had suffered. At least now we can provide pain relief to the mortally injured...Two centuries ago, all rescuers could do was provide compassion.<br />
<br />
Again, as had happened when <i>Washington's</i> boiler had exploded, the injured...a well as the survivors...were loaded onto boats and taken back to Sullivan's Island. When it was all over with, eight men...probably including most of the engine room crew...were killed instantly, and at least four others were burned so badly that they very likely died later.<br />
<br />
There was no more information available about this one...not even the names of the victims...other than an interesting bit of argument over the cause. One group stated that they saw lightning strike the vessel's smokestack the instant that her boiler exploded, and that this lightning strike was obviously what cased her boiler to come apart so spectacularly, while another group stated that her engine room crew used salt water in her boilers rather than fresh water, and that the corrosive effect of salt water, over time, ultimately weakened the ill-fated boiler to the point that it could no longer contain it's normal operating pressure. The second one sounds far, <i>far</i> more plausible than the first, IMHO.<br />
<br />
I have a feeling, though, that general lack of proper maintenance along with possibly letting the water get too low in the boiler had a lot more to do with it.<br />
<br />
Beyond that, nothing more is known about the incident, or the fate of the <i>Enterprise, </i>but if her hull was indeed undamaged, it's not at all unlikely that, like the <i>Washington</i>, she was repaired and put back in service.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Steamboat <i>Constitution's</i> Boiler Explodes On The Mississippi</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Pointe Coupee, Louisiana</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>May, 1817 </b><br />
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People have a tendency to panic...we all know this. All of us have done it. Usually, though, it's a harmless and temporary panic, like that sudden empty feeling that you get when you go to pay for gas/restaurant check/groceries and realize that your wallet's at home on your desk or dresser. All that results is some inconvenience and embarrassment, and the only thing injured is pride.</div>
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BUT...put the average person...or worse, your average group of people...in the middle of a sudden life-threatening situation, or what they <i>perceive</i> to be a life threatening situation and suddenly that panic become just as deadly or deadlier than the situation itself.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
This has been proven time and time again, It increased the death toll in just about <i>every</i> major loss of life fire or marine disaster ever recorded, and one of the first blatant examples of this unfortunate flaw of human nature just may have also been the third of our boiler explosions, which was also the first boiler explosion on the lower Mississippi...the explosion of the Steamboat <i>Constitution.</i><br />
<br />
I could find <i>very</i> little info about the <i>Constitution </i>other than than the fact that she was a fairly small steamer and was built and launched as the <i>Oliver Evans </i>a year or so before the boiler explosion. I have a feeling that, as she was renamed<i>, </i>she apparently also changed hands during that year. She was also said to be 'One of the finest boats on the Mississippi River<i>'. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
We <i>do</i> know that, on May 4th, 1817, she was enroute from Natchez to New Orleans and was rounding the bend that curled around a point of land known as Pointe Coupee, when her boiler exploded loudly.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPgeiGbe5RWcnsgAeVw-djzyX_BaOt-xVcBcI439WMfflMJbnsaJf0ghk1OYzc-jwcX3yQdyZoHq_wYr2CsEYnmTPBQZzRW0XhEG4Tyy55h83iLASWau-wX2BEHxGA1msW1Sor9jb5Qs/s1600/Pointe+Coupee.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPgeiGbe5RWcnsgAeVw-djzyX_BaOt-xVcBcI439WMfflMJbnsaJf0ghk1OYzc-jwcX3yQdyZoHq_wYr2CsEYnmTPBQZzRW0XhEG4Tyy55h83iLASWau-wX2BEHxGA1msW1Sor9jb5Qs/s640/Pointe+Coupee.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The <i>Constitution</i> was just rounding Pointe Coupee, in the upper center of the image, when her boiler exploded. This area is pretty rural <i>today</i>. Imagine how desolate it was two hundred years ago. Also note False River...the oxbow lake in the center of the image. This is a former channel bypassed by the Mississippi centuries ago when then river changed course. There are a slew of these oxbow lakes along Old Man River's course, but False River is probably the largest and best known. </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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The by then all too familiar rush of super-heated steam and deadly blizzard of flying rivets and boilerplate ripped through and enshrouded anyone who may have been on deck, killing as many as eleven people instantly, but it's what several of her other passengers did that lends credence to the theory that <i>some</i> of the deaths caused by the explosion were actually caused by panic.<br />
<br />
Several of her passengers, feeling the violent shudder that vibrated the whole boat like a tuning fork and hearing the earsplitting metallic 'POP!!" of the boiler letting go, spilled out on deck, spotted the clouds of steam rolling out of her midsection, and, possibly assuming she was on fire, dived into the river and were promptly caught in the current and carried off, a couple of them never to be seen again. The ability to swim was <i>not</i> a common skill in the early 1800s.<br />
<br />
The injuries on board the <i>Constitution</i> paralleled those on board <i>Washington</i> and <i>Enterprise...</i> horrible, full-body burn injuries that, while unsurvivable, left their victims conscious and in agony for hours before they finally died, as well as massive injuries inflicted by pieces of the boiler that spun through the passengers and crew who were on deck, sharp edges ripping and tearing through flesh as they did so.<br />
<br />
News articles of the day also described one man who was found on deck with both an arm and leg torn away by flying boiler plate, and a young girl who hung on for three agonizing hours before passing away. All in all, the death toll was at least twelve and <i>possibly</i> as high as twenty-five, with thirty total deaths and injuries...the highest yet to be caused by a boiler explosion. <br />
<br />
<i>Constitution </i>was probably worse off than either <i>Washington</i> or <i>Enterprise</i> simply because she wasn't near a population center of any size when her her boiler exploded...and here's where I'm going to have to really speculate a bit. If she had multiple boilers (And most steamboats did) it's possible that her captain, Captain Bezeau had the remainder of the black gang cut the damaged boiler out of the system and limp her to the nearest town<i>...</i>probably Baton Rouge. It's even possible that they let the river carry them down stream.<br />
<br />
Problem was, when she got there, even when doctors arrived at dockside, there wasn't anything they could do for the gravely injured passengers and crew members...technique and technology to effectively treat massive injuries of that nature, or even provide any relief from pain, just didn't exist back then and wouldn't exist for well over a century...closer, in fact, to a century and a half.<br />
<br />
Like <i>Washington, </i>and very possibly<i> Enterprise</i> as well, the <i>Constitution's </i>hull was undamaged, and she was repaired fairly quickly, with passage on her being advertised by mid-July of 1817...she was very likely the very same <i>Constitution</i> mentioned in several sources as the second steamboat on the Missouri River, in October of 1817...five months after the explosion.</div>
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<b> </b> </div>
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<b>**********************Fire/EMS Response 2016 v/s 1816****************************</b> </div>
<br />
Lets make a quick comparison of fire/EMS capabilities in all three communities today vs what was available 200 years ago.<br />
<br />
If a comparable incident...say an explosion and/or fire aboard a tour boat with multiple major burn injuries...happened today in either Marietta, Ohio or Charleston, S.C. you would have needed traffic control to keep the responding Emergency Services watercraft from getting in each others way. Fire and P.D. in both localities have specialized marine divisions as well as top-notch EMS systems (Fire-department based in Marietta, separate agency in Charleston), and Level One trauma care and burn centers are a quick ambulance ride or helicopter ride away, with aggressive prehospital advanced life support trauma care being administered enroute.<br />
<br />
Then we have Point Coupee Parish in Louisiana, protected by a well trained, well equipped combination department (Primarily volunteer with a few salaried firefighters) as well as an equally well equipped and trained police department. With the Mississippi providing much of the parish's western boundary, and with a busy commercial port with-in the parish (Same, BTW, as a county in every other state) you can bet that fire and P.D have some heavy duty marine response capability, as well as having the Coast Guard available (Yes...they do also respond on inland waterways) should there be an explosion on a towboat or a container ship resulting in major injuries. Baton Rouge...35 miles away by ground, ten or so minutes away on 'The Bird' 'as the crow or 'copter flies...has a very highly respected regional burn center.<br />
<br />
Even though Marietta's and Pointe Coupee Parish's capabilities are a bit more limited than Charleston's (Marietta has about 15,000
residents today, and Pointe Coupee Parish boasts around<br />
22,000 residents compared to Charleston's population of around
120,000), the response to a boat explosion with multiple major injuries in any of the three communities today is an entire universe away from the capabilities available
in 1816/17.<br />
<br />
In short, in 1816/17 there were no emergency response capabilities. Charleston didn't have a fire department until 1819, Marietta's was first organized in 1825, and Pointe Coupee Parish didn't see fire protection until the early to mid 20th century. Marine response capability came decades later. Meaningful pre-hospital trauma care wasn't available nationwide until the early 1970s.<br />
<br />
<i>In</i>-hospital medical care was severely lacking in the early 1800s. On-scene care consisted of citizens, and maybe a doctor or two attempting to comfort mortally injured patients as they lay dying in agony.<br />
<br />
There was literally nothing that could be done for them. Makes you even more thankful for the fire/EMS resources we have available today, even though we pray diligently we'll never need them.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>***********************Notes And Links And Stuff**********************</b></span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The little pocket history of the steamboat I kicked this one off with is in no way even vaguely complete...I just tried to hit the relevant high points. A full and complete history of the steamboat would require a <i>big</i> book (And in fact a couple of them have been written over the last couple of centuries...I'll include a couple of titles down in 'Links').</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">And <i>speakin' </i>of a couple of centuries...I hope I managed to make this one just a little bit informative and interesting even though the well was pretty dry, information-wise when I started researching the three boiler explosions. I threw every possible combination of (Steamboat Name) and Boiler Explosion I could think of into the ol' Google-Machine, and the only one of the three steamboats that I could find even a minimal amount of actual info on was the <i>Washington. </i>I can thank Henry Shreve for that...if she hadn't been associated with him, she'd have been just as obscure as the other two. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Meanwhile, just about <i style="font-style: normal;">ALL</i> of the info I found about the boiler explosions themselves was gleaned from ancient newspaper articles and some passages from '<i style="font-style: normal;"> Lloyd's Steamboat Directory And Disasters On Western Waters'...</i>a book written in 1856 that detailed life on the river and listed every steamboat accident of any kind on the western rivers up to that point (Spoiler alert...there were a bunch of 'em). And almost all of <i>these</i> bits and pieces were gleaned from the genealogy site I use for research. There were actually a good number of hits on all three BTW...they just repeated the text of the exact same three excerpts from 'Lloyds...'</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Though part of me was hoping there'd be a<i> little</i> bit more info out there, this time the lack of info didn't really surprise me...lets be honest here, these events took place just about exactly 200 years ago as I'm writing this. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">There was no I.C.C. or NTSB, no Coast Guard, no regulatory agencies at <i>all</i> concerning themselves with steamboats or traffic on inland waterways.</span> No regulatory agencies means that record keeping was, at best, a maybe kinda thing, and that records were, at best, sparse. Needless to say, most of the records on those first a</span>ccidents and disasters involving steamboats that <i>were</i> written down back then are long lost to history. </div></div></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So, with that little disclaimer out of the way...hope you guys enjoyed it anyway. On to the notes!</span><br />
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Remember me saying that I didn't even come close to relating the entire history of steamboat development? Make a guess just how many early inventors actually got a functioning steamboat on the water <i>before</i> Fulton's '<i>North River</i>' AKA <i>Clermont</i> became the first commercially successful steamboat. Better yet...take a look at this list:</div>
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1763 William Henry. (Lancaster, PA). <br />
Some say he actually invented the steamboat. Began experimenting with steam engine-propelled boats on the Conestoga River, in PA. in 1763. Oh...yeah...one of his neighbors was a 12 year old kid named Robert Fulton. Sadly, there's almost <i>no</i> info out there on the boat herself, though I did find out it was a model rather than a full size, man-carrying vessel,,,and that it sank.<br />
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1774 Perier Freries. (experiments on the Seine River, France). <br />
Supposedly experimented with a steamboat on the Seine, near PAris, in1774. <br />
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1782 Marquis de Jouffroy d' Abbans. Saone River, France.<br />
Vessel ran for about 15 minutes before the bottom gave way. This one had some potential. She was powered by a single cylinder, double acting steam engine, and was a sidewheeler. Her engine wasn't her downfall...her hull construction was. The boat started breaking up under the pounding of the engine...but not before managing 6 MPH upstream, against the current at that. <br />
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1787 James Rumsey. (Shepherdstown, West Virginia). Potomoc River.<br />
"Jet" propulsion engine averaging 2-4 mph. Ran continuously for about<br />
two hours on first trip. Second trip averaged 4 mph. Steam engine powered a pump that discharged through a nozzle beneath the waterline at the stern...making her the first jet-boat!<br />
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1787 John Fitch. (paddles along the side of vessel). 3-4 mph.<br />
Yes, she was propelled by steam-powered oars! <br />
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1787 John Fitch. (second vessel PERSEVERANCE).<br />
This one's described above <br />
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1789 William Symington. (Miller Estate, Scotland). 5 mph.<br />
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1790 William Symington. (Forth & Clyde Canals) 6-7 mph<br />
William Symington built a couple of steamboats...the first could arguably be called the first powered pleasure boat, but was only run once or twice on supposedly successful trial runs. He also built a couple of steam-powered tug boats for the Forth and Clyde canal that were demonstrated successfully, actually towing a pair of barges, but weren't accepted for purchase. <br />
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1790 John Fitch. Vessel THORNTON. Made 7 mph in service between<br />
Burlington, Bristol, Bordentown and Trenton. Accommodated excursions<br />
out of Wilmington, Gray's Ferry and Chester. Made between 2,000-<br />
3,000 miles without a serious accident. First steamboat in commercial service, described above. He was also awarded the patent for steamboats in August of 1790.<br />
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1790 Samuel Morey. Experiments on the Connecticut River.<br />
This is the guy who gets credit for inventing the paddlewheel, even though Symmington came up with the same concept in France the same year.. Morey built a couple of successfull demonstrated steamboats...all sidewheelers...and almost had the second steamboat in commercial service, but his backing fell through.<br />
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Morey, BTW, also developed one of the very first internal combustion engines, powered by turpentine, and actually installed it successfully on a wagon. That's right...the first engine powered truck. Unfortunately the vehicle was wrecked on it's first run, and the invention was not taken seriously.<br />
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1792 Elijah Ormsbee. Vessel using atmospheric engine and duck-foot<br />
paddles at Windsor's Cove, Narragansett Bay. 3 mph.<br />
Ormsbee's boat was reportedly actually a pretty successful little craft, and he ran her back and forth for most of a summer...but didn't have the funds for further development. <br />
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1793 Samuel Morey. Stern-wheel powered steam vessel. Ran Hartford<br />
to New York in 1794. 5 mph.<br />
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Remember this guy? He also built a pretty successful stern-wheeler. <br />
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1796 John Fitch. Screw-propeller steam vessel.<br />
Way ahead of it's time, and not well accepted <br />
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1796 Griffin Green. Built a boat with steam engine. Went bankrupt before<br />
completed.<br />
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1797 Samuel Morey. Sidewheel -powered steam vessel.<br />
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1803 William Symington. Clyde & Forth Canals (Scotland). 19 1/2 miles<br />
in 6 hours.<br />
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1804 Capt. James McKeever and Louis Valcourt. Kentucky. Engine and boiler<br />
by Oliver Evans. Engines: 9" x 36". Flue-type boiler: 42" diameter.<br />
Taken to New Orleans and abandoned. Almost beat Bob Fulton to the punch with a successful steamboat. The only reason she was abandoned was because a hurricane damaged her beyond repair.<br />
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1804 Robert Fulton. (France) Seine River steamboat trial. 3-4 mph.<br />
That's right...Fulton experimented in France before he built the <i>North River</i> in the U.S. <br />
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1804 Robert L. Stevens. Steam vessel. Screw propeller. Engine: 10" x 24".<br />
Boiler: 50 lbs. pressure. Ran New York to Hoboken. First really successful screw-propelled steamer. She was only 32 feet long, <br />
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1807 Robert Fulton. First commercially successful steam -powered vessel.<br />
NOTH RIVER STEAMBOAT. Side paddlewheels. New York to Albany<br />
(150 miles) in 32 hours (5 mph).<br />
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1808 John Stevens. (Philadelphia). Vessel PHENIX. First steamboat to<br />
navigate the ocean. Perth Amboy to Paulus Hook (30 miles at 5+ mph). She was screw-propelled, BTW. became the second commercially successful steamboat.<br />
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John was Robert Stevens' Dad. This father-son team developed <i>many</i> improvements and such for steamboats. The double ended ferryboat? Yeah, they invented that, too!<br />
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So, yeah...the development of the steamboat was pretty much a long-term on-going effort. Robert Fulton basically took a bunch of already-invented devices and already developed ideas, improved on them, and put them all together to build what would become the worlds first commercially successful steamboat.<br />
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Robert Fulton's <i>New Orleans</i> may have been the first steamboat in service on the Western rivers, but she was almost beaten to the punch. Not only was<i> New Orleans </i>almost<i> </i>beaten to the punch, but Fulton's <i>North River, </i>AKA<i> Clermont</i> was almost the <i>second</i> successful steamboat rather than the first. And had that happened, the <i>first</i> successful steamboat would have been churning through the muddy waters of the Mississippi, in New Orleans, three years before the <i>North River's</i> paddle wheels even made their first revolution.</div>
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She was designed by James McKeever and Louis Valcourt, utilizing a high pressure steam engine and boiler designed by Oliver Evans. She was about 80 feet long with a beam of 18 feet, and was apparently fairly shallow draft. Evans' engine developed about 150 horsepower.</div>
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The engine was built in Philadelphia, and shipped around the Florida peninsula and through the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, and was actually installed on the steamboat...but she was never even tested. One of the Whirly-Girls of late summer/early fall, un-named back then, came blowing and blustering in, shoving the Gulf far up the Mississippi in a storm surge, and taking the also unnamed steamboat with it, depositing her a half mile inland, high and dry. </div>
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There was absolutely no practical way to refloat her, so her steam engine was sold to the owner of a local sawmill, where it was used very successfully. The hull of the steamboat was apparently broken up on-site</div>
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And three years later, Bob Fulton's <i>North River</i> got all the glory. </div>
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Those of us from a certain era remember mimeographed tests...you know, those blue tinted tests whose copies were 'run off' on a beast of an office machine featuring a big cylindrical hand cranked drum, and a sharp, solvent odor that wasn't at all unpleasant, other than the fact that it was so readily associated with tests and exams. </div>
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Guess who came up with this basic process...none other than James Watt, in 1780. His duplicating machine copied a written document by pressure onto thin, translucent, unsized paper, producing a reversed copy from the back...the exact same basic principal used to make copies right on up to about the mid or late 1970s, when modern photocopiers took over.</div>
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Just to show how much they appreciated Henry Shreve's contributions to inland navigation, when a group of people decided to put up a new town on the Red River in 1836, they named it after him.<br />
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I'm talking about the city of Shreveport, Louisiana, of course.</div>
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Even though Henry Shreve survived the <i>Washington's</i> boiler explosion, the first version of the news, passed throughout the Ohio River Valley via word of mouth in the days immediately after the explosion, reported that he, too, was among the dead. This was quickly refuted, of course, but that didn't stop someone from coming up with a pretty good ghost story starring the very much alive Mr Shreve himself. </div>
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According to this ghostly tale, Shreve was seen piloting a phantom steamboat along the Ohio River, sounding the whistle and warning all who happened upon him of a coming catastrophe about to occur near the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers.</div>
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This story was told throughout the Ohio River Valley for <i>years</i>, making Henry Shreve one of the few living souls...if not the <i>only</i> living soul...to star in their own ghost story. </div>
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Remember the 1909 replica of Fulton's <i>North River </i>AKA <i>Clermont? </i>Seems that as the Hudson-Fulton festival got under way, she was involved in her own minor incident. The festival also included a replica of Henry Hudson's ship, the <i>Half Moon...</i>and it seems that, as the giant flotilla of ships, boats, and other water craft started their journey up the Hudson, the helmsman of the <i>Half Moon</i> replica lost control of her just long enough to accidentally ram the <i>Clermont</i> replica, Damage was minor, and there were no injuries, just a few red faces. A well placed and alert photographer managed to grab a shot of the two replicas at or just after the point of impact...see below.</div>
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Fulton's <i>New Orleans</i> didn't enjoy a long lasting career, either...in fact she didn't last as long as any of the three boats featured in this post.</div>
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<i>New Orleans </i>struck a snag near Baton Rouge on July 14th, 1814, making her not only the first steamboat on the Mississippi, but very likely the first to sink on the Mississippi. Thankfully no injuries or deaths resulted from her sinking.</div>
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She also kind of set the stage for the careers of the great majority of Mississippi River steamboats, especially the earlier ones...they were <i>not</i> a long-lived breed of vessel. The average steamboat enjoyed a career of under five years before it either burned, suffered a boiler explosion, or sank. </div>
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Boiler explosions were<i> way</i> up in the top three or so causes of steamboat accidents, especially during their early days, and they could come in several forms, with several potential causes...but there were two biggies.</div>
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The <i>Washington</i>'s boiler exploded due to a faulty safety valve...but it wasn't always the safety valve itself that was the problem. It was sometimes the crew actually disabling the safety valve, especially as time passed, and steamboats became more elaborate, powerful, and faster, Trophies, business, and bragging rights were awarded for speed...the faster a steamboat was, the more publicity she received, the more publicity she received, the more business she got, and the more business she got, the more money she made. The more money she made, the more money available to be divided among her crew.<br />
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Steamboat races were not uncommon, and it was just as common for crews to soak wood in pitch and lamp oil (What we call kerosene today) to make the fire hotter, then gag the safety valve so the steam pressure would go off the chart, giving them more speed. The very obvious downside to this practice was, of course, the fact that it made the safety valve useless, causing more than a few boiler explosions when the crew's quest for speed pushed the steam pressure to a level that the boiler wasn't designed to handle.<br />
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Probably the biggest cause of all, though, was also the simplest and easiest to avoid...letting the water get too low in the boiler.<br />
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Wait, you ask. Wouldn't that just<i> stop</i> steam production (And the steamboat) and actually make the danger of an explosion diminish.<br />
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I can see where you're going with that, but in a word, no.<br />
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Adding water to boiler when the water level gets a <i>little</i> low isn't an issue. That, in fact, is exactly what feedwater pumps are designed to do. The problem...and explosion...comes when you let the water get <i>way</i> too low, then dump cold water onto bare metal that had been superheated by the fire in the boiler's furnace (Or firebox). See, if you dump cold water onto super-heated metal, that metal is going to rip apart like paper tearing because it suddenly contracts on the cooled (Water) side, but not on the heated (Fire) side. And this, in a nutshell, was the cause of a huge percentage of early boiler explosions. The water in the boiler would get too low, the engineer would add water, which would contact the super-heated metal directly, and the boiler would, basically, pop like a balloon.<br />
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What made this an even bigger and more dangerous problem in the early days of steam propulsion was the fact that there was no water-level gauge of any kind.<i> </i>None...the engineer had to gauge the water-level by listening to the sound made by the boiling water. Of course, every boiler was a little different and something as simple as a head cold could affect the engineer's hearing enough to cause him to over-estimate the water level. Then there was the fact that they drew water directly from the river to fill the boiler. River water is filled with silt that would leave a nice sound deadening layer of mud on the inside of the boiler, making the sound of boiling water harder to decipher. On top of this, steamboat engine rooms were not particularly quiet places in the first place, so our Chief Engineer had a job ahead of him guessing the water level based on sound alone. Too often, he guessed wrong.<br />
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Then when gauges...first gauge cocks, then sight glasses...were introduced, the fact that the western rivers were so muddy, and that the feedwater for the boilers was drawn directly from the river again created a problem. It would plug the guagecocks, making them useless...then when sight glasses replaced guage cocks, the same mud would both plug them <i>and</i> coat the inside of the sight glass, making it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to read.</div>
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Of course there's no way to be absolutely sure, but I'd almost lay bets on the other two early boiler explosions...those of <i>Enterprise</i> and <i>Constitution...</i>being caused by low water in the boiler. </div>
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<b><***> LINKS<***></b><br />
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There was <i>way</i> more info available about the guys who developed the steamboat than there was about the three boiler explosions I featured here, therefore there are <i>way</i> more links leading to info about them and their steamboats out there...I tried to grab a few of the best and most interesting ones. </div>
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<a href="http://www.farmcollector.com/equipment/jet-powered-boat-zmlz14febzbea.aspx%20%20Rumsey's%20jet%20boat">http://www.farmcollector.com/equipment/jet-powered-boat-zmlz14febzbea.aspx Rumsey's jet boat</a><br />
James Rumsey's steam powered jet-boat<br />
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.wonderfulwv.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Archive/Jul2014-2.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1473106476712000&usg=AFQjCNEzcQC6EVYMN8LA10U0SknsQ-8LlQ" href="http://www.wonderfulwv.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Archive/Jul2014-2.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">http://www.wonderfulwv.com/<wbr></wbr>SiteCollectionDocuments/<wbr></wbr>Archive/Jul2014-2.pdf</a><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Another decent article about Rumsey's boat. This is in PDF format, so you'll need a PDF viewer to read it.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.craven-hall.org/fitch-steamboat-museum/">http://www.craven-hall.org/fitch-steamboat-museum/</a> John Fitch Steamboat Museum's site<br />
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<a href="http://www.steamboats.org/forum/steamboats-history/4066-mississippi-river-steamboat-built-1802-a-2.html"> http://www.steamboats.org/forum/steamboats-history/4066-mississippi-river-steamboat-built-1802-a-2.html</a> Steamboats.com forum thread about the steamboat that <i>almost</i> beat Bob Fulton to the punch getting a commercially successful steamboat in service. here's a lot of extremely interesting info in the thread.<br />
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<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vZZIAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA329&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true">https://books.google.com/books?id=vZZIAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA329&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true</a><br />
Article about Fulton's <i>North River</i> as well as the 1909 replica from the September 1909 issue of <i>International Marine Engineering. </i>There are, BTW, several other interesting articles in the issue...if you have an interest in the ships and maritime history, don't start reading unless you've got plenty of time!<br />
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<a href="https://archive.org/details/lloydssteamboatd00lloy">https://archive.org/details/lloydssteamboatd00lloy</a> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The full text of <i style="font-style: normal;">Lloyd's Steamboat Directory And Disasters On Western Waters.</i></span><br />
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<a href="http://genealogytrails.com/ark/greene/SteamboatDisasters.htm">http://genealogytrails.com/ark/greene/SteamboatDisasters.htm</a> A comprehensive listing of steamboat disasters and accidents on the western rivers.</div>
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-81967668962763401622016-07-05T10:37:00.002-04:002021-02-08T08:52:17.324-05:00The Ghostly Children of San Antonio, Texas<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><b>The
Ghostly Children of San Antonio, Texas</b></span></div>
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<span><b>The Most
Famous Bus Crash That Never Happened</b></span></div>
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<span>After eighteen or so months of researching
and writing and proofreading, and rewriting </span>schoolbus-train crash <span>posts I've decided that it's finally<i> almost</i> time to put them to
rest...but</span><span> </span><i></i>I can't quite do so just yet because, ya see, there's one more bus-train crash story to tell. And this won't be just <i>any</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
post about just </span><i>any</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
accident, either. See, <i>this</i> one has </span>it's very own ghost. Ten of 'em, in fact. And these aren't just any ol' ghosts either. This ghostly crew's story has become what's arguably the most famous ghost story in Texas.</div>
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<span><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>We're heading for the south-central part of The Lone Star
State for this one, and our destination's a quaint little burg that's home to around 1.4 million people, some of the best Mexican food anywhere north of the border, and a building all of you may have heard of
known as 'The Alamo'. I'm talking, of course, about the lovely and historic city of
San Antonio, Texas. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>We're
going to ignore San Antonio's better known historic sites, as well as...very reluctantly...it's multitude of awesome
Mexican restaurants as we bypass the city's more populated areas and head for a 90 degree curve on a back road in</span><span> </span>the more sparsely settled far south-eastern corner of the city. The curve in question is the one where Villamain Road, which runs parallel to a still active spur of the Union Pacific Railroad for a half mile or so, heaves itself around 90 degrees to the left to become Shane Road, crossing the U.P.tracks while it's at it...the very crossing where what would become Texas' most famous ghost story took root.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>If
you've read the rest of my Bus-Train crash posts, the gist of the story's a
familiar one. A school bus with ten Catholic elementary school kids aboard was on
Shane Road sometime after sun-down, heading towards Villamain Road
enroute home from a field trip, when the bus engine decided to die at the very instant that they rolled onto the
crossing. According to the story, all of the
kids, exhausted from their day-long field trip, were asleep. The nun who was driving the bus, figuring that the engine would fire right back up,</span><span><span> decided to let the kids sleep as she tried to start the bus</span>. I mean, it'd probably start right back up, right?</span><br />
<br />
<span>Of course, as the story goes, it didn't. She'd cranked it a couple of times without success when the
headlight of an approaching train suddenly appeared from around a
curve. </span>She tried desperately to crank the bus one more time as
the engineer of the train spotted the bus sitting across the tracks and went sweaty-pale and wide-eyed as he yanked his brakes into emergency and laid down on the
whistle, sending it's mournful wail across the countryside as steel
wheels screed against steel rails.<br />
<br />
The locomotive slammed into the
bus broadside, ripping it in two and sending the front half of the
bus spinning off of the tracks while dragging the rear half for a couple of hundred yards before tossing it aside, on the opposite side of the tracks, as
the train slid to a stop. All ten of the children who were aboard the bus are supposed to have lost their lives in
the accident.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>The driver was uninjured, but devastated by the deaths,
holding herself entirely responsible. As time passed she became more and more despondent until she finally decided to take her own life. And she
wasn't going to do so using just any method...she decided to drive
her personal car to the very crossing where the accident occurred,
and park across the tracks, waiting for a train to happen by and end
it all...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><span style="font-style: normal;">...So,
on a dark, moonless night several months after the accident she tried to do</span><i>
just </i><span style="font-style: normal;">that. She parked near the
crossing, waited until she heard a train coming, then pulled forward,
across the tracks, and composed herself, awaiting her fate...and
that's when things got more than a little strange.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><span style="font-style: normal;">She
felt her car start rocking, then heard little kid voices encouraging
each other, and then the car started to move, rolling </span><i>uphill</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
towards Villamain Road. The nun looked behind her, out of the car's
rear window, but saw nothing but the empty, dark roadway behind her.
The headlight of the train hove into view...just as it had on the
night of the bus crash....and the engineer laid down on the whistle
as the car slowly bumped across the rails, then rolled clear of the
crossing, coming to a stop a few feet away from the tracks as the
train thundered past. The nun sat there in shock for several
minutes...long enough for the train to clear the crossing...then got
out and looked around, likely more than half expecting to see the
children who she'd heard talking standing around on the side of the road, but
she saw no one. She walked around behind the car, still looking for
the kids, but, of course, they weren't there. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span style="font-style: normal;">She </span><i>did </i><span style="font-style: normal;">
find something, though. The rear most part of the trunk lid, as well
as the back bumper, was covered with hand prints...small, child
sized hand prints. She counted, and came up with twenty
hands...meaning ten children. The same number who'd been aboard her
ill-fated bus. Obviously ten little angels had been dispatched to
save her. She immediately decided that she had been saved for a
reason, and told this story widely in the weeks afterwards.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><span style="font-style: normal;">True believers in The Ghostly Children will tell you...enthusiastically...that several of the people she told of this amazing occurrence rode out to the crossing to check it out for themselves and also noted the exact same
phenomenon. If they stopped on or just short of the tracks, they'd first feel their
car rock gently and start moving, then hear the voices of the
children, then, once they were clear of the crossing, see the hand prints on the trunk. More then one
person noted that Shane Road actually...and we're gonna say
</span><i>apparently</i><span style="font-style: normal;">...climbed a
very gentle hill as it approached the tracks. Just a very <i>very</i> subtle upgrade, but, we have to assume, enough of one to
keep a car from rolling across the tracks on its own. (Keep this point in mind!)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-style: normal;">And thus, a ghost story was born! And lets be honest here...there are very few better settings for a railroad-crossing-based ghost story than Shane and Villamain Rds. The area immediately surrounding the crossing is about as desolate as you can get and still be within the boundaries of a major city. OK, never mind the fact that, today, I-410 is under a quarter mile north of the crossing and a drive of a half mile or so in any direction will land you smack dab in the middle of modern suburban life...the crossing itself is surrounded by woods.</span></span> It looks pretty desolate at noon on a bright, sunny day, so at, say, midnight on, say, Halloween night, it'd be a ghost-hunters dream come true.</span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-style: normal;">A few tens of thousands of people have apparently agreed with that assessment over
the last few decades. </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Over the several decades,</span> the story...however it may have come to be... spread first throughout the state, then
throughout the country, until taking a trip to San Antonio to check
out The Story of the Ghostly Children very much became a 'Thing'. The coming of The Internet only threw even <i>more </i>fuel on the ghost-child flames, spreading the story nationally and internationally to the point
that at certain times of the year...I'm looking at </span><i>you</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Halloween...there were very literal traffic jams on narrow Shane Road
as hundreds of travelers...from car loads of high school and college
kids, to families, to professional ghost hunters...showed up to check
out the Ghostly Children.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><span style="font-style: normal;">Whether they showed up singly or in groups, they all used the same basic</span></span> procedure<span style="font-style: normal;"> to check for the presence or absence of Ghost Children, almost as if it had been written down in an S.O.P. manual. First,
they'd look up Shane Road towards the crossing, and note that the
road did indeed </span><i>appear</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
to run subtly uphill towards the tracks. Then, if they were </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><i>really</i> prepared, they'd liberally sprinkle baby powder or talcum powder over the trunk and bumper...the better to reveal any ghostly hand prints that our tiny poltergeist might leave behind. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Then they'd climb back in
their ride, drive to the crossing (Again, depending on the time of
year and possibly the weather, often having to wait in line), park either on or just short of the crossing, pop the transmission into neutral, and wait. And, sure
'nuff, the car would ultimately start moving, rolling towards the
curve where Shane Road became Villamain Road, tires bumping subtly as
they hit the rail-heads, until the car was safely clear of the tracks.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>Then everyone would get back out of the vehicle, walk
around to the rear, and gaze at the trunk and back bumper as if they
were paying solemn respect to some unnamed idol. More often than not, eyes and mouths would both go wide
in wonder and astonishment as they spotted hand prints and finger
prints on the metal.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibowVDNtD0Vt-NPiuWAr2VgLS8zymxVXk-O8Tl35qcGhKxcmr27xCWlWU3wCUTTCykFmQU4ewOXvHetsbDH3PMjMef8ontJrSMTxrj2I6p6SRhRHv5KXbpEDCDCVH2Y3xFqAQw4nJNGCs/s1600/11911530_10156021038520077_205406027_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibowVDNtD0Vt-NPiuWAr2VgLS8zymxVXk-O8Tl35qcGhKxcmr27xCWlWU3wCUTTCykFmQU4ewOXvHetsbDH3PMjMef8ontJrSMTxrj2I6p6SRhRHv5KXbpEDCDCVH2Y3xFqAQw4nJNGCs/s640/11911530_10156021038520077_205406027_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Hand prints supposedly left by 'The Ghostly Children'. I don't count but seven sets of hand prints...three of the Ghost-Kids must've been supervising on this one. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span><br /></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>Now, I don't know if anyone counted hand-prints and came
up with the twenty hands that would mean all ten ghost-kids were
pushing, or if they just 'oohed and aahed' at the very existence of said
hand prints, but the hand prints were, </span><span><span>in most cases, </span>indeed there.</span><br />
<span><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span><span style="font-style: normal;">So
many amateur ghost-hunters and curiosity-seekers have been inspired to check out The Ghostly Children that San Antonio P.D would </span></span>occasionally<span style="font-style: normal;"> have to get involved, due to both
traffic issues </span><i>and</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
other less-than-legal activities. I have a feeling that more than a few
cans of beer have been emptied on the road side and more than just a few
underage drinking tickets have been given out.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><span style="font-style: normal;">...And yet, even with long, long lines, shady individuals of the non-ghostly variety lurking about, and the risk of tickets and the loss of their favorite Refreshing Golden Beverages, the people </span><i>still</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
came, in huge numbers...singly and in groups. TV shows were filmed,
parties were had, and pictures and videos were taken...and that, my friends, is how
The Legend of The Ghost Children of San Antonio became the most
famous ghost Story in Tex...</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><***></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<span><span style="font-style: normal;"><i>Stop Right There!!!</i> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span style="font-style: normal;">...Come
on gang...you </span><i>really </i><span style="font-style: normal;">didn't
think this was the end of the story did ya. What about the accident that created the legend?? Where, you may ask, is the in-depth
analysis? The speculation? The discussion on
emergency response?? </span><i>Something</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
a few of you may be thinking, is fishy here. And to that I
reply...you're absolutely </span><i>right!</i></span><br />
<span><i><br /></i></span>You see, while thousands upon thousands of ghost seekers have, and still do, journey to Shane and Villamain annually to check out The Ghostly Children, the story they're chasing just doesn't hold up. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span>Try something. Go to Google, and plug 'San Antonio Bus-Train
crash' in. Search away. And yes, a <i>slew</i> of results pop up...<i>all
</i>of them stories of the Ghost Children. <i>None</i> of them, however...as in Not. A.
Single. One...reference any specific accident in the state of Texas, much less </span><span><span>one in San Antonio or at that particular </span></span><span><span><span>San
Antonio grade </span>crossing</span>. </span><br />
<br />
You guys, BTW, aren't even <i>close</i> to being the first people who've discovered this little anomaly while searching for this apparently very
elusive train crash. And Google isn't even <i>vaguely</i> the only place info about said accident is missing from. <br />
<br /></div>
First lets talk about the long time residents of
San Antonio. The accident at Shane and Villamain supposedly happened in the late Thirties, so even people who were first or second graders at the time would be in their early to mid eighties if they're till around. There probably aren't many of them left, and fewer of them are around with each passing year. So, while finding a San Antonio born octogenarian who could confirm or deny that the accident happened, first hand, isn't an absolute impossibility, it's becoming more difficult by the day. As with any city, however, there are younger lifelong and long-time San Antonio residents who've made recording the history of their town a beloved and dedicated hobby, so we can just ask one of <i>them</i> about the accident..</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span>With that fact in mind, go to San Antonio and ask some of the city fathers who to ask about their city's history...you know, not just the stuff that's in history books, but the little fascinating details of local history that you really have to <i>dig</i> for. Trust me, they'll know <i>exactly</i> who to refer you to<i>.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-style: normal;">Next, go find a one of these amateur historians and ask them about the tragic bus-train crash at Shane and Villamain. They will then, while very likely giving you one of those look</span><span><span style="font-style: normal;">s that just freaking <i>screams</i></span> 'Oh, God, not<i style="font-style: normal;"> </i><i>another</i> one' , </span>very quickly tell you that they've never
heard of a bus-train accident...an <span style="font-style: normal;">actual</span> bus-train
accident as opposed to the mythical variety...at that crossing because no such accident ever happened there, or anywhere else in San Antonio or even Texas, in the first place.<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span>Then our historian will go on to point out one very strong bit of speculation and several very relevant
facts that absolutely <i>prove</i> that the accident never happened.</span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>First the speculation...if there had been ten kids
killed in a bus crash in San Antonio, there would be <i>some</i>
memory of it. These kids were supposedly on the way back into
town, which means they lived in San Antonio, which
means they would have had relatives their
own age or younger who would have grown up and passed the story </span><span><span>about Aunt Mary or Uncle Jimmy or Cousin Bob being killed in that
horrible bus accident in San Antonio</span> down to
their own kids. </span><br />
<br />
<span>Guess what gang. Nada<i>. </i>No one living who now lives or has ever lived in San Antonio can recall any stories passed
down by relatives or friends about siblings or kinfolk dying in a
train-school bus crash in San Antonio. <i>Anywhere </i>in or even <i>near</i> San Antonio, much less at that particular crossing.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>'But wait!!!' the diehard Ghost-Child fans among us will point out. 'There's a subdivision
just to the north east of the crossing...almost with-in rock-throwing
distance...and the streets all have child-like names. These streets
are supposedly named after the children killed in the accident. So
just plug </span><span><span>the location of this elusive accident</span> along with a couple of the first names used for the street names into Google, Bing, or your search engine of choice, and see what...'</span><br />
<br />
<span>...And
several people were way ahead of you on this one.
The streets are named after the grand kids of the guy
who developed the subdivision. All of whom have grown up happy and healthy.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>So much for speculation...<i>now</i> we get into the indisputable facts. </span><br />
<br />
<span>Even in the very unlikely possibility that <i>everyone</i>
with <i>any</i> reason to remember such an accident has passed away,
there would still be official documentation. Even eighty years ago, a major accident that resulted in the death of ten kids would have generated literal reams of reports and paperwork, especially
if it occurred in a large city. There would be investigative reports from the local
and State police as well as State and Federal regulatory commissions, transcripts of court proceedings, and records of the burials of the victims...who would have
been also named in the aforementioned local and State reports. </span><br />
<br />
<span>Also, even in
the1930s, San Antonio's population was pushing a quarter million, so
they had a pretty large and (For the day) well equipped fire department. It's just about a given that S.A.F.D. would have responded to a major
bus-train crash, even if only peripherally, and that would have <i>also</i>
generated a report. Make that <i>reports...</i>one for each company that responded.
</span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span>Guess what? <i>None</i> of these agencies, be they local, State, or Federal, have any record
at all of a bus-train accident with 10 fatalities <i>anywhere</i> in
San Antonio or even the State of Texas during that period, much less
one at that particular crossing. </span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span>While we're at it, a search of the archives of the fire and police departments of Texas' larger cities would yield the exact same result. No school bus-train crashes with even <i>one</i> fatality, much less ten. And trust me...a ten fatality
accident would have left an official footprint <i>some</i>where. A whole slew of 'em in fact.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span>Now, lets talk a bit about The Media. A freight train
hitting a school bus and killing ten kids would, to put it mildly, set off a media
feeding frenzy. True, back in the Thirties the technology to </span>send it around the world instantly didn't exist as it does today, but, with the accident happening late at night, the local
papers and radio stations would have had it by the next morning, the
wire services by lunchtime, (If not a bit sooner,) and by the next evening...morning of the second day at the very latest...it would be a front page newspaper story and lead radio
newscast story from coast to coast and border to border. This is, in fact, what happened with <i>all </i>of the accidents from the '30s and '40s that I've posted about.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span>If
newspapers nationwide covered the story, that would mean it would
show up in searchable on-line newspaper archives, which takes us back to
the old Google-machine and it's kin. Again, if you plug in 'San
Antonio Train-Bus Crash', or any version there-of into any newspaper's search box, the <i>only</i>
archived stories you get are those about the Ghost-Children. <i>Nothing</i>
about an actual accident, much less one that killed ten kids. </span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span>I've researched nine bus train crashes from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, all of which resulted in ten or more fatalities, and while the quantity and quality of information available varied widely from incident to incident, there was always <i>something</i> out there...even for the Proberta, California accident, which is just five years shy of being a century ago. Google searches for <i>All</i> of them yielded at least one or two archived news-paper articles, even, again, the nearly century old Proberta crash. </span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span>That being the case, it stands to reason that, had there been such an accident in San Antonio, there'd be <i>something</i> out there. Problem for the story is...it's not. </span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span>The accident never happened, gang. It just, well, didn't.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span>This little factual bump-in-the-road very obviously hasn't discouraged the thousands of people who show up annually to check out The Ghostly Children for themselves. So with <i>that</i> thought in mind, lets look at the practical side of the story...is someone or something actually pushing all of theses cars up-hill and off of the tracks? </span><br />
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span> </span><span><span>Lets take a look at a couple of street view pics of the crossing first...</span></span><br />
<span><span> </span> </span></div>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9fjiHZL4t7uHdjVroo3DnyNxlZPwTK7i6sZ8uiwncey6WasBeCk1JAL1PwlqhcE6FZo_qD8-emZJvI7UnqyYKI7EwLjpjJxQAx9_tLMjA18kjYjbfQnFLX6PKvHUTGxSgPfdBk_KdZbk/s1600/Untitled.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9fjiHZL4t7uHdjVroo3DnyNxlZPwTK7i6sZ8uiwncey6WasBeCk1JAL1PwlqhcE6FZo_qD8-emZJvI7UnqyYKI7EwLjpjJxQAx9_tLMjA18kjYjbfQnFLX6PKvHUTGxSgPfdBk_KdZbk/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is what a driver on Shane Rd sees as he's approaching the crossing. Told ya it was a desolate looking area! Hard to believe this is with-in the city limits of a city of over a million people. Also...and the actual point of this image...you don't even have to look all that hard to see that, yes, it in fact <i>does</i> look like you're heading uphill as you approach the tracks. The question is...are you? Read on.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8oiWjQXk61PS8oL9urZueZSfkPSTXb15PsXNxL-lw6eBZeldKuAqF3q8wmb-tZcTAI_HzRzT7vU6CvNG6kPgBj-PpTN0Db-Pyd81vVhmDPJTBCZLMfMWKe1Dj6wOuSws0YnUkpbcmPPk/s1600/Shane+and+Villamain+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8oiWjQXk61PS8oL9urZueZSfkPSTXb15PsXNxL-lw6eBZeldKuAqF3q8wmb-tZcTAI_HzRzT7vU6CvNG6kPgBj-PpTN0Db-Pyd81vVhmDPJTBCZLMfMWKe1Dj6wOuSws0YnUkpbcmPPk/s640/Shane+and+Villamain+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Same
view. but a little closer. The crossing is still an unprotected
crossing, BTW. That's just a standard cross-buck, what lpoks like it may be warning lights beneath the cross buck is just a 'Yield' sign. </td></tr>
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<span>Hmmmm... Shane Road does<i> indeed</i> seem to be,
at the very least, level if not climbing a very slight grade as it
approaches the crossing.</span></div>
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<span> The question is...is it?</span></div>
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<span>This question was answered for us in expert and entertaining fashion by The SciFi Network's 'The Miracle Hunter' a few years back. 'The Miracle Hunter' host Johnathan Levit, along with his crew and several truckloads of equipment, headed for San Antonio to film an episode that would either confirm or debunk 'The Myth Of The Ghostly Children'. The area immediately surrounding the </span><span><span>crossing was wall to wall <i>packed</i> with cars and people</span> the day the episode was filmed, which I'm pretty sure </span><span><span> is </span>exactly what they <i>wanted</i> to happen. Given the fact that the episode and filming for same were probably widely publicized in the San Antonio Metro Area for several weeks beforehand, if there <i>hadn't</i> been a huge crowd it would have not only been a surprise, it would have also been a near-killing-blow for the episode...</span><br />
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Take a look-see at the segment of The Miracle Hunters dealing with The Ghostly Children, posted below...<br />
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">You guys KNEW I'd post this! The full Miracle Hunters segment on The Ghostly Children</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-style: normal;">The crew first </span><span><span>shot several establishing frames looking up Shane Road while Jonathan commented sagely on the fact that Shane Road <i>does</i> look like it runs uphill towards the crossing. </span>They then panned the camera across the crowd, showing </span>people sprinkling talcum or baby powder across the cars' trunks to preserve any ghostly hand prints that might appear to prove that their cars, if they did indeed roll across the tracks, were <i>pushed</i> across by tiny poltergeist.<br />
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<span style="font-style: normal;">And then of course, they filmed </span>several cars rolling slowly across the tracks...that <i>was</i>, after all, the whole point of the episode. After the cars were spirited across the tracks, they interviewed the occupants, taking particular care in showing them pointing to the allegedly new hand prints that had appeared on the trunk lids and rear bumpers of their rides. <span style="font-style: normal;">They
asked these same people if they had washed their cars before they came. None of them had, BTW. Keep this fact in mind...it'll be important here
in a minute or so. </span></div>
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<span>So, to review, the cars <i>were</i> indeed rolling across the tracks with no help from their engines. And hand prints <i>were</i> indeed appearing on the trunk lids. So <i>something</i> was going on...but <i>what</i>? </span>That, of course, is what Jonathon Levit and his crew were there to find out. Spoiler Alert...if you're a fan of The Ghost Children, you're probably not going to like the answer they came up with.</div>
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<span>The show team car was readied, and in the process of being readied, it <i>was</i> washed. We're talking 'Had it professionally washed at a high-end car wash' kinda washed. They even set up cameras, both inside and outside the ride, to show the Official Washing in progress. </span></div>
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<span>Then, once they arrived at Shane and Villamain, Johnathon wiped down the back of the car good to ensure it was indeed squeaky clean, produced a can of talcum powder, and, with great dramatic flourish and camera rolling, sprinkled it liberally across the Jeep Cherokee's lift-gate.</span></div>
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<span> He then </span><span><span>got behind the wheel,</span> positioned the car several dozen yards from the crossing, popped the transmission into neutral, and waited. They only had to wait for a couple of seconds or so before the car, unbidden, started rolling. And, as had happened to literally thousands of cars since the </span><span><span>Legend Of The </span>Ghost Children was born, it bumped across the tracks and rolled on, stopping a few feet beyond, safely clear of the crossing. And yes<i>, </i></span><span><span>in fact</span><i><span>, </span></i><span>it </span><i>did</i> look like it was rolling up hill.</span></div>
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<span>The question is, of course, <i>was</i> it? To answer that question the producers of <i>The Miracle Hunter </i> enlisted the services of a couple of veteran surveyors who were armed with GPS equipped digital surveying equipment that very likely cost a couple of times as much as the vehicle it rode there on.</span></div>
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<span>They set up the equipment with the the first rail that a car on Shane Road would cross as the zero-elevation baseline, sighted on it from 20 feet out, took a reading, and found that the road's elevation had <i>increased</i>..not by much, only about 3/4 of an inch in fact, but it had still increased. Meaning that Shane Road was running uphill as you went <i>away</i> from the crossing...and therefore (Lets all say it together) <i>down </i>hill as you <i>approached</i> the crossing. But that was just a barely perceptible grade at 20 feet out. The road could have just pitched down, barely, as it got closer to the tracks.</span></div>
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<span>So they took several more readings at points ever further from the crossing and found that the results were consistent...Shane Road ran down-grade as it approached the crossing. <i style="font-style: normal;">Barely</i> down grade, to the tune of a sub 1% grade (A 1% grade is an elevation change of 1 foot in a horizontal run of 100 feet) but still enough of a downgrade for a car with it's transmission in neutral to start rolling. <i>Down</i> hill. Across the crossing. Without any assistance, ghostly or otherwise.</span></div>
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<span>So...it seems that the mystery of the Ghost Children has been solved...busted in fa...</span></div>
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<span>"BUT WAIT!!!!" I hear everyone...OK, the Ghost-Child-Believers among you...yell. What about the hand prints?</span></div>
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<span>Ahhh...the hand prints! First, </span>there were no hand prints...ghostly or otherwise...on Jonathan's ride after it rolled across the tracks. And, cool as a rescue performed by a bunch of tiny ghosts would be, that one's even easier to explain...and debunk...than the allegedly uphill-rolling cars. </div>
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Think back on all of the cop shows you've ever seen...what's one of the very first things that the fictional detectives/crime scene techs/what have you do when they arrive at the fictional crime scene. </div>
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<span>If you don't say 'Dust For Fingerprints' you have never ever actually watched a cop show. But yes...the correct answer is to dust every possible surface that the unknown evil-doer may have touched to see if he left any fingerprints. And one of the oft-exclaimed frustrations voiced by our TV-Crime-Scene- Techs is 'It's been wiped clean!' </span></div>
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<span>Keep all of the above in mind...it's all relevant.</span></div>
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<span>Jonathon Levit didn't go into the finger prints/no finger prints deal in as much detail as he did the grade leading to the crossing, but the explanation is simplicity itself. See, fingerprints...and hand prints as well...will last for literally years.</span>
<span>There was actually a kidnapping case in my home state of Virginia where the victim's hand print was found on the inside of the trunk lid of the prime suspect's car <i>years</i> after the crime was committed, so again, fingerprints and hand prints will last for <i>years...</i></span><span><span>as long as the surface they're left on isn't wiped down</span>.</span><br />
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<span><span>When
you touch an object that'll hold fingerprints...say the back of a
car...your fingers leave minute traces of oil behind. Not only that,
when the friction ridges that form your fingerprints compress to grip what ever was touched they leave that oil
behind in the exact pattern formed by the ridges, which is why fingerprints are so useful for Identification purposes. This is also why
our detectives dust all surfaces with fingerprint powder, as well as why our ghost
hunters liberally dust the trunks and bumpers of their cars with talcum
powder or baby powder. The powder sticks to the oil, making the
pattern formed by the friction ridges stand out more sharply, thus making the finger prints more visible.</span></span><span><br /></span></div>
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<span>And this takes us right back to the 'Ghost Children' episode of The Miracle Hunter, the cars that were filmed rolling across the crossing and the hand prints seen there-upon. Remember Jonathan running his ride through a car wash before he went out to the crossing? Then wiping it down after he got there? The reason he did so had absolutely <i>nothing</i> to do with wanting his ride to really <i>sparkle</i> for the TV camera's and <i>everything </i>to do with fingerprints. In fact he was doing the <i>exact</i> same thing that our TV detectives curse their TV suspects for doing. He was wiping it down to remove any old fingerprints that may have been left behind on </span><span><span>the lift gate all the times it </span>was opened it in the past. So, w</span>hen Jonathan, his camera crew, and a few million TV-viewers checked out the back of his ride after it rolled across the tracks, they saw only sunlight gleaming from pristine, unmarked paint. </div>
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<span> SO that's not only why Jonathan did such a thorough job cleaning his ride, it's also why all the other cars had finger and hand prints there-upon. The other cars <i>hadn't</i> been washed before arriving at the crossing, and the fingerprints on the trunk lids weren't those of tiny but civic minded poltergeist. They were the prints belonging to the owners of the cars, left there every time they opened, then closed, the trunk. </span></div>
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<span>Sorry, Ghost-Child-Fans, but the story's pretty much just an Urban Legend.</span></div>
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<span>So! Now that Texas' most famous ghost story has (Again) been thoroughly debunked (Hey, <i>I </i>didn't do it! I'm just relaying the facts!) just where the heck <i>did </i>this story come from. Were the residents of San Antonio so bored in 1938 or '39 that they came up with this story out of whole cloth? </span>Sort of maybe. But they had help, and some inspiration...and yes I noted a specific year for a reason. See, there<i> was</i> a bus crash that year, and, in fact, I've posted about it.</div>
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<span>The accident that inspired The Ghostly Children occurred on December 1st, 1938 in Sandy Utah, when the driver of a bus load of high school kids crossed in front of an oncoming train and was hit broadside, killing 26. This was </span>also the worst grade crossing accident in U.S. history...a record that still stands and, hopefully, will never be bested...and I posted an article on it <a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">HERE</a>.</div>
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<span>That crash became a national news story, and with-in 24 hours banner-sized headlines had appeared on just about every front page in the country, so everyone in the U.S. knew about it, and was talking about it by lunchtime on December 2nd...the day after it happened. This included, of course, the residents of San Antonio. Like the rest of the country, San Antonio was subjected to ten solid days of intense coverage of the accident. And somewhere along the way, as the residents of The Mission City read article after article about the horror in Utah, one or more of them</span><span> became inspired. </span></div>
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<span> We'll never know just how or when the illusion of rolling uphill at San Antonio's Shane Road crossing was discovered or who discovered it, but that optical illusion <i>had</i> to have been an already known fact for the ghost story to have been created around it. And we'll certainly never know just exactly how the ghost story came to be created and then associated with that particular crossing. But we <i>can</i> be pretty sure that it was probably a multiple part...and multiple person...occurrence. And we can also be equally sure that it took a good bit of time...maybe </span>even a few years...for the story to be developed.</div>
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<span> I have a feeling that, while discussing the Sandy accident, someone said something like 'Hey, you know that crossing on Shane Road...the one where you have to <i>really</i> keep your foot on the brake when a train's passing, even though it looks like you're going up hill...what if (As their face took on a pondering expression) what if that accident in Sandy had happened here in San Antonio, at that crossing...and those kids' ghosts haunted the crossing...to keep anyone else form getting hit...by pushing cars off of the crossing. I mean cars already roll there...what if it was kids' ghosts pushing them...</span></div>
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<span>OK, as noted above, it almost <i>definitely</i> didn't happen all in one fell swoop in that manner, but over an unknown period of time...probably a couple of years, a least...the accident was moved to Shane and Villamain and the facts were modified to fit the story, in which the bus became our Catholic school bus, the kids became second and third graders, and the number of students was pared down to ten. And those ten fictional kids became our Ghost-Children.</span></div>
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<span>The story was added to and enhanced, and polished and spread around, and ultimately someone who <i>wasn't</i> in on creating the story, but who <i>had </i>heard it drove to the isolated crossing, sprinkled talcum powder on the trunk of their car, sat in it, popped the tranny into neutral, and was amazed as the car rolled 'uphill', then became even more amazed when they saw the hand and finger prints on the trunk of their car. So they told a some friends who also who tried it and told <i>more </i>friends...and a legendary Texas ghost story was born.</span></div>
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<span>Then Jonathon Levit went and screwed it up for everyone, right? </span></div>
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<span>Actually, no. The stream of Ghost hunters and Ghost-Child fans didn't slack off in the least. Hordes of Ghost-Child-Seekers still made road trips to the Shane and Villamain to roll across the tracks...</span></div>
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<span>Sadly...because, really, who doesn't love a good Urban Legend, especially one with a good ghost story connected to it...what Jonathon Levit couldn't do, The Union Pacific Railroad almost <i>did </i>manage to do, far more effectively I might add. The railroad had (And very possibly still has) plans to </span><span><span>add a passing siding to that section of the tracks,</span> upgrading the crossing while they were at it, with the distinct possibility that the slight grade that allows cars to roll across the crossing would be leveled off just shy of the tracks. This, of course, would mean that, instead of rolling across the tracks, cars will stop just prior to, or on top of, the crossing. Which would kind of defeat the purpose of the urban legend's story, effectively killing it.</span></div>
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<span>It was almost a done deal. The crossing, and thus Shane Road, had been closed so the track construction and crossing upgrades could take place and the Ghost Children had taken a long over-due vacation. The residents of San Antonio...and likely the rest of Texas...were mourning the loss of their favorite ghostly urban legend when Texas' Favorite Ghost Story got at least a temporary reprieve. </span></div>
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<span>Those crossing upgrade and passing siding plans have been shelved, the crossing has been reopened, and the Ghost Children are back on the job.</span></div>
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<span>It was probably a budget thing...projects get shelved or post-poned or pushed back all the time due to funding issues. Funds earmarked for a project get diverted to a more important project, or something comes up that requires an emergency reallocation of funds. </span></div>
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<span>And there <i>are</i> no ghostly children...was <i>no</i> fatal bus-train crash in San Antonio...the accident never ever happened, therefore there were no fatalities, therefore the ghost-children just don't exist. This has been pretty well established. </span></div>
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<span><i>But</i>..it'd <i>still </i>pretty much redefine cool if the <i>real</i> reason the crossing upgrade project was delayed was because </span><span><span>Union Pacific's C.E.O.,</span> </span><span><span>after opening his office </span>on some recent morning, found ten little ghosts hanging around, doing ghost-type-things. And, upon seeing him enter, the ten little ghosts became serious...or as serious as ghost-children can ever become...and one of the them, elected spokes-ghost by his or her comrades-in-haunting, said to him 'Dude...we gotta <i>talk</i> about this crossing issue... ; ) </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0kT6-QJ8-nYOwNiCbxVdRU8cZkDPOhpZNFiwSbR5yhJWycpspn3w_lPq1i04vsmPljl6sDVP6yQDktI4joacolxeJbVd1CiuKCAQSL7KTGlttWtk1_zmEoyOxbJRpV66aRjiMK3CgP2g/s1600/traditional-home-office.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="612" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0kT6-QJ8-nYOwNiCbxVdRU8cZkDPOhpZNFiwSbR5yhJWycpspn3w_lPq1i04vsmPljl6sDVP6yQDktI4joacolxeJbVd1CiuKCAQSL7KTGlttWtk1_zmEoyOxbJRpV66aRjiMK3CgP2g/s640/traditional-home-office.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Ghost Children are <i>not</i> amused by your planned crossing improvements...not amused at all</td></tr>
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<span><b>***********************NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF*************************</b></span><br />
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<b>The other posts in this series</b></div>
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<b>in the order they were posted.</b></div>
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html</a> Evans, Colo December 1961 </div>
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html</a> Spring City Tenn. August 1955</div>
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html</a> Congers New York </div>
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March 1972</div>
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html</a> Lake Station Indiana</div>
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October 1971</div>
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html</a> Stratton Nebraska </div>
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August 1976</div>
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.htm</a> Fox River Grove Illinois October 1995</div>
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html</a> Conasauga Tenn.<br />
March 2000<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html </a> Sandy, Utah Dec 1938<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html</a> Proberta, California Nov 1921<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html</a> Shreve and Berea Ohio Jan. 1930<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html</a> Crescent City, Florida December 1933<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html</a> Rockville, Maryland April 1935<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html</a> Mason City, Iowa Oct. 1937<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html</a> Eads, Tennessee Oct. 1941<br />
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<b><***></b></div>
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I gotta admit, this one made me wish I lived about 1400 miles or so closer to San Antonio. Or that I had the free time and free cash to snag a plane ticket and make the four hour and change flight to The Mission City so I could check out the crossing myself. I mean, really, who<i> doesn't</i> love a good ghost story.</div>
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I had this one in mind to wind up the train/bus crash posts almost two years ago, when I started working on this series. It's a fun and unique little story, mythical (And debunked) urban legend though it may be. It's still nice to end this series of posts up with a story that doesn't rip your heart out.</div>
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Another interesting point about The Ghostly Children...they are <i>far</i> better documented than any of the <i>actual</i> bus/train crashes I researched. There are literally hundreds of articles on-line about them.</div>
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OK...On to the Notes an' such!</div>
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<b><***></b><br />
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Another interesting point about The Lone Star State's favorite tiny ghosts...no one's <i>really</i> sure just when they came into being. While I had the story being created shortly after the Sandy accident occurred, the legend probably didn't gather steam until the mid or late Forties, and it wasn't well known outside of Texas, apparently, until the Fifties at the earliest.</div>
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It had started gathering a good bit of renown by the Seventies, but it <i>really</i> took off with-in the last twenty or so years, with the coming of The Internet.</div>
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<b><***></b></div>
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<br />
Interestingly enough, The Ghostly Children apparently don't limit their activities to San Antonio...a couple of other crossing accidents have inspired their own version of the same story. As all of them popped up at about the same time, so they were all very likely inspired by the Sandy, Utah crash. On top of that, so called 'Gravity Hills'...hills that seem to ascend rather than descend because of the lack of a true horizon creating an optical illusion...are not that uncommon at all, and <i>all </i>of these urban legends are based on such a hill.<br />
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Interestingly enough, it would have been impossible for a similar urban legend to actually take root at the now long-gone crossing where the Sandy, Utah crash occurred because that road not only climbed a pretty good grade as it crossed the tracks, it also rounded a pretty sharp curve immediately before the crossing rather than being a straight shot like Shane Road, meaning that there would be no way that a car could roll across the crossing without being driven across..<br />
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Of course, train wrecks in general have a habit of inspiring ghost stories, and The Ghostly Children aren't even the only youthful poltergeists directly inspired by the Sandy Utah bus /train crash. That tragic and horrendous crash has it's own ghosts. The kids who never made it to school allegedly haunted the halls and classrooms of old Jordan High School, and then, after a new Jordan High was built, occasionally popped up at the entertainment complex that was built on the site of the old school.<br />
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Like The Ghostly Children, these ghosts apparently were (And are) benevolent. Sadly, though, unlike the San Antonio crossing ghost children, the Sandy ghost stories were inspired by an accident that was, tragically, very real.<br />
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<b><***></b></div>
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San Antonio's Ghostly Children even inspired a movie. The 2006 horror film 'Fingerprints', written and produced by Jason and Brian Cleveland, and directed by Harry Basil, was based all but directly on the Ghostly Children. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWtwldsMdhNUL0_68KKuljE7VFJn4wDKb9OCkZEJcG5GjU5pxysFVwA1lWgJy-ineHkTqenXzR6toTGgOxjwU9sGUC-B3xIdSbRRO4deHsMu8beGV52Z93UqI_0BNR9bGm_Kmg6z6VHhI/s1600/MV5BMTk0NDI3NzAyNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzA2OTc1MQ%2540%2540._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWtwldsMdhNUL0_68KKuljE7VFJn4wDKb9OCkZEJcG5GjU5pxysFVwA1lWgJy-ineHkTqenXzR6toTGgOxjwU9sGUC-B3xIdSbRRO4deHsMu8beGV52Z93UqI_0BNR9bGm_Kmg6z6VHhI/s400/MV5BMTk0NDI3NzAyNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzA2OTc1MQ%2540%2540._V1_.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poster for 'Fingerprints'</td></tr>
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In the film, a teenage girl (Melanie, portrayed by Leah Pipes) gets out of rehab and returns to her small Texas town, where Ghost Children push cars off of a crossing before it can be hit by a train (Hmmmm...that <i>do</i> sound familiar, don't it?). This being a horror film, there's a sinister and evil mystery to go along with the bus crash, and the ghosts, apparently, aren't as benevolent as their San Antonio kindred spirits.</div>
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The film never got a wide release...it was an Indie film, released at various film festivals around the country, but it <i>did</i> grab a pretty prestigious award, snagging 'Best Feature Film' at the New York City Horror Film Festival.</div>
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For more details about 'Fingerprints', take a look at it's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerprints_(film)">Wikipedia Page</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790662/">IMDb page </a></div>
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Both are loaded with good information about the film, and IMDb is the definitive 'Go To' site for info on <i>anythin</i>g involving either television or film.<br />
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<b><***></b></div>
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While The Miracle Hunter's investigation of The Ghostly Children is, arguably, the best known debunking of the myth, they're not the <i>only</i> ones who took the Ghost Children to the small screen. The Sci-Fi Channels 'Fact or Faked also did an episode...or half of an episode...devoted to the Ghost Children, and the debunking of same. </div>
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They covered the same material as 'The Miracle Hunter', and took it just a scosh further by interviewing one of those local historians I was talking about above, who explained the ghostly screams that some people reported. </div>
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Here's a small segment of the episode:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aWl8eSGkAHs" width="420"></iframe>
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The full episode is available on Amazon...at a buck ninety-nine a pop. Sure, that's not going to break anyone...but it also prevents me from posting the entire episode.<br />
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As for The Ghost Children's opinion of their fleeting small screen fame...through their agent, they declined interview, other than noting that 'Those posers Slimer and Casper get <i>all </i>the good publicity!!!' ;)<br />
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<b><***></b></div>
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While straight ghost stories and paranormal activity are <i>way</i> beyond the scope of this blog, I'd still be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that The Ghost Children<b> </b>are in good company...San Antonio is known as The Most Haunted City in Texas.</div>
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Many if not most of the city's numerous old hotels, such as the The Menger, The Crockett, The Sheraton (Formally the Gunter), The Emily Morgan, and The Black Swan Inn, have their own well known ghosts-in-residence.</div>
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Then of course you have an obscure little mission known as The Alamo that's home to a few ghosts of it's own. And this is just a small sampling of San Antonio's citizen-ghosts. If you're into the Paranormal...or just curious...just plug San Antonio and 'Most Haunted City' into Google and see what you come up with!</div>
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<b><***>LINKS<***></b></div>
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As I noted above, there at least <i>seemed</i> to be more articles written about The Ghostly Children then there were of every other bus crash I've posted about combined. Literal pages. And pages. And <i>pages</i> of 'em.<br />
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<b> </b></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">I'm not even going to </span><i>try</i> to post all of 'em, so what I <i>am</i> gonna do is post the best several links. <b></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-ghostlychildren.html">http://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-ghostlychildren.html</a> Legends of America article about the Ghostly Children. The author is..rightfully...pretty skeptical about the legend. There are also some pretty interesting comments at the end of the article, written by a couple of true believers in the Ghost Children</div>
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<a href="http://paranormal.about.com/od/hauntedplaces/a/The-Haunted-Railroad-Crossing.htm" style="font-style: normal;">http://paranormal.about.com/od/hauntedplaces/a/The-Haunted-Railroad-Crossing.htm</a> Another interesting article, this one written by paranormal phenomenon expert Stephen Wagner. While it disputes an actual bus crash happening at the crossing, it also gives some pretty chilling examples of paranormal activity occurring at Shane and Villamain...pretty convincing stuff <i>if</i> you believe in that sort of thing. It's an interesting and entertaining read whether you 'Believe in Ghosts' or not.<br />
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<a href="http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/1298">http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/1298</a> Roadside America.Com's page about The Ghostly Children. Has some interesting and in depth comments both pro and con, RE: The Ghost Children.. This is an awesome site in general, in fact, chock full of interesting articles about unusual things that can be found along the highways and byways of The U.S. and Canada.<br />
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<a href="http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/handprint.asp">http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/handprint.asp</a> Ya just <i>gotta</i> have a Snopes.com page about The Ghostly Children. Spoiler Alert...Snopes pretty much debunks the myth as well. Just not as eloquently as I did ;) :D<br />
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<a href="http://www.weirdus.com/states/texas/road_less_traveled/children_of_the_tracks/index.php">http://www.weirdus.com/states/texas/road_less_traveled/children_of_the_tracks/index.php</a><br />
Weird US.Com also has a page about The Ghostly Children...a collection of stories by people who have indeed checked out the myth.<br />
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<a href="http://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1829-san-antonios-haunted-railroad-tracks-.html">http://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1829-san-antonios-haunted-railroad-tracks-.html</a><br />
Another blog-post that debunks the myth...and makes a very good point while it's at it.. Be sure to read all the way to the end.<br />
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<a href="http://sanantonioghosttracks.blogspot.com/">http://sanantonioghosttracks.blogspot.com/</a> The Ghost Children even have their own blog!!<br />
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<span><b> </b> </span></div>
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<div id="hzImg" style="background-color: white; border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.33) 3px 3px 9px 5px; display: none; left: 368px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px; position: absolute; top: 106px; z-index: 2147483647;"></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-17335114383346666922016-03-22T02:42:00.003-04:002022-05-09T18:24:20.379-04:00Shreve and Berea Ohio, January 1930, Ohio's Double Dose of Tragedy<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Shreve
Ohio School Bus/Train Crash-January 3 1930</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Berea,
Ohio School Bus/Train Crash- January 22 1930</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>A Double
Dose of Tragedy in Ohio.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Shreve,
Ohio Bus/Train Crash...January 3, 1930</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Thirties was a bad decade for school bus/train accidents. I'm talking
a </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">really</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
bad decade, with six multi-fatality accidents that I found while
researching material for this post. These six, BTW were just the
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">worst</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
of the school bus-train crashes that occurred during the decade that
also played host to The Great Depression. There were also several
train/bus crashes where only the driver was aboard when the accident
happened, one or two others that only caused one or two fatalities
apiece and never became national news, a couple that, by some
miracle, resulted in no fatalities, and probably a couple that have
somehow slipped through the cracks and fallen from the pages of
history.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Not
only were The Thirties a profoundly bad decade for school bus/train
collisions, the tragedies started early and came quick, hitting Ohio
with a tragic one-two punch.</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> T</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he new decade had barely gotten started
good when not just one, but </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">two</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
major school bus-train accidents occurred within two weeks of each
other, ripping the hearts out of two communities that were just sixty
miles or so apart, both near Cleveland, Ohio. The first of the two was only three days into the new year.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">For the first one we go just about 70 miles due south of
Cleveland, to the small Wayne County town of Shreve, and head back in
time to the late evening of January
3<sup>rd</sup>, 1930, very likely the first day back after Christmas
break. The tiny town of Burbank, Ohio's girls and boys basketball
teams were heading home after playing the first basketball game of
the new year, and while the ladies lost a close contest the boys had
just gotten a late Christmas present by beating one of their arch
rivals...the Bulldogs of Big Prairie-Lakeville High School in the
Holmes County hamlet of Big Prairie.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">This
was
back in the day when every little town had it's own high school,
and the schools in neighboring towns were often arch rivals on the
grid-iron and basketball court. This was decades before today's Single
A/Double A/ Triple A system went into effect...in essence every small
town school was what today would be a Single A School...and every county
had it's own high school sports league, made up of all of the small
towns in the county. To fill the sports schedule out with games, each
school also played a couple of schools from neighboring counties, and
sometimes the arch-rivalry crossed county lines. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">That
was the case with the rivalry between Burbank and Big Prairie. Big
Prairie was actually just across the county line in Holmes
County, Wayne County's neighbor to the south, and was about a 30 mile
trip, which, on the rural roads of the day in a school bus, was
probably at least a 45 minute or so ride if not a full hour.
Now, this was January in Ohio, so the weather was </span><i>not </i>looking real promising<i> </i><span style="font-style: normal;">when they set out on the thirty mile ride to Big
Prairie. It was one of those 'It's not snowing <i>yet</i>, but you can tell it <i>really</i>
wants to' days we're all familiar with, and that promise would bear
fruit before the final whistle blew in the gym at Big Prairie.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Some
things never change, no matter how many decades pass, and one of them
is the atmosphere on board a team bus after a victory, especially if
the vanquished foe is a big rival. I was manager for the Southampton
County (Virginia) Jr High basketball team when I was in 8</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">th</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
grade and I well remember those away games, especially if we won, and
most especially if we beat a major rival. The ride home would </span><i>not</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
be a particularly quiet one. S</span>uch was the case as the victorious Burbank team
left Big Prairie at around 10:15 PM on what had become a profoundly nasty January
evening and headed out Ohio Route 226. Route 226's alignment hasn't
changed in going on 87 years, and back in 1930 it bisected the small
town of Shreve, Ohio, about four and a half miles east and north of
Big Prairie, just as it does now. Also unchanged is the
railroad...the legendary Pennsylvania Railroad in 1930, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">now, </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">I believe, </span></span>part of CSX...slicing diagonally through town in a gentle curve,
and crossing Rt 226 at just about the exact center of town.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Now, here's the kicker...this was <i>not </i>a
completely unprotected crossing...it was protected by a warning bell
mounted on or near the cross bucks on both sides of the track, and I read one
source that stated that there was also a flashing light (If there was one, it was likely a
single small flashing red light mounted with the bell rather than the
alternating light signals we're so familiar with today.) The crossing was
also protected by a watchman from six or so in the morning to 10PM,
but that wouldn't be a factor...the watchman had likely cursed the
sleet and snow that had started falling and headed for home when his shift ended, thirty
minutes or so before the bus with the kids from Burbank rolled into
Shreve</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Driver
Joe Baker had his work cut out for him...it was
spitting snow and sleet, the roads were getting nasty, and the 16
kids on board the bus were boisterously celebrating their victory as
they rolled into Shreve at just before
10:30PM. The trip from Big Prairie to Shreve was usually about a ten
or so minute ride, but the snow was slowing them down, dragging the trip
take out to almost twenty minutes. Baker slowed even more as he
rolled into town.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Now this was a small town in 1930...the
sidewalks, as they say, had been rolled up. There were a few lights
burning within homes and in the back of some stores, and possibly
some street lights along 226, but it was generally a snow-swaddled evening as
the bus rolled north. The night wasn't completely dark, but
was rather kind of glowing with that semi-luminescence that comes
with falling snow. The bus...almost definitely unheated and closed up
tight as a drum...was filled with the happy sound of teenagers who'd
just kicked their arch rivals butts as well as the not-at all quiet
drive train and engine of a mid or late Twenties vintage medium duty
truck, because that's what the bus body was likely mounted on. And
while we're at it, the bus body was probably nothing like what we
think of today as a 'School Bus', depending on the age of the bus. If
it was built before 1927, it was probably wooden, with perimeter
seats running along the sidewalls of the vehicle and the kids sitting
with their backs to the sidewall rather than the double rows of seats
we're used to today. OH...while we're at it, there's a good
possibility that it was <i>not</i> yellow...yellow as the standard
school bus color wouldn't come along for another few years.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_QzM5P6DQ4n_AnV7Gya9JTIwR0bVmGNd4xDoU0RMy9Sbxw_3zg_f_bFbiTyexXego2f3EytZXBxG7CX1797ipdh_D5l5XHzoqEX7z4ieyOYIOXpeITyvmbLYfAyO-qc3H9ovk_LcB5bQ/s1600/1920s+era+school+bus.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_QzM5P6DQ4n_AnV7Gya9JTIwR0bVmGNd4xDoU0RMy9Sbxw_3zg_f_bFbiTyexXego2f3EytZXBxG7CX1797ipdh_D5l5XHzoqEX7z4ieyOYIOXpeITyvmbLYfAyO-qc3H9ovk_LcB5bQ/s640/1920s+era+school+bus.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">A bus very likely similar to
the one involved in the Shreve, Ohio accident...Given that the kids in
the front of the bus survived with minor to moderate injuries, it had to
be a fair sized bus. Also, notice two things about this ride (Besides
the fact that the bus is <i>right</i> hand drive)...the color and the
seats. This ride was painted a dark color...yellow as a standard school
bus color was still half a decade or more away and 'School Bus Yellow'
wasn't adopted as the national standard until 1939. Also, you can see
the edge of the right side perimeter seats through the open door. While
the seats are padded, and this bus is equipped with a conventional right
front folding door entrance, it had the same perimeter bench seats that
were carryovers from horse drawn 'Kid Hacks' and that many early
motorized buses were equipped with when new well into the early
thirties...school buses with perimeter seating didn't completely
disappear until all of the older rides that were equipped with them were
retired, a few lasting into the mid or late 40s.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As
the bus crawled north through the falling snow, a
Pennsylvania Railroad mail/passenger train was approaching the
crossing westbound, running about 45 miles per hour. The fireman was
stoking the firebox, either shoveling coal into the flaming maw or
tending to the automatic stoker if the locomotive was equipped with
one, so he wasn't looking out of the cab's left side picture window
until just before they reached the crossing. On the right side of
the cab, as they passed the whistle board 1500 or so feet from the
crossing, the engineer reached up and started yanking the whistle
cord, blasting the engine's whistle in the traditional
long-short-long-long crossing warning signal.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">To
this day no one's really sure exactly what happened
next. Route 226 climbed a slight grade as it approached the crossing,
and the tracks crossed the road an an angle, but the angle was in a
northbound drivers favor...he'd barely have to turn his head to look
down the tracks to the right. Now, there <i>were</i> houses or
other buildings built right up to the tracks, so a driver's view was
pretty well compromised until he got right up to the crossing's 'stop'
line. The driver of any north-bound vehicle approaching the crossing
would have to take extra care, and make sure he stopped clear of the
tracks, but close enough look up the tracks towards the curve to check
for an oncoming train....</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">But
wait a minute!...this crossing was protected by a bell! (Probably at
least partially because of that train-hiding curve, and partially
because the crossing was located in the center of a town) That should
have provided plenty of warning if it was working...and according to a
couple of
eye witnesses who happened to be out and about, the crossing bells
activated just as they were supposed to. They also stated that they
could hear the
train's whistle, and see the headlight stabbing through the snow...it
being night and snowing may have made the train a little <i>easier</i>
to spot, and anyone who's seen a train approaching in rain or snow knows
exactly what I'm talking about here. Even back in the 30s train
headlights were <i>far</i> brighter than car head lights, and you'd very
likely see that beam stabbing through the snow, at an angle, a good bit
before the train popped around the curve. <i>But</i>...to <i>see</i> it, you'd have to <i>look</i>
for it! And the driver just plain long didn't do that, because those
same eye witnesses stated that they saw the bus start up grade, slow a
bit for just an instant,
then, as the driver grabbed another (Probably lower) gear,
accelerate onto the crossing...</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUR4aTCnpA6fMXVnqUs1SQz0Nt_rD4p_UNYoyXMctyHvpFp8PmlC-R6so6LLFnHwToTsUO-mVwtsiEh3zBwB2vYm4qaQxu24FJ4GIOvRcvC_UDwHuHKQSHhgHCkDBjprn3PCE7gjlRWEk/s1600/Shreve%252C+Ohio.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUR4aTCnpA6fMXVnqUs1SQz0Nt_rD4p_UNYoyXMctyHvpFp8PmlC-R6so6LLFnHwToTsUO-mVwtsiEh3zBwB2vYm4qaQxu24FJ4GIOvRcvC_UDwHuHKQSHhgHCkDBjprn3PCE7gjlRWEk/s640/Shreve%252C+Ohio.jpg" width="638" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Satellite
view of Shreve, with the accident crossing...still in place 86 years
after the crash...circled in red. The route the bus took into town is
indicated by blue dashes.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUYvvvNNriPok2cv_8Nd5ORO9ox1Xp4c8RiDytFpXW3OEpI77-GNslFZn8U1T-VfpzwDEKeq37eFMd8wLjR5TJynu_Byr_tT0aKmyq7pt2ayTy8OJUzuO3vzzRh7-7JWlPyCIwBDeUP6g/s1600/Shreve%252C+Ohio+accident+crossing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUYvvvNNriPok2cv_8Nd5ORO9ox1Xp4c8RiDytFpXW3OEpI77-GNslFZn8U1T-VfpzwDEKeq37eFMd8wLjR5TJynu_Byr_tT0aKmyq7pt2ayTy8OJUzuO3vzzRh7-7JWlPyCIwBDeUP6g/s640/Shreve%252C+Ohio+accident+crossing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Satellite view of the
accident crossing...while the crossing is now, of course, equipped with
gates and signals, it's laid out just about exactly as it was in 1930.
It was, of course, snowing and sleeting that night, and the train was
actually coming out of a pretty good right hand curve as it approached
the crossing, but the driver, if he'd stopped and looked, would have
still been able to see the train. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_kV88KOw02RTu3qZXT2_mYuYhJcPYnQvrNFsaiyXJEqvN1e5Hrml7nWFrG5v-08RJb84wqkUsE_A6UKAUdhhW82GCCr1XrvZhVNkmL06mzOubIS1yRvmxrDLWNOoaktyeBdMZsDawf30/s1600/Shreve+Ohio+Approaching+Crossing..jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_kV88KOw02RTu3qZXT2_mYuYhJcPYnQvrNFsaiyXJEqvN1e5Hrml7nWFrG5v-08RJb84wqkUsE_A6UKAUdhhW82GCCr1XrvZhVNkmL06mzOubIS1yRvmxrDLWNOoaktyeBdMZsDawf30/s640/Shreve+Ohio+Approaching+Crossing..jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Street view, approaching the
crossing. The buildings on the east side of Market Street (Ohio Rt 226)
in downtown Shreve as you approach the crossing from about a block or so
away are the same ones that were there back in 1930. Of course on that
long ago Jan 3rd it was night time and snowing, so look at this and the
next two pics, then close your eyes and imagine it at night...in the
snow...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj50-hz_lYGx7ERnLAEu5SQWGESWltNDKdX8sTP_dVaimPgCjln4BrAh_148xI3Y7ZoybgcoFdZ3kSC4rXi_g0NASBmnnLyujewF7TUtmLuQdjrhWT8UU2zvMjFf5gDZF8dDibN80K7XnQ/s1600/Shreve+3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj50-hz_lYGx7ERnLAEu5SQWGESWltNDKdX8sTP_dVaimPgCjln4BrAh_148xI3Y7ZoybgcoFdZ3kSC4rXi_g0NASBmnnLyujewF7TUtmLuQdjrhWT8UU2zvMjFf5gDZF8dDibN80K7XnQ/s640/Shreve+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">View
of the crossing from the present day 'Stop' line for the crossing
signals. While there's a modern building on the right now, I'd lay bets
that there <i>used</i> to be a two story brick building similar to the
ones in the first street view there. OK, with that and the tree line, if
it existed in 1930, the train would have been completely hidden from
this position,.but then again it probably hadn't popped around the curve
yet. Also, back then the crossbuck, bell, and stop line would have
probably been about where the crossing signal is now...and if the driver
had stopped there...</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYRi9kXW0xJgHDTwGNsXmrOv4G3iFvBGMcOrl6N7MK6VCZmhd4Pnp7urgr_QlA7luDf-0GC2ImdNorkoJJSjS4WUo_JTDa8DBXXg-hWWyDhG57OhwWacJd-CllZ7CwNqX6qLSElykopw4/s1600/Shreve+Ohio+Drivers+Eye+View.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYRi9kXW0xJgHDTwGNsXmrOv4G3iFvBGMcOrl6N7MK6VCZmhd4Pnp7urgr_QlA7luDf-0GC2ImdNorkoJJSjS4WUo_JTDa8DBXXg-hWWyDhG57OhwWacJd-CllZ7CwNqX6qLSElykopw4/s640/Shreve+Ohio+Drivers+Eye+View.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">This is from right at the
crossing signal, as I noted, roughly where the stop line probably was 86
years back. Note the track coming out of the curve to the right...you'd
still give you plenty of time to see an oncoming train...if you
stopped.<br />
<br />
NOW! Use your imagination...It's night and a
nasty combination of snow and sleet's falling...not blizzard conditions
by any means, but still enough to reduce visibility. You get to the
crossing's stop line and stop. You think you hear a whistle and, as you
look to your right you see snow and sleet dancing in a powerful beam of
light for several seconds as the ground kind of shakes a little and you
hear that unmistakable CHF-CHF-CHF-CHF of a big steam locomotive under
load. Then it pops around the curve, running close to sixty, belchinging
steam from it's cylinder exhausts and punching a column of smoke
skyward as it as it roars past the nose of your car, dragging a string
of lit-up passenger cars behind it headed for points unknown...<br />
<br />
Ok,
imagination off...the point of that little narrative being, even in the
snow, you could've see the train for several seconds before it actually
popped around the curve because of the head light. The bus driver could
have seen the train, gang. If he'd stopped. And looked. But he didn't.
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">...In most of these accidents, the crew aboard the
locomotive has seen the impending tragedy start to unfold a few
seconds before they hit, early enough for the engineer to slam the
brakes into emergency, but that didn't happen in Shreve that snowy
evening. The fireman may have glimpsed the bus, which emerged from
behind a building near the tracks, moving towards the crossing, an
instant before they hit, and he may have shouted a warning, but
nothing I found indicates that the train crew had more than a second
or two to react. On the contrary they may not have seen the bus at
all before they hit. Engineer F Zick's view of the landscape to the
left of the locomotive was blocked by the locomotive itself, as was
his view directly in front of the locomotive. So he most definitely
didn't see anything until an instant before they hit, if then. At the
most, he may have glimpsed <i>something</i> materialize in front of him as
the front end of the bus cleared the crossing, then it took an
instant or so for his brain to analyze what he was seeing, compose the
likely loudly shouted '<i>AWWWW (Pick a curse word), </i>and send his
hand in a desperate grab for the brake handle...it probably took a
second at the very most for him to slam the brake handle back into
emergency, but by then the bus was already tumbling to the
right...north...of the tracks. In the cab of the big steamer, the
crew probably didn't even feel the impact, and barely heard it...but
they could see the crumpled bus as they slid past.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">On the bus, the beam from the locomotive headlight glared
through the right-side windows, turning it as bright as daylight and
giving the kids maybe a half second of warning...The kids on the left
side of the bus went deer in the head lights, a couple of the kids on
the right side may have started to turn to look over their shoulders
before the front end of the locomotive ripped into the right rear of
the bus. The rear of the bus body all but exploded and eight or ten
of the kids were slung out into the snow, seven of them, two of whom
were brothers, dying instantly. The bus spun clockwise, landing about 100 feet from the crossing. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The engineer didn't slam the brakes into emergency until
an instant <i>after</i> they hit the bus, and the locomotive slid a
good thousand feet or so before it stopped. The train crew as well as
some of the passengers...who had been rudely jerked and bounced as
the brakes went into emergency...bailed off of the train and headed
for the bus. One of the crew may have trotted around to the front of
the locomotive to see if any bodies had ended up on the pilot or
front platform, which was a common occurrence in train/motor vehicle
accidents of that era.. The others started running up on bodies a good
two
hundred feet from the bus.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There were more than a few miracles that night,
too...this was one of those accidents where there were either
fatalities or, with a couple of exceptions, only bumps and bruises.
One girl had possible internal injuries and two broken legs, another
,whose brother was killed, suffered a broken leg. The others...all of
whom, I have a feeling, were sitting in the front of the
bus...suffered bumps, bruises, cuts, and a couple more fractures. The
driver and coach, sitting at the very front of the ride, were the
least injured of the bunch...as the train crew, passengers, and
residents who'd heard the collision descended on the scene they were
helping the less injured kids, who'd apparently managed to stay with
the bus as it spun away from the crossing.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Phone calls were made to Wooster...about ten miles
away...requesting ambulances, but with the roads getting steadily
worse it would take awhile for them to arrive. While neither article
I found specifically mentioned it, I have a feeling the kids were
helped aboard the train or taken to near-by houses to await the
arrival of ambulances. And, this being 1930, while ambulances
responded as quickly as the storm permitted, and transported the
injured as quickly as possible...well, that's about it. There was no
prehospital care back then, other than some bandaging and splinting.
Luckily most of the injured kids suffered only cuts, bruises, and
simple fractures...injuries that the ambulance attendants of the time
may have actually been trained and equipped to handle. Generally
though, in that era, being taken to the hospital in an ambulance was
pretty much riding a fast taxi with lights and sirens. (<i>Everything</i>
was transported under emergency conditions back then, from heart
attacks to hangnails). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> As often happens with away games to this very day,
especially if the team's having a good season and the opponent's a
big rival, a slew of the Burbank faithful made the trip to Big
Prairie as well, driving their own cars, and most had left before the
bus. I can picture the scene at the school, as they waited in the
parking lot, first wondering just how the heck slow Joe Baker was
driving for Pete's sake, then becoming concerned, then worried, than
frantic, until finally someone got a phone call and hurried to the
school to let the group of parents and fans waiting for the bus know
what had happened. Then there was a mad rush through the snow back to Shreve.
By the time they started back, all of the injured kids had been
transported to Wooster's two hospitals and the majority of the bodies
taken to the morgue.</span> </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A
similar scene today, involving a bus and multiple
injuries, would look like a light show to anyone approaching the
scene an hour or so into the incident, with a dozen or more pieces of
fire and rescue apparatus and
a score of law enforcement vehicles punching pulses of red, blue, and
white light into the night. The scene would be crawling with
dozens of well trained personnel. Bodies would still be in
place...covered...and an hour or so in the injured would all have been
transported, or, if they had been trapped and needed to be extricated,
would be in the process of being transported. A couple of medical
helicopters...a tool not even dreamed of in 1930... might be in
a nearby field awaiting patients. A perimeter would be set up, with non
Fire/EMS/Law Enforcement personnel kept back a couple of hundred
yards...at the very least...from the scene. Most likely an officer or
two or three would be assigned the specific task of interacting with the
parents and helping them find out the status of their kids.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Back eighty-five years ago, though, things were way
more, for a better word, informal than they are now. I can just about bet that there were
only a few emergency vehicles on scene at a time, even early into the
incident, and by the time worried parents began arriving an hour or
two into the incident there were probably none, or, at most, a Sheriff's Department car or two. Once the track was cleared, the
train continued on it's trip. Parents and spectators could walk
right up to...and onto...the scene, which by the time they arrived,
very likely consisted only of the shattered bus and the debris trial
it left behind as it tumbled.. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There
was also probably no accountability as to what
patient went to what hospital, leaving the parents completely in the
dark. (This is one problem that hasn't been entirely worked out to this
very day, because getting a large number of injured patients stabilized
and transported often takes priority over recording just who went
where.). They began an all too familiar and all too frantic place to
place search, looking for their kids. They first went to the two
hospitals, where eight joyous reunions occurred, parents and sons or
daughters hugging madly, the parents crying tears of joy, the kids
asking about their friends. Seven more sets of parents, their hearts
heavy with dread, went to the morgue, where wails of agony were
heard.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Joe Baker couldn't remember if he'd stopped at the
crossing or not, but</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> remember...a couple of eye witnesses stated
that he slowed up, but didn't stop.</span> Remember also that this was actually a signal protected
crossing though the signals were, at best, pretty rudimentary, so he
may not have <i>legally</i> been required to stop. I haven't been
able to find a copy of the Ohio traffic laws as they were written in
1930, but school buses being required to stop at <i>all </i>crossings,
whether they were signal-protected or not, was still a good way down the
road. Both morally and common sense wise, of course, he certainly
should have stopped. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">While
the crossing had a bell signal, it's obvious that he didn't hear it...or
if he did, didn't recognize it for what it was. And there were
definitely factors working against him hearing it. The unheated bus was
closed up tight do to the
weather, he had a group of jubilant teenagers who'd, less than an
hour earlier, kicked the collective bootay of their arch rivals in a
hard fought b-ball game aboard, and the bus was straining, climbing a
grade, factors that not only could have kept him from hearing the
crossing bell,
but the locomotive whistle as well. And, just to make matters worse,
it was sleeting to beat the band. All of us have driven or ridden
during a sleet storm, and well know the manic hissing rattle of heavy
sleet hitting the windshield and roof.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Whether
he heard the bell or not is sort of a moot point, though, because he
should have just stopped the bus and looked, whether he heard a bell or
not. And I know, there were buildings right on top of the tracks and the
weather was redefining 'Nasty', but no matter <i>how</i> close to the
tracks the
nearest buildings were and how hard it was snowing and sleeting, he most
definitely would have seen the locomotive's head light if he'd stopped
and looked. While the track crossed the road at an angle, the track
slanted from northeast to southwest, making the westbound train
<i>easier</i> to see from the northbound bus...all Baker should have
had to have done, had he stopped, would have been to turn his head to
the right and look at an angle through the windshield. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">But he didn't stop. And this time 'Complacency' can't be
used as an excuse, as poor an excuse as it always is. This was not a
normal daily run, but a trip home from a basketball game along a
route he likely didn't drive regularly, especially at night and most
especially at night during nasty weather. If anything he should have
been twice as cautious as usual.. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have a
feeling t</span>he root cause of this one's pretty simple. I think he was concentrating on getting up the grade leading
to the tracks on the rapidly-becoming-slick road and, distracted by
all the noise on the bus, didn't even think to look for a train until
the locomotive's headlight flooded the interior of the bus with a
deadly glow. And because of this, seven kids lost their lives in the
blink of an eye.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> *******************************************************************************************</span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The kids who lost their lives in the accident:</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Wilbur
Grube</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Forest
Grube</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Wayne
Lehman</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Emil
Timic</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Eugene
Talley</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Willard
Baker</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
******************************************************************************************</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Thing is, Tragedy hadn't finished with Ohio yet. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Berea,
Ohio School Bus/Train Crash...January 22, 1930</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Just
nineteen days later, and sixty or so miles north, with the Shreve,
Ohio accident still fresh in everyone's mind, tragedy struck again
when a school bus driver made a fatal mistake that's <i>still</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
all too common at railroad crossings....he was too impatient.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Berea, Ohio is a suburb of Cleveland, with just
about 20,000 souls calling it home today. In January 1930 it was
maybe a quarter that size and far more rural than it is now.
Immediately to the north is the town of Brook Park, home, today, of
Cleveland's Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport, but most
importantly for this post, home back then of Brook Park Elementary School,
where the bus involved in this accident was bound.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">January 22<sup>nd</sup>, 1930 was one of those crisp,
cold, clear winter mornings, with just a couple of inches of fresh
snow on the ground, as a school bus trundled east on Sheldon Road, not
too far from both Cleveland's then brand new airport and Berea's New
York Central train station. The bus...a Ford Model TT Truck chassis
with a wooden body... had just started its run, and there were ten
elementary school age kids on board, bundled up against the cold
(Again, school bus standard equipment didn't include heaters back in
the day). I can just about guarantee that it also had perimeter
seating, with the kids sitting with their backs towards the bus
sidewalls as well as, very likely, a rear entrance. As kids have been doing on that bus ride to school for
countless decades, they were talking and laughing and burning off
energy as the bus approached the big Sheldon Road crossing, where the
then four track New York Central main line crossed...</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv81zOhYXMS8dly51ZQnnJ-099vF9QLf9_FQyefFMDXQI_YkPhX8RiHpil4mdkSO86CzdFmB8uxF1DKBbQwrm3ZF0agae6EHOy126T9K3CGEEUUEERQseBPMsR670JLJFlhEMW-5KdDg4/s1600/Model+T+School+Bus+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv81zOhYXMS8dly51ZQnnJ-099vF9QLf9_FQyefFMDXQI_YkPhX8RiHpil4mdkSO86CzdFmB8uxF1DKBbQwrm3ZF0agae6EHOy126T9K3CGEEUUEERQseBPMsR670JLJFlhEMW-5KdDg4/s640/Model+T+School+Bus+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ford Model TT chassied school bus with a wooden, rear entrance body, likely very similar to the bus involved in the accident</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile two trains had pulled out of Cleveland's then
brand new Union Station, minutes apart, at about 8:00 AM. The first,
designated Train #7, was a straight passenger train, the second,
designated Train #X19, was an express mail train, and was considered
an Extra train on the schedule. Being a mail train it also had
priority over all other trains on the line. Both trains were running
late...only by fifteen minutes or so but still late.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Now, as the Roaring Twenties rolled over into the
soon-to-be Desperate Thirties, the railroad was still King,
travel-wise. The automobile was already beginning to cut into the
railroads' share of travel, and the airlines would be nibbling at
their heels in a couple of years, but in 1930 the train was still
very much <i>the</i> way to move both goods and people long distances
at high speed and would continue to be for at least another decade and a half or so.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> The New York Central main line coming out of Cleveland
was a four track main line back then, set up exactly like a four lane
highway, with the outer track in each direction being the slow (Or
local) track, and the inner track the fast, or express, track. For
the first several miles both trains were on the inner, fast track,
with Train X19 following about a mile and a half behind train # 7,
far enough back that the engineer could keep his eye on the block
signals and bring his train to a safe stop if he had to. Then, a couple of miles out of Berea, Train # 7 was diverted
to the outer, slow track to allow the mail train to pass it. The crew
of Train X-19 got a 'clear board' (Green signal), giving them a clear
track. The train's engineer eased the throttle open until they were
running about 55 MPH, steadily gaining on train #7 until, as they
approached the Sheldon Road crossing, only about a quarter mile separated the two.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb7oWKGvi8HqSc4YiFcsrKt0ZzJMVKVKF7_WER0mbt4HcsIY1Y10GF7GzhbXIcuLvIh3dKwdCl1-X5fsYRQJ9QUq5x2JsnQNhv5kRWFbB4BgModi3G54yx0DDpUYoQevvmDYrjUQSLdkM/s1600/Berea+Ohio+Area.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb7oWKGvi8HqSc4YiFcsrKt0ZzJMVKVKF7_WER0mbt4HcsIY1Y10GF7GzhbXIcuLvIh3dKwdCl1-X5fsYRQJ9QUq5x2JsnQNhv5kRWFbB4BgModi3G54yx0DDpUYoQevvmDYrjUQSLdkM/s640/Berea+Ohio+Area.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Shreve, Ohio Satellite view,
with the accident crossing circled in red. The bus destination...Brook
Park School...was north and slightly west of the crossing, on a plot of
land that's now deeply inside the boundaries of Cleveland-Hopkins
International Airport, a corner of which is visible in the upper left of
the picture.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH4jAkomORSeFTjOgoXFVV77vkU0N9GD-gD8tcRPGmlxZI5VK2MUWwEs2FVtCIAcX9zwRtfpSqBiROo97hT6OPdPWEaP_m7slWlmaOuCjYvNi-SXirowvpKfm2GSKn0_EVTh1gBi9727w/s1600/Berea+Ohio+Accident+Crossing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH4jAkomORSeFTjOgoXFVV77vkU0N9GD-gD8tcRPGmlxZI5VK2MUWwEs2FVtCIAcX9zwRtfpSqBiROo97hT6OPdPWEaP_m7slWlmaOuCjYvNi-SXirowvpKfm2GSKn0_EVTh1gBi9727w/s640/Berea+Ohio+Accident+Crossing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Satellite view of the
accident crossing today, with bus and train directions of travel and
other pertinent information indicated. There are only three
tracks...one of them a siding...today rather than the four track main
line that existed in 1930.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Even though four tracks crossed Sheldon Road, this was
still an unprotected crossing. No flagman, no signals, nothing other
than the classic cross-buck and the drivers' eyes. Train #7 blew for
the crossing, and aboard the bus, driver John Taylor eased to a stop
as Train #7 bore down on the crossing, running about 35 or 40MPH,
it's locomotive belting smoke and steam skyward and outward, the
train dragging a cloud of powdery, just fallen snow behind it. The
kids, especially the boys (ALL little boys love trains) were wide
eyed as the behemoth thundered past on the far track. By the time the
forth or so car had passed, the draft created mini-snow-storm had
mingled with clouds of uncondensed steam in the cold morning air to
partially hide the train, making seem like a ghostly apparition, even
in the bright morning sun.</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A quarter mile behind Train #7's observation car and
rapidly gaining ground, Train X19's engineer leaned out of Locomotive
3340's cab window and saw the whistle board for Sheldon Road,
seemingly drifting in the cloud of snow and steam hanging in train
#7's wake. He reached up, flipped the air valve for the bell, then
started yanking on the whistle cord, sending the sonorous wail of a
steam whistle across the country side.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Train #7's observation car, all but hidden in the clouds
of snow and steam being dragged along behind the train, cleared the
crossing, the Clank-CLANK of steel wheels hitting rail joints
dopplering away as the train receded to the west. Taylor probably
glanced to the left to make sure no train was approaching from the
opposite direction, then pulled forward, onto the crossing. Now this
was a <i>wide</i> crossing...seventy-five feet from where the bus was stopped to the
first rail of the fast track Train X19 was on...and Model T's,
especially the heavier 'TT' truck chassis, were not known for
spirited acceleration. He started rolling at just about the same time
Train #7's observation car cleared the crossing, pulling right into
the cloud of smoke, steam, and snow hanging in the train's wake,
which was effectively hiding everything to the northeast of the
crossing, including the onrushing locomotive 3340 at train X19's head
end. Train X19 was just about twenty seconds behind Train #7 by the
time it neared Sheldon Road. Just about the same length of time it
took Taylor to put the bus square across the inner, fast westbound
track.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjfwDNBnCHEQ-PInHSFVB1VB8tiFqocZbEHepeDGYrnUF6DrEAYcpD2zAvUIInX0mKoJLGAfVXIuGZSArcMsrmba3O5VCLjWpbYfjnjSZAqMSIuKk3adcqFUy4pzgHjJo-ii_CnDuRAtk/s1600/Berea+Sheldon+Rd+Drivers+Eye+View+1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjfwDNBnCHEQ-PInHSFVB1VB8tiFqocZbEHepeDGYrnUF6DrEAYcpD2zAvUIInX0mKoJLGAfVXIuGZSArcMsrmba3O5VCLjWpbYfjnjSZAqMSIuKk3adcqFUy4pzgHjJo-ii_CnDuRAtk/s640/Berea+Sheldon+Rd+Drivers+Eye+View+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Street
view, approaching the Sheldon Road crossing from the same direction
that the bus would have been approaching from on the morning of the
accident. Even though Berea has grown exponentially in the eighty-six
years since the accident, a trick of fate makes the approach still seem
somewhat rural, with only a couple of modern buildings visible in this
street view.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhIUTGkH6pre1dyEyYUdN4Cpc-1Nvd9Xj-ahhQDEIA9c3guMbL0Z6D6E_2EDk_vvem336ll_iZ4MVYEAL8JyA5iY5z7i7akb0yahFYvsDdNh9o80pWHlWMR8YYi9IeSKysrGBTMdYpa-U/s1600/Berea+Sheldon+Rd+Drivers+Eye+View+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhIUTGkH6pre1dyEyYUdN4Cpc-1Nvd9Xj-ahhQDEIA9c3guMbL0Z6D6E_2EDk_vvem336ll_iZ4MVYEAL8JyA5iY5z7i7akb0yahFYvsDdNh9o80pWHlWMR8YYi9IeSKysrGBTMdYpa-U/s640/Berea+Sheldon+Rd+Drivers+Eye+View+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Looking towards the
Northeast...the same direction that the two trains would have been
approaching from...as you approach the crossing. It's a good possibility
that the trees lining the track did <i>not</i> exist back in 1930
simply because this was an unguarded crossing. The hazard that grade
crossings created for drivers was well recognized by 1930...but
apparently not well recognized enough for railroads to spend the money
to signalize all of them,or to assign gate guard to them. So they likely
<i>did</i> cut trees and shrubs back as much as possible to improve the
sight line. Of course, the view from this distance wasn't the issue.
HMMM... wonder what the crossing <i>did</i> look like back in 1930?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiun6Cgai8kmZxPkTxozuqmrSEhr7fOsSP51_5QxmDVtA4YcMXepdj4v1e5puJcDuI9XJJf8SSAcUlnbBP4lXKLCWlXWAZes3Af7ozGXLkJoAyn6W4VyxD2idbBUmVNWa66gKeT1fVx0Jk/s1600/Berea+Sheldon+Rd+Drivers+Eye+View+4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiun6Cgai8kmZxPkTxozuqmrSEhr7fOsSP51_5QxmDVtA4YcMXepdj4v1e5puJcDuI9XJJf8SSAcUlnbBP4lXKLCWlXWAZes3Af7ozGXLkJoAyn6W4VyxD2idbBUmVNWa66gKeT1fVx0Jk/s640/Berea+Sheldon+Rd+Drivers+Eye+View+4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Using
Paintshop Pro, I added a track to give the crossing it's 4-track
configuration from 1930, then got rid of the crossing signals and a
couple of modern buildings, added some trees, and made a hopefully
reasonable facsimile of the crossing in 1930. The crossing was 75 feet
wide back then, and all four lines were main line...two west bound and
two eastbound, just like a modern four lane highway. The trains would
have been on the far two tracks, with Train #7 on the far track. John
Taylor...the bus driver..saw Train #7 approaching the crossing as he
approached and stopped, waiting for the train to clear. Now, there was
snow on the ground, so the train was making it's own mini-blzzard as it
dragged a big cloud of blowing show behind it. On top of that it was <i>cold</i>...this
was, after all, Ohio in January...so the steam belching form the
locomotive's cylinder exhausts and from the pop-off valves for the car
heating systems wasn't condensing as quickly as it would in warm
weather, and smoke was tending to hang close to the ground. And Taylor
didn't know that Train X-19 was less than half a minute behind Train #7,
on the third track over...the inside westbound track.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZd_wXcMAztIzmmPUZRfb47i3yr0zoPy0NUOhgohUz3jxxJXokHA8BSi9r2gptT2fp3vCNISA19Gei6RjfNAIiBdZ-T8fgi5hzIC4hjya2CSINN5ZKLC3IAnFTop9ro07m5wtQMLnjLG0/s1600/Berea+Sheldon+Rd+Drivers+Eye+View+3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZd_wXcMAztIzmmPUZRfb47i3yr0zoPy0NUOhgohUz3jxxJXokHA8BSi9r2gptT2fp3vCNISA19Gei6RjfNAIiBdZ-T8fgi5hzIC4hjya2CSINN5ZKLC3IAnFTop9ro07m5wtQMLnjLG0/s640/Berea+Sheldon+Rd+Drivers+Eye+View+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
...The
direction the trains were approaching from...again, I used Paintshop to
approximate the crossing as it was in 1930. Taylor had a straight,
normally unobstructed view up the tracks for a good distance, and,
indeed, saw Train #7 approaching on the far track in plenty of time to
stop....but <i>after</i> it passed he had all that steam, blowing snow,
and smoke hanging close to the ground as Train X-19 approached on the
third track over, only about twenty seconds behind Train #7. The problem
was, that snow, steam, and smoke hung like a fog bank, completely
obscuring the view up the tracks for a good <i>thirty</i> seconds before
it dissipated enough to give a driver a view up the tracks, completely
obscuring Taylor's view of Train #X-19 as it approached. And, unlike
Train #7, Train X-19 was an unscheduled extra train. While Taylor very
likely anticipated Train #7 possibly passing through...it was a daily
run...he had no clue that Train X-19 existed at all. And if he did look
back up the tracks all he saw was...well...snow and steam. So, wanting
to get the kids to school on time, he assumed the way was clear and safe
(Who ever heard of trains running in the same direction, twenty seconds
apart???) and pulled onto the crossing blind...a good ten seconds too
soon.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Several people...including a mother who lived a bit
northeast of the crossing, and who had just put her three kids on the
bus and a couple of kids waiting at a bus stop on the other side of
the tracks...saw the train, and saw the bus ease to a stop at the
crossing to allow Train # 7 to pass, but no one saw the collision.
Locomotive 3340 apparently hit the bus just forward of broadside, and
the wooden bodied vehicle disintegrated explosively. The chassis was
tossed aside the same way you or I would kick an empty cigarette pack
off the sidewalk, flipping and tumbling to land upside down next to the
right-of-way while everyone aboard the bus was violently ejected,
some landing 100 feet from the crossing. With the exception of twelve
year old Ethel Davidson, who must have had an angel sitting on either
side of her, everyone on board was killed instantly. Ethel suffered a
broken leg.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Just about the time Locomotive 3340's engineer, whose
last name was Hand, started yanking the whistle cord as he blew for
the Sheldon Road crossing, his fireman started shoveling coal into
the fiery, seemingly insatiable maw of the firebox to keep steam up
so they could make up the fifteen or so lost minutes, so he wasn't
looking out of the cab's left-side window as they approached the
crossing. The locomotive;'s bulk completely hid everything to the
left of the locomotive from Hand, so neither of them saw the bus. All
they felt was a sudden quick jerk as the locomotive punted the
remains of the bus off of the track, and neither saw the ruined
chassis tumble away from the crossing. They were probably looking
over at each other with 'The hell was <i>that...' </i>expressions on
their faces as the chassis somersaulted away, unseen, one of them
likely saying something to the effect of 'All the hell we need! One
of the drivers must've thrown a tire!!', oblivious for the moment to
the carnage that had just been created.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Hand, thinking both delay and
paperwork, probably cursed under his breath as he pulled the brake
handle into the 'service (Normal stop) position, bringing the train
to a slow, gentle stop. Train # 7 had also come to a stop...so the
mail train could complete it's passing maneuver...and Locomotive 3314
eased to a stop just about opposite the passenger train's observation
car. The fireman and engineer both climbed down out of 3314's cab and
walked towards the front end of the behemoth they were in command of
as smoke drifted from the stack and steam roared from the relief
valves. They were looking at the drive wheels, expecting one of the
steel tires that the big drivers were shod with to be askew and
twisted, but all of them were firmly in place and in good shape. They
walked around the front of the engine, at first giving each other
puzzled looks, then one of them looked over at the pilot and front
platform and his eyes suddenly snapped open wide, becoming saucer eyes
as he saw the school books lying, torn and battered, on the platform.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">One of Train #7's crew...likely the conductor...had very
likely called over to the crew of locomotive 3314, wondering why
they'd stopped, probably expecting to hear of a mechanical failure,
only to hear something like <i>'Oh, God, I think we just hit a school
bus!'</i> . They ran back towards the crossing, their feet feeling
like they weighed in at a ton or so apiece, running up on more debris
and books and lunch sacks and shattered sections of the bus body,
spotting the chassis now pretzel shaped and upside down to the west
of the tracks, and finally running up on bodies. One child...Ethel
Davidson...was crying and calling for help.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I found little to nothing about the emergency response
on this one, but then again there probably wasn't much (Nor, sadly,
was there any need for much). Ethel Davidson was, according to what I
found, transported to the hospital in a private car, and the bodies
of the deceased were removed to the morgue by both ambulances and
private vehicles as local, railroad, and ICC investigators converged
on the scene. The superintendent of schools arrived fifteen minutes
after the accident...while bus, train, and bodies were all still in
place...and got the ball rolling investigation-wise, and as
investigators interviewed witnesses and the train crew it became
painfully obvious what had happened. Taylor had assumed that, once
Train #7 cleared the crossing, that he had a clear, safe road.
Problem was, through observation, and actually running a train across
the crossing under similar conditions, they figured out that it took
a good half a minute for the cloud of steam, smoke, and snow to
dissipate enough to allow drivers to actually see whether a train was
coming (From either direction)</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">On top of that, a train was expected from the opposite
direction at about the same time the bus stopped at the crossing (It
actually passed through shortly after the school superintendent
arrived at the scene), and it was surmised that Taylor had looked to
the west, watching for that train, just before he started across the
tracks. OH...and the superintendent also stated that the train that
had hit the bus (Train X19) was obscured in it's own cloud of steam
and smoke as it sat on the track. Due to the cold weather, the steam
and smoke were just hanging rather than dissipating, basically
creating a man-made fog bank. Add the fact that Train #7 was usually
all by it's lonesome...remember, Train X19 was an extra train that
had been added to the schedule...as well as the fact that there were
no signals, watchmen or anything else to protect motorists and
pedestrians and you end up with just about a perfect recipe for
disaster.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Taylor was another driver who was known to be a very
safe, conscientious, and careful driver. He followed guidelines and
policies to a 'T', and obviously stopped at the Sheldon Road crossing
to let the first train...Train #7...pass. Problem was, he didn't take
it quite far enough. If he had waited only half a minute or
so...thirty seconds...longer, he'd have seen Train X19 bearing down
on the crossing. But he didn't wait. And paid for it with his life,
sadly, taking nine children with him.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">************************************************************************************** </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The children who lost their lives that morning:</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Vernon
Davidson</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> William Davidson</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jacob
Walters</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Juanita Walters</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Evelyn
Kaltenbach </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">William Pastorek</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Dorothy
Zielinski</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Rita Zielinski</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Vincent Zielinski</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I believe that the two Davidson boys were the brothers </span>
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">of Ethel Davidson, the girl who was injured in the
crash.</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They lived within sight of the crossing, and their mom
had </span>
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">watched them get on the bus just minutes before the
accident.</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
*******************************************************************************************</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***>
Notes, Links, and Stuff<***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>The other posts in this series</b></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>in the order they were posted.</b></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html</a> Evans, Colo December 1961 </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html</a> Spring City Tenn. August 1955</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html</a> Congers New York </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
March 1972</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html</a> Lake Station Indiana</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
October 1971</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html</a> Stratton Nebraska </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
August 1976</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.htm</a> Fox River Grove Illinois October 1995</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html</a> Conasauga Tenn. March 2000<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html </a> Sandy, Utah Dec 1938<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html</a> Proberta, California Nov 1921<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html</a> Shreve and Berea Ohio Jan. 1930<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html</a> Crescent City, Florida December 1933<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html</a> Rockville, Maryland April 1935<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html</a> MAson City, Iowa Oct. 1937<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html</a> Eads, Tennessee Oct. 1941<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<***></div>
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As you head back in time and
look for information about accidents, disasters, and incidents of all
kinds, you can be surprised by what you find, and more so, sometimes,
about what you <i>can't</i> find. Accidents that I just absolutely
<i>knew</i> would be a breeze to find details about were as barren,
info-wise, as the Sahara desert's barren,
pretty-much-everything-wise. Then an incident that's far less severe
and/or well known will have so much information available that I have
to pick, choose, and filter. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sometimes I'll get really lucky
with both the well known <i>and</i> more obscure incidents and get
hold of one of the official government reports, which happens far
less frequently and becomes exponentially less likely the further
back you go, but when it <i>does</i> happen, it's always a welcome
surprise, especially when said incident's era is approaching the
Century-Ago mark.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">With that being said, when I
started 'Part two' of this series of posts, I knew that getting info
on the incidents was going to be a hit-or-miss affair, and this post
is a grade-A example of just that. I found the ICC report for the
Berea Ohio accident, but the only thing I could find on the Shreve,
Ohio accident other than a couple of articles on the genealogy site
that I mine for subjects for this blog was an archived newspaper
article. At least the only thing that wouldn't cost me seventy-five
bucks that I don't have right at the moment. That seventy-five bucks,
BTW, would have given me access to multiple newspaper
archives...always an interesting read, but then, as now, the media's
accuracy is sometimes very much at question. OK, make that <i> often</i>
very much at question, considering the fact that the Berea ICC report refuted much of the
info in the news articles I found about that accident. As always,
though, the research was half the fun.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Of course the best kind of
research is getting to talk to someone who's local to the area where
the incident occurred and is knowledgeable about both the incident
and the area. I again got lucky in this respect when I called the
Berea School District offices to find the location of old Brook Park
Elementary, and got put in touch with a very knowledgeable and
pleasant lady by the name of Nancy Braford, who I spent a very
pleasant half hour or so talking with as she told me all kinds of
facts about both the incident and the area...I'm ever grateful to her
for taking time out of her busy day and talking to me. It was truly
the highlight of my morning.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">She also put me in touch with
Nancy Gilliham at the County Line Historical Society, who I'd like to
extend a heartfelt thanks to for sending me the Fall, 1998 issue of
<i>The Enterprise</i>, that organization's quarterly newsletter,
which contained a reproduction of the article written by Grace Dosa
as a teen. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I still had to do a lot of
speculating on both of the incidents in this post, though, but, as
always, I hope I managed to make them interesting, as accurate as
possible, and fun to read.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Now, on the the notes!</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Shreve,
Ohio Notes</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">One interesting fact about the Shreve accident that
bears repeating is that the crossing <i>was</i> a signal-protected
crossing with, at he very least, a bell and very possibly a flashing
light though there was some doubt that the light was operating. As
noted in the body of the article, this would <i>not</i> have been an
alternating light signal like the ones in use today but was probably
a single flashing red light mounted above the cross-buck. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This accident also makes it clear that distracted
driving is <i>not </i>a new hazard, as Joe Baker was facing a
multitude of distractions that night, all of which combined to put
him in front of an oncoming train. This is why the laws that were
ultimately passed nation-wide have the driver not only stop, Look, and
listen, but silence everything capable of making noise when they
do so. Of course it took a couple of decades for this to happen.</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Berea,
Ohio Notes</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There is absolutely no worse
nightmare for a parent than loosing a child, and the nightmare gets
even worse when a single family looses multiple children at once, but
this has happened regularly in incidents of all kinds involving
children. Seven of the children who died in the accident were from
just three families. The Davidson family lost two sons, the Walters
Family lost a son and a daughter, and the Zehnski family lost two
daughters and a son in the accident, ripping open a void in their
parents' hearts that would never be completely healed. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The Berea accident has a very
important and very touching similarity with the Evans, Colorado bus
crash...like the kids who died in the Evans crash, the kids who lost
their lives in the Berea bus crash were memorialized by having a
school named after them.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Brook Park Memorial Elementary
School was built and opened in 1956 as a tribute to the children who
died in the accident, and to this day a memorial ceremony is held on,
or as close to as possible, January 22<sup>nd</sup> at the school to
remember them. A memorial garden at the school also also memorializes
the victims of the accident. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The school was one of several
built in response to a huge surge in school population caused by both
the post-war baby boom, and the construction of a Ford Motor Company
assembly plant at Brook Park, and the property that the school, at
16900 Holland Road in Brook Park, sits on was purchased
from the Walter Family, who lost two children in the accident. It was
at their request that the school was named Brook Park <i>Memorial</i>
in memory of the children who were killed in the crash.</span> </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifr0Hcj5CjwQPexYrTRCdeNQHL8mEVfQ2li_BWHIKAjRVeHRkrejHkK7VLI2S9rXNN5hG43qKtG8lsd0EhGl6P8xuNtmCLcIi2_TMLR4By9_yvaySf2FE1BzamWgae6spcXZ3kcsG6Z7Q/s1600/Brook+PArk+Memorial+Elemntary.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifr0Hcj5CjwQPexYrTRCdeNQHL8mEVfQ2li_BWHIKAjRVeHRkrejHkK7VLI2S9rXNN5hG43qKtG8lsd0EhGl6P8xuNtmCLcIi2_TMLR4By9_yvaySf2FE1BzamWgae6spcXZ3kcsG6Z7Q/s640/Brook+PArk+Memorial+Elemntary.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">A winter-time view of Brook
Park Memorial Elementary School. The land the school was built on land
puchased from the parents of Jacob and Juanita Walters, two of the
children who died in the crash...it was at The Walters' request that the
shool was named in honor of the children who died in the crash.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A little girl named Grace Dossa was born in 1928, making
her just two years old when the accident happened. The accident
killed several children in her neighborhood. and she heard stories
about it as she grew up, and being both a very inquisitive and very
intelligent child, she developed an interest in the history behind
the accident, as well as the history of her community. This interest
became a very fortunate turn of events for the citizens of Brook
Park, especially the kids who attend Brook Park Memorial. As a
teenager she wrote an article about the accident for the local paper,
and then, for nearly five decades she visited Brook Park Memorial
Elementary on the anniversary of the accident, giving a talk on the
accident as well as what going to school was like back in the
Thirties and Forties. She lived in Brooke Park for all of her life,
and passed away only a few years ago.</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Old Brook Park Elementary School...the bus' destination
that long ago morning...was a beautiful old two story brick school
building with English basement (Actually making it three stories)
built in 1917 and located at Five Points Road and Riverside Drive, an
intersection that, according to Google Maps, no longer exists. The
plot of land where the school...long gone now...once stood is now on airport property.</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">With a very few exceptions,
school districts in 1930 didn't own their own buses...they posted
contracts yearly for drivers to bid on, and the drivers and sometimes
transit companies who won the contracts actually owned the buses.
John Taylor had first bid on and won the contract for that particular
route in 1927, then won the contract yearly. I'm going to make an
assumption about his bus here, and say it was probably bought new the
year he got the contract, making it a '26 or '27, though the
distinction wouldn't have been that great, it being a Ford Model TT,
the truck version of the venerable and legendary Model T Ford, which
changed very little, generally speaking, from one year to the next.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Hard as it is to believe, school
buses originally weren't yellow, but were, rather, whatever color the
owners wanted to have them painted. One of the stories that came out
of this accident is that the State of Ohio started requiring school
buses to be painted that now famous School Bus Yellow as a result of
this accident. If this was true, they were way ahead of the game, as
yellow didn't become a standard color for school buses until the
mid-Thirties, and the color we all know as 'School Bus Yellow' wasn't
actually developed until 1939.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This was a major multiple track
crossing that at the time saw as many as 130 trains a day...that's
five an hour, or roughly one every twelve minutes or so...yet there
was no protection of any kind for motorists and pedestrians. This
accident was one of the major factors in a huge push to have all
crossings equipped with active warning signals...lights and bells.
Though huge strides were made over the next decade or so...especially
in Ohio...it was a long, uphill battle, one that still hasn't been
won entirely, especially out in the Plains States, and in very rural
areas not only in the Mid-west, but throughout the country. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Granted I can't think of any
unprotected crossings not on private property in the area where I
live, but that hasn't always been the case. One of the very first
fatal accidents I responded to was at an unprotected crossing, where
a car was hit by the Auto-train, and this was in 1974, forty-four
years after the Berea, Ohio accident. Also, that particular accident wasn't in a rural
area, but in a fast growing suburb of Richmond Va., so yep,
unprotected crossings were still a problem throughout the country for
decades after the Berea accident. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And, while things have improved
astronomically since that cold, tragic day in 1930, to this day,
you'll still occasionally run up on an unprotected crossing, usually
on a little traveled back road in a very rural portion of the
country.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-64111172182348237032016-03-22T00:14:00.002-04:002023-03-28T01:03:19.853-04:00Sandy Utah Bus-train crash...The Worst Crossing accident in U.S.History<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Sandy, Utah Train/Bus Crash</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Dec 1<sup>st</sup>,
1938</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sadly,
through some combination of ignorance, over-confidence, apathy,
negligence, or plain long stupidity, school bus drivers have been
driving their buses into the path of oncoming trains since before
motorized buses were even thought of, back when 'school buses' were
actually horse drawn rigs called Kid Hacks. The very first recorded
school bus-train crash occurred near Congers, New York in February of
1902 when one of those horse drawn 'Kid Hacks', bringing a group of
high school kids back from a basketball game, was struck by a train
after it somehow managed to get caught between manual crossing gates.
That first train-school bus crash killed eight kids, two of them
sisters. It wouldn't be an isolated event...in the 113 years since,
there have been 166 more school bus-train collisions. Thirty-five of them have been fatal. Students were injured in the great majority of the non-fatal accidents, and many of those injuries were life-changing for the victims.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">While that only comes out to about 1.4 such crashes
per year you have to remember that we've had stretches of a decade or
so without a train-school bus collision recently (The last one before
this past January's double fatality accident in North Dakota occurred
in 2000) as well as shorter stretches of 2-5 years between crashes
here and there. Some years...and decades...though, were </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>really</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">
bad, and the Thirties were among the worst of them, with seven recorded multiple fatality bus-train collisions. There's a
reason that these always catastrophic accidents were far more common
three quarters of a century and more ago that they are now.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">That reason? </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eighty years ago t</span>he great majority of railroad crossings
were unprotected, and the law didn't require school bus drivers to stop and actively look and listen for an oncoming train when they rolled up on one. It took, very literally,
decades for the law to catch up with technology and both add warning
signals to most crossings and mandate that school bus drivers
actually stop their vehicles at <i>all</i> crossings, absolutely ensuring that there
was no train coming before they even considered moving again. I know, common sense should tell..hell,
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>demand</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">...that</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">
the driver of a bus load of children to do </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>just</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">that. Sadly, common sense isn't so...well...common, and laws often do
have to be passed to inspire people to do what </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>should</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">be a no-brainer.
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">With that in mind, while doing the
research for these posts it took just about along enough time to drink a
cup of coffee for me to realize that one historian or the other
credits just about every major bus-train collision from about 1935 on
for being </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>the</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"> accident
that got the ball rolling to get those very laws written, passed, and
put in place.</span>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Trust
me when I say that s</span>orting <i>that</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">one
out hasn't exactly been easy to track down, and to be honest I really haven't even tried
to narrow it down to 'The' accident. At this point, in fact, I'm not
sure that'd even be possible. And with </span><i>that</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">thought
in mind, the <a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html">accident in Spring City, Tennessee</a>, in August 1955 does
present some pretty convincing evidence that it's the one that
finally got laws requiring drivers to stop at railroad crossings and
actively look and listen for a train put in place in all fifty
states. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Thing is, there's another accident that some historians claim
did the exact same thing almost two decades earlier, in 1938.
Oh...and </span><i>that</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">one
still holds the very dubious distinction of being the worst railroad
crossing accident in U.S. History.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We're going to roll time back to Thursday Dec 1<sup>st</sup>,
1938 and head for Sandy Utah, just south of Salt Lake City. Utah is
a fascinating state in it's own right. It's the only state in the
union where the majority of the residents belong to the same
church...most are Mormon...and is home to the Bonneville Salt Flats,
one of the Meccas of all car-freaks (Myself included). For fans of
early Seventies bubble-gum Pop and music history-philes, Utah is
where a guy named Donny Osmond grew up and got his start (Along with
his brothers, and his sis Marie). </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The state's greatest claim to fame, of course, is the
Great Salt Lake...that strangest and saltiest of all of the inland
lakes in the <span style="text-decoration: none;">U.S</span>. The
great majority of Utah's population is packed into an 120 mile long,
40 or so mile wide swath of continuous and all but interconnecting
urban and suburban life hard by and to the south of the Great Salt
Lake's eastern shore. Back in 1938 that same strip of ground still
played host to most of the state's then much smaller population, but
the population density was dozens of times lower. Sandy...now home to
just shy of 100 K Utahans...had fewer than 1500 residents and Jordan
High School...now one of four high schools in Sandy and host to 2300
or so students...only had an enrollment of about four hundred. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Thirty-eight of those four hundred or so students braved
a Utah snowstorm to climb aboard a JHS-bound school bus on that cold,
snowy Thursday morning exactly a week after Thanksgiving '38 for what
should have been the usual forty-five or so minute ride to school. The
bus...a fifty-four passenger 1935 GMC/Superior ...was under the
command of 29 year old Farrold Silcox. This, remember, was <i>long</i>
before kids got 'Snow Days' when the white stuff was falling, and
when Silcox looked out of the kitchen window as he downed a cup of
coffee and saw the moderate to light snow falling, he decided he
should go ahead and start his bus route. He told his wife just that,
and headed out.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Contrary to popular belief (And even news reports of the
day) a howling blizzard was not in progress. While it was snowing pretty
good as Silcox started his route and the weather south of them was <i>far</i>
nastier that it was in Sandy, the Salt lake City-Sandy area was on
the edge of the storm, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">so they missed the worst of it.</span> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">It was still nasty enough, though, in that 'Aw <i>crap</i> it's freaking <i>snowing' </i>
kind of way, so Silcox pulled out of his driveway</span> a good half hour early and several of the kids on Silcox's route would
miss the bus <i>because</i> he was early. R</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">emember, this was farm country back
then...sugar beet farms to be exact, the area being one of the
nation's primary producers of that crop</span>...so a slew of the kids were already up, awake, and in the middle of doing their chores when the bus rolled up an hour or so early. Not only does snow not <i>stop</i> chores from getting done, it often <i>adds</i> to them<i>.</i> Those chores <i>had</i> to be finished. This was (And still often is) a major part of a farm kid's life. With the kids in the middle of said chores, and therefore not anywhere within hailing distance of 'ready for school', their moms had no choice but to wave the bus on. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The kids that did make the bus climbed on board and
greeted Silocx as they did every morning, and as also happened every morning, the kids who were were JHS band members (Several of whom had
performed in a concert the night before) piled their instruments up
next to the drivers seat. Silcox didn't allow horse-play,
shenanigans, loud conversation, or instrument playing, be it good or
bad, on his bus at all. These preparations taken care of, the kids moved quietly to their seats and
settled in for a cold ride to school.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Though
the bus, like modern buses, was all steel and looked like an early
version of what we picture when we think 'school bus' today...right
down to the yellow paint...the seats the kids moved to were not laid
out the way they are on modern buses. Instead of the double row of seats separated by a center aisle </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that</span></span></span></span></span></span>
we're used to today</span></span></span> and<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> has been standard since at least </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the early 40s</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, there was a single row of double seats running
down the center of the bus...straddling the area that would be the
aisle in a conventionally laid out bus...while two more rows of seats lined the sidewalls of the
ride, with the kids sitting with their backs against the sidewall of
the bus...a throw back to the old 'Kid Hacks' and the very earliest
motorized school buses.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2cNm2TJmmIrLWapprJbpNJKg75G91Q1DKKnW_Dgl7MN7XiP9W0WBCM378YHDrhwYVynUoFvSlDPDFzsfKs9maY6OB-GcQZRCd83Q1ezwty4IjWwNdSv7sybM4-IM3jG29R7GRQI4pU28/s1600/1935-dodge-superior-school-bus-sales-brochure.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2cNm2TJmmIrLWapprJbpNJKg75G91Q1DKKnW_Dgl7MN7XiP9W0WBCM378YHDrhwYVynUoFvSlDPDFzsfKs9maY6OB-GcQZRCd83Q1ezwty4IjWwNdSv7sybM4-IM3jG29R7GRQI4pU28/s640/1935-dodge-superior-school-bus-sales-brochure.jpg" width="499" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">A page from a 1935 Superior Body school bus brochure. Though this is on a Dodge Chassis rather than a GMC...or back then, General Motors Truck...chassis, the layout's pretty much identical to that of the bus involved in the accident. I love the 'Boy-proof rear emergency door latching mechanism'. While this was actually a pretty well built bus body for that era, with all steel construction including the frame, there's absolutely no way it (Or anything else) would stand up to a direct hit by a train.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There
were seats for fifty-four passengers in the bus body's twenty or so
foot length and eight foot width (The bus was just over twenty-eight
feet long over-all). It had a GMC straight six, four speed
tranny, hydraulic brakes and...remember me saying they settled in for
a </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">cold</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
ride a paragraph or two back?...no heater. As far as the kids were
concerned, that one was a biggie. Though they probably didn't give a
rip about the bus' mechanical features and options, they were </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">more</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
than aware of the lack of a heater, it being the first day of
December during a pretty decent snowstorm, and all of them were
probably bundled up like Eskimos as the bus trundled along what was
then a back county road paralleling the Denver and Rio Grande Western
tracks, not all that far from their final destination of
Jordan High School. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIvqKSIuRG9d9rFEokVyR9JncHfG19a-ObKPt6scWqgQVjCtQdEJBKsWuMDo6OtMjen6kvbZNJ4Ins9TqNTAjLzOWTaP_1lhtlxx5gv2BGP6qQDmIqjX2hhmlfA_n4OD2Z5KeJbqr2xhQ/s1600/Old+Jordan+HS.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIvqKSIuRG9d9rFEokVyR9JncHfG19a-ObKPt6scWqgQVjCtQdEJBKsWuMDo6OtMjen6kvbZNJ4Ins9TqNTAjLzOWTaP_1lhtlxx5gv2BGP6qQDmIqjX2hhmlfA_n4OD2Z5KeJbqr2xhQ/s640/Old+Jordan+HS.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The destination never reached...Old Jordan High School. The school was in use until the late 90s. When it was torn down, the front entrance facade was preserved and used as the main entrance to a multi-screen theater complex. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture courtesy of KSL TV News</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span>There wasn't any horse-play or loud talking going
on...remember, Silcox ran a tight ship...so the
thirty-nine kids on board that morning were talking quietly. I have a
feeling the snow and Christmas may have been major topics of
conversation, along with basketball, December being, then as now,
smack dab in the middle of high school hoops season. A few were, as
every kid who ever rode the bus has done occasionally, hustling to
finish up assignments before the bus swung into the JHS driveway. A
pretty 17 year old Senior named Naomi Lewis had knocked out a pretty
intense poem the night before, presumably for English class. She'd
never get to turn it in. Fifteen year old Virginia Nelson closed her
English book, having just finished up the last of a couple of verb
problems, and sat back to relax and probably chat with her friends
for a few minutes, her now finished homework peeking out from the
pages of the textbook. Her homework wouldn't get turned in either.</span></div>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The bus was nearing a wide spot in the road known as
Burgon's Crossing as it rolled along the narrow, oil and gravel paved
road that paralleled the Denver and Rio Grande tracks. The road
'switched sides' here... making a near 90 degree turn to the right and
climbing a slight grade to cross the single track at an unsignaled
crossing, then dropping back down and heaving itself 90 degrees to
the left to parallel the tracks to their east rather than west. The
kids barely took notice as they felt the bus slow and swing
ponderously into the turn...they rode this route every morning, so
it's a good bet that the only notice they took of it was as a land
mark, as in 'X number of minutes before we get to school'. A couple of
the kids in the seats that backed up to the right sidewall of the bus
may have glanced back over their shoulder only to realize for the
umteenth or so time that the windows were completely fogged over.. A
couple of them, though, thought they heard something...</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The weather...in the form of what the weather gurus
today would call a 'Major Snow Event'...not only caused Silcox to
start his route early, it, was playing absolute havoc with the
D&RGW's train schedules. Denver and Rio Grande Freight # 31,
known as 'The Flying Ute', pulled out of Helper, Utah, just over 100
miles south of Sandy, at just past 3:30 AM, already almost three
hours late. D&RGW Locomotive # 3708...a big, articulated 4-6-6-4
<i>Challenger</i> class freight engine...wasn't even breaking a sweat
as it dragged fifty freight cars, thirty-eight of them empty, out of
Helper, but the snow storm...near a full blizzard in Helper when
Engineer E.L.Rehmer yanked on the whistle lanyard, released the
brakes, and pushed the overhead mounted throttle around it's quadrant...slowed them
even further. Had the weather been clear they would have rumbled
through Provo, twenty seven miles and change from Burgon's Crossing,
at just about the time they actually pulled out of Helper but instead
they rolled through at 7:54 AM. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The storm was easing quickly by then, though, watery
gray daylight replacing eerie, snow cocooned night-darkness, and,
with a half mile or so of visibility ahead of them, Rehmer eased the
throttle open, slowly bringing the train up to 52 miles per
hour...actually two miles per hour faster then the speed limit in
that section of line, and the speed they were making as they
passed the whistle board for Burgon's Crossing. On the right side of
the big steamer's cab, Rehmer reached up left handed, grabbed the
whistle lanyard and tugged it, blasting the steamers whistle in the
long-short-long-long crossing warning.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Most accounts of the of the accident would have you
believe that a full-scale, wind-howling, snow-slinging, white-out inducing blizzard was still
lashing Sandy at just after 8:30 that morning, but according to the
ICC reports and a couple of dozen witnesses, they were just on the
edge of the storm, which was actually leaving Sandy behind as Train
#31 pounded towards Burgon's Crossing. In fact, according to statements made by the train crew, no more than a light, fine
snow was falling,
Both fireman Al Elton, in 3708's cab, and the train's conductor, who was
ensconced in the caboose, nearly a half mile behind the locomotive,
confirmed this when, during the investigation, they stated they could
see the entire length of the train as they approached the crossing. So, according to them, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">while visibility definitely wasn't sunny-spring-day clear you could still see a good half mile up the track. </span>Of course, you've got to remember something about steam
locomotives...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">...and that's the fact that the crew, basically, had almost no
forward visibility. In fact, forward visibility pretty
much sucked, especially in a big articulated freight engine like
#3708. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The engineer sat on the right side of the cab the fireman on the left</span> and while the cab did have very small front windows...really more like slits than windows...high in the upper front corners of the cab, all they really provided was a look down the side of the sixty or
so foot length of the boiler with absolutely no view of the track
directly ahead of them. Through these same tiny windows they had only a very, <i>very</i> limited angle of view to
the left or right...so limited that it was virtually useless. </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx3mfPWYw7uCk_k2rh9a7yz6gRNlzLfxMdOyJ-lNhyiLIx46WbDcEwE2B354ixsMWRJkpA_U1VKwvPP9KLuAg8UFyWtPsjdSCTS5_7-wn-Me08hvMnuWke8sq_3IgdjpUH6CyPm-r2Zkk/s1600/L-1053701%2528300%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx3mfPWYw7uCk_k2rh9a7yz6gRNlzLfxMdOyJ-lNhyiLIx46WbDcEwE2B354ixsMWRJkpA_U1VKwvPP9KLuAg8UFyWtPsjdSCTS5_7-wn-Me08hvMnuWke8sq_3IgdjpUH6CyPm-r2Zkk/s640/L-1053701%2528300%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">One
of the D&RGW's big 3700 series 4-6-6-4 Challengers. Locomotive
3708...the locomotive that struck the bus in Sandy...was essentially
identical. This also illustrates just how little forward visibility the
crew of a steam locomotive had. The boilers on the Challengers were 60'
long, blocking any view ahead or to the opposite side of the track from
the engineer's or fireman's seating position. This is why you always saw
the engineer and fireman on steam locomotives leaning out of the cab's
side 'Picture' window, no matter what the weather...they had to do this in order to see ahead of them.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> This is why, generally, back in the age of steam, you <i>always </i>saw
the engineer and fireman (When he wasn't tending the fire that kept
the behemoth moving) leaning out of the cab window to see what was
ahead of them.. They could lean out of the cab's side 'picture' windows and see what was ahead of them, but they had to work as a team to do so. See there was <i>another</i> problem. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The engineer and fireman had <i>no</i> view what-so-ever of what was happening on
the opposite side of the right of way from where they were sitting. Again, that sixty foot long boiler blocked the view of the opposite side of the right-of-way. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, </span>having
absolutely <i>no</i> view of what was going on on the left side of
the locomotive, the engineer had to depend on the fireman to spot,
identify, and advise him about any hazards on the left in time for him
to react. The engineers reaction to an emergency on a train is pretty much limited to 'Stand On The
Brakes and Pray You Can Get Stopped', so the fireman <i>has</i> to identify said hazard and let the engineer know he had a problem at <i>least</i> a half mile or so before they reached it. And sadly, that wasn't always possible...especially if the hazard was only a couple of hundred yards away when it <i>became </i>a hazard. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">And this is<i> exactly</i> what happened in Sandy that morning.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> Elton was leaning out of the left side cab window, peering ahead as they roared towards
the crossing, Rehmer yanking on the whistle cord, sending the shrill,
melodic cry that was a steam locomotive whistle shrilling through the
country-side. One of them reached up and turned an air valve that
started the locomotive's air powered bell clanging. Elton saw a
yellow school bus, several hundred yards ahead of them, lumber around
the curve at Burgon's crossing and ease to a stop about 25 feet from
the tracks...it looked like the bus was going to stay put, but he
kept his eyes on it anyway...</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhntcaahlxb1QUoNkD2CUpIym808PuyKrHhbL22kvwTx50udGiv2avoTNLdZjKXzBPyV0-2X3w5sKotFaQn4qe0fHHG_Cuut8SgbuHHhl9vsVbiDcQyJZyXzZ9PrelcOcj9Jh85g2mdgNs/s1600/Sandy+bus+route.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhntcaahlxb1QUoNkD2CUpIym808PuyKrHhbL22kvwTx50udGiv2avoTNLdZjKXzBPyV0-2X3w5sKotFaQn4qe0fHHG_Cuut8SgbuHHhl9vsVbiDcQyJZyXzZ9PrelcOcj9Jh85g2mdgNs/s640/Sandy+bus+route.jpg" width="299" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">map
of the school bus route from the Salt Lake City Tribune, Dec 2,
1938. As can be seen from the modern satellite view below, with
the exception of State Street, </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>none</i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">
of the named streets exist now (I even confirmed this by searching on
Google Maps). Seventy-seven years of population growth has changed
the street layout drastically, and the numbered streets have been
renumbered, making it a bit of a task to even actually </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>find
</i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">the site of the accident crossing, which was still
in use until 2002. I circled it in red, as well as indicating it
with a couple of arrows. The building circled in red in the upper
right of the modern view (Below) is the Jordan Commons multiplex theater
complex, on the former site of old Jordan High School...they were
with-in </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>minutes</i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> of
making it to school when they got hit.</span></span></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkAj8rG07p6U4HZhCOEkuwP3DGfTsXA5oXGv3xevt0CLSDMCFuKph2cHh-n1_izFsZYGVBCfyP4zYnCMUjFJijzPFoPAKitiACvxzzeYr1R1Xp5q9U0WdMFOT5XtuXtg9l12M3oFAxDgQ/s1600/Sandy+Utah.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkAj8rG07p6U4HZhCOEkuwP3DGfTsXA5oXGv3xevt0CLSDMCFuKph2cHh-n1_izFsZYGVBCfyP4zYnCMUjFJijzPFoPAKitiACvxzzeYr1R1Xp5q9U0WdMFOT5XtuXtg9l12M3oFAxDgQ/s640/Sandy+Utah.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="color: #000023;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Modern <span style="color: #000023;">Satellite view of the Sandy, Utah area, with the site of the accident crossing <span style="color: #000023;">indicated <span style="color: #000023;">bottom center with a red circl<span style="color: #000023;">e</span> and arrows. The former site of Jordan High School...now a multi-screen theater complex...is red-circled in the upper right of <span style="color: #000023;">the</span> view. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Satellite view courtesy Google <span style="color: #000023;">Maps</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The kids didn't give it a second thought as the bus
eased to a stop, simply continuing their studying or talking and
paying little or no attention to what was going on up front, so
there's no real agreement as to whether Silcox opened the bus door to
give himself a better view up the tracks, or if he even looked up and
down the tracks at all. And it's not like he had <i>no</i> visibility, BTW. All of the side windows were fogged and/or frosted
over <i>but, </i>while the bus didn't have a heater it <i>did</i>
have what was called a 'frost window' or 'Clear Vision Window' on
both sides of the windshield as well as the drivers side window (Though that window, didn't factor into the accident as the train was approaching from the right.).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">These frost windows
were separate, rectangular heater-boxes attached to the inside of the
windshield or window. They used the exact same theory as present day
rear window defrosters, but were far, <i>far</i> cruder in
design. Though bulky and crude, they were actually pretty effective.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frost
wasn't the only thing compromising Silcox's view of the outside
world, though... The body </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of the buses of
that vintage </span></span></span>narrowed at the cowl, so the door was actually at an angle, the door opening
itself was narrower, and the door-windows were smaller than those on
modern buses. This meant that if Silcox </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">didn't</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> open the door, he didn't have much of a view to his right...the
direction that Train #31 was bearing down on them from...at all. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV1DCBHlWAmT8VS95VxYzLhzsJvNEgh92v1a5pAOG1OMoBVPwoYNjAw5aG101Ld6Ge2y9zAkt-SuNybP6S_jRvFRHUZYmDgCLMY2LIg8XTq-mbdf-P5VRN9-UUjFBjzT0Qj7cyRgl7lLw/s1600/Sandy+Utah+Accident+SIte+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV1DCBHlWAmT8VS95VxYzLhzsJvNEgh92v1a5pAOG1OMoBVPwoYNjAw5aG101Ld6Ge2y9zAkt-SuNybP6S_jRvFRHUZYmDgCLMY2LIg8XTq-mbdf-P5VRN9-UUjFBjzT0Qj7cyRgl7lLw/s640/Sandy+Utah+Accident+SIte+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">The area of the crossing today...the crossing was removed in 2002. While
seventy-seven years worth of growth and progress have changed the area
drastically, I was able to narrow down the crossing, and I <i>think</i>
a short stretch of the roadbed of the original road that paralleled the west
side of the tracks is still faintly visible. The paths of bus and train
are indicated on the satellite view, with the bus' intended direction of turn indicated as well. Silcox actually <i>did </i>stop, but failed to see or hear the train.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">We'll never know for sure whether or not he opened the
door, looked, or just said a couple of Hail Marys and popped the
clutch, but what is known...all too well...is that a few seconds after
he stopped, Silcox down-shifted, eased the clutch out and pulled
forward, onto the tracks. And, in an eerie precursor to the <a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html">Evans,Colorado crash</a> twenty-three years later, one of the kids at the front
of the bus glanced to the right, saw the front end of Locomotive 3708
bearing down on them and, at the instant before the world exploded
around them, screamed...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
…<span style="font-size: medium;"><i><b>Train!!!!!!!</b></i></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><i><b>* </b></i></span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Elton, leaning out of the 'picture'; window on the left
side of 3708's cab, very likely went pale and bug-eyed, letting go a
curse as he saw the bus tires begin to roll. He turned his head as
he saw the bus moving forward, yelling '<i>Big-hole
Her!!!!'...</i>Railroad speak for 'Emergency Brakes <i>Now</i>!!!!'...across the
cab even as the front bumper of the bus crossed the first rail.
Rehmer who'd been stemming D&RGW freight locomotives for years,
slammed the throttle closed and grasped the air-brake lever, yanking
it all the way back into emergency even as Elton's warning echoed
through the cab. The bus was maybe 200 feet ahead of them as the
brakes dumped, grabbed, and the wheels locked and started singing the
steel on steel scream that's preceded so many tragedies, but they
probably hadn't even slowed <i>down</i> before the pilot (What
children from time-eternal have called the 'cow-catcher) of the big
4-6-6-4 bit into the right side of the bus just about broad side with
a cataclysmic <i>'Crwump!!!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The
one boy's shouted warning came at almost the same instant the bus
blew apart in a deadly burst of flying metal, glass, seats,
books...and kids. </span><span style="font-size: small;">The
right side of the bus </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">wrapped itself around
the front platform of the big steamer like a sheet wrapping up a
mummy</span> as it tore away from the rest of the body with a
quick but tortured scree of ripping metal. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
rest of the body ripped loose from the chassis and tumbled like a
hard-kicked tin can for 101 feet before landing up-right, </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">leaving a trail of coats,
books homework, lunches, seats, and injured kids as it tumbled, </span></span></span>looking
like a bomb had gone off inside of it when it landed hard by the tracks</span></span></span>. Most of the kids were violently ripped from their seats as the bus came apart explosively, several of them landing on the
track ahead of the onrushing steel behemoth that had just slammed in
to them. A couple of them were ejected through the right side windows to land on the pilot and front platform of
the locomotive. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Everyone was ejected and t</span><span style="font-size: small;">wenty-three of the kids on board the bus, along with Silcox,
were killed instantly as the train ripped it apart. Two more,
horribly injured, would die with-in the next couple of days. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><********> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRyPxtNMrz2Hp-ftra0W7P9HG0O3buvJDXDYQYfiiqkiBHiaJp8WpdoWhHKwPX1F6GqWWvwlOFOcIuVTmQEF0GUWTAHtEUDMyKiQtaVvrjMWIgdpjFP85AGuRq1Xk1XIPKnDHGtXRWKZ8/s1600/Sandy+bus+and+train.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRyPxtNMrz2Hp-ftra0W7P9HG0O3buvJDXDYQYfiiqkiBHiaJp8WpdoWhHKwPX1F6GqWWvwlOFOcIuVTmQEF0GUWTAHtEUDMyKiQtaVvrjMWIgdpjFP85AGuRq1Xk1XIPKnDHGtXRWKZ8/s640/Sandy+bus+and+train.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">The
front and right side of the bus body as well as the chassis wrapped
around the front of D&RGW locomotive 3708. Look behind the man in
the dark hat at the extreme right of the shot, and you can see one of
the bus' center seats, still mounted on the chassis. Cutting torches had
to be utilized to separate bus and train. Also you can see just how
big these locomotives were here...they were <i>huge</i>. This is the class of big that the term 'Ginormous' was coined to describe...it's amazing that <i>anyone </i>survived this accident. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Screencap courtesy of KSL-TV, Salt Lake City, Utah</span></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7O8jlAW7bPMmjbvfe8xNQo7_HoYTmZ6Y2rs2hQH70BwqAnVOQLitqGs_qAvmsc0f7z5rXUuwQjQWlawuP7r_4uigbHvQvC7LIRKlI0CJHSwuMuozjNhY2TwENwvRlAmJXQrqWs2zIDSQ/s1600/Front+view.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7O8jlAW7bPMmjbvfe8xNQo7_HoYTmZ6Y2rs2hQH70BwqAnVOQLitqGs_qAvmsc0f7z5rXUuwQjQWlawuP7r_4uigbHvQvC7LIRKlI0CJHSwuMuozjNhY2TwENwvRlAmJXQrqWs2zIDSQ/s640/Front+view.jpg" width="386" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Another view...this one, sadly, low quality...of the front of the bus wrapped around the front end of the locomotive. The still-mounted center seat is easily seen here, and it looks like one of the perimeter seats may be just visible just ahead if it, behind the front portion of the roof. A couple of bodies actually ended up between the bus body and the front of the locomotive, on the locomotive's front platform and pilot...they were likely ejected through the right side windows of the bus.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoEjETgGU1qZuM_N4f7CMS9pCpAePGn-fsiN016QUqzmVk9aNn9xFD6EA-QGNUu31lSiZyB6Py8u9dQeHVJEYEJkt6cCtnUHUVdd_rmKdGDcTIvdEWvVZhry7yCSXHgevXtMM2v9DFkF4/s1600/25124225.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoEjETgGU1qZuM_N4f7CMS9pCpAePGn-fsiN016QUqzmVk9aNn9xFD6EA-QGNUu31lSiZyB6Py8u9dQeHVJEYEJkt6cCtnUHUVdd_rmKdGDcTIvdEWvVZhry7yCSXHgevXtMM2v9DFkF4/s640/25124225.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
The rear and left side of he bus body, which tumbled just over 100 feet from the crossing after being torn away from the chassis.. The entire right side of the bus body was torn away the way you'd rip the side off of a cardboard box. Note one of the perimeter seats, still in place beneath the next to last full size window, and two of the center seats visible in the wreckage...one just in front of the perimeter seat, and a second (And possibly a third) visible in front of the open rear emergency door.<br />
<br />
It's also possible that the rear half of the bus had been rolled upright in this pic...I found a very short YouTube vid of some news reel footage (Posted the link in 'Links') and the rear half of the bus was lying on it's side in the video.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlMFbyyhLCAefqrLH0ngDH5AYg3Bo8tHAoBV9NX_bZ4Wyv6OSHm4MpEbfBnMECfRCTZYFbTgW-gJ5Kb40MXqwRv-hPhre7Mvm8UvbuZYUjVhoaW8ja1LFgsBNZUdZrBNtxuNp5JPzprEI/s1600/Untitled.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlMFbyyhLCAefqrLH0ngDH5AYg3Bo8tHAoBV9NX_bZ4Wyv6OSHm4MpEbfBnMECfRCTZYFbTgW-gJ5Kb40MXqwRv-hPhre7Mvm8UvbuZYUjVhoaW8ja1LFgsBNZUdZrBNtxuNp5JPzprEI/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">This pic appeared in the Salt Lake City Tribune the day after the accident, and very clearly illustrates the layout of the road and crossing as well as the path of the bus. The train was northbound. The rear portion of the bus body is visible, circled, in the upper left middle of the pic. Again, it's notable that Silcox did indeed stop, but didn't take enough care to ensure there was no train before he proceeded across the tracks.<br />
<br />
The train slid about a half mile before shuddering to s stop, but still actually got stopped before it completely cleared the crossing...note that there are railroad cars on both sides of the crossing as the train was 'cut' to allow access from both sides of the tracks. Given that 3708 couldn't be moved for a couple of hours after the crash...until the bus chassis was moved..., a second locomotive had to have been dispatched to both move the rear half of the train, and to continue 3708's run.<br />
<br />
Also note how little snow was on the ground...one of several factors that handily refuted the 'Train was obscured by snow' theory. One thing that, to me, is also instantly notable. This was well into the incident, given the number of people on scene and the fact that the media had arrived...but there's not a single piece of emergency equipment visible anywhere.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<********></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Even as the train punted the body like a football the locomotive's
pilot over-rode the bus' frame rails and dragged the chassis and
right side of the bus over a half mile. The bus' right side frame
rail bent like cooked spaghetti as the chassis crammed itself beneath
the pilot and slammed into the locomotive's front...or
pilot...truck, derailing it, the derailed wheels tearing up ties, scattering ballast like
shrapnel, and digging up the roadbed until 3708 finally shuddered to
a stop 2300 feet and change from the crossing, scattering bus-parts,
including the entire front clip and drive-train, alongside the
right-of-way</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span> </i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>No</i> one got out of this one uninjured, and the
injuries, in many cases, were life-changing. I'm not sure where the
first phone call reporting the accident came from...this was 1938,
remember, and while the telephone was becoming more and more
main-stream, only just more than thirty percent of homes had phones. A young
lady named June Winn was waiting for the bus on her front porch about
a quarter mile north of the crossing, as kids have done </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">during bad weather</span> since time
eternal. This was open country back then,
remember, so she could see the crossing from her porch, and she also saw
the train coming, and saw the bus ease to a stop. Knowing she had
just a couple of minutes...however long it took the train to pass and
the bus to cross the tracks and make it the quarter mile or so to her
house...she gathered her books and started walking towards the end of
her driveway, just in time to hear the '<i>CR-WUUMMP!!</i> of the
crash, and looked up to see the dismembered
chassis being shoved down the track ahead of the train. (That absolutely <i>had</i> to be one of the most traumatic 'This can't really be <i>happening</i>' moments of all time.). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">June ran back to the house, dropping her books and screaming for her parents, and if the Winns
had a phone I'd lay odds that they made the first call and if that <i>was</i> the case, the train could have very well still been sliding when one of the Winns picked the phone up and desperately rang for the operator. But I've also found one source that stated that someone had to run for over a mile to find a phone, and no
matter <i>how</i> quick that call was made, this was 1938, and prehospital
care, especially for the type of injuries suffered in this accident,
just plain long didn't exist at all. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, as tragedy played out only a couple of miles away, seventeen year old Wanda Shields stood just inside the front entrance of Jordan High School, watching the buses
roll in, specifically for the bus her BFF rode...the bus she <i>would
</i>have ridden if her little sis hadn't gotten sick the day before,
causing Wanda's mom to nix a planned-for sleepover with her BFF
because she needed Wanda at home. </span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Her bestie never arrived. It was still spitting snow
as the first bell rang, and Wanda drifted off to her first period
class, where she found her first period teacher and several students
crying...one of the girls looked at her, teary eyed and said 'Oh my
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>God, </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">Wanda...' Before this un-named girl could finish the thought the bell rang three or so
times...the coded signal back in those pre-P.A. system days for all
students to assemble in the Auditorium. This assembly was where
Wanda, and the rest of the student body found out about the
crash. The principal told them that there had been a 'Horrible
crash', but gave few other details, as only dribs and drabs of information had made it back to the school. He
then told the kids that school was canceled for the day, and parents
were called and buses recalled to pick the kids up. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Wanda didn't know
for sure that it was her best friend's bus involved in the accident...but she had a sick
feeling in the pit of her stomach that was telling her that it was. This memory...recounted by Wanda when she was interviewed as the accident's 75th anniversary approached...was one of the very few references I found of any kind to emergency response to the crash.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">We have to remember that this was a </span><span style="font-size: small;">very</span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>
</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">rural area back in 1938, and that the
U.S was still in the midst of The Great Depression, though it was beginning to
ease...very slightly...by the end of the decade. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Fire
departments in that area, other than Salt Lake City's, were all
volunteer if they existed at all. Equipment would have been equally
limited... downright primitive by today's standards...as very few
Volunteer F.D.s could afford new rigs during the depression. Heavy rescue equipment consisted
of railroad jacks and acetylene torches and, for the most part, was only carried by
specialized rigs in the largest cities. </span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </span>There were few phones, </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">no</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
radios, and notification of volunteers, where they </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">did
</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">exist
relied on the age-old 'House Siren' perched on a pole next to the
fire house</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">. But to to be very honest here, I have a feeling that
there was no fire department to respond in Sandy, Utah, or anywhere closer than Salt Lake City or Midvale on that tragic December first eighty years ago. South Jordan...smaller than
and hard by Sandy to the West...didn't get anything vaguely
resembling fire protection until 1951, and it's telling that in the
accident scene pics I've been able to find there's not a single
firefighter or emergency vehicle visible anywhere...just lots of
private vehicles and guys in suits.</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The great majority of
ambulances back then were operated by either hospitals or funeral homes and the closest ones to the scene were probably in Salt Lake City (which even back then was a
teeming city of 140K residents), and Midvale, which, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">with just shy of 3000 residents,</span> was one of the
largest towns in the area.
Ambulances were requested from throughout the region and twelve responded to the scene. Back in 1938, though, prehosital 'Patient Care' was focused on getting the patient
to the hospital quickly, and very little was done in the field, so no
matter how many ambos responded or where they were responding from, it would be a very basic
'Swoop and Scoop' operation once they got there. </span><span style="font-size: small;">T</span><span style="font-size: small;">he thirteen...out of 38...kids who
survived were put on stretchers, loaded into onto one of the ambulances, and the drivers
floor-boarded the big Caddies or Packards to get them to the hospital
while the patient were still breathing and viable. From the period news
reports I read six or eight of these kids were extremely lucky...they
were treated for their injuries and released (I'm betting they were
seated at the very rear, on the left side of the bus).</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This was a nasty, <i>nasty</i> crash...At least seven of the survivors suffered critical injuries, and two of them would die before the next couple of days passed. Twenty-three died at the scene, and many of the bodies were so
badly mangled that not only did parents have trouble identifying
their children, officials on scene had trouble determining just how
many kids had been on the bus and who had been killed. Remember me saying just above that info was slow to arrive at JHS? They weren't even sure who was aboard the bus, and for a short while, just which bus it was. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Once they were sure which bus was involved in the crash, figuring out
just who <i>was</i> on the bus wasn't easy...remember, the technology we
take for granted today hadn't even been thought of in 1938. The first thought that comes to mind is 'See what students aren't at school'...but such a head
count at the school wouldn't necessarily be accurate because a
student could be absent for any number of reasons...several of the kids who should have been on Silcox's bus, remember, missed it. Volunteers ultimately had to
canvas door-to-door along Silcox's bus' route to determine who had
and hadn't been aboard...and who hadn't returned home from school. And the information they tallied in that grim census was heartbreaking. As
happened in <a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html">Evans</a> two decades and change later, several families lost
multiple children, three families loosing two children apiece. And, also as happened at Evans, several sets of cousins were among those killed in the crash, meaning some parents lost not only a son or daughter, but a niece or nephew as well.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Of course, as parents found out about the crash, those who could descended upon the scene to search for their kids. There was absolutely <i>no</i> perimeter control at scenes </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">back then</span>...at least not as strict as it is today... and parents pretty much had the run of the scene. They either had the horrible, <i>horrible</i>
experience of finding their childrens' bodies on the scene (Words don't even exist to describe the horror of that experience) or had to embark on
that frustrating, heartbreaking search for the hospital or morgue that their child
was transported to. (This lack of information available for parents or other relatives about the status of their loved ones who were involved in a major mass casualty incident...MCI in modern terminology...is a problem that hasn't been completely solved to this
day). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The investigations started immediately, of course, with
one of the first investigators to arrive on the scene being Lote
Kinney, who was special investigator for the Salt Lake County
Attorney, and he was also one of the first to confirm that visibility
wasn't overly obscured by the weather. He got to the scene about
9:15AM...just under 45 minutes after the accident...and could see a
good half mile up the track in both directions. Being a sharp and
intuitive investigator, one of the first questions he asked was 'Is
this about what the weather was like when the accident happened?' The
answer was yes. So it was pretty obvious that, had Silcox looked...I
mean <i>really</i> looked...he should have seen Train #31 bearing
down on the crossing.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Kinney didn't even have to ask about road conditions,
which he knew would be questioned. He wasn't </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">notified until at least fifteen minutes after the the accident</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">, then had to
drive to the scene from Salt Lake City...about eighteen miles
distant...through the snow on the less than stellar roads of the day, and he still
rolled onto the scene only forty-five or so minutes after that cataclysmic 'CRA-WHUMP!!' echoed across the beet fields. So he <i>knew</i> that it hadn't been snowing but <i>so </i>hard at the time of the crash.</span> But he <i>did</i> ask (As did the ICC
investigators later) to make it official. Witnesses, including
several of the surviving students, noted that the road was clear,
with absolutely no snow on it at all, and that the bus didn't so
much as slip a single time along it's route. So road conditions
played absolutely <i>no</i> part in the accident.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The ICC accident investigation branch...fore-runner of
the present day NTSB...was just as thorough as today's organization,
though they didn't have the technology that's taken for granted today
to help them out.. Measurements were taken and recorded, dozens of
pictures taken (Cameras had gotten pretty sophisticated by 1938) and
witnesses were interviewed. They were even able to determine the train's
exact speed at the moment of impact...steam locomotives were nearing
their zenith of technical sophistication in 1938 (Diesels were
already beginning to encroach on the steamers' kingdom by the late
30s) and 3708 had a speed register tape, integrated with it's Valve
Pilot (An early fuel efficiency device), that recorded the train's
speed, giving the investigators a actual readout of just how fast the
train was going when it hit the bus as well as it's speed for the few
minutes just preceding the accident. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The bus chassis was jammed
up under 3708's pilot so tightly that torches had to be used to free
it, then the locomotive's pilot truck had to be rereailed. This took time of
course, and when these tasks were finished another locomotive was
brought in to complete the run and 3708 was taken to the railroad's
shops and gone over with a fine toothed comb. The mechanics and
investigators wielding that comb found out exactly what Rehmer
probably told them in the first place...that the big <i>Challenger
</i>class locomotive was operating perfectly. There was just
absolutely no way to get a fifty car freight train stopped in
200...or, for that matter, 2000...feet.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The basic cause of the accident was actually pretty easily determined...Silcox drove the bus in front of the train. What
<i>wasn't</i> so easy to figure out...and remains unknown to this
very day...was just <i>why</i> he drove the bus in front of the
train. I have a sneakin' suspicion that this is why, as the story of
the crash was told and retold over the years, the weather conditions
have become exaggerated to the point that, in just about every
account I've read, the storm was described as a full blown blizzard.
If it was snowing that hard, that had to be the reason Silcox, who
was known to be very responsible, drove in front of the train. The
way looked clear when he checked, then, just as he drove onto the
tracks,The Flying Ute just suddenly appeared out of a wall of falling
show like some deadly wraith.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The ICC report actually refutes that cause pretty
handily, but you don't even need that very informative document to
see that Sandy, Utah's first snowstorm of the winter of '38/'39
wasn't anything close to a blizzard. You just need the photos that
appeared on the front page of pretty much every newspaper in the US in the days after the accident.
If you look at the accident scene photos, you quickly realize that it
couldn't have been snowing but so hard at the accident scene, because
there's just not that much snow on the ground. On top of that, as noted above, Lote Kinney stated that
he could see a good half mile when he got to the scene, and as I also noted above, one of the very first things he did upon arriving was to confirm that these same conditions existed when the accident occurred. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I have a feeling that Silcox got lured onto the crossing
by that same old bug-a-boo that's caused many a train-bus crash, one
that can affect even the best and safest drivers...complacency. The
Flying Ute should have passed Burgon's crossing almost four hours
earlier, before anyone on that bus even <i>thought</i> about waking
up. Even with Silcox starting the route early...even if he started
the route an entire hour early...the train should have passed through
three hours before the bus trundled onto the tracks at Burgon's
Crossing.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Silcox wasn't expecting a train. He probably stopped,
glanced to the right for an instant, not opening the door to preserve
what little warmth the clear vision windows contributed, and, in his
mind, saw exactly what he was expecting to see...no train.
Unfortunately, of course,, there <i>was </i>a train, right on top of
them, and I think Silcox did something that all of us have done while
driving. Stop at a stop-sign where there's always very little traffic, glance
both ways for an instant, and start moving before your brain yells
'<i>whoa!!', </i>making you look again and foot-stab the brakes just as
the trash truck you <i>almost </i>missed seeing, even though it <i>was</i>
there, trundles through the intersection. This is very likely <i>exactly
</i> what happened to Silcox...except that, when his mind yelled
<i>'Whoa!!'</i> it it was a <i>train</i> that he missed seeing, and when he foot-stabbed the brakes, it was too late.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">According to every modern account I read about the
accident...most written as either the unveiling of the memorial that
was erected to memorialize the victims of the crash or the
anniversary of the accident approached...the laws requiring school
bus drivers to stop, open the door and side window, and actively look
for a train, were enacted as a result of this accident. In another
eerie precursor to Evans, a track-walker was also required....in
Utah...for a while until that portion of the law was repealed because
of the hazard that whoever walked the crossing was exposed to.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And<i> </i>I have a feeling that the 'In Utah' that I noted
above is a clue here. I think the more stringent laws were enacted in
Utah, and possibly a few other states, but it wasn't federally mandated, nor was it
quite as stringent as the laws enacted after the Spring City crash,
which required drivers to silence everyone and every thing on the bus
that could make noise before listening for an oncoming train.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And it's not like laws didn't already exist...there was,
in fact, already a law on the books in Utah requiring school bus
drivers to stop at crossings, reading as follows:</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>'The
driver of any motor bus carrying passengers for hire or any school
bus carrying children <i>shall, </i>before crossing any track of a
railway, stop such vehicle not less than 10 feet or more than 50 feet
from the nearest rail of such track, and while stopped shall look and
listen for any approaching railway trains and for whistles or other
warnings indicating the approach of a train, and shall not proceed
until it is safe to do so'</b></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So the basic gist of the laws we know now was already in
place when this crash happened, as I have a feeling that, by that time, all of the 48
states then comprising the U.S. had a law requiring school buses to
stop at railroad crossings. So this accident isn't the one that
caused laws requiring school buses to stop at crossings to be put in
place, nor are any of the ones that occurred later....those laws were already in place. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">I did read in one source that immediately after this accident the ICC 'Strongly Recommended' that a requirement that school bus drivers not only stop at grade crossings, but also open the door to ensure that they could hear an oncoming train, </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">be implemented and enforced</span></span></span>. I don't know how widely this recommendation was accepted though. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I very definitely think that each crash
caused something to be added to the laws governing school buses and railroad crossings, often only in the state where the
accident occurred, until the Department of Transportation finally <i>mandated</i> that the best features of all of the state laws be combined and tweaked, and that this standardized law be put in place in <i>every</i> state.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Whatever laws and safety improvements were inspired by
the accident were no great comfort to the residents of Sandy, South
Jordan, and environs there-of. Christmas in that then-tiny community
was shattered that year as twenty three families (Three families lost
two children each) planned funerals rather than Christmas
celebrations, and the community suffered and mourned right along with
them. Jordan High had four hundred students, Sandy had 1500 people.
Everyone at Jordan High probably knew most, if not all of the kids on
that bus. Everyone in the area was affected...everyone in Sandy,
South Jordan, and several other small towns JHS drew it's student
body from knew at least a couple of the kids on the bus. The funerals
probably seemed to go on forever. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">****************************************************************************</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">Helen Young
Rela Beckstead
</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Helen and Rela were best friends </i></span></div>
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i>
</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Neal Wilson Densley
James Carlisle</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>
</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">Robert Egbert
William Glazier
</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">George Albert Hunt
Lois Johnson
</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">Bayard Larson
Rosa Larson</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">Naomi Lewis
Helen Lloyd
</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">Del Marcy
Raye Miller</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">Virginia Nelson
Allan Peterson</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">Roland Page Duane Parkinson</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Roland's</i> <i>girlfriend was also
killed in the accident</i>. </span></div>
<div align="CENTER">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenneth C. Peterson Harold Sandstrom </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Carol Stephenson</span></div>
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">Ida Viola Sundquist
Wilbert Webb</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER">
<span style="font-size: large;">Naomi Webb
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Dean
Leroy Winward</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">************************************************************************************</span></span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***>Notes,
Links, and Stuff<***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>The other posts in this series</b></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>in the order they were posted.</b></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html</a> Evans, Colo December 1961 </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html</a> Spring City Tenn. August 1955</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html</a> Congers New York </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
March 1972</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html</a> Lake Station Indiana</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
October 1971</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html</a> Stratton Nebraska </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
August 1976</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.htm</a> Fox River Grove Illinois October 1995</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html</a> Conasauga Tenn.<br />
March 2000<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html </a> Sandy, Utah Dec 1938<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html</a> Proberta, California Nov 1921<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html</a> Shreve and Berea Ohio Jan. 1930<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html</a> Crescent City, Florida December 1933<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html</a> Rockville, Maryland April 1935<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html</a> MAson City, Iowa Oct. 1937<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html</a> Eads, Tennessee Oct. 1941<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<***></div>
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I'm doing the same thing with the second half of my
'School bus/Train crash' series of articles that I did with the first
half..starting with the worst and most infamous of the bunch, then
taking the others in chronological order. And I'm kind of working
backwards while I'm at it...the first half of the series covered 1955
to the present, while this set of posts covers 1920 or there-abouts
to 1954. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Not only is the Sandy bus crash the the worst of the
accidents covered in this set of posts, as noted above, it was the
worst school bus-train crash, <i>and </i> the worst crossing accident
in U.S. History. That being the case, you'd think that there would
be all kind of accurate information on-line about this one. Guess
what, gang...ain't the way it happened.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Oh, there are loads of articles out there. Problem is, a
lot of the basic information's just dead wrong. The majority of the
articles I found were written as the date of the unveiling of a monument to
the crash victims approached, and all of them...Every. Single.
One....repeated the 'Train Suddenly Appeared Out Of The Blizzard'
story. A couple of them had the number of cars on the train wrong.
The speed at impact varied from the correct '50MPH' (OK, it was
actually 52, but at least they were close) to 60MPH. The articles
couldn't even agree on the number of fatalities, ranging from 23 (The
original reported number of deaths at the time of the accident) to 27
(One more than actually died). Making things even <i>more</i>
difficult, I had trouble finding any contemporary articles about the
crash, even coming up dry at the Genealogy site that I use as one of
the base sources for subjects for my blog, and <i>That</i> really
surprised me.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">By sheer luck I ran up on a link for an archive of old,
<i>old</i> ICC/NTSB reports, going back to the very early part of the
20<sup>th</sup> century, and while every report of every accident
that was investigated in the century and change span covered by the
archive isn't in the archive, this one (As well as a couple of
others I was looking for) was. Thanks to that chance finding of a
link to an archive of ancient Interstate Commerce Commission accident reports, this post is hopefully accurate...or as accurate as I could
make it at any rate. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Then, with a little bit more research and with the help
of the great cyber-know-it-all, Google, I finally found a couple of
archived newspaper articles that gave me a few more facts...such as
the engineer's and fireman's first <i>and</i> last names...not
included in the ICC report...allowing me to make this a bit more than
a couple of paragraphs of maybe-facts and lots of speculation. Oh I
speculated a bit...it's one of the things I do. But I really do like
to include at least a few actual, accurate facts in my posts as well.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Though the basic info wasn't accurate in the modern
articles, they did contain a couple of pretty awesome human interest
stories, which I'll relate below...So lets do the notes...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><***></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It took a quarter century for a memorial to be erected
in honor of the victims of the crash. I couldn't find a whole lot of
information about just why it took so long for these kids to be
memorialized, but when it was finally done, it was done right.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
monument is a ten foot polished marble obelisk, located at </span></span></span>Community
Center/Heritage Park, 10778 S. Redwood Road in South Jordan, and has
brass plaques at the base telling the story of the crash and naming
all 39 students who were aboard the bus. Sadly, I couldn't find a good picture of the memorial</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><***></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Remember Virginia Nelson's English homework? That page
or so of verb problems ended up being a story of it's own. Her little
sister now has a scrap that's all that remains of that homework...but
it's a scrap that has Virginia's name on it. And she didn't get it
back for 75 years.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Joyce Nelson was devastated by her big sister's death. I
believe Joyce was in elementary school when Virginia was killed, and
she found out about the accident and the death of her sister through
what she probably thought was going to be a pleasant
surprise...seeing her parents swing into the school driveway early in
the day, then seeing her mom or dad at the classroom door, getting
her out of school <i>way</i> early. Puzzled jubilation, sadly,
quickly gave way to devastation...and she's missed Virginia ever
since. Her big sis had always had her back, had always been someone
she could look up to and ask for advice, had been her partner in
crime, sounding board, and confidant...and now she was gone.
Christmas didn't even exist that year. The tears have lasted for 75
years.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A handsome kid named Carol </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">(Pronounced as if it were '<i>Carl' ) </i></span>Stephenson, who looked like
he had just a spark of good natured mischief in his eyes, and who was
probably seriously popular with the ladies of JHS...he just looked
the type...was also killed in the crash. His parents possibly picked
the scrap of homework up at the scene while looking for any of his
possessions that may have been scattered along the tracks. The scrap of homework ended up in a box of Carol's possessions that Stephenson family kept to remember him by, and this
box was passed down through the years until it came into the hands of
Carol's niece, Caroleen, who was born some years after his
death. She had looked at this scrap of homework numerous times,
keeping it even though it had nothing to do with her uncle, because,
after all, it belonged to one of the kids who was killed in the
accident, very likely a friend of Carol's, and besides....it would
mean something to <i>someone. </i>Problem was, there was really no
way to easily find out just <i>who. </i> Nearly three quarters of a
century had passed. The survivors of the accident would all be in
their late 80s or early 90s. People had married, moved, and passed
away in the intervening 75 years. Still, she hung onto it, hoping that <i>somehow</i>, she could get it to a relative of the young lady who'd originally finished it...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Then, as 2013 drew to a close, the accident's approaching 75<sup>th</sup>
anniversary inspired another round a of articles, one of which
announced the unveiling of the memorial on Dec 1<sup>st</sup>, 2013.
Caroleen decided to make the three hundred or so mile trip from
Glendale, Utah to attend the unveiling in order to honor her
uncle...and hopefully find someone in Virginia Nelson's family to
give the homework paper. It was, she knew, a fairly remote
possibility.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggek0qWhS7wQ19Tu5UXMeHJzA4nV3gsXn3duImUTT5BDViNufvwVY0LflEeiPVtQubciQsmcDYideKnrYfsv4YfQdmyrF1LO3JH7kVl8QX9CMFdL2aXDS3qMyVktMRKQQiao5KoKNnR28/s1600/Virginia+Nelson+homework+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggek0qWhS7wQ19Tu5UXMeHJzA4nV3gsXn3duImUTT5BDViNufvwVY0LflEeiPVtQubciQsmcDYideKnrYfsv4YfQdmyrF1LO3JH7kVl8QX9CMFdL2aXDS3qMyVktMRKQQiao5KoKNnR28/s640/Virginia+Nelson+homework+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Virginia Nelson's long lost homework assignment.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfOuZSTBEFcm1GT-EdheABzcA2S1W70ZisIdILk3UF1F2AWKYs2m423N0BkW5amVXp6XCaZilQR8pFKuO66sLIR7W26kfe34zstOGHVVhC1K0yqMddT1NlooOhu-9SYmYNCvpCIneKLLg/s1600/Virginia+Nelson+homework.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfOuZSTBEFcm1GT-EdheABzcA2S1W70ZisIdILk3UF1F2AWKYs2m423N0BkW5amVXp6XCaZilQR8pFKuO66sLIR7W26kfe34zstOGHVVhC1K0yqMddT1NlooOhu-9SYmYNCvpCIneKLLg/s640/Virginia+Nelson+homework.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...With her name still legible at the top of the page.<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Both pictures courtesy of KSL-TV Salt Lake City, Utah.</span>
<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">After the monument was unveiled, the names of the
victims were read off and as Virginia Nelson's name was read off a
still very spry older lady stood. Caroleen made her way over to her
and asked her if she had been related to Virginia Nelson. The
lady..Now Joyce Holder, formerly Joyce Nelson...told her that why,
yes, Virginia had been her older sister.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Caroleen held out the tattered homework paper, now
protected in a plastic bag, and said 'I believe this was your
sister's. Tears appeared in Joyce Holders eyes as she saw Virginia's
name on the still very readable page. She had idolized her big sis,
still missed her to that very day. Now she had something
tangible...something that Virginia had actually handled...to remember
her by.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Of course that wasn't the end of the story...Caroleen
had a 300 mile drive home ahead of her, and wanted to get on the
road, so she told Joyce that she was so glad she'd found her, wished
her well, and said she had to get on the road. Somewhere in there she
never introduced herself. Joyce set out on a mission of her own...to
find the person who returned Virginia's homework to her. Of course,
that was far easier than Caroleen's search for <i>her</i> had been,
because the story was published statewide, and Caroleen saw one of
the articles, got in touch with Joyce, and introduced herself. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Somewhere, in Heaven, an angel named Virginia's smiling
down on her little sis, and saying 'Hey, I've always had your back,
Sis...I'm still with you'. And, being eternally fifteen, she's
looking at that homework paper and thinking 'Shoot...I'd've aced the
thing, too!!!'</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><***></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One of the many tragedies of a young person's death is
the lost potential...there is no way to regain that potential, or to
know just what contributions to society that person may have made.
One of the best illustrations of this from the Sandy, Utah accident
is the poem that seventeen year old Naomi Lewis penned the night
before the accident, possibly for a homework assignment, that I've
included below.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>"Earth's
Angels"<br />I like to think that wind<br />Is angels in the
trees,<br />Stately noble angels<br />That no one ever, ever sees.<br />When
the world is peaceful<br />And people are living right,<br />They rustle
the branches gently<br />Throughout the entire night.<br />But when the
world is wicked<br />Then sorrow bursts from the trees.<br />And it
sounds like the wailing,<br />Woeful hum<br />Of hostile, atrocious
bees.<br />But in my imagining<br />It's angels sorrowing in the tree.<br />At
night they call a council<br />Of angels on the earth,<br />Each angel
chooses a mortal<br />To guide to his preordained worth.<br />So I like
to think that wind<br />Is angels in the trees<br />Stately, noble
angels<br />That no one ever, ever sees. </i></span>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Naomi Lewis, age 17, penned the night before she died in
the bus/train wreck. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><***></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The only thing worse for parents than the nightmare of
loosing a child is loosing more than one child at the same time.
Three sets of siblings were among those killed in the accident. It
could have been even worse...there were also three sets of siblings
among the survivors.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The horrible phenomenon of loosing several sets of
siblings in the same accident has just become possible within the
last century and change. It's occurred in multiple school bus
accidents (And not just accidents involving trains) over the past 120
or so years, and happened in the second worse train-school bus
collision (The one in Evan's Colorado, in December 1961) as well.
It's an occurrence that's too horrible to even contemplate...but than
again the death of any child is as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><***></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Speaking of the Evan Colorado Accident, The Sandy and
Evans accidents, separated by twenty-three years, share a striking
number of similarities:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>Both occurred in December, in small towns in the
Western U.S.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>Both occurred in the morning,while the bus was on
the way in to school.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>There was snow on the ground at both scenes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>Both occurred at unsignalled crossings.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">>The chassis of both buses were built by GMC (Known
as General Motors Truck Corp back in The Thirties)</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">>The bus windows were fogged over in both cases</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">>The driver actually <i>did</i> stop the bus short of the crossing in both cases...then proceeded after not seeing the oncoming train. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>A passenger sitting in the front seat of the bus saw
the train and shouted 'TRAIN!!!' an instant before the collision in
both accidents.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">>In both accidents the driver was known to be very
responsible, making it all the more puzzling that he drove in front
of a train.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><***></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">While there is some dispute over which accident prompted
what laws to be enacted at what point in time in which state, one
thing that the Sandy accident <i>did</i> inspire was national talks
on warning devices at railroad crossings. The flashing red light
signal was actually first developed in 1913...about the same time
flashing red warning lights began appearing on emergency vehicles,
and actually a year before the Wig-Wag signals discussed in the
article on the Stratton Nebraska crash were first put in use...but it
was nothing like the alternating light RR warning signals we're so
familiar with. It consisted , very likely, of a single flashing
light (Paired with an electric bell) mounted high on the pole, above
the cross-buck sign. The alternating light signal was developed in
the thirties, as was the automatic crossing gate. The alternating
light signal really began taking hold in the late Thirties to early
Forties, and the Sandy, Utah accident is the one that caused their
development and implementation to be pushed. The wild thing is,
though, to this day, there are <i>still</i> unprotected crossings,
especially in very rural areas.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><***></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This wasn't the only train/school bus crash in the Salt
Lake City area during The Thirties, and the other one I found was
unusual in a couple of respects.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Apparently school buses were picked up at the factory
and driven home by their assigned drivers back in the thirties, at
least they were back then in Utah, and that's exactly what Issac
Draper did in late Feb/early March of 1935, just shy of three years
before the Sandy bus accident. He traveled to Detroit...probably by
train...and picked up a brand new bus, driving it back to Mapleton.
Keep in mind here that this was 1935, and while the highway system
had advanced by leaps and bounds over what it had been even just
twenty years earlier, there were no interstates, and few multi-lane
highways...the great majority of highways were two lane roads, so it
was probably a multi-day road trip adventure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">On the evening of March 2<sup>nd</sup>, 1935, Draper was
drawing close to home in Mapleton...about 40 miles south of Sandy and
straddling the same line of the D&RGW that the Sandy accident had
occurred on. He stopped to visit his daughter for a few minutes,
probably also using the break to stretch his legs for a bit, then
headed for home, only a few miles and about twenty or so minutes
distant. In order to get to his home, west of Mapleton near Genola,
he had to cross the D&RGW tracks, at the crossing hard by the
Mapleton railroad station. A D&RGW passenger train...one not
scheduled to stop at Mapleton...was approaching the crossing at the
same time Draper rolled up on it. Now, having no kids on board,
Draper wasn't required to stop at all, but it would seem to be common
sense as well as instinctive self-preservation to do so anyway. But
then again, he'd just driven a school bus over 1000 miles. He was
probably tired as hell of, as the classic 70s song states, 'The
engine droning out it's one lone song'. He was tired in general. He
wanted to get home and prop his feet up on something that wasn't
moving. The bus was closed up tight, so he apparently didn't hear the
whistle. And the train was hidden by the station as he rolled onto
the crossing.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The bus just suddenly appeared from behind the station
and the train's engineer didn't even have time to dump the brakes
before they hit the bus, wrapping it around the front of the
locomotive, then scattering bus parts for 1150 feet as the train,
it's brakes locked after they hit, slid, the shattered bus tearing
out cattle guards on both side of the tracks as it was dragged.
Draper's body was thrown clear 450 feet from the crossing. Weather
conditions were clear, but Draper was probably about ready to drop,
and probably daydreaming about being home and sleeping in his own
bed. Investigators determined that Draper's view of the approaching
train was obscured by the station, and that his fatigue was very much
a contributing factor in the crash.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Sadly, Draper, who farmed as well as driving a school
bus, left behind a huge family...a wife and nine kids (Six sons and
three daughters). The crossing where the accident occurred was, of
course, unsignalled.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><***></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Though Sandy grew in leaps and bounds over the past
nearly eighty years, and the road system and street layout changed
completely, the crossing where the Sandy bus/train crash occurred
remained in place until 2002. The crossing had been upgraded to
include signals decades earlier by that time of course, but accidents
still managed to occur there, with the last fatality occurring on New
Years Eve 1995 when three teens were killed when they tried to beat
the train. The last accident to occur there was in 2002, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">just before the crossing was removed, </span>when the
driver of a pickup ignored the signals and drove onto the crossing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><***></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The original Jordan High School...the destination that
the bus never reached...has an interesting story of it's own. Some of
it still exists...as a movie theater.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
original building was built in 1914, and would ultimately be included
on the </span></span></span>National Register of Historic Places. It
was a immense solid two story brick structure with an English
basement,..pretty much the traditional vision of 'Early 20<sup>th</sup>
Century School Building'...and actually had a good bit more capacity
than needed when opened.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The building was in use from
1914 to 1996...82 years...and was finally replaced with the current
building, located only a mile or so away, when it became sorely
apparent that it was now far too small...despite additions over the
years...and that it was really beginning to show it's age.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The building's issues had
been becoming...well...issues for years, and the building was almost
replaced in the mid Seventies...as in a replacement school was
actually in the early stages of construction, but the school district
looked at the student population and projected growth of same,
realized that they actually needed a new school as well as Jordan
high, and what would have been New Jordan High became one of JHS
biggest rivals...Alta High School.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The new Jordan High was
finally built and opened in 1996, with a capacity of 2600 students and was one of
the nicest school buildings in the nation. And...just to show that
'Be True To Your School' is more than a Beach Boys song, when the
school district asked the student body if they wanted to change the
school's mascot, colors, and logo to reflect their new digs...</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
OK, Jordan High's sports
teams have been 'The Beetdiggers, in honor of the areas beginnings as
one of the primary sugar beet growing regions in the nation, since
1914. The colors have been Maroon and Gray for the same period of
time. The general consensus was something to the effect of...<br />
<br />
'Really<i>?? Really, </i>Dudes<i>??? </i>Are you<i> freaking </i>kidding<i>???...No </i>we don't want to change <i>any</i> of the above!!!'<br />
<br />
<i>
</i>Beetdiggers they were, and Beetdiggers they stayed (And still
are). They tend, from what I've read, to field gridiron powerhouses
every fall.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But what of the old
building? Being a truly beautiful building on the National Register
of Historic Places, you'd think something would have been done with
it, and it was...sort of. When a guy named Larry Miller bought the
old school and property, he did so so he could build and promote one
of the Salt Lake City areas biggest entertainment and shopping
venues...Jordan Commons. When the old building was torn down, the
front entrance facade was saved and incorporated into the main
entrance of Jordan Commons.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsb3hi-kcWO8toeupxbHEg_q0hG-3mDUcbY8FTFJ8Q7FHcJ2onHMW-nwDOMReRpe0GcyNeUMwdR2ShWvXweMsFIFU0ShP-1x-q-7zzlJHNYN9nuZ-V0wnOTqDFGhkkSIMgqBNsIBy7TNI/s1600/Jordan+Commons+Old+JHS+ENtrance.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsb3hi-kcWO8toeupxbHEg_q0hG-3mDUcbY8FTFJ8Q7FHcJ2onHMW-nwDOMReRpe0GcyNeUMwdR2ShWvXweMsFIFU0ShP-1x-q-7zzlJHNYN9nuZ-V0wnOTqDFGhkkSIMgqBNsIBy7TNI/s640/Jordan+Commons+Old+JHS+ENtrance.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Old Jordan High School's entrance facade...steps and all...was used as the entrance to the Jordan Commons Megaplex theater complex, built on the site of the old school. Old Jordan high School's shown in the inset for comparison. The developers did a pretty decent job incorporating the entrance facade into the modern building, but I still think it would have been far better if the old school itself could have been preserved.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<***></div>
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<br /></div>
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JHS being the destination
never reached, and the accident being the worst crossing accident in
US History, there are a few ghost stories attached to the old school.
Supposedly seven chairs would be found formed into a circle in the
cafeteria...when the chairs were put back where they belonged, they'd
be discovered an hour or so later, back in the circle. Voices had
been heard in the band room and in one of the girls' restrooms when
there was no one around. Ghostly apparitions were seen in the halls.
All were, apparently, benevolent spirits, and a couple of them
apparently made their way to the theater complex as well, as the
vision of a lady and teen age girl talking have been seen by
maintenance and housekeeping personnel in the mall in the area that
would have been the very hallway where this same pair of apparitions was seen several times when
the school was still open. They haven't yet made themselves known to
shoppers, however.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There's another, far more
famous ghost story that the crash may have helped create...but that's
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-ghostly-children-of-san-antonio.html">a story for another post.</a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> <b><span style="font-size: medium;"><***>LINKS<***></span></b></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">As
I noted a couple of times in this post, there were a slew of articles
about the accident out there, but the ICC report makes their accuracy
somewhat suspect, with the time-worn 'The Train Appeared Out Of A
Blizzard' story being the part of the story that the report most
decisively debunked.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">First
up...the archived ICC report...it's also down loadable as a PDF file.
You'll need Adobe Reader or similar PDF reader to view the PDF
version:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/Document?db=DOT-RAILROAD&query=%28select+2263%29">http://dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/Document?db=DOT-RAILROAD&query=%28select+2263%29</a>
</span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.galecenter.org/exhibits-busaccident.asp">http://www.galecenter.org/exhibits-busaccident.asp</a>
The Gale Center of History and Culture has an extensive exhibit
about the accident, including a lengthy and informative video about
the accident, as well as the story of Naomi Lewis' poem</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/kp2q5jd">http://tinyurl.com/kp2q5jd</a>
Desert News article about the accident.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/mkyhql3">http://tinyurl.com/mkyhql3</a>
Salt Lake Tribune article about the accident...Wanda Shields story
is included in this article, as well as a discussion of modern school
bus safety.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=vcsr&GSvcid=103074">http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=vcsr&GSvcid=103074</a>
Find A Grave page about the accident.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgYuzbiN83s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgYuzbiN83s</a> A quick YouTube video from Critical Past, with archived news real footage of the scene. There are several views of the rear half of the bus</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">KSL
TV in Salt Lake City broadcast a series of segments on the accident
and it's aftermath, all of them pretty decent, though all do indeed
include the 'Blizzard':</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.ksl.com/?sid=27814442">http://www.ksl.com/?sid=27814442</a>
KSL article and video about the memorial...several interviews with
survivors and relatives of survivors are also included, as well as a
photo gallery. The map included in the article is of the memorial
site, not the accident site.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/kvmc979">http://tinyurl.com/kvmc979</a>
Quick article about the unveiling of the memorial.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.ksl.com/?sid=27982346">http://www.ksl.com/?sid=27982346</a>
Article and video about the return of Virginia Nelson's homework to
her younger sister...An interview with Joyce Nelson Holder is
included. The video is far more moving than the short bit of text I
gave it here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=28008687">http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=28008687</a>
Article and video about the lady who returned the homework.</span></div>
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-89827826134026122822016-03-21T20:22:00.001-04:002021-09-26T19:51:05.844-04:00Proberta, California Train-Bus crash. November 30, 1921<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Proberta,
California Bus/Train Accident 11-30-21</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>One of the
first Distracted Driving crashes?</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
day starts out like any other day...Parents send their kids to the
bus stop, or drop them off at school for a much anticipated field
trip or watch them board a team bus headed for an away game at a rival school, then await their kids' return, anticipating tales of evil teachers and
impossible homework, or boy/girl problems, or field trip hi-jinks, or wait for them to climb off of the team bus wearing either the gleeful
looks of victory or the glum expressions of defeat,</span> and 99.9%
of the time their kids get home safe and sound, and everything's fine
and normal and right with the world.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Then
it happens...<span style="font-style: normal;">The bus doesn't show up
on time, then it gets later and later...</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">If it's the morning run,
teachers and the school principal feel aggravation that becomes worry that morphs into dread as they try to find out where the bus is...</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">...If
it's the afternoon run, or the wait at school for the bus to make the
turn into the school driveway or bus-ramp as it returns from field
trip or game, it's the parents who are getting more frantic with each
passing minute.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">If it's the morning run, Mom or Dad don't have a clue
that anything's wrong, but if it's the afternoon run, or the
aforementioned wait for field trip or team bus they've been fretting,
trying to rationalize why their kids' bus is later and later getting
them home...and then the phone rings. They answer it and their life
falls apart as a disembodied but shocked voice says 'Mr/Ms Name, I'm <i>so</i> sorry...God, I don't even know how to say this...but (Child's Name)'s bus just got hit by a train'...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Oh the
phrasing of that notification changes from incident to incident,
and sometimes, if the area's small and close knit enough, the caller
knows the parent he's talking to on a first name basis, and sometimes
the notification is made in person rather than by phone, but the
reaction is always the same. The horrified disbelief and shock, a mad
scramble to get to the scene and/or the hospital, screams and sobs of
grief. Sadly, parents have been getting that horrible
notification that forever marks that particular day as the worst day
in their life for 113 years.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The
very first recorded accident involving a train hitting a school
system owned vehicle with kids aboard happened, as I've noted in
previous posts, in Congers, NY in Feb 1902 when a horse drawn 'Kid
Hack' bringing students back from a basketball game got caught
between manually lowered crossing gates and was struck by an oncoming
train, killing eight, two of whom were sisters. The accident happened
at a now likely long-removed crossing on what's now West Nyack Road (Also known
as Old Route 59). The crossing where this accident occurred, BTW, was
on the same stretch of track as the crossing where the far more
infamous and well known <a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html">Congers Bus Accident</a> occurred seventy years
later. Interestingly enough. the 1902 accident actually caused three more fatalities than the
later train/bus crash. It was also the first time that parents got
that horrible notification </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlG1de2sBmdmIQhF4YTpt7oSYJBGfBBzJXJ-KUTmnsvsajeAoauMEXQmrcmzIUj6bu49yB7WzQ2SPbJ2C7icbA6rHTU_Na11ll8t0ODY6qp22cR8ROJkNhpy2Mv5WHehFXZyw7e2c1keg/s1600/Group+portrait+of+Greendale+students+riding+in+a+horse-drawn+wagon.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlG1de2sBmdmIQhF4YTpt7oSYJBGfBBzJXJ-KUTmnsvsajeAoauMEXQmrcmzIUj6bu49yB7WzQ2SPbJ2C7icbA6rHTU_Na11ll8t0ODY6qp22cR8ROJkNhpy2Mv5WHehFXZyw7e2c1keg/s640/Group+portrait+of+Greendale+students+riding+in+a+horse-drawn+wagon.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A horse drawn 'Kid Hack', possibly much like the one involved in the first ever recorded train-school bus accident in February 1902. Note the wooden body, rear entrance and steps...these features carried over to the first motorized buses. In fact, many early motorized buses were simply truck chassis with the body of a 'Kid Hack remounted on it.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Eighteen
years passed before an even worse bus-train accident appeared in the
record books, one that would stop just short of causing twice as many fatalities. For this one we head all the way across the country, to
Northern California and the very tiny Tehama County, California
community of Proberta, Ca, about 120 miles north of Sacramento. It's
a day shy of a week after Thanksgiving, 1921...Wed, November 30...and
kids are beginning to get excited about Christmas. Oh, it's nothing
like the run-away commercialism that we see <i>today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">...not
even close, in fact...but Christmas preparations are being made.
Church choirs are practicing Christmas music. Parents are making an
ongoing effort to determine what their kids want the Jolly Old Elf to
put under the tree. And kids are looking forward to Christmas break,
however long it may have been back in 1921, just as they do today.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The kids waiting for Bus #17, driven by sixteen year old
Charles Bosworth (Note here...Students drove school buses in rural
areas right on up to at least the early or mid 1970s) on that Wednesday morning ninety-four years ago were among
those ready for Christmas break. They were all from the Dairyville
area of the county, and they were all waiting on the side of rural
roads along the circuitous route that'd take Bus 17 through
Gerber...a couple of miles south of Proberta...and up San Bonito Ave
to Proberta, where it would cross the tracks and 'T' into what's now
State Route 90...the road that would take them to Red Bluff, and Red
Bluff High School. But on this last morning of November, 1921 things weren't going as planned right from the
git-go.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Lets
take a look at Bus 17 while we have a chance. It was 1921, keep in
mind. School buses of that era resembled modern school buses in
concept only. The bodies were all wood and most likely boasted rear
entrances and perimeter bench seating, which had the kids sitting
with their backs against the sidewalls of the bus. These rides were
for all intents and purposes (And very well may, in fact, </span><i>have</i>
<span style="font-style: normal;">been) horse drawn kid hacks minus
the horses and remounted on a mid or late teens truck chassis. They
had no glass in the windows, no seat cushions, no safety equipment,
and absolutely no structural integrity at all.</span></span><br />
<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn3OxIamiQ_AmrmiNdaCNln9j83K55VukHVyTkNzgLV8fGT_-ZtLvgi7j2qdy1QHq55RR_FiaMMDJKB2bX63zxakf64-K2ZNFI3rOJ-xNKkBFUMETPMeselTez2lhAdwWRIZJWLMzMRps/s1600/bus.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn3OxIamiQ_AmrmiNdaCNln9j83K55VukHVyTkNzgLV8fGT_-ZtLvgi7j2qdy1QHq55RR_FiaMMDJKB2bX63zxakf64-K2ZNFI3rOJ-xNKkBFUMETPMeselTez2lhAdwWRIZJWLMzMRps/s640/bus.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">While no known pictures exist of the ill-fated Bus#17, this pic and the one below give a good idea of what it may have looked like. Wooden body, glass-less windows, wooden bench seat, and the structural integrity and crash-worthyness of your basic cardboard box.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4VNLgBVs7iEOKP2SF3ErMtR_9War9B5JBdBt6h31JT0CXiDmDpWOIES9VpDnnwNAGW0ZwowR-ifynZ39nRmlcSKjc3sMv5fdvBH0tR6Z3Q8bVS9c3JGb_lL5BGY-CA0HX9UsZF2uyDIg/s1600/150208.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4VNLgBVs7iEOKP2SF3ErMtR_9War9B5JBdBt6h31JT0CXiDmDpWOIES9VpDnnwNAGW0ZwowR-ifynZ39nRmlcSKjc3sMv5fdvBH0tR6Z3Q8bVS9c3JGb_lL5BGY-CA0HX9UsZF2uyDIg/s640/150208.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">That's the description of a fairly <i>new</i> bus, BTW. Bus #17 wasn't anywhere near 'New', and was, in fact. already old and going on decrepit when Chuck Bosworth cranked it to life on on that
long ago Wednesday morning. Bosworth had started his route at the
regular time, but he hadn't gotten too far along the route when the
old bus started bucking and missing with that dreaded cadence that
all but screamed 'The timing's gone south'. At one of the stops, he told the kids to hang on a bit, and...leaving the bus
running because he figured it just might not start again if he shut
it off...asked to use the phone at one of the houses. He called Red
Bluff High to let principal Bob Hartzell know what was going on, but
Hartzell wasn't in yet. The school secretary (Who, then as now, was
the true backbone of the office crew) told Bosworth to get as far as
he could and she'd let Hartzell know what was going on when he got
there.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">While
Bosworth made his phone call </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">one
of the kids, </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">named </span></span>Deschamps,</span></span></span> who'd just gotten on the bus</span></span> </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">started feeling sick and
decided he just might need to go home. So he climbed off of the bus
and walked back to his house. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The exact nature of his
illness</span></span> has been lost to history, but it would go down as one of the most fortunately timed
illnesses on record.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Bosworth came out of the house, climbed back aboard the
roughly idling ride, told the rest of the kids what was going on, and
pulled away from the house, but he didn't get too far down the road
before the bus just gave up the ghost and crapped out completely.
Bosworth tried several times to start it back up (And this being 1921
and the chassis already being elderly, that probably meant trying to
crank-start it) with no success what so ever. So he sighed, opened
the butterfly hood and began trying to see if he could get the thing
running again. Three of his friends...two brothers named Boggs and
another youth named Glaspey...climbed off the bus to 'lend their able
assistance' (Spell that, most likely, 'Make good-naturedly smart ass
comments') as Chuck Bosworth tried to get the thing running again.
And, as the three boys were kibitzing these efforts, a second
fortunate turn of events rolled up, in the form of a car driven by
someone all three of the boys knew. An offer of a ride was given and
accepted, the three boys climbed in...and three more lives were
saved.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Bob
Hartzell got the message about Bosworth's bus as soon as he got to
Red Bluff High, and immediately grabbed two other student/bus
drivers....</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">J.
L. Fitzsimmons and Roy Severns </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">...and
sent them out to give Bosworth a hand and possibly bring the kids on
Bosworth's bus to school. With both of them being students as well as bus
drivers, it's a good bet that the buses were parked nose to tail in
the school driveway, waiting for the end of the day just as their
drivers and riders were, and it's an equally good bet that Hartzell
grabbed those particular two drivers because one of their buses was
at the head of the line of buses. The two of them cranked the relief
bus to life, climbed aboard, and headed out in search of Bosworth's
bus. They followed the route Bosworth's bus would have taken, and ran
up on it just about the time he closed the hood. Fitzsimmons and Roy
Severns got out and conferred with Bosworth for a second (My bet's
the conversation had something to do with 'Lets see if this piece of
*#!! will start and stay running.). Bosworth grasped the crank
handle, gave it a tug or two, and the engine turned over and began a
still rough, but much better idle. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">That's when a short conversation featuring a life-altering decision very likely took place...probably something to the effect of:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"> 'Want to let that
crew go on and switch over to my bus in case that thing dies again?' </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">'Naaa...I'm already an hour late...lets get going, we'll put 'em on
your bus if it does...'</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> And with that, the fate of 14 kids was
sealed. The relief bus backed into a driveway or farm road and turned
around, Bosworth pulled out to follow him, and they headed for Red
Bluff High...which they'd never reach.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They made it to Gerber and hung a right on San Benito
Ave , heading for Proberta, the kids talking, joking, and goofing off
as wind rushed through the glassless windows. As these two buses
approached Proberta, Southern Pacific R.R. train # 15 was rolling
south on the line that passed right through the community. (Which was
actually named for the guy who made the land for the S.P.
Right-of-way in the area available). SP. #15 would be rolling through
Proberta without stopping,...their next stop would be Gerber, where
they'd make a crew switch...so, as the train approached the crossing
at San Benito Ave, the engineer blew the crossing
warning...long-long-short-long...sending the whistles mournful wail
out across the California countryside.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDg-hVNX5Jt8d02xgCICBR4RfQdSvMrXGlSJD0dj6_pMw7N1Y3BansaIJPkrgskRMS-y8qEwIdDYX_XWR-jbH3dpOrdTJPRr1nv3reQJgwBMuwcN-T-dw-zku1NnxB22H7sxGw5ORwwJg/s1600/Proberta-gerber+Sat+View.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDg-hVNX5Jt8d02xgCICBR4RfQdSvMrXGlSJD0dj6_pMw7N1Y3BansaIJPkrgskRMS-y8qEwIdDYX_XWR-jbH3dpOrdTJPRr1nv3reQJgwBMuwcN-T-dw-zku1NnxB22H7sxGw5ORwwJg/s640/Proberta-gerber+Sat+View.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Satellite view of the Gerber-Proberta area today, with the accident crossing circle in red, and the bus route denoted by blue dashes. San Benito Ave and the tracks are exactly where they were 94 years and change ago, though San Benito was likely a dirt road back then. The area's still pretty rural.</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ZJ3a9U9vf1JIZ9t9_RXyDepUJ65tojqaoDMG3rkD7YWlzb_aC69Qlk1bVxH-6aTRmsyyDHWyTkjpU5aK35qsBDfxgFLUwZobFrNF9cFIQF0-qeCDTuaUbhQ2Ep23V1CLKhnWiKwNbxc/s1600/Proberta+Satel.+View.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ZJ3a9U9vf1JIZ9t9_RXyDepUJ65tojqaoDMG3rkD7YWlzb_aC69Qlk1bVxH-6aTRmsyyDHWyTkjpU5aK35qsBDfxgFLUwZobFrNF9cFIQF0-qeCDTuaUbhQ2Ep23V1CLKhnWiKwNbxc/s640/Proberta+Satel.+View.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Satellite view of the crossing today, with bus and train direction of travel as well as approximate locations of the Mackenzie house and the block signal mast that contributed to the accident's carnage denoted. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">San Bonito Ave parallels the S.P tracks all the way from
Gerber to Proberta, than makes a 90 degree turn to cross the tracks.
It had, supposedly, gotten a bit hazy as the buses rolled into
Proberta, but it also wasn't anything close to a pea-soup fog,
according to Fitzsimmons, who was at the helm of the relief bus. He
rolled around that 90 curve (To the left for them) and glanced left
and right quickly as he rolled towards the crossing. I have a theory here...I think he saw the fast approaching Train # 15 and, deciding he had plenty of time, he
he rolled right on across. Luckily for him and Ray Severns, he was right. Bosworth saw his friend roll across without slacking up...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Somewhere near the crossing, a fellow named W. H.
Mackenzie was taking advantage of the weather to get some pre-winter
maintenance...that pre-winter honey-do list every man's familiar
with...done when he heard a train whistle. If it was, as he
suspected, S.P train # 15, and if it was, as he also suspected, on
time, it should be just about 10:30 AM. He looked up and
towards the crossing as Train 15's whistle shrilled through the
morning air again, doing so just in time to see the first bus...the
empty one, driven by Fitzsimmons...trundle across the tracks. Train
15's whistle, far closer now, shrilled a third time before the bus even
cleared the crossing. That's when Mackenzie saw the second bus swinging out of
that 90 degree curve and picking up speed as it approached the
crossing, and he could see kids inside this one...a couple of
youthful heads in each long, narrow side window. The whistle again.
Mackenzie looked around to see the train only a hundred or so yards
away, rolling at a good 45 or 50. He looked back around to see the
bus still rolling towards the crossing, not slacking up...it became
<i>real</i> obvious <i>real</i> quick that it's driver wasn't
planning to stop.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Mackenzie jumped up and started yelling at the driver of
the bus, then started running towards it, waving his arms and
shouting, desperately pointing towards the crossing, but there was no
way Bosworth could see him because the bus was pulling away from him.
Mackenzie stopped at the curve and watched in horror...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The kids on Bus 17 knew they were doomed for at least a
few seconds, especially the kids sitting on the benches along the
left side of the body, who were looking out of the right side
windows...they had a clear, straight view across vacant land and up
the tracks as Train # 15 bore down on the crossing, and its a good
bet that they shouted warnings to Bosworth, but he either didn't hear
them or heard them too late, as the bus rolled onto the crossing
without even slacking up...</span> </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In the cab of Train 15's locomotive, the engineer, V.
Greer, had already sounded his whistle a couple of times as they
approached the San Benito Rd crossing. This particular crossing
didn't bother him as much as some crossings did because drivers
approaching from the south were actually looking north up the
tracks...the road, remember, paralleled the tracks...so northbound drivers would
actually be looking <i>towards</i> any south-bound trains approaching
Proberta, Theoretically a northbound driver should be able to see an
oncoming train well before they rounded the 90 degree
curve just before they reached the crossing. Again, <i>theoretically</i> that's the way it should
work. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So, with that thought in mind, Greer really wasn't
worried as he leaned out of the cab's right side picture window,
enjoying the brisk fall air as he yanked the whistle lanyard left handed while watching the track ahead of
him as well as he could with forty or so feet of boiler blocking his
view. His peaceful mood was about to get shattered...they were about
two football fields away from the crossing when, suddenly, a school
bus appeared </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">out of the blind-spot created by
the boiler</span>, moving left to right as it cleared the crossing and headed for the highway
that ran parallel to and to the west of the tracks. Greer breathed a curse, as
he reached up and started yanking the whistle lanyard again. On the
other side of the cab his fireman, who was tending the firebox (Either
stoking by hand or tending the mechanical stoker if the locomotive
was equipped with one) and checking gauges, probably looked up
questioningly. Greer had maybe gotten the first two long blasts and
the short blast sounded as he looked away from the picture window for
an instant, and very likely started to make a comment about idiots not paying
attention to crossings when he was interrupted by a sudden jerk,
followed by the thump, then scraping clatter of something slamming
hard against, then sliding along the side of the locomotive.
Greer flinched away from the picture window as an object bounced past
it, at the same time grabbing the brake handle and yanking it hard
into emergency, cursing as the brakes locked and steel wheels began
singing against steel rails. The object that bounced past the cab was
the mangled but still recognizable front end of a truck...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">'I think we just got a bus...' he told his fireman.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The front end of
Train 15's locomotive ripped into the right side of the bus at
somewhere between 45 and 50 MPH with a cataclysmic 'CRUMMP!!!,
exploding the wooden body in a cloud of splinters and ejecting
everyone aboard with the force of a baseball hit for a line drive.
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Back
then there was a semaphore signal hard by the tracks on the west side
of the crossing, about ten or fifteen feet south of the road, mounted
on a four or so foot high, four foot square concrete base that was
shaped like a pyramid with the top lopped off ...</span></span>The front end of the denuded chassis slammed </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>hard</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">against the
semaphore, jamming itself against the concrete base for just an
instant as the frame rails bent, then whipped around to the left,
snapping the chassis' mangled remains around clockwise and slamming
the mangled cab of the bus against the side of the
locomotive an instant before the train's wheels started singing as they slid
along the rails. By some miracle, the chassis' twisted wreck
didn't jam itself beneath the train, derailing it, as it flipped up
and over, hitting the semaphore again and taking it out as it bounced
away from the tracks. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Fitzsimmons
heard the resounding crunch of the impact and stood on the lead bus'
brakes, then turned and looked back out of his bus' back
window...Severns probably jumped down out of the bus, looked back,
and shouted towards Fitzsimmons, going goggle-eyed as he did so.
Fitzsimmons yanked on the parking brake lever, and followed Severns
off of the bus, turning to look towards the crossing as his feet hit
the ground, seeing a sight that was likely burned into his brain
until his own death decades later...the train was still sliding but
slowing, the squeal of brakes slowly petering out. It took a second
for his mind to process what he was seeing, for it to even </span><i>believe
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">what it was seeing before he
realized that the shattered hulk lying next the the tracks was bus
17's chassis, that the the chunks of wood scattered and piled along
the right of way had been the body of the bus only seconds ago, and
that the lumps lying along the tracks were the kids...Oh, </span><i>God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
it looked like some of it was </span><i>pieces</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">of
kids...he'd been talking to just a few minutes ago. He and Severns
broke into a run towards the scene.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The two of them, along with Mackenzie, were the first
three people on scene, and they found a gruesome, horrid sight as
they ran up to the crossing. The bus body barely protected the ride's
passengers from the weather, it had the crash-worthiness and structural integrity of a cardboard box when involved in a collision with a fast moving train. <i>Everyone</i> was
thrown clear at the instant of impact, and several of the kids had
been hurled forward, onto the tracks, in front of the locomotive. Someone...possibly Mackenzie...ran to a nearby house and called the
sheriff, then Red Bluff High School, and it was likely from the
school that those horrible notification's were made. Fitzsimmons and
Severns began looking around for the kids who'd been on the
bus...they ran up on a couple of bodies, as well as body parts almost
immediately, but they were hoping against hope that some had
survived... moans and sobs and faint cries for help confirmed that a
few had. Thing is, some of the kids had been thrown as far as sixty
or seventy feet, others had been dragged the length of a football
field, and others were beneath the train. The two of them started
walking the tracks (Probably on opposite sides of the train) looking
for their friends.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNTSd_mhQHOcoR3XfVuOCSXDPXIPg5YBuOizb0EHQoCjbAFRgZhCS2KHfPwfi2FyozJxCKJUDdSiIAGqgbJCd1IT9-t7lAdBcPZmQbfG9YVJIXXM4aKApTlYFBL7Pa9yhkVKv8Tj6L2_I/s1600/Probreerta+approaching+crossing+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNTSd_mhQHOcoR3XfVuOCSXDPXIPg5YBuOizb0EHQoCjbAFRgZhCS2KHfPwfi2FyozJxCKJUDdSiIAGqgbJCd1IT9-t7lAdBcPZmQbfG9YVJIXXM4aKApTlYFBL7Pa9yhkVKv8Tj6L2_I/s640/Probreerta+approaching+crossing+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Northbound on San Benito Rd, approaching the crossing today. The sight line up the tracks for northbound drivers is likely very close to what it was in 1921. On that long ago Nov 30th, when Bosworth got to this point on the then likely unpaved San Bonita Ave, he was watching Fitzsimmon's bus ease into the left-hand curve just before the crossing. If the locomotive had been making much smoke, he should have been able to see it from here (And I have a feeling Fitzsimmons <i>did</i> see the train, and figured he could beat it.). Bosworth's attention was very likely split between his friends on his bus, and watching Fitzsimmons.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiRiZAdKuSMHdsIInjmbtbTgbdLSRmmf3SP_WPaXXPjJbeCXJEiRdw3MMX0llq1Y6ikufKkY35nt0MesZ7ADjfp-cwcWmdmHy1aewBv3icMAFMPU1RpMOy7VhtLCtt52BI1FkKcrk92FU/s1600/Probreerta+approaching+crossing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiRiZAdKuSMHdsIInjmbtbTgbdLSRmmf3SP_WPaXXPjJbeCXJEiRdw3MMX0llq1Y6ikufKkY35nt0MesZ7ADjfp-cwcWmdmHy1aewBv3icMAFMPU1RpMOy7VhtLCtt52BI1FkKcrk92FU/s640/Probreerta+approaching+crossing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fitzsimmons was probably crossing the tracks as Bosworth reached this point...he may even have been about where the silver minivan is. Now, it was reported that there was a heavy haze or ground fog that morning, but Fitzsimmons made it clear that he had no problem at all seeing the highway from this side of the crossing, so I have my doubts that fog or haze played any part in the accident.<br />
<br />
The house that Mackenzie was painting was probably located on the dirt road branching off to the right, upper right center of the pic, beneath one of the modern day arrow signs. At this point Mackenzie had seen Fitzsimmons bus, and had spotted the oncoming train. He was also watching Bosworth's bus. In a few seconds he'd start his desperate but futile attempts to get Bosworth's attention and warn him about the train.<br />
<br />
The block signal mast and foundation block that the bus was crushed against were probably located on the west side of the tracks, about fifteen or twenty feet south of the crossing. This would have put it just about across the tracks from where the circuit box for the modern crossing signals...the large silver box to the left of the crossing, just about mid-frame...is located today.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheYuuLDf8r8RxqkFgrTAhFDVvnUMV-dtgxboj6dbZ02zssBVSLxjvhH9GQ1X0aIJDSoRp2iQdVVzbjzm3roWogaEp3nfoWDv3VIXiXReO1UbVNw0YTB4MzkEOG7VvBuRy0yI7d6Axbuxc/s1600/Probreerta+crossing+drivwers+eye+view.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheYuuLDf8r8RxqkFgrTAhFDVvnUMV-dtgxboj6dbZ02zssBVSLxjvhH9GQ1X0aIJDSoRp2iQdVVzbjzm3roWogaEp3nfoWDv3VIXiXReO1UbVNw0YTB4MzkEOG7VvBuRy0yI7d6Axbuxc/s640/Probreerta+crossing+drivwers+eye+view.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Driver's eye view of the crossing today. If you loose the crossing signals and picture San Benito Rd as a dirt road, it's pretty close to what Bosworth saw that morning as he approached the crossing with-out slowing down. Fitzsimmons' bus would have been just about slowing for the stop sign at the highway. Bosworth didn't even slack up, likely figuring that if Fitzsimmons just sailed across, the way was probably clear. Thing is, if Bosworth had slowed and looked to his right...</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF8kiwxFkRheEnp3SNHyik7cOXDnfIvYUm9Sb0UId7fldG3yv3DpQbtDnlR6BQNtjK56tkZ8kPChqmqdJva1Ng_cTWXvvAhP6byl-8TbuZR5rWmmxbyim8AAGKYY2HVhNpRpYND_kpuJQ/s1600/Proberta+crossing.+Drivers+eye+view.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF8kiwxFkRheEnp3SNHyik7cOXDnfIvYUm9Sb0UId7fldG3yv3DpQbtDnlR6BQNtjK56tkZ8kPChqmqdJva1Ng_cTWXvvAhP6byl-8TbuZR5rWmmxbyim8AAGKYY2HVhNpRpYND_kpuJQ/s640/Proberta+crossing.+Drivers+eye+view.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He had a straight, unobstructed view up the tracks for a good half mile. This view, other than the addition of that one modern building, probably hasn't changed too much in just over 95 years. No question about it...if he'd stopped and looked, he would have seen the train</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">There were at least two other eye witnesses to the
crash, and they may have called the Sheriff's Office as well, and
they definitely called the rest of the town (Not that the accident
was any great secret...between the impact and the screaming of locked
wheels against rails, it was more them obvious that something <i>bad</i>
had just happened). Fitzsimmons and Severns were were quickly joined
by both passengers from the train and townspeople, and within a
couple of minutes after they started their search. Engineer Greer
trotted up to them and told them there were a couple of kids on the
pilot of the locomotive, and one of them might be alive. They trotted
towards the head end of the train, where they found two teens
sprawled across the locomotive pilot. One, a young girl, had been
killed instantly in the collision, but the other was Chuck Bosworth,
and he was moaning, moving a bit, and conscious despite having a
massive head injury...he told Fitzsimmons and Severns that he didn't
see the train, and said something about the fog.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He'd tell Tehama County Sheriff M.O. Ballard the same
thing before being transported to Red Bluff...</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">he wouldn't get to repeat it though. Bosworth would die at the
hospital the next day.</span> Fitzsimmons would
dispute this, however, He maintained that there was only a very light
ground fog, and that he could see all the way out to the highway and
beyond as he came around that 90 degree curve. I think Fitzsimmons saw the train, and figured...correctly, but just barely...that he could beat it. I also have a feeling that Chuck Bosworth saw his buddy sail across the tracks, figured the way must be clear, and just rolled onto the crossing without looking.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sheriff Ballard, along with several of his men
immediately started an investigation even as parents arrived at the
scene, along with a contingent of school officials, as well as
carloads of the curious from Red Bluff. This was an awful, <i>awful</i>
scene, and there was <i>no</i> perimeter control what so ever. The
parents arrived well before the special train that would be dispatched from Red Bluff to transport the injured, and had free reign of
the scene. A couple of the injured were loaded into private autos and
taken to Red Bluff (Probably without telling anyone that they'd done
so, making it even more difficult to account for everyone on the
bus.) . Several of the kids had been thrown ahead of the train, onto
the tracks, and run over...their bodies had been torn apart and
mutilated beyond any hope of recognition, and some parents were
looking...in horror...at body parts wrapped in the remains of
clothing, hoping that the clothing didn't look like the whatever
their kids had been wearing when they left for school that morning. Other parents had the gut-wrenching
experience of finding their child's body...there were scenes of
mothers, sobbing their souls out, hugging their dead children (That's
a two word phrase that should never have to exist...ever) to their
breasts...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Early on, one of the train crew probably went to the
Proberta train station and called the division headquarters at Gerber
and they went into action. They had two things to do. First, stop traffic to keep another train from running up on. and into, the scene, creating an even worse catastrophe, and second, have the next passenger train through Red Bluff cut all but the first
couple of coaches from the train, and head for Proberta to transport
the injured back the the hospital at Red Bluff...the special train I mentioned above. In the days before
modern EMS and Fire Service response, this was a very common type of
emergency response to railroad accidents, and a store of stretchers
was very likely kept at the depot. These were loaded onto the
baggage and express car, which was almost always the first car behind the
locomotive's tender. All but the first couple of cars would have been cut loose, and as the
train pulled out of Red Bluff, the engineer shoved the throttle wide
open. He wouldn't back off of it and apply brakes until he was about
a mile or so out of Proberta.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The special train rolled into Proberta, and hissed to a stop
only a few dozen yards from the crossing...the stretchers were
unloaded and carried to where injured students lay, moaning, and more
heart-wrenching scenes unfolded. One gravely injured young man asked,
as he was being moved to a stretcher, if they could wait one minute
and allow him to pray. His rescuers agreed, and he closed his eyes, said a
prayer...and breathed his last as he finished. Another student...a
young girl named Marion Day...was found unconscious and unmarked
other than a good sized splinter of wood protruding from her skull.
She was transported to St Elizabeth Hospital in Red Bluff, where
doctors told her parents that she would not recover with the hunk of
wood impaled in her brain...but that she would very likely not
survive surgery. Her parents thought and discussed and prayed about
the decision before finally consenting to surgery. Unfortunately,
Marion died on the operating table. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> One mom searched the scene
frantically looking for her son...not finding him, she assumed that
he'd been transported to Sisters' Hospital, so she set off for Red
Bluff...but he wasn't there either. She began hoping that he was
'Playing Hooky' (An ancient term for what's today known as 'Skipping'
or 'cutting' class) but her hopes were dashed when Train 15 was
cleared to continue it's run, and, when it was moved, her son's body
was discovered beneath the engine. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Even as the rescue train was being readied, a call went
out to every doctor in Red Bluff, asking them to report to the
hospital to handle the influx of injured kids, and to a man all of
them responded and began readying themselves and the hospital's
surgical suite for the soon-to-arrive trauma patients. They really
didn't have <i>that</i> long to get ready. The rescue train's six
mile run to Proberta was, at most, a ten to fifteen minute run and
once they arrived on scene loading the injured on board the rescue
train was likely also a pretty quick process. Remember, there was <i>no</i>
real prehospital care ninety years ago...it was a case of put the
patients on stretchers, load them in the baggage car, and <i>go.</i>
Once all of the patients were loaded, the trip back to Red Bluff...in
reverse, with the throttle likely wide open... probably took somewhere
around ten minutes. Red Bluff's doctors probably had around an hour
and probably less to be notified, get to the hospital, devise a game
plan, and be ready for the injured to arrive.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Nine students were transported to St Elizabeth
Hospital, all of them in critical condition, and with-in a couple of
hours of the accident the hospital's surgical suite was fully
occupied, with prepped patients waiting for an open operating
theater. The problem was that the injuries were catastrophic...had
the accident happened today, even with modern prehospital care and
in-hospital emergency trauma care, a modern trauma center would have
been behind the eight ball. Back then they had pretty much lost the game before the first team even arrived.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Several of the gravely injured kids still managed to
hang on for a day or more...one young girl for thirty-six hours...but
by midnight of the 22<sup>nd</sup>, there was only one survivor left,
a young lady named Opal McNaughton, who was suffering from compound
fractures of both legs as well as a shattered pelvis. She would spend
over a year in the hospital and undergo several surgeries before
going home. She would ultimately marry and raise a family.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The entire Community of Dairyville as well as Red Bluff
High school, was thrown into shocked mourning by the crash, and while
it's a cliché statement, it's true...literally <i>everyone </i>in
both Dairyville knew some if not all of the kids on Bus
17 and I can just about lay bets on the fact that everyone at Red
Bluff High did <i>indeed</i> know everyone aboard the ill-fated bus.
The funerals probably seemed to go on forever, and the mourning for
even longer.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The fact that no one on the bus was left to testify to
just exactly what happened threw investigators for a bit of a loop.
There were eyewitnesses to the accident, but all they could really
say was the obvious...that the bus didn't stop at the crossing. The
unknown factor...to this day, if truth be known...is <i>why</i> Chuck
Bosworth didn't stop. Investigators were pretty quick to hang the
blame on the mist that was hanging in the morning air, saying that it
obscured Bosworth's view of the train (And conveniently ignoring the
fact that he didn't even slack up as he approached the crossing) but
if you read into the few sources available, it doesn't take long to
realize that the haze couldn't have been but so heavy. Mackenzie was
further from the crossing than Bosworth by a hundred feet or so and
he had no problem at all seeing Train 15 approaching. Ditto the other
two eye witnesses. The driver of the first bus...Fitzsimmons...told
investigators that he had no problem seeing the highway and beyond
from the east side of the crossing as he approached it. SO...Why
didn't Charles Bosworth see the train? Or, for that matter, stop in
the first place.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Yep...Rob's gonna speculate again. I have a feeling that
a pair of factors were at work here. You had a sixteen year old kid
driving a bus loaded with kids his age, all of whom he knew. I have a
feeling that a good deal of conversation and hi-jinks were going on.
Oh, nothing out of the ordinary for a sixteen year old boy. Unless,
of course, you were driving a school bus and therefore really didn't
need to be distracted while you were driving.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Six of the dead, including Bosworth, were boys, and I
can just about bet all six of them were clustered around the front of
the bus carrying on conversation and cutting up as teen boys are wont
to do. Remember also, that this bus had no glass in it's windows
other than the windshield...while this <i>should</i> have made the
train's whistle <i>easier</i> to hear, it just may have worked
<i>against</i> Bosworth hearing it. First you'd have wind/road/engine
noise blocking it out. Then you'd have six boys trying to make
themselves heard over said noise. Add all of that up, and it's more
than possible that he didn't hear...or heard but didn't notice...the
whistle.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He was also following Fitzsimmon's bus...As I noted above, he looks up and
sees the lead bus roll across the tracks without slacking up, so he
figures that the way is clear and it's safe to cross...so he doesn't
even really look as he rolls onto the crossing. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Whatever the reason that Bosworth drove his bus in front
of a train on that long ago November Wednesday morning, his actions
ended up taking 14 lives, including his own. Two sets of siblings
were among those killed in the accident. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
wild thing is, Bosworth was perfectly within the law...until the
train hit them. There were no laws in place yet requiring the driver
of a school bus to stop at railroad crossings and, as this series of
posts will show, it would be decades before such laws went into
effect nationally. Local school board policies changed in reply to
accidents, and by the mid-Thirties if not before, every school system
that ran school buses probably had a 'Thou Shall Stop At Rail Road
Crossings' policy in effect, and state laws slowly caught up with school board policies...but in 1921, and for over a decade afterward, there still weren't <i>any</i> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">laws</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
specifically addressing school buses stopping at grade crossings. Of course, it still boggles my mind that a person has
to be told to stop a bus load of children at a railroad crossing and
make absolutely sure it's safe to cross.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This
accident, according to what I could find, brought about the end of
students driving school buses in Tehama County, and possibly in
California (But </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">not</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
in the rest of the country. Southampton County, Virginia, for
example, had high school students driving school buses up until the
early 70s.). Of course, history would prove...repeatedly and
tragically...that being over 18 was absolutely no guarantee that the
driver had common sense...because, really that's all it is. Good old
common sense. You see a railroad crossing, you make sure a trains not
coming. <i>Especially</i> if you're driving a bus load of kids. It really is </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">that</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
easy.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="border-bottom: 4.5pt double rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: none; margin-bottom: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.03in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; padding: 0in 0in 0.03in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-style: normal;">The
victims of the Proberta Bus-Train Crash</span></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />HAROLD
ANDERSON.</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">C.
BENSFIELD.</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">RHEVA
BOBBITT.</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">CHARLES
BOSWORTH.</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">EDITH
DAY.</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">MARIAN
DAY.</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">MABEL
DAY, </span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">REELAND
FACHT.<br />BERNICE JACK.</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">FRANK
JACK<br />EVA LINDEMAN<br />HENRY SMITH.</span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="border-bottom: 4.5pt double rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: none; margin-bottom: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.03in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; padding: 0in 0in 0.03in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ELSA STIREWALT.<br />FERN WHITE.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><***>Notes, Links, and Stuff<***></b><br />
<br />
<b> The other posts in this series</b><br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>in the order they were posted.</b></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html</a> Evans, Colo December 1961 </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html</a> Spring City Tenn. August 1955</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html</a> Congers New York </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
March 1972</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html</a> Lake Station Indiana</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
October 1971</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html</a> Stratton Nebraska </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
August 1976</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.htm</a> Fox River Grove Illinois October 1995</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html</a> Conasauga Tenn. March 2000<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html </a> Sandy, Utah Dec 1938<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html</a> Proberta, California Nov 1921<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html</a> Shreve and Berea Ohio Jan. 1930<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html</a> Crescent City, Florida December 1933<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html</a> Rockville, Maryland April 1935<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html</a> MAson City, Iowa Oct. 1937<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html</a> Eads, Tennessee Oct. 1941<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<***></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<b><br /></b>
</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sometimes you just absolutely know you're behind the 8-ball before you even get started on a post...this one was one of those times. The accident happened 94 years and change back, the only information I could find on it was an ancient newspaper article on the genealogy site I farm for subjects for this learned blog, and the text of another article, posted on a 'Find-A-Grave.com page dedicate to one of the victims. The ICC accident report is, apparently, <i>long</i> gone.<br />
<br />
Oh, the two articles I did find gave me enough info to figure out what happened, and enough extra detail to flesh it out a bit but a lot of details...such as the exact make and model of truck the bus body was mounted on...just weren't there, so I had to speculate a bit.<br />
<br />
I tried to make it as accurate as possible, while making it interesting, informative, and readable...hope I succeeded. <br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<***></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This accident apparently holds the very dubious distinction of being the very first major loss-of-life school bus-train accident involving a motorized school bus, and possibly the first major Loss of life accident of <i>any</i> kind involving a motorized school bus.</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div id="hzImg" style="background: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: auto; left: 5px; line-height: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 2138px; visibility: visible; width: auto; z-index: 2147483647;"></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-36510695354290035012016-03-21T16:33:00.002-04:002023-03-28T00:30:08.487-04:00Crescent City, Florida Train/School Bus crash. December 14th, 1933<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Crescent
City Florida School Bus/Train collision December 14, 1933</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">If you ask the great majority of people who are not
Floridians about the interior regions of The Sunshine State...you
know, the areas </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> that you can't see either the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf
of Mexico from and </span>that don't have either 'Beach' or 'Key' affixed to
their name...they'll likely tell you that most of the interior
of the Florida Peninsula is taken up by swampland...the Everglades
primarily...and while hauntingly beautiful, it's entirely
uninhabitable. They'd actually be pretty close to right if they were referring to the
southern quarter or so of the state, as well as a wide strip in the
northwestern part of the peninsula. What they <i>don't</i> realize, however, is that there are also scores of small
towns throughout most of non-coastal Florida as well as one large city... some burg called Orlando, which, as we
may recall, is host to a theme park of some renown. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
interior of the Florida Peninsula will fool people in other ways. The great majority of it is </span><i>not </i><span style="font-style: normal;">
swampland. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The more rural parts of Florida are </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">unarguable as beautiful as it's never ending coastline, with the</span></span></span></span> north-central part of the state actually boasting some
rolling hills as well as several </span><i>big</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
lakes. One of those lakes is
thirteen mile long Crescent Lake, situated in both Putnam and Flagler
Counties. The small and pretty little burg of Crescent City's tucked
into the southwestern shore of Crescent Lake, and that's where we're
traveling for this post as we head back to December 1933.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Train-school
bus collisions had taken an almost four year hiatus after
double-slamming the Cleveland Ohio area in January 1930...long enough
for human nature to take over and for people to get a bit complacent
again.. You know, the overly optimistic thought 'It <i>hasn't</i>
happened in X years, so it <i>won't </i><span style="font-style: normal;">happen</span>...' Unfortunately
that theory is always disproved.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">December 14<sup>th</sup> 1933. The weather was
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">foggy and </span>cool...for Florida...but not even vaguely cold, as a makeshift school
bus trundled down Old US-17 just a shade over three miles south of
Crescent City. This vehicle...a mid 1920's truck chassis with a home
made wooden bus body mounted on it...was a far cry from what we
consider a 'school bus' today, BTW. It wasn't yellow. The kids
aboard the bus sat on benches running the length of the interior of
the bus body, with their backs to the windows. The windows didn't have glass in them...it was Florida,
who needed glass windows, even in December...but it <i>did </i><span style="font-style: normal;">
have canvas curtains that could be lowered to cover the window
openings in case of rain or other inclement weather. On that
particular December morning there was a good bit of 'Other Inclement
Weather', in the form of heavy fog, courtesy of Crescent Lake, even
larger Lake George, and the numerous other smaller bodies of water
spotted throughout Putnam County. </span></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2F469rinlfqM0bS7ctZ9NKB9rrWI3w3KDH7Uh-pIUbxHYZBYUAdReFZADRDNontkBNig7PNnKMWlEAzXJhjgpAf7tFRbnDkaF9GKZEIBnVyplYNqLkAK-LxGU9DVaJOCzsp5x_T5iDMU/s1600/bus.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2F469rinlfqM0bS7ctZ9NKB9rrWI3w3KDH7Uh-pIUbxHYZBYUAdReFZADRDNontkBNig7PNnKMWlEAzXJhjgpAf7tFRbnDkaF9GKZEIBnVyplYNqLkAK-LxGU9DVaJOCzsp5x_T5iDMU/s640/bus.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">The school bus involved in the Crescent City accident probably looked a lot like this one...home made wooden body with glassless windows, perimeter seating, rear entrance, and all. These rides were just about as crash worthy as a cardboard box. Also note the dark color. Yellow wouldn't be a standard school bus color until the mid or late 30s.</td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAYtDWj3Top4gNCEeVot3RUL-X31DLoo4Ie_Ipzaesr8-mYG9PAg3QHrKraKgCRXhxsKeANpPQMy7xo4MJJhMMosmXwMEpvUdqF-TqqXCOEq6lLT5p5s8ebUHfZAd-5dJZB6rQFhlmxo/s1600/8b30308v-700x627.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAYtDWj3Top4gNCEeVot3RUL-X31DLoo4Ie_Ipzaesr8-mYG9PAg3QHrKraKgCRXhxsKeANpPQMy7xo4MJJhMMosmXwMEpvUdqF-TqqXCOEq6lLT5p5s8ebUHfZAd-5dJZB6rQFhlmxo/s640/8b30308v-700x627.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Though the bus pictured here is a good bit newer than the Crescent City
bus...note the dual rear wheels and beefier chassis, as well as actual
windows...it does show the rear entrance that was pretty much standard
on new school buses right on up to the early 30s, with more than a few of
the bodies being made by the locality's vehicle maintenance or
carpentry shop. Buying a bare chassis, then building a home made body for it was a <i>lot</i> cheaper than buying a complete new bus. With the Great Depression limiting the resources school
districts had available to replace aging buses, wooden bodied, rear
entrance buses like this were common...especially in rural areas...right
on up into the 40s.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The last stop before the bus headed back north, back to
Crescent City, was </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">a small community
called Silver Pond Grove, situated on a small lake called Silver Pond.</span> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here US 17 (Also known back
in 1933 as Florida State Route 3) paralleled the the Atlantic Coast
Line tracks and a dirt road branched off of 17 and crossed the tracks to lead back to Silver
Pond Grove. </span>Robert Teuton was one of the several people who lived in the tiny community, and the two Teuton
children as well as several other kids boarded the bus at the Silver Pond Grove stop. Originally the bus had crossed the tracks and picked the kids up near the Teuton home, then turned around and crossed the tracks again in order to head to Crescent City, but Mr Teuton (As well, very likely, as several other sets of parents) had decided that was just far to many times for the bus to cross the busy ACL mainline. Mr Teuton, therefore, had made a turn-around in the 75 or so foot wide
strip between the road and the railroad right of way so the bus
wouldn't have to cross the tracks. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">But on that fateful morning two weeks and change before Christmas of '33, neither the Teuton
kids nor any of the other kids who boarded the bus there were at the
bus stop. And apparently sixty-three year old D.R.
Niles, the driver of the bus decided to drive up to the Teuton house
to pick them up, because that morning he decided to cross the tracks. But I have a feeling he had noble reasons for doing so. The fog was cut-it-with-a-knife thick that morning, and he was thinking about the kids in Silver Pond Grove having to walk across the tracks all but blind, possibly not seeing </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">an oncoming train</span> and walking onto the crossing in front of it as a result. It'd be much safer for them if he picked them up at the old stop. The fact that he was getting ready to do pretty much the <i>very </i>same thing he didn't want them to do likely didn't even occur to him.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The fog was so heavy that Niles could barely see the
tracks as he slowed to make the turn. Behind him
twenty-seven elementary school age kids, wound up with the energy
that only kids that age possess and even more excited than normal
due to the pending arrival </span><span style="font-size: small;">of a certain Mr Claus</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> in just more than two weeks,</span> raised a cheerful ruckus. Niles, who'd been driving the
bus for years, ignored them as he swung the bus to the right, onto
the dirt road...he'd pick the Silver Pond Grove kids up, turn around
at the Teuton house as he'd done before the turn-around was built, then head back towards Crescent City, </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It was just shy of 7:45 AM as he made the turn. As the
bus swung off of Rt 17 an Atlantic Coast Line freight train, with
Engineer R.A.Howell at the throttle, was northbound, hurtling through
the fog.. He passed the whistle board for the road into Silver Pond
Grove, reached up left handed, and started yanking the whistle cord,
the steam whistle screaming the long-long-short-long that's been the
traditional grade crossing warning signal for more than a century out
into the foggy Florida morning. The same fog, though, tended to
absorb the sound and the kid-centric noise aboard the bus finished
drowning it out. </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgOIq_3GOnHL4OkoG18yKI84yzuYjWXblMuyuV0B2EZk7KGXiAiuFPLTMPiTOswNgIT8xGbHAW7Nxg5Oq1NTlLFcVa-KF_Oexvr7IsZPu6Oftp7SzMZcDa13hrG_E8NRVZCXGMKgLNYW0/s1600/Crescent+CIty+accident+area.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgOIq_3GOnHL4OkoG18yKI84yzuYjWXblMuyuV0B2EZk7KGXiAiuFPLTMPiTOswNgIT8xGbHAW7Nxg5Oq1NTlLFcVa-KF_Oexvr7IsZPu6Oftp7SzMZcDa13hrG_E8NRVZCXGMKgLNYW0/s640/Crescent+CIty+accident+area.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">A general satellite view of the area of the accident, with the accident crossing circled in red, and the route of the bus denoted by blue dashes. Crescent City would be north of the crossing, Silver Pond's in the middle of the view. Though it's more built up than it was in 1933, this area is <i>still</i> pretty rural.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEk6w2WmW1lxGiCaQDNfy55thbySQIi9_KlxrUm2Fa7WbNQYI7cSxISQWpg2z0Jb4MdZf4zO4tDAGvWVONGEK7bGKZZFCImLLZUNmnjBgA5cHPyhCRZr7cIHbnAazmOPG2q0K8Cs4qYO8/s1600/Crescent+City+accident+crossing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEk6w2WmW1lxGiCaQDNfy55thbySQIi9_KlxrUm2Fa7WbNQYI7cSxISQWpg2z0Jb4MdZf4zO4tDAGvWVONGEK7bGKZZFCImLLZUNmnjBgA5cHPyhCRZr7cIHbnAazmOPG2q0K8Cs4qYO8/s640/Crescent+City+accident+crossing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Satellite view of the accident crossing.with bus and train direction of travel denoted as well as the approximate locations of the turn-around and the Teuton home. The Northeast corner of Silver Pond is visible in the bottom left corner of the view. Silver Pond Grove was the last stop before the bus headed back for Crescent City, and the resident of one of the houses had made a turn-around for the bus between the tracks and road, specifically so the bus <i>wouldn't</i> have to cross the tracks to turn around. On the morning of the accident the kids...who would have had to cross the tracks on foot...weren't at the bus stop. I have a feeling that bus driver D.R.Niles decided to cross the tracks so the kids wouldn't have to risk walking across the tracks in the heavy fog, but sadly, Niles did exactly what he was trying to keep the Teuton kids and their neighbors from doing...crossed the track without seeing an oncoming train.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOra8Cbo06dMs6Roe4EDa-k7GWi4SQ868VPxMQz35tYKQWUa2cFRa3eIeRcmivWUaZCKyquI3A8-jMNFkd_hW-6dBtuX5SF9IYJkUGnoERqnHlFgpPnngQcUgy96pR7bBFXL2GgF92A2I/s1600/Crescent+City++Approaching+Crossing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOra8Cbo06dMs6Roe4EDa-k7GWi4SQ868VPxMQz35tYKQWUa2cFRa3eIeRcmivWUaZCKyquI3A8-jMNFkd_hW-6dBtuX5SF9IYJkUGnoERqnHlFgpPnngQcUgy96pR7bBFXL2GgF92A2I/s640/Crescent+City++Approaching+Crossing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">As the approach to the crossing looks today...Florida RT 15 and US-17 share the same right-of-way here. Though the view's from the wrong lane (The Google Street View car was obviously driving away from the crossing when these were taken) you can still get a feel for what Niles saw as he approached the intersection. Remember, it was extremely foggy on that December morning 83 years back. The bus stop/turnaround was probably on the far corner of the intersection...but <i>that </i>morning there were no kids waiting there. Niles, very likely looking at the fog and thinking about the hazard to the kids if they tried to cross the tracks with little or no visibility, decided to drive up into Silver Pond Colony to pick the kids up. The train would have been approaching from behind him, and would have been two or three hundred yards away at this point.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBV1e4T7DmG5ASUmj7PCuPrY9nR69mxae_ojaimkrEg4wzr76i-OWLxsdb2b1xtkI6WunQzQ0prSRA-iU829HMds6I651aHZb5drjhHDvQlDfhhqHMr1atssGB0kYsVaWtmmX7k1XgZK4/s1600/Crescent+City++Approaching+Crossing+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBV1e4T7DmG5ASUmj7PCuPrY9nR69mxae_ojaimkrEg4wzr76i-OWLxsdb2b1xtkI6WunQzQ0prSRA-iU829HMds6I651aHZb5drjhHDvQlDfhhqHMr1atssGB0kYsVaWtmmX7k1XgZK4/s640/Crescent+City++Approaching+Crossing+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Niles' approximate view as he was getting ready to make the turn (Remember, this is from the wrong lane). He may have checked to see if the kids were walking towards the turn-around here, but he'd already made the decision to drive up into the Colony. Don't know if those trees were there in 1933 or not...but as you'll see in a bit, that's actually a moot point.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD3uuYac9Vxx20wz2BZBw_xf19K9xa8T4USrTeWtKIWGq2If8E_aNSoVDrNbp5tU1U16F53izNArIYDlR-sFHIkv90BMswxB_I8IhCuTcb_nzI7_zUX8qrghoAueSf_SCcYzWHe-XuTpQ/s1600/Crescent+City++Approaching+Crossing+3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD3uuYac9Vxx20wz2BZBw_xf19K9xa8T4USrTeWtKIWGq2If8E_aNSoVDrNbp5tU1U16F53izNArIYDlR-sFHIkv90BMswxB_I8IhCuTcb_nzI7_zUX8qrghoAueSf_SCcYzWHe-XuTpQ/s640/Crescent+City++Approaching+Crossing+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">With the exception of the crossing signals and gates, and the road being paved to just beyond the crossing, this view probably hasn't changed much in 82 years and change. Though the train was only a football field or so away, <i>no</i> one heard it...kids or Niles.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDCaNkCJiHCxtuMrse-HRDgFQddXx1CmiNsOMB2ZdumBzszyQz3nao8EZBlzvzybS_VbjsylQ04RtlaRnqRZkz0SblL0T3n_J22NCIlQOQcC_iTefn_7bDq9VCKIDFEgIHGuN2gGEljA/s1600/Crescent+City++View+down+track.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDCaNkCJiHCxtuMrse-HRDgFQddXx1CmiNsOMB2ZdumBzszyQz3nao8EZBlzvzybS_VbjsylQ04RtlaRnqRZkz0SblL0T3n_J22NCIlQOQcC_iTefn_7bDq9VCKIDFEgIHGuN2gGEljA/s640/Crescent+City++View+down+track.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Remember the moot point I mentioned above? Again, this view hasn't changed much since December '33. While it was foggy that morning, If Niles had stopped right here, and looked down the tracks...just as this view's doing...he'd have see the train...First the shadowy outline of the locomotive looming out of the fog like an oncoming ghost-ship, then gaining substance and form as it thundered past the crossing, dragging a long freight south. If he'd stopped and looked, the only thing the kids on the bus would have been was a little later getting to school. Sadly though, he didn't stop, and tragedy resulted.. .</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I
could find very little detail about what happened next, but from the
way the one article I <i>did</i> find sounded neither Niles, the kids on
the bus, or the train crew had even the barest instant of warning
before the locomotive broadsided the bus, blowing the wooden body
apart like a ceramic coffee mug struck by a hard-swung baseball bat,
sending the chassis tumbling off of the tracks and ejecting everyone
aboard the bus explosively as the wooden body blew apart. The kids
sitting with their backs towards the right side of the bus...the side
that was hit....never had a chance. Ten of them of them died
instantly, four of the bodies were found sprawled across the
locomotive's pilot and front platform by the train crew after they
slid for a thousand feet plus before coming to a stop. One other,
critically injured, died a day or so later in the hospital. Everyone
else on the bus was injured, several of them critically.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Howell
yanked the brake handle into emergency an instant after they
hit the bus just aft of directly broadside, sending the long freight
into a spark-throwing, screaming slide for about a quarter mile
before it got stopped. The train crew and possibly another passing
driver or two probably made the notifications. The area was pretty
sparsely populated back in 1933 and telephones were not all that common at <i>all </i>in rural America of 1933. They probably had to run up to the
Teuton home...if it had a phone...to call it in. If the Teuton's had no phone, then there would have been a desperate search for one. Then once they <i>did</i> get help on the way it took a while
for said help to get out to the scene. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Crescent
City has had a fire company since 1918, so ultimately that rural
harbinger of tragedy...the house siren...was wailing into the foggy
morning air, volunteers leaving work, running or driving to the fire
house, and going white as the saw the call type and location
(Probably something like 'School bus hit by train 17 at Silver Pond')
scrawled hastily across the chalkboard that was prominent near the door
of every volunteer fire station in the land back in the days before
pagers and radios. The rigs...simple,but efficient rigs, probably on commercial chassis, and definitely far simpler and more sparsely
equipped than today's rigs...headed south on US 17, followed by
sheriff's deputies. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Calls
were made to every nearby town with an ambulance for additional
help, but that help would be awhile arriving. Palakta...a twenty-four
mile drive north of Crescent City, twenty seven miles from the scene
and with just shy of 7000 residents, the only city of any size in
Putnam County, and Deland, County Seat of neighboring Valusia County
and thirty miles south of the scene...were the closest towns besides
Crescent City with ambulances. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">At
the scene, the train crew, after setting flares and guarding the rear
of the stopped train to avoid an even worse disaster, did what they
could for the injured along with the area's few residents, all
of them straining their ears, desperate to hear the howling of approaching sirens. One young
lady, named Louise Hardy, woke up in the damp grass next to the road as </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">other kids cried in pain near by</span>,
tried to stand, went down as her leg folded under her, then
passed out. She'd remain in a coma for three days before waking up
in the hospital in Palakta to find that she'd lost one
of her sisters in the accident. Another one of her sisters had
suffered minor injuries. Her own right leg and knee would never be
the same. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The first Crescent
City rig rolled up to a scene straight out of a nightmare...remember, this was long before firefighters had anything but the most rudimentary
first aid training, if that. All the guys had was loads of compassion.<span style="font-weight: normal;"> The
crew on that first arriving rig, along with a couple of sheriff's
deputies, were quickly overwhelmed, and probably felt about as alone
as anyone's </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">ever</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
felt until more help, in the form of additional ambulances, rolled
in. At least the fog was burning off, making it easier to work, but
they had another problem. Parents had found out about the accident,
and frantic parents stormed the scene, </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">inadvertently getting in the way of rescuers as they searched desperately</span></span> for their kids. Some had the
unspeakably horrible experience of finding their children's bodies. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Crews
hustled to get the injured transported and the bodies removed to the
morgue, and little thought was given to notifying the parents who
hadn't found their kids as to whether their children were dead or alive, or where they had been taken
until well into the incident. Several of the kids were taken by
private car to the home of Crescent City Baptist Church's pastor, the
Reverend Walter D Knight as well as to the nearby office of Dr D.R.
Ford . Only the four worst injured kids as well as Niles were taken
to the hospital in Palakta, and the frantic parents, with no
information as to whether their kids were alive or where they were,
set out on the heartbreaking search that was (And often still is) a
sad part of any mass casualty incident..</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Today
a similar scene would have looked like an EMS convention, with a
couple of dozen ambulances lined up, awaiting patients as their
crews, assisted by some of the dozens of firefighters on the scene
packaged the injured, got IV's started, and otherwise readied them
for transport, In a rural area like Putnam County, it's a good bet
that a medical helicopter or two would be on the ground as well.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Putnam
County in 1933, however, didn't have the modern luxury of lots of
Fire/EMS resources. Actual field treatment of trauma patients was
three decades and change in the future. Medical helicopters... heck,
<i>helicopters</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> in general...were
the things of science fiction, and there weren't a quarter as many
ambulances available </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">to respond to the scene</span></span> back then as there are today. And the ambulances that
<i>were </i>available were nothing more than fast rides to the hospital..their crews had, at best, very basic first aid training that was be all but useless when confronted with victims of the kind of major multi-system trauma that results from an accident of this nature.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The injured were loaded two and three to a unit, with
no immobilization or packaging at all, and the ambulances headed for
the hospital with sirens screaming and the drivers' right feet trying
to shove the accelerators through the floor. As an example, one young
lady named Nelly McGrady remembered sitting in the lap of a teacher
who'd responded to the scene and who rode in with two of the
kids...Nellie, and another child lying on the stretcher. Nellie would
spend her eleventh birthday in the hospital, and it would be a sad
birthday, She had lost a brother and sister in the accident.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Niles
was seriously injured in the accident, but would survive. The
investigation into the accident was done quickly...the train was on
it's way north, to Jacksonville about an hour after the accident. The
investigation was, apparently, pretty rudimentary and the cause
pretty obvious. Niles didn't see or hear the train, and didn't stop
before crossing the tracks. He was apparently turning onto the dirt
road leading back to Silver Pond Grove to turn around. He was
found negligent, with the coroner's jury stating that there were enough
places to turn around...including a turn-around that had been graded for that specific purpose...that he shouldn't have even </span><i>had </i><span style="font-style: normal;">to
cross the tracks to do so.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The sad thing is, he may have driven up into Silver Pond Colony that morning to make things safer for the kids who lived there. Normally they would have had to walk across the tracks to get to the bus stop/turn-around, but Niles, seeing the fog, very possibly drove into the Colony so the kids wouldn't have to cross the tracks in the fog. Sadly, he ended up doing exactly what he was afraid they would do...crossing the tracks without seeing an oncoming train. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> This despite the fact that Niles was actually considered to be one of
the safer drivers in the area (This seems to be a common theme in
these earlier accidents). Niles was a broken man in the later years of
his life, though many really didn't cast blame in him, blaming the
fog instead. Believe it or not, the thought 'Maybe drivers should always stop at
railroad crossings' hadn't really yet germinated, probably because
everyone else did the same thing when driving. Also, there just hadn't been </span><i>that</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
many bad school bus-train accidents yet. </span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRnBpIh743tHjr7H0MqAc006vlWNFNG28XJZ67ekRgwfjiIWsXuVQRSRLhLxmoV65Jgon8BAIRBeN2sYBBwMPEHNVNRt0Ycrt8XmVY4m3EFOHLpqlSNTIQ-F2JLyG_YdeD2JlB17mpnqo/s1600/SchoolBusAccident1933.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRnBpIh743tHjr7H0MqAc006vlWNFNG28XJZ67ekRgwfjiIWsXuVQRSRLhLxmoV65Jgon8BAIRBeN2sYBBwMPEHNVNRt0Ycrt8XmVY4m3EFOHLpqlSNTIQ-F2JLyG_YdeD2JlB17mpnqo/s640/SchoolBusAccident1933.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
The bus after the crash...the fragments and boards in the foreground are some of the remains of the bus body. This is the picture that was on the front pages of newspapers nationwide the next morning. Looking ta this, I'm surprised that <i>any</i>one survived</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
media (Spell that newspapers back in '33) was all over this one,
though, requesting info and pictures and the one pic that became this
accident's signature image...the overturned chassis, twisted like a
pretzel, with the shattered remains of the wooden bus body surrounding
it...caused thousands of people to draw in shocked breaths as they
looked at it with their morning coffee, so while Niles wasn't blamed
by the citizens, and no official action was taken against him, the
thought 'If he had just stopped...' </span><i>had</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
to have occurred to some people.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The children who lost their lives that morning:</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">William
Smith, Evelyn Smith, Frederick Smith, and Merle Smith</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Hazel
McGrady and Eddie McGrady</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Elsie
Bertha Gorton </span>
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Willard Owen</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">All of the Smith children were siblings...Frederick and
Merle were twins. </span>
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Hazel and Eddie McGrady were also brother and sister.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***>Notes
and Links and Stuff<***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>The other posts in this series</b></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>in the order they were posted.</b></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html</a> Evans, Colo December 1961 </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html</a> Spring City Tenn. August 1955</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html</a> Congers New York </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
March 1972</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html</a> Lake Station Indiana</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
October 1971</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html</a> Stratton Nebraska </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
August 1976</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.htm</a> Fox River Grove Illinois October 1995</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html</a> Conasauga Tenn. March 2000<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html </a> Sandy, Utah Dec 1938<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html</a> Proberta, California Nov 1921<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html</a> Shreve and Berea Ohio Jan. 1930<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html</a> Crescent City, Florida December 1933<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html</a> Rockville, Maryland April 1935<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html</a> MAson City, Iowa Oct. 1937<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html</a> Eads, Tennessee Oct. 1941<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<***></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This is another example of 'The Further Back You Go The
Harder It Is To Find Info'. Even though this accident was a major news
story as 1933 drew to a close, there is very little info available
on-line about it. The Putnam County Courier-Journal published a
retrospective article about the accident back in the early 90s, but
unfortunately it was never made available on-line, though the crew at
that fine paper has promised to go through their archives (Bit of
interesting trivia...printed newspaper archives are called the
paper's Morgue) to find it.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The best info I found was actually on my Genealogy site
(Itself basically a compilation of old newspaper stories) and some of
that info had to be taken with a grain or so of salt...I'll hit a
couple of the concerns I had with the info further down in the
'Notes'</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Suffice it to say I had to do a good bit of speculating
on this one, but as always, I hope I managed to make it readable,
informative, and as accurate as possible with what I had to work
with. So...on to the Notes!</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Almost every multiple fatality train/school bus accident
(And, in fact, multiple fatality school bus accident in general) has
taken multiple children from at least one family, but the Crescent
City crash multiplied that horror exponentially when <i>four</i>
children from the same family...the Smith family...died in the crash. Two of the Smith
siblings were twins. Another family...the McGradys...lost two
children in the accident with another seriously injured.</span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Had Christmas not been fast approaching, this accident could have been even worse. Know all those ferns houses get decorated with during the Holiday season? One of the local industries was the raising of those very ferns, and as demand for them went into overdrive several families who raised them kept their kids home to help with cutting them and readying them for shipment.<b> </b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">While what is now US Route 17 is the main road through
Crescent City, and is the road that the bus made that fateful right
turn off of. That, however, was apparently <i>not</i> the road's only numerical
designation back in 1933,when the accident happened. 'Seventeen'
(Also known as The Ocean Highway and The Coastal Highway) was built in
1926, so it probably coexisted with a state route then as it does
now. One of the three articles I found about the accident identified
it as State Route 3. But there's a catch...the current Route 3, which
is the road leading to the main entrance of Cape Canaveral (AKA Cape
Kennedy) is nowhere <i>near</i> Crescent City. There is, of course, a
reason for this. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Route 17 through Crescent City being co-designated
Florida State Road 3 through Crescent City was a very early
designation of the road, and was changed to State Road 15 when the
State roads in Florida were renumbered in 1945. Florida State Road 15
still runs concurrent with US 17 from Jacksonville to the Georgia
State Line...right through Crescent City, and right past the still
extant road into Silver Pond Grove, where the now signal protected
crossing where the accident occurred 85 years ago is still in place..</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">One of the things that made me look askance at the
articles that I did find about the accident, and a good example of
how you have to read between the lines sometimes when doing research,
was a statement...supposedly made by Engineer Howell...that the southbound bus
turned <i>left</i> onto the road and crossing. One problem...ain't no
way. Route 17 (Then, as noted above, also Florida State Road 3 back then)
followed the same approximate right of way then as it does now, the
very same at the location of the accident, and the railroad right of
way has been exactly where it is now for well over a century. And the turn into
Silver Pond Grove has always been a <i>right</i> turn for southbound
vehicles. Either Howell misspoke, the reporter who wrote the story
misheard him (And if that's the case it couldn't have been a local
reporter) or a combination of the two. I had to apply a little bit of
common sense to this one...Niles, of course, turned right off of
Route 17.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> <b><span style="font-size: medium;"><***>LINKS<***></span></b></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In April 2002 an Amtrak passenger train derailed about a mile and a half from the crossing, killing 8, and inspiring the publication of both of the articles I managed to dig up about the crash...here are the links. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/apnews/stories/042402/D7J3G6H04.html">http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/apnews/stories/042402/D7J3G6H04.html</a></span> </span></b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
An article about the accident from the Florida Times-Union, out of Jacksonville, published back in April of 2002, shortly after the derailment mentioned above in 'Notes' <br />
<br />
<a href="http://putnam-fl-cemeteries.org/Cemeteries/POMONA/History%20Repeats.htm">http://putnam-fl-cemeteries.org/Cemeteries/POMONA/History%20Repeats.htm</a><br />
Another article from April 2002.</div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-69289525571632365032016-03-21T15:41:00.002-04:002023-03-28T00:23:20.077-04:00Rockville, Md Train Bus crash April 11th, 1935<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Rockville,
Md Train/School Bus Crash </b></span>
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>April
11<sup>th</sup>, 1935</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Field
Trips! That awesomeness that only school-age kids really and truly
understand. Scrambling to get a permission slip signed and turned in,
yawning as you and your friends gather at school far <i>far </i><span style="font-style: normal;">earlier
than normal, listening to the trip sponsor's immediately forgotten recital of
rules of conduct for the trip, a</span> lunch stop at a Micky-Dees, Burger King or other similar eatery specializing in the art of fast food, and a
bouncy, jostling trip on a school bus (Or if you're <i>really</i>
<span style="font-style: normal;">lucky, a chartered bus) </span>to a
museum/historic site/what-have-you. The next best thing to a day off
from school. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Upon
arriving at the aforementioned historically and educationally
significant site, y</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ou
very quickly </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">learn to 'OOOH and AAAHHH at
the appropriate times to give your teachers and chaperons the
impression that you are, in fact, learning </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>something
</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">to make
their efforts to bring the trip together worthwhile. Of course any
kid worth his salt will tell you that education and learning are
not foremost on their agenda when they climb aboard the bus on that
early-early morning. The most important part of the day as far as
they're concerned is getting to</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> socialize
with their friends, snagging a souvenir (And if you're </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>really</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">lucky, a
T-shirt), and generally having a good time.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Of
course, field trips are </span><i>not</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">new
concepts by any means...they've been a fact of life for school kids
pretty much since motorized transportation and paved roads made them
possible. I went on a couple (Of both the school bus </span><i>and</i>
<span style="font-style: normal;">chartered bus variety) when I was in
elementary school, nearly fifty years ago, and, as kids had done for
decades before and have done for decades since, always had a blast. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Generally, everything went as planned and everyone went
home in one piece. Both of the field trips I remember (One to
Jamestown, the other to historical sites in Richmond) went smoothly,
with the biggest glitches during either trip being very slow lunch
service at a drive-in somewhere on US Route 460 and a couple of kids
who went home with friends without telling their parents where they were going once we got
back to now long gone Boykins Elementary. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">On
the rare occasions that things </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">did</span></i></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">go
wrong on a field trip, though, they went </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">bad</span></i></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">wrong.
Two high school field trips went tragically wrong about eighty years ago...thirty years
before my field trips to Jamestown and Richmond. Both during the
mid-Thirties. Both on the home-bound trip. Both because the bus
driver (I'm beginning to feel like a broken record here) drove his
bus in front of a train.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">For the first of this tragic pair of field trips we head for suburban D.C, to Rockville, MD, and roll back time to a dreary, drizzly April evening in 1935. Today
Rockville is part of the Washington-Baltimore Metro Area and is
deeply inside the huge, uber-congested ring of urban and suburban
communities that surround Washington, DC. There isn't any rural land anywhere within 20 miles of Rockville today
but back in 1935 it was still a small town </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">sitting smack dab in </span>the middle of farm country,</span> with a </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">population of just under 2000</span>...a far cry from the seventy or so thousand souls who call it home eighty
years later.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">While we're at it, we're also going to visit the lovely little town of Williamsport, MD. Williamsport was</span> originally the western terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and was still an important stop on the canal when it was extended further west in the mid 19<sup>th</sup> century, continuing in that role until the canal closed in 1924. Williamsport <span style="font-size: small;">is </span>just shy of sixty miles northwest of Rockville, and, with a population of 1770...a number that's stayed pretty constant over the last 80 years... was even smaller than Rockville back <span style="font-size: small;">in 1935.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">That was the year that Louise Funk...a young, energetic, pretty, and popular science teacher at Williamsport High School...organized
an early April field trip to a science fair at The University of
Maryland, in College Park. This wouldn't be an all day field trip,
but would rather be an after school trip, leaving Williamsport as
soon as school got out for the day on Thursday, April 11<sup>th</sup>,
1935. The original game plan for the trip was to let the kids ride to College Park with parents who volunteered
to drive, but this idea was quashed for several reasons, the biggest
likely being logistics. There were 27 kids going, which meant that, even with five or six kids per car, there would be at least five cars to keep
together, which <i>also</i> meant five vehicles that could break
down. Or get lost. Or have an accident. With a bus, however, there
was less to go wrong, everyone was in one place and it was just
easier to keep things organized.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So the decision was made...a bus it would be. Percy
Line...who worked for one of the bus owners who was contracted to
provide pupil transportation for Washington County...was hired for
the after school trip, and on that cloudy Thursday afternoon 27 kids
climbed aboard a bright blue 1933 Diamond T/Hackney school bus, which
pulled out of the Williamsport High School lot at about 4:45 PM.</span><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm1SGYq8GxIqaohsDmXTfDv1IuunTFqoGSKdFZSCRi37zbausZGeFBISNp8GrwvpOD6Ffe1SNPkCEOA0Z09dQqohPODEtypAXVxMInN21310OodAnudQHR1Dt019MXkngGnSbWEGxT7sU/s1600/1935+HAckney+School+Bus.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm1SGYq8GxIqaohsDmXTfDv1IuunTFqoGSKdFZSCRi37zbausZGeFBISNp8GrwvpOD6Ffe1SNPkCEOA0Z09dQqohPODEtypAXVxMInN21310OodAnudQHR1Dt019MXkngGnSbWEGxT7sU/s640/1935+HAckney+School+Bus.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
A 1935 Hackney School bus with the exact same bus body as the bus involved in the Rockville crash, though it's on a Federal truck chassis rather than a Diamond T Chassis. Note how small the windows in the doors are compared to modern buses (or even buses from the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies). </div>
</td></tr>
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<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Today, aboard a modern bus, this would be about an hour
and a quarter trip at that time of afternoon... straight down I-70
and 270, then a quick jog east on I-495 and south on US 1 and you're
on the U.Md. Campus...but back 80 years ago there were no
Interstates, buses were slower, the roads were narrower and the trip
(Possibly with a meal stop somewhere along the way) took closer to
two and a half hours. As they neared Rockville, the bus turned off of
what's now Maryland State Route 355...Rockville Pike...onto Baltimore Road, and crossed
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at a protected grade crossing near
the Rockville passenger station. This crossing was actually kind of
high tech for the era, protected by an automatic bell signal (But no
lights) that kicked in when an approaching train closed a circuit as
well as a flagman who was on duty from 6AM to 10 PM. The bells stayed
silent as they approached, the watchman staying dry in his shack and
the bus trundled across, headed for College Park. Louise Funk,
sitting behind Percy Line, mentally took note of the crossing.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They
rolled into College Park at about 7:15 PM and were there for a little
over three hours, attending both a lecture and the science fair
itself before getting ready to head back to Williamsport. Percy went to a corner store to grab a paper, read it on the bus while eyeing the weather, then went inside to find Louise Funk. The two of them conferred for a bit as the weather got nastier, and decided to head for home about thirty minutes early. This, of course, meant gathering 27 teenagers and getting them on the bus, a task that probably took a little doing. In fact, before they
could head back, they had to all but drag WHS Senior class
president Bill Gower back to the bus, as he was hooked on one of the
exhibits...a spinning rubber ball balanced on a single, vertical
stream of water. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">When they managed to get him back to the
bus....which was probably already idling as well as already loaded
with the rest of his classmates, who were probably exhorting him to
hurry up because they had realized just how tired and </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">ready they were to be on the way home</span> they were...the
majority of the seats, including the seats in the rear of the ride
where he and several of his friends held court on the trip to College
park, were already filled. Wilma Newey, who was sitting on the right side, two rows back from the front, looked up as Bill walked down the aisle, then slid towards the window to let him slide in next to her...a decision that would save his life. Wilma and Jane Staley, who was sitting in front of them, next to Glenn Anderson, then likely continued the conversation they had been having as Bill and Glenn joined in...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">...Bill wasn't the only member of WHS' class of '35 who
decided to sit in the front on the trip home...his pretty seatmate and one of her besties had made the same decision. Sixteen year old Jane
Staley sat in the back of the bus with Wilma and several more of her friends on the way to
College Park, but she'd felt claustrophobic back there and decided,
when they returned to the bus for the home-bound trip, to claim a
couple of seats in the front of the bus for herself and Wilma...teen girls, then as now, tended to travel in giggly,
gossipy packs. This decision would not only save her life, but WIlma's as well.</span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">With everyone finally aboard they pulled away from U.Md.
at about 10:35 PM, with a long ride ahead of them...the best speed
Percy Line could make in the bus was between 30 and 35 MPH, and with
it starting to drizzle and the roads being wet, it was a good bet he
wouldn't be making that much speed for a good portion of the trip.
They'd be 1:00 AM or later getting home. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As I noted above, the route back home would have been
far more round-about back than it is now. Now, they'd have gone up
Route 1 to 495, and just reversed the route on Interstates 270 and
70, arriving back in Williamsport around midnight or a shade before. On that drizzly
Thursday night, though, when they left College Park they probably rolled
through the U Md campus out to University Lane (Now State Route 193)
and took a winding, meandering half-loop through Prince Georges
County and Montgomery County, Md before hanging a right on Veirs Mill
Rd. Veirs Mill <i>should </i>have been a straight shot out to
Rockville Pike...State Route 355...and a near straight shot home, but
back then Veirs Mill Rd, instead of crossing the tracks and 'T' ing into Rockville Pike. apparently made a 90 degree right-hand turn just north of the tracks and became 1<sup>st</sup> Street (Now State
Route 28). They would have rounded that 90 degree curve onto 1st Street and then, a couple of blocks later, hung a left on Baltimore
Road. This would take them to Route 355, where they'd hang a final
right and head for Williamsport....only thing was, their trip would
end violently and tragically before they ever hung that last right
onto Rockville Pike.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif_dwlfY-W7mI9e2oEjDq7CM0WxTy2FtgsrXFakGFpuEFzvMTDwsJxpLmMZxqo3rEG5aoXE1uIXXDXCq46ra4HArWce4BW4q2ipaJ21AnCZFF2OJ5NDrwAwQEJ0jEocMqZg2aRnXlTouI/s1600/Rockville+MD+ARea+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif_dwlfY-W7mI9e2oEjDq7CM0WxTy2FtgsrXFakGFpuEFzvMTDwsJxpLmMZxqo3rEG5aoXE1uIXXDXCq46ra4HArWce4BW4q2ipaJ21AnCZFF2OJ5NDrwAwQEJ0jEocMqZg2aRnXlTouI/s640/Rockville+MD+ARea+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">A satellite view of the Rockville area today, with the former site of the crossing circled in red and the area of detail in the Satellite view below outlined in white. The blue dashes denote the route, along Veirs Mill Rd, First Street, and Baltimore Rd, taken by the bus. While Veirs Mill and First Street both cross the tracks via bridges today, neither street crossed the tracks eighty years ago. Veirs Mill Rd most likely simply made a 90 degree turn to become First Street. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW3xX7EcdjjD6H7Yt-mxeeESiPqBQ_OVpTwI0qijOPRrka9aizQw9457oCwz2Y4nk2VP9hcdAANZ7d8DG6adYLTriQQwaX2uUjt62x4g3Y_Dc1-Gk-Qn3IBu0a2sjMrBJP5Gzk77vDV2Q/s1600/Rockville+MD+Accident+crossing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW3xX7EcdjjD6H7Yt-mxeeESiPqBQ_OVpTwI0qijOPRrka9aizQw9457oCwz2Y4nk2VP9hcdAANZ7d8DG6adYLTriQQwaX2uUjt62x4g3Y_Dc1-Gk-Qn3IBu0a2sjMrBJP5Gzk77vDV2Q/s640/Rockville+MD+Accident+crossing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Former site of the Baltimore Rd Crossing, with the bus and train directions of travel as well as Baltimore Road's 1935 easement indicated. The crossing was closed and removed in 1937, when the original Veirs Mill Rd bridge was completed... one of the very first crossings eliminated by FDR's push to replace as many grade crossings as possible with bridges.The Rockville area has grown astronomically and changed drastically in in the last eighty years, but the crossing site is still easy to find, thanks to the fact that Baltimore Rd and the railroad...now CSX...both occupy the exact same easement they did back in 1935...except, of course, for the missing crossing. Today Baltimore Road dead ends at a couple of dumpsters in the parking lot of a business on the east side of the tracks...the direction the bus approached from.<br />
<br />
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<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">At about the same time the bus pulled off enroute home
B&O locomotive 5550...a big 4-8-2 Mountain type passenger engine
under the command of veteran B&O engineer James Shewbridge...thundered through Point of Rocks Md...about 26 miles
west of Rockville...one minute early, dragging the 10 cars of
Train#12 eastbound at about 60 MPH. About 10 miles further on, near
Barnesville, Md, the engine's big 70” drivers began slipping on the
wet rails as they crested a grade and he dumped sand to increase
traction, emptying the sand dome. Ten miles further on...about six
miles from Rockville...the fireman, William Busey, settled onto his
seat box on the left side of the cab and stuck his head out of the
cab's open picture window to keep a look-out. While the area was
dozens of times more rural back then than it is now, it was still one
of the most congested areas of Eastern Md and they had a slew of
grade crossings between there and D.C.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It was coming up on about 11:25PM as Train #12 rolled
into the outskirts of Rockville. Their speed was creeping north of
this section of the line's 60MPH speed limit, so Engineer Shewbridge
pulled the throttle closed and let her drift, watching the spreed
register sl-o-o-o-wly drop. Taking the throttle off of a locomotive
pulling a couple of thousand tons of train is <i>not</i> like taking
your foot off of the accelerator of your Mustang or Camaro...that two
thousand tons of momentum is going to fight valiantly to keep you
from slowing down.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">You <i>can</i> make a bus load of teenagers stay
quiet...all you have to do is wake them up for school at the
customary 6AM or so, have them do a full day of school, <i>then</i>
send them on a two and a half hour road trip to spend a few hours at
a science fair. By the time they head back home they're going to be
absolutely beat. Unfortunately, if their driver also gets up as early or even earlier and performs a full day's work before setting out on this
journey, he's going to be pretty bushed, too.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Lets set the stage here. University Lane winds through
southwestern Prince Georges County and southeastern Montgomery County
like a snake, making a long, deep, flattened half circle before
finally reaching Veirs Mill Road. When they finally cut over on 1</span><sup><span style="font-size: small;">st</span></sup><span style="font-size: small;">
Street off of Veirs Mill, then turned on Baltimore Road they had
already been on the road for pushing thirty minutes and they still had
an almost two hour ride ahead of them. By then, all twenty seven kids are
either asleep or very nearly so. A few were awake and talking
quietly. The big Diamond T's Hercules straight six engine is droning
monotonously and the only light is from the dash lights. The light
rain's hissing against the windshield as the single wiper, in front of the driver, slip-slaps back
and forth. Percy Lane and Louise Funk are among the very few aboard
who were even vaguely awake. .</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Louise Funk had been reminding Percy of possible hazards
as they headed back...she was responsible for these kids and she
wanted to make sure Percy didn't do something like go thundering into
a hairpin turn at a blazing speed of thirty or so miles per hour. I
have a theory about what was going on with Percy right at that
moment, though...</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">remember, he'd been up all day, too. </span>I think that, even with making all the turns he had
to negotiate to wind through Rockville, he had become about half way
or so hypnotized by the drone of the bus engine and the monotonous
slap of the wiper. He was nodding in reply to the teacher, but he
may not have been hearing her. Of course, as it turned out, she never
warned him about the crossing in the first place.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><********> </span></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Tnvhs6V2CMqKe-ejke_J3thN5fRLYZxSKKGnYfS4zBRaxP14MEEeF_fQuX0ZSuN2XpIH6khhlPJB03TRMdxKLqwKfiJOWTvOBa28N1aZNYntpmk689bFe0Ji1TqVi1JuR_yQ_k_hvcQ/s1600/988912_887021854687535_218916429532421518_n.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Tnvhs6V2CMqKe-ejke_J3thN5fRLYZxSKKGnYfS4zBRaxP14MEEeF_fQuX0ZSuN2XpIH6khhlPJB03TRMdxKLqwKfiJOWTvOBa28N1aZNYntpmk689bFe0Ji1TqVi1JuR_yQ_k_hvcQ/s640/988912_887021854687535_218916429532421518_n.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">An aerial view of the crossing from the early or mid Thirties, looking north along the tracks, with the directions of travel of both the bus and train indicated.. Rockville's railroad station is mid frame, to the west... left... of the tracks, pretty much hidden by trees. The small passenger shelter to the east of the tracks that was mentioned in the ICC report as possibly blocking Line's view of the train is visible mid-frame, directly across from the station, and just about even with the end of the red arrow. But did it actually obscure his vision...hmmm...if only we had a drivers eye view from that time period... <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo from 'The Rockville Tragedy' by and used courtesy of <span class="_5yl5">Debi Carbaugh Robinson</span></span></td></tr>
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<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxR5GjNbGSZqo6k-oHwptjA7gYYENxxzEliypRR8hNupjDW6aPweblO9O4uqf_rIV0I2_nE0iA-Pwpypg6OwRTm3nCIlBqx-cP5rNZw_WjvRmOcU8bW-O8suXr7H2XTiQP8sPbV3-yT4/s1600/11095586_887021028020951_5566619536867679351_o.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxR5GjNbGSZqo6k-oHwptjA7gYYENxxzEliypRR8hNupjDW6aPweblO9O4uqf_rIV0I2_nE0iA-Pwpypg6OwRTm3nCIlBqx-cP5rNZw_WjvRmOcU8bW-O8suXr7H2XTiQP8sPbV3-yT4/s640/11095586_887021028020951_5566619536867679351_o.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">While the Rockville area has changed so completely that trying to do a Street View Drivers Eye View was not only pointless, but impossible, I actually found something even <i>better</i>....a drivers eye view, looking in the direction that the train was approaching the crossing from, taken very soon after the accident...probably one of the ICC investigation photos. The low embankment to the right of the tracks continued to the south of the crossing...behind the photographer...and is the embankment that the bus came to rest against.<br />
<br />
The passenger shelter mentioned in the ICC report is prominent, mid frame. While the train probably would have been hidden by the shelter for a couple of seconds, it's pretty obvious that, even with the nasty weather that night, had Percy Line stopped the bus and looked to his right, he'd have had absolutely <i>no</i> problem seeing the train's headlight, and indeed, the train itself as it emerged from behind the passenger shelter. This was, as noted in the ICC report, a well lit crossing, and locomotive headlight's even 80 or so years ago, were <i>bright. </i>Had he been stopped, he'd have seen first the glow of the headlight, then the train itself, waited for it to pass, and the kids' biggest problem would have been trying to stay awake in class the next day. But...sadly...he didn't stop. <br />
<br />
Also, note the RR cross-buck sign on the extreme left of the frame...there's a better picture of it below, but keep that little box below the cross buck in mind... <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo from 'The Rockville Tragedy' by and used courtesy of <span class="_5yl5">Debi Carbaugh Robinson</span></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtGBdel-CpD6C6o0Xa2aFsivpRBzEt6xiSys6FAcXHV1lkDwyWaChUCU-IKpGa-IODMNI5Gt0O6830x4lGgaoV2uVPs8aWmnwJCfOwv1CvIJu8eAAOGa-URgdYJBs3WxY_xyiSXok0FdU/s1600/Rockville+6_25.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="510" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtGBdel-CpD6C6o0Xa2aFsivpRBzEt6xiSys6FAcXHV1lkDwyWaChUCU-IKpGa-IODMNI5Gt0O6830x4lGgaoV2uVPs8aWmnwJCfOwv1CvIJu8eAAOGa-URgdYJBs3WxY_xyiSXok0FdU/s640/Rockville+6_25.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="LEFT">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Looking to the east, across the
crossing, the day after the accident. The bus would have been
coming towards the camera, but the cross-buck signs were identical.
This crossing was not only protected by an electric bell that
kicked in as an approaching train closed an electrical circuit, it
also had a watchman assigned to it from 6 AM to 10 PM...if you look
you can see him standing next to the crossbuck sign on the opposite
side of the tracks, on the far left center of the pic, with his stop
sign leaning against the ground. Look for the upside-down stop sign,
it's far easier to spot than the watchman himself.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">If you look to the<i> </i>left of the crossbuck on the far side of the crossing, you can see a post with a black object mounted on it...that's the automatic bell that began sounding when a train approached. There would be an identical one on this side of the crossing..it's apparently hidden by the telephone pole. It's visible hard by the crossbuck in the picture above this one, and is also visible in a picture further down. </span><br />
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<********></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">They rolled around a pretty good curve to the left
almost immediately after turning onto Baltimore Road. Once they came
out of that curve the Baltimore Rd B&O crossing was maybe 400
yards ahead of them so Percy probably never quite accelerated to more than about 25 MPH.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Now, while 1935 <i>was</i> 80
years ago and part of a far <i>far </i>simpler, less
technology-driven era, that doesn't mean hazards were ignored. The
hazard that grade crossings presented to automobile traffic had been
recognized for a couple of decades and several things had been done
to attempt to reduce that hazard. Automatic crossing signals had been
developed back in the mid teens...</span>The venerable and now completely obsolete Wig-Wag signal had been developed and placed in service in 1914, mostly in the west and Midwest, while automatic bells and flashing
lights, with single flashing lights mounted on the cross-buck
rather than the alternating light signals we're familiar with today, were developed and placed in service in the eastern part of the country. Some protected crossings, however, dispensed with the flashing light and were equipped with only the automatic bell.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">There were button reflector RR Crossing warning sign a football field or so away from crossings, backed up by the standard cross-buck
signs between 25 and fifty feet from the crossing, also on both
sides. Button reflectors... small, round reflectors placed within the
letters of the RR Crossing warning sign, and sometimes the crossbucks,...glowed in a vehicle's headlights, making the sign
visible at night . Crossing guards were assigned to some crossings to
stop traffic when a train passed.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The crossing at Rockville was protected by a combination
of the above. There was an automatic bell signal...but no flashing
light or Wig-Wag...on both sides of the crossing. The crossing also
had a watchman assigned to it, but...despite the fact that, by law, he was <i>supposed </i>to be there until at least midnight<i>...</i> he was only there from 6AM to 10 PM, so
he'd headed for home nearly an hour and a half before the bus turned on
Baltimore Road. Button reflector warning signs guarded both sides of
the crossing, of course, and when </span><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">the crossing watchman </span></span><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">left</span></span> he placed a
red lantern in a open-fronted box beneath the cross bucks on either
side of the crossing to warn drivers that the crossing was unguarded.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Louise Funk saw both the red lantern's flickering glow
and the button reflectors on the cross buck sign glinting and
glimmering in the bus' headlights as they approached the crossing, so
she pretty well assumed that Percy saw them, too. Another car was
coming towards them as they approached the tracks, but the lights
weren't blinding her, so she also assumed they weren't blinding Percy
either. And, as they started up the slight grade leading to the
crossing, Percy slowed the already slow-moving bus even more, so the
teacher assumed he realized the crossing was there, and most
importantly, was stopping for it, therefore she didn't remind him of
it.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Train #12 was still rolling at about 58MPH when Engineer
Shewbridge spotted the whistle post for the Baltimore Rd crossing in
the big 4-8-2's head light...he reached up left handed and started
yanking the whistle lanyard in the traditional long-long-short-long
crossing signal, waiting until he was just a bit more then 200 yards
from the crossing before he reached up and flipped the air valve that
started ringing the locomotive bell. He was sitting on the right side
of the cab, looking out of the picture window and down the forty or
so foot length of the boiler, so he had absolutely no view to the
left of the locomotive...where the bus was approaching from the
north...but he could, of course see traffic approaching from the
right...south...side of the crossing and as he cleared Rockville's
B&O station, 100 yard and change from the crossing he saw
headlights approaching and watched as a car bounced across the
tracks. He reached up and began repeating the crossing signal in
case another vehicle was following it.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">On the left side of the cab, Busey saw the same car
Shewbridge had spotted as it cleared the crossing, and heard the
whistle start it's mournful wail again as the engineer started
repeating the crossing signal. At just about the same time, as they
cleared the westbound passenger shelter across the tracks from the
station, he also saw another pair of headlights approaching from the
north, realizing that it was a larger vehicle...maybe a trucker using
Baltimore Road to cut over to Rockville Pike. Then he realized it was
a bus that seemed to be slowing...noo wait...it was still coming...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Busey went saucer-eyed as the bus rolled across the first track of the two track main line and turned his
head to shout a warning...likely the traditional '<i>BIG-HOLE HER</i>!!!'
that meant 'Put the brakes in emergency <i>now</i>!!!'...across the
cab to Shewbridge.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><********> </span></div>
<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ys7k2U9VnJaBzLjxeQK6DOKbz-XLQnpU7fftuYDOU_RcK_o9D_jT4plek_bqJG82wKA6HY0m-wUtmg4nsqk-Ex7IZuZmv-WHU_9vFQZXdIm3J8LWJMrYnCTOTbykYavAVfo-ZzVeAPI/s1600/Image3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ys7k2U9VnJaBzLjxeQK6DOKbz-XLQnpU7fftuYDOU_RcK_o9D_jT4plek_bqJG82wKA6HY0m-wUtmg4nsqk-Ex7IZuZmv-WHU_9vFQZXdIm3J8LWJMrYnCTOTbykYavAVfo-ZzVeAPI/s640/Image3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Another view of the crossing, looking towards the west, with a close-up view of the crossbuck on the side.This was taken the day after the accident,...people likely gathered here all day long despite the obviously still nasty weather. The bus would have been moving from right to left onto the crossing in the larger picture...The Rockville R.R Station is visible beyond the crossing. The small white structure partially hidden by the crowd in the larger picture, and partially hidden by the 'No Watchman On Duty' sign in the pic of the crossbuck is the watchman's shack. Note again the 'No Watchman On Duty...' sign, with the box for the red lantern below it. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo used courtesy of <span class="_5yl5">Debi Carbaugh Robinson</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_UECK2RTuhNrk194xDLvyL00tprvQ4Qd41MRreEeDxyg6gwkiIEgSWIYSt6BeQW1dVy_YdKmOtsycXqluKgTybIeth01AJ4FpQW74Z7OgOQdnAdx3NAnR5Q_kWrUVfaK1sMcrpwDY-0/s1600/Rockville+6_23.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_UECK2RTuhNrk194xDLvyL00tprvQ4Qd41MRreEeDxyg6gwkiIEgSWIYSt6BeQW1dVy_YdKmOtsycXqluKgTybIeth01AJ4FpQW74Z7OgOQdnAdx3NAnR5Q_kWrUVfaK1sMcrpwDY-0/s640/Rockville+6_23.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Another view of the crossing, with a train crossing. At one time the pic was marked showing both the point of impact and the point where the bus ended up, but the markings have faded with age, though the arrow showing the bus' direction of travel has survived.. The bus would have been moving right to left, and the front of the train's roughly where the point of impact would have been. When he took the picture, the photographer was standing on the embankment the bus landed against...the bus would have landed just below where he's standing and maybe slightly behind him.<br />
<br />
Note the locomotive's engineer leaning out of the right side side 'Picture' window of the cab. You can see why he has to rely on his fireman...who would be doing the same on the left side of the cab when he wasn't tending the firebox and boiler...to warn him of hazards on the left side of the tracks.The locomotive's boiler would have blocked everything to the left, as well as blocking his forward view.<br />
<br />
The crossing watchman's standing to the left of the train, right side of the picture. Just behind him, mounted on a post, you can see the crossing's automatic bell. This is the bell that Percy Line heard just before the train hit them, and with it's proximity to the road, and the crossing, it's easy to see that it was this bell...not the one on the locomotive...that Percy heard.<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Photo used courtesy of <span class="_5yl5">Debi Carbaugh Robinson</span></span><br />
<br /></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> <********></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">One of the wild things about this one is the fact that
Washington County, like probably every school system in the country,
<i>did</i> have a policy in place requiring all school buses to stop
at crossings. It read:</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>'All
buses must be brought to a complete stop at least 25 feet from any
steam or electric railway crossing. The driver must be sure that
there is no danger from approaching trains or cars before proceeding
across the tracks'</b></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And, as Louise Funk watched in shock Percy completely
disregarded that policy and drove onto the crossing, and as he did
several things happened in the same instant, and not a one of them
was good.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It's likely that, at about the same time William Busey
shouted <i>'Big-hole her!!!</i>' across 5550's cab, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Louise Funk
and Percy Line </span>both went deer-in-the-headlights as the locomotive headlight suddenly flooded the
interior of the bus </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">with light, and they saw the front end of the big steamer coming at them </span>at what appeared to be
just less than light speed. At that same instant, both probably finally heard 5550's steam whistle as it screamed a futile warning. Whatever the two of them said at that instant has been
lost to history but what we </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>do </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">know
is that Percy did the </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>only</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">
thing he possibly </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>could</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">
do...he punched it. If they'd been in a car they might have cleared
the crossing...by the skin of their teeth, with pulses pounding, and
heart racing, but they would've probably made it. But they were in a
school bus...a 1933 Diamond T school bus...that was pretty much fully
loaded and was powered by an </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">anemic</span>, by today's standards, six cylinder
engine of about 100 horsepower. When Percy foot-mashed the
accelerator, the bus didn't exactly leap, though it did jerk forward
and pick up just enough speed to get the front half of the bus out of
the way...</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Shewbridge had no idea just what Busey saw in their
path, but even as he yanked the brake valve back <i>hard </i>into
emergency and the locked wheels started screaming against steel
rails, knew there wasn't a chance in hell they'd even slow <i>down
</i>before they reached the crossing, much less get stopped. They
barely felt the impact...a slight shudder, if that...but they <i>did
</i>hear the solid, deadly 'CRWUMP!!! of metal smashing metal and saw
sparks and fire fly from the front of the locomotive. Shewbridge glimpsed
something big tumbling as they slid past the crossing...but he also
saw smaller objects bouncing and tumbling, and when Busey said 'We
just got a bus' he tried to tell himself that those smaller objects
weren't what he knew they were. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He disengaged the locomotive brakes to keep the drivers
from flattening and let the brakes on the train's ten passenger cars
drag them to a stop. The train finally shuddered to a stop with
5550's front end just over 3100 feet from the crossing, and the last
car's observation platform a shade more than 2000 feet from the
crossing. Shewbridge and Busey climbed from the cab trudged up the
track to the front of their locomotive, where they came upon a
gruesome sight...two badly mangled bodies sprawled on the engine's
front platform. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* </span>
</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The driver of the car that crossed the tracks just
before the bus was a long-time Rockville resident and golf pro at
Rockville's Manor Club named E.L. Stevens. The crossing bells had
started clanging just about the time he reached the post they were
mounted on, so, as drivers <i>still</i> do to this day, he punched it
to get across the tracks before the train reached the crossing. The
car he was driving was a roadster...back then it meant a sporty, two
seater just as it does today, but back then it also meant only very
rudimentary protection from the weather. He had the car's canvas top
up, and the side curtains...which had only small openings in them for
the driver to see to the side through...down, and as he crossed he
saw the train's headlight through the opening in the left side
curtain. about even with the station which was a football field or so
away, coming fast, </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Roadsters have always been sporty vehicles and while a
modern Ford Focus would probably eat Stevens' 1930s-era roadster for
lunch now, Steven's car was still peppy and agile for it's day, so its
acceleration was more than enough to get him across the tracks with
room to spare. The bus was maybe 175 feet away when he saw it coming
towards him before he crossed the tracks, and it was only about 20
yards from the tracks when he passed it. Stevens suddenly went cold
as he he had one of those bad, <i>bad</i> feelings every one of us
gets once in a while. He foot-stabbed his own brakes, opened the door
as his car jerked to a stop, and looked back, hoping and praying that
he was wrong, that the bus driver was actually slowing down, but his
bad feeling was right on the money...he looked back just in time to
see 5550, sparks flying from her locked wheels, broadside the bus,
ripping it in two and punting the two halves of the bus like a pair
of footballs...</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">A lot of these kids never knew what hit them until it
was over...if at all. Oh a few were awake, talking quietly as rain
pattered against the windows, and a couple of them glanced out
through the windshield to see the button reflectors on the crossing
sign glowing back at them, but none of them heard the crossing bells
or the train's whistle, and no one saw the train until they were on
the crossing...in fact, no one knew anything was wrong at all until
the bus suddenly jerked forward as Percy Line punched it, trying
desperately to move the bus out of the way, and that's when the
locomotive headlight lit the interior of the bus up like noontime. By
then there was almost no time to react, and all they could do was
shout or scream. </span>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Those sudden, horrified screams are probably what
dragged a couple of the sleepers into that state of
semi-consciousness you end up in when <i>something</i> wakes you up,
but they were still trying to figure out just exactly <i>what</i>
woke them up when 5550's pilot ripped into the back half of the bus
with a cataclysmic 'CRWUMP!!!, spinning it clockwise sharply even as the
pilot and front coupler tore into the right sidewall, locking the bus
to the front of the locomotive for just an instant, then tearing
through the right side and floor from about the third window back
like the proverbial knife through hot butter, ripping through the bus
body diagonally, folding almost the entire right side and rear end of
the body into an accordioned, mangled mess of metal as it tore it
from the frame and wrapped it around the front of the locomotive.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As the pilot tore through the body it ripped every seat
from about the third or forth row back loose, along with the kids sitting
in those seats...no one in the rear half of the bus had a chance. The
mangled rear end of the bus all but exploded as it wrapped around the
front of the locomotive, dropping two of the kids onto the pilot, possibly knocking one into the front half of the bus, and
tossing the others clear, scattering them along several hundred yards of right-of-way, a couple of them as far as sixty feet from
the tracks. The mangled ball of metal rode the pilot for a shade over
two hundred yards before finally tearing clear and tumbling, like a
crushed beer can being kicked by a jogger. There were fourteen kids
in the rear half of the bus, and as the rear half was first dragged,
then tumbled all were ejected. Most died instantly, but five
would die later at or on the way to the hospital. None survived until morning.</span><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDE-jJkpwaeyQMvLjZc4W1ZrqRQG83lRUifgKiA63AgfXCZ76q60zywSpqf1V972lkPq2yu1TR_qkFMEG1OujTLm6_az2E1pC5J_d4sRBBq8Y9KInzeiwZ7vMDqBxkWfw2OuQAv_rzvQ/s1600/11127914_887020778020976_376241795032398858_o.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDE-jJkpwaeyQMvLjZc4W1ZrqRQG83lRUifgKiA63AgfXCZ76q60zywSpqf1V972lkPq2yu1TR_qkFMEG1OujTLm6_az2E1pC5J_d4sRBBq8Y9KInzeiwZ7vMDqBxkWfw2OuQAv_rzvQ/s640/11127914_887020778020976_376241795032398858_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">The front half of the wrecked bus, still sitting next to the tracks several hours after the crash as investigators and a couple of Rockville firefighters examine it. The bus spun to the right as it was hit, allowing the train to tear diagonally through the body, leaving almost the entire left side wall of the bus grotesquely intact as it gouged out the interior and ripped away most of the right side and the entire back end of the bus. If you look at the roof of the bus, you can just about follow how the bus turned as the train tore it in two<br />
<br />
Every seat from the third window back was violently ripped from the bus, along with the kids in those seats, as the locomotive's pilot tore through the ride. The kids in the front of the bus went for a wild ride, and most were ejected, but miraculously, most suffered only minor to moderate injuries. The fourteen kids in the rear half of the bus, however, didn't stand a chance. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo from 'The Rockville Tragedy' by and used courtesy of <span class="_5yl5">Debi Carbaugh Robinson</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCjNZbXhQJ004ESYRp7QuV2byriAjwSLog7hQcrd1TmdM0K1uX_Um_jK_2oBhumPvQ1C6PxZI5YH1pU7uui9hZLn8FSWMc97gtotOx_bjaIXHbGcUrDSEtjs7voUeTWYSh690WTBHsPw/s1600/Rockville+6_29.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCjNZbXhQJ004ESYRp7QuV2byriAjwSLog7hQcrd1TmdM0K1uX_Um_jK_2oBhumPvQ1C6PxZI5YH1pU7uui9hZLn8FSWMc97gtotOx_bjaIXHbGcUrDSEtjs7voUeTWYSh690WTBHsPw/s640/Rockville+6_29.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Another pic of the interior of the bus after the crash. Only two seats remained intact behind the driver, on the left side of the bus...every seat on the right side was either ripped from it's mount by the force of the impact or torn completely away along with the rear portion. Margaret Kreps was probably lying on that tiny bit of intact aisle between the seats at the front portion of the bus when Bill Gower pulled himself inside and carried her out. Phoebe Kelley was likely lying either across the left wheel housing or between it and the seats when Albert Leaf and Dwight Fearnow saw and removed her.<br />
<br />
Note the drivers seat and dash being left intact. The lights were still on after the collision. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo originally from 'the William Witbeck Collection, used courtesy of Debi Carbaugh Robinson</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="_5yl5"></span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ZD0vAFW0XtwFIhuF4yQ3UlLkIRhzIugMGSbecI3oWffwHGQQLM6y1Sf-t8B5iluG3rRK5WaTEOxfYD0c7lH4mzcnZ3fsffF8-80i4kgHUlpxq74_XMD9wCzTd7L1pRQca7Ve5vP5X6A/s1600/Rockville+6_30.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="548" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ZD0vAFW0XtwFIhuF4yQ3UlLkIRhzIugMGSbecI3oWffwHGQQLM6y1Sf-t8B5iluG3rRK5WaTEOxfYD0c7lH4mzcnZ3fsffF8-80i4kgHUlpxq74_XMD9wCzTd7L1pRQca7Ve5vP5X6A/s640/Rockville+6_30.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">A shot looking straight up where the center aisle used to be. This picture reveals a common construction feature of vehicles from that era...the bus floor was actually wood, covered with the exact same type of rubber matting used to this day in school buses.<br />
<br />
Note how the sidewall and window next to the driver angles inward towards the cowl of the bus...the door would have been set at a similar angle on the right side of the bus. This, coupled with the door windows, which were smaller than the door windows on modern school buses, could have obscured Percy Line's vision to the right. This is also the reason that laws were enacted requiring school bus drivers to open the door at a crossing. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo used courtesy of <span class="_5yl5">Debi Carbaugh Robinson</span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkRJ-2pKLzWNWyVMluhyphenhyphenCczZqQ6l2ZlZrVcKrCgSMBDlbOEf_J1An_1YDZxbNJHpxhhWdWU5DS-Bh-za9Kj0LIqmMD4_nb1rY_seODcBxWbta6eWlMM7iZFKsPJk_mBop3i1-AP7q9TRQ/s1600/11079544_887020454687675_421687842277978263_o.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkRJ-2pKLzWNWyVMluhyphenhyphenCczZqQ6l2ZlZrVcKrCgSMBDlbOEf_J1An_1YDZxbNJHpxhhWdWU5DS-Bh-za9Kj0LIqmMD4_nb1rY_seODcBxWbta6eWlMM7iZFKsPJk_mBop3i1-AP7q9TRQ/s640/11079544_887020454687675_421687842277978263_o.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">A shot of the bus after it had been towed from the scene. Again, if you look at the diagonal break where the roof's torn away you can picture how the bus spun clockwise as the locomotive ripped through it. From the third right side window forward, you still have a school bus...from there back, total destruction. It's a little easier to see how the kids in the front of the bus managed to survive with mostly minor injuries here, though that very fact is still a miracle. They managed to stay towards the front of the bus during that critical fraction of a second that it took the locomotive to smash through
the rear end of the bus, then were thrown clear as the bus bounced away from the tracks and slammed into the embankment. This extra second or so inside the bus kept them from being thrown beneath the train (Though Wilma Newey had a close call in that respect), and their own collisions with the ground, once they were tossed clear, were relatively gentle. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo from 'The Rockville Tragedy' by and used courtesy of <span class="_5yl5">Debi Carbaugh Robinson</span></span> </td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> <********></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The kids in the <i>front </i>half of the bus went for a
wild ride as the chassis, along with the front half and entire left
side of the body spun around 90 degrees and slammed hard against the
embankment next to the tracks. Louise Funk was bounced out of her
seat and upward,striking her head on the ceiling of the bus before
landing, momentarily stunned, on top of Percy Line, who was wedged
behind the steering wheel. Most of the kids in the front half of the
bus were ejected, too, but with almost the entire right side missing
and the bus spinning clockwise, they were tossed through the gaping
chasm where the right side of the body had been and away from the
bus, landing between the bus and the tracks. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Blanche Litton was
sitting in the last intact seat on the right side of the bus, and
heard that cataclysmic crash up close and personal as she was yanked
bodily out of the bus, felt her coat rip and tear, and was deposited
<i>hard</i> on the side of the tracks, rolling and tumbling, ending
up with bruises, abrasions, and a couple of lacerations...her coat
snagged on a window frame or side panel as the right side of the body
ripped away, dragged her out of the gaping maw where the body tore in
two, then was torn off of her, depositing her on the ground.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Jane
Staley was tossed from her seat, across the bus, and onto the ground,
landing <i>hard </i>on her arm. She ended up with one of the worst
injuries among the survivors...a badly broken arm. Wilma Newey...also
sitting near the middle of the bus, therefore near the rip where the
body tore in two...was also tossed clear as the bus spun, rolling as
she landed and ending up only feet from the rails. She lay there
wide-eyed with terror as the train's wheels, sliding, screaming, and throwing
sparks, slid past only a couple of feet from her face.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Duward Hose
was sitting just ahead of his best friend and lab partner, Jim
Flurie...they had been talking when the bus suddenly surged forward and both had
turned their heads to see the on-rushing headlight right on top of
them...then the crash, and Duward was tossed clear, landing on the
ground between the track and the embankment. Jim was sitting in
what became the first row in the rear half and was also ejected...I
believe his was one of the bodies found on the front platform of the
locomotive. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> At least two of the kids...Phoebe Kelley and Margaret Kreps...</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">stayed with the truncated bus as it spun</span> and slammed into the embankment, though I think Phoebe may have actually been thrown from the back half of the bus forward, into the front half.. .... Phoebe was unconscious, and Margaret, who was tossed from her seat,then bounced off of
the little bit of right sidewall that was left, was lying on the small area of floor left intact near the front, also unconscious and suffering a possible head injury as well as a
couple of nasty lacerations in the process.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bill Gower was thrown onto the low embankment...he remembers rolling down it...and ended up near the front end of the bus when
he was tossed clear. and to this day he's not sure just how he got
there. The bus' headlights were still on, and the door had been
knocked open as the bus slammed into the embankment. He stared at the
gaping wound that had been the right side of the bus, realizing about
the same time that not only was half of the bus missing, half of his
friends were <i>also </i>missing. He started walking up the tracks and
hadn't gone far before he nearly tripped over first body. He then
returned to the bus and, while history has lost what he said to his
friends, I have a feeling it was something to the effect of 'Oh, God
, guys, it's <i>bad...</i>really, <i>really</i> bad</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Albert Leaf and Dwight Fearnow had also been thrown clear, and found themselves between the track and the embankment, maybe twenty feet from the bus. </span> They pulled themselves to their feet, wondering just what had happened for a second as they looked at the jagged gash that had been the right side of the bus. They then walked towards the vehicle, looking inside as rain pattered against the ground and the bus' metal roof. They saw Phoebe Kelley lying inside, tangled in the wreckage, and pulled themselves across the shattered right frame rail to get to her. One of them may have seen Margaret Kreps lying in the tiny bit of intact aisle near the front of the bus, but Bill Gower was pulling himself through the open front door...he probably even said something to the effect of 'You guys take care of Phoebe, I've got Margaret...'</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Dwight and Albert reached down and lifted Phoebe, gently carrying her back across the bent frame rail and out...I can hear the
conversation as they gently carried her out of the hole in the side
of the bus, stepping across the twisted frame rails, cautioning each
other to be careful as they did so. As they lowered her to the ground, Albert checked for a pulse, and found one...Phoebe was alive. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Bill Gower reached Margaret at about he same time Albert and Dwight pulled themselves inside the bus to get Phoebe out. He reached down, and gently picked Margaret up, probably carrying her 'Bride Over The Threshold style' back out of the open door. He looked around and saw an overcoat someone had laid on the ground, and lowered her gently to it. Margaret stirred as he lowered her ...she had some nasty lacerations, and a possible head injury, but the fact that she was moving, which was a good sign. While Margaret would survive her injuries, Phoebe, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">sadly, </span> would die enroute to Georgetown Hospital. One of the night's miracles was the fact that with the exception of Phoebe Kelley, <i>none </i>of the kids in the
front of the bus were </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">seriously injured</span>, especially considering the the ferocity of the crash<i>.</i> Jane Staley's broken
arm and Margaret Kreps lacerations were the worst injuries among the
survivors, from what I could find out. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The kids who were</span><span style="font-size: small;">
tossed clear pulled them selves off of the ground, checked themselves
for injuries, and trotted towards the mangled front half of the bus
even as Dwight and Albert gently carried Phoebe through the huge hole
where the body had ripped in two and Bill eased Margaret through the open door. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jane Staley probably looked around
and spotted Wilma, very likely went to hug her,
then recoiled as her broken arm suddenly lit up with pain.</span> Louise Funk and Percy Line followed Bill out of the open door and, Louise immediately
starting to count heads It was horribly evident that about half
of their number were among the missing. Thirteen of the twenty seven kids who had been
aboard the bus were nowhere to be found. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Louise Funk started going from kid to kid, seeing who
was there, and how badly they were injured as the kids started
checking themselves and each other for injuries, and, still reeling
with shock and pain and oblivious to the rain, looked around and took
their own roll-call to see who was missing. Names were called
hopefully and, in the case of the girls, tearfully as they began to
realize that friendships that had been forged back in elementary
school and before had just been violently torn apart. In the
background, air hissed out of one of the bus tires, and the engine
was ticking as it cooled and then, suddenly, Rockville VFD's house
siren wound up, wailing into the rainy night, and a couple of the
kids probably thought '...That must be for us'</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Reverend Charles O'Hara lived hard by the tracks and was
used to hearing both the crossing bell and trains roaring past, so he
didn't give it as second thought when he heard 5550's whistle
screeching out the crossing signal, then the bells. A local
priest, Father Cecil O'Neil, was visiting him, and the two had sat
up late, talking, before heading for their rooms and crashing for the
night. Rev. O'Hara heard the train about twenty minutes after they hit
the sack, and correctly IDed the train as the St Louis-Washington Flyer that rolled through every night about this time, and was
always flat out getting' it when it did so.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Then he suddenly heard the scream of sliding steel
wheels and an evil sounding 'CA-RWUNP!!!, and rolled out of bed,
looking out of his window in time to see the last couple of cars
slide past, a single man (Actually one of the male students, more
than likely) standing next to the tracks...and then he saw the
mangled front half of the bus...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He yelled to Father O'Neil that the Flyer, as the train
was known, had just hit a bus as he dragged his clothes back on, and
the two of them bailed out of the house (Possibly after calling it
in) and ran to the scene, becoming the first two responders of any
kind to reach the wrecked bus. Rockville's fire siren wound up even
as they reached the front end of the bus and started helping the kids
who survived, and minutes later they heard the welcome wail of
sirens, and saw the equally welcome sight of winking red lights
gettin' it up Baltimore Road...</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Back in 1935 Rockville's fire chief was a guy named W.
Valentine Wilson...Val to his many friends... and in those long ago
days before central dispatching in rural areas and, indeed, before
radios, calls to RVFD went directly to Chief Wilson's home. His wife,
along with her other duties as a house wife and mom, was the
department's dispatcher and the button that</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> set off</span> the department's
house siren...located on the courthouse clock tower until 1966... was prominently mounted on the wall next to the phone. While on this tragic and rainy night a truck driver who rolled up on the crash drove to the centrally located button that </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">allowed citizens to</span></span> set off the siren and finger-stabbed the house siren to life, it's s good bet that a phone call or two also went to Chief Wilson's house. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Chief Wilson first heard the siren start to wind up and headed for the front door, even as the phone rang and his wife, an experienced dispatcher by then, grabbed it, pencil and pad probably at hand. The chief stopped for a second, knowing that the phone call was likely</span><span style="font-size: small;"> connected to the wailing house siren. He saw his wife's face go white...she probably turned to him and said something like 'The Flyer hit a school bus at Baltimore Road'...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Val Wilson was said to have been a very
progressive chief...a bit ahead of his time, in fact...and he well
understood the concept of 'Get help, on the way first and fast...it's
better to not need them and send them home, than need them and not
have them on the way'. </span><span style="font-size: small;">I have a feeling that Chief Wilson, knowing
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> that they'd be behind the eight-ball both
equipment and manpower-wise if it was anything to the call</span>, told her
'Start calling in help' as he headed out of the door. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Rockville and environs there-of were in far better shape, fire protection-wise than the great majority of rural towns in the mid Thirties. By 1935, Rockville had far more than the hand or car-drawn hose reals and single 1921 Waterous engine they'd started out with...the department was actually pretty well
equipped for it's era, and their apparatus even included a heavy rescue
truck. Within minutes of the first howl of the house siren, the
rigs were pulling out of the house and heading for Baltimore Road
with full crews aboard. . </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">The area had another fire-service
advantage over many...even most...rural areas of the country. Being right outside
of Washington DC, the Rockville area was, for that era, pretty well
populated (Though, again, uber-rural by today's standards) and </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> by 1935 </span>several Montgomery County towns already had fire companies, all of them pretty well equipped. By the time Rockville's first-out rig hit the
street with a full crew, fire sirens were howling in both Kensington and Bethesda...both about a ten mile run from Rockville...and their rigs were also pulling out and heading for
Rockville with full crews, their own sirens beginning to yowl.
Ambulances also started heading that way...not only had Chief Wilson
organized Rockville's fire company, several years later he also
organized Rockville's volunteer rescue squad.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9QpdW-Vc80cobHyHLjXQ6TgIns6u8dIWMSX-EkV7TH41Va5KrnIf-S5daG7DP6eOcFHDJ4ef3fwm3g_GlFUnEdKms-wVyrpgXquDfAkO3Ka5weFFeeg4YLiwCBU2lcHX7dlW_M4HwF7Q/s1600/Rockville+MD+1935+MAck.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9QpdW-Vc80cobHyHLjXQ6TgIns6u8dIWMSX-EkV7TH41Va5KrnIf-S5daG7DP6eOcFHDJ4ef3fwm3g_GlFUnEdKms-wVyrpgXquDfAkO3Ka5weFFeeg4YLiwCBU2lcHX7dlW_M4HwF7Q/s640/Rockville+MD+1935+MAck.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">This beautifully restored '34 Mack pumper was probably Rockville's first out rig back in 1935...it was all but brand new when it responded to the bus crash.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh38LlhEMbC0N1stuuOcYjOUYgrztdxdszJR5idfo9Mvft16Dfw_2dfMDCBAj_a1eP-VYKR_wbdk0JPVrez4xkS5T0hp7lvti2pnf3iDS2y6oOMh3jHgvKmGrk7fNr809rUKgVd7jmZ5zE/s1600/RVFD+First+rescue.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh38LlhEMbC0N1stuuOcYjOUYgrztdxdszJR5idfo9Mvft16Dfw_2dfMDCBAj_a1eP-VYKR_wbdk0JPVrez4xkS5T0hp7lvti2pnf3iDS2y6oOMh3jHgvKmGrk7fNr809rUKgVd7jmZ5zE/s640/RVFD+First+rescue.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Relatively few fire departments, and very few small town volunteer departments, owned rescue rigs in the Thirties, but Rockville not only ran a rescue rig, it was a very well equipped rig for it's day at that. Note the two big flood lights just behind the cab...they, as well as the rig's on board generator (Another very rare item in the Thirties) likely got a workout the night of the crash. <br />
<br />
The rig's a '31 Mack (For decades Rockville. MD was an all Mack department) and was in service until it was replaced...by another Mack...in 1955. This pic, BTW, was taken much closer to '55 than it was '35. Take a close look just forward of the life preserver, directly behind the cab. Yep...that is indeed a two way radio whip antenna. (It's much easier to see in the left side 3/4 view)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">When RVFD's rigs arrived on scene, the train crew
probably met up with Chief Wilson, telling him of the two bodies on
the locomotive's front platform, at the same time telling him what he
already suspected despite the miracle he was hoping for...they had multiple fatalities. He probably split
his crew...sending the crews of the Rescue truck, and the Rescue
Squad's ambulance to check on the occupants of the front half of the
bus, having other Rescue Truck qualified firefighters get the rig's on-board generator going to get them some light, sending another crew with a charged hose line to make sure that the mangled remains of
the bus didn't light off on them, then grabbing a couple of hand
lights or lanterns and, along with the two clergymen and several other
firefighters, walking the tracks. When the rigs from Kensington and
Bethesda rolled in, he probably assigned their crews to assist in
removing the victims. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As they searched, they hoped they were looking for
injured, or if there were truly such things as miracles, stunned, scared, but uninjured, kids, but knew they would find bodies. They didn't have to
walk far before they found the first one. Eleven of the fourteen
mortally injured kids and bodies were scattered for about 200 yards
along the tracks, where they had been thrown...some as far as fifty
or sixty feet... as the rear half of the bus body tumbled and rolled.
The other two, of course, were on the locomotive. One...Phoebe Kelley...was with the front half of the bus. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Father O'Neil gave last rites to each as he reached
them...some of the bodies were horribly mangled, one was decapitated,
and amputated limbs were scattered about as well. It was, by all
accounts, a horrible and macabre scene to work, one that dug itself
into the minds of every firefighter, police officer, and first responder of any kind that rolled on it. As Father Kelley gave each Last Rites, a recovery team covered and removed each respectfully, and took them to an ambulance or hearse to be transported to Pumphrey Funeral Home, on Montgomery Avenue in Rockville, which had been set up as a temporary morgue.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Five of
the kids in the rear half of the bus were
alive...barely...immediately after the crash, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">but advanced prehospital care was still three and a half
decades in the future, and 1930s prehospital care was limited to
splinting fractures, bandaging wounds, and a heavy foot coupled with
a big (For that era) engine providing fast transport to the hospital. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">All of them were
unconscious but breathing, and </span>four of them were placed in cars and transported to to a hospital in
Georgetown, another to Sandy Spring Hospital. Sadly all would die either enroute or immediately after arriving at the hospital. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Phoebe Kelley was alive when Albert leaf and Dwight Fearnow carried her from the shattered front section of the bus, she died enroute to Georgetown hospital. Jane Staley and sixteen year old Margaret Kreps were
also transported to the same Georgetown hospital with fractures, lacerations, and a possible head injury, and
were listed as being in serious condition...but they would survive,
and were probably discharged from the hospital within a couple of
days. The two girls shared a hospital room, and weren't told just how bad the accident had been until they were released, though I have a feeling that Jane may have suspected simply because she never lost consciousness.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">After doing as much for her students as she could, and making sure that they were being cared for, Louise Funk made the most horrific phone call she'd ever have to make...one that she knew was about to irrevocably shatter lives. She found a phone and called Williamsport's Dr Ira
Zimmerman...the town's primary physician, who had brought most, if not
all of the kids on the bus into the world. When the phone rang in Dr. Zimmerman home, he was waiting up for his daughter, Margaret Eva, to return from the trip. </span></span></span>Richard G.
Hawken...<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Williamsport's
mayor and a good friend of the Zimmermans...just happened to be
visiting and it was obvious to him that something </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">bad</span></i></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">had
happened seconds into the conversation. Dr Zimmerman hung up and
looked at the mayor, his face white as a sheet. He told him what had
happened, then grabbed his medical bag, a rain coat, and car keys.
Minutes after he hung up the phone, he was heading for Rockville. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Hawken started making rounds, going to the homes of the famlies who had children on the ill-fated bus, and making the notifications...a task that he said later was the saddest job he <i>ever</i> had to do, He probably headed for the high
school, in case any parents were already waiting there for the bus, then joined the citizens who were gathering at Louise Harsh's home...also the Williamsport telephone exchange..to await news. Louise Harsh, who was the first to learn the horrible news when Louise Funk called and asked to be connected to Dr Zimmerman's house, kept a line open so Dr Zimmerman could get through instantly with any news.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
have a feeling that Dr Zimmerman made it to Rockville in far less
time that it took the bus, and that had to have a long, </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">long</span></i></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ride,
a million thoughts colliding in his head as the wipers beat back and
forth, no matter how much time the trip actually took. He rolled onto
a scene crawling with firefighters, police officers, and townspeople,
all doing what they could to help. The kids in the front half of the
bus had all been taken the nearby home of William Bouic, which had been set up as a first aid station and comfort station for the kids with minor injuries (And was probably also a quasi-command-post for the operation). .</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Both Louise Funk and a couple of police officers met Dr. Zimmerman
when he got to the scene...the train was still there as was the
wrecked bus. One of the first things he found out, with sense of impending dread, was that Margaret Eva was not among the kids at the Bouic home. The injured, he was told, had been transported to the hospital and nine bodies had been taken to Pumphrey Funeral Home. </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That sense of dread expanding like a malignant balloon, Dr Zimmerman drove to the funeral home to see if his daughter was there, hoping against hope that she wasn't.</span></span> Along with Mrs Reuben Pumphrey...the undertaker's wife...he walked into the basement room that had been converted to a temporary morgue. The very first body he came to was Margaret Eva's...with his eyes filling with tears, he identified her. After a moment of silence, Mrs Pumphrey gently asked him if he could identify the rest of the bodies, as most had not yet been identified. He drew a long, tearful sigh, then told her that </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> he
had brought all of them into the world, so he had known all of them
since they were infants, he could identify them. Then he set out on one of the saddest tasks he'd ever be asked to do.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Mayor got word to all of the parents with-in thirty minutes, and
several of the parents headed for Rockville while others
gathered at the Harsh home/telephone exchange to await news.
Information trickled back to Williamsport via phone, and a list of
the kids who may have survived was made up...but sadly, when the list
was received back at Williamsport, it was believed to be a list of
those who had been killed. This bit of confusion...and false
hope...wouldn't be cleared up until the survivors returned home hours
after the crash. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Several of the dads decided not to wait for information to make it's way to Williamsport, and headed for Rockville...</span></span>as it had been with Dr Zimmerman, that trip to
Rockville...which probably took around an hour and change in a car,
even with the bad weather...had to seem endless to the parents who
headed for the scene. Though it wasn't stated, I have a feeling
several parents went in one or two cars, and the silent speculation,
interspersed with questions that couldn't be answered until they got
to Rockville, had to have been maddening. When they arrived they
found a far less hectic scene than the good doctor had found...the
train had continued it's journey, and investigators from the State Police were
examining the shattered remains of the bus, awaiting the arrival of
ICC investigators ( Who, with the scene being that close to D.C. may
have, in fact, already been there.) </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The parents searched first for Dr Zimmerman, then a
police officer or anyone who could tell them what was going
on...again , a search that, while it took only minutes, probably was
both frustrating and endless. They were directed to </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">the Bouic home </span>where all of the surviving students, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">with the exception of Jane Staley and Margaret Kreps</span>, had been taken . The group of fathers looked at the kids with growing sadness...<i>none</i> of their own kids were among the group of survivors.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The parents set out on that horrible search that occurs in
mass-casualty-incidents to this day. The funeral home was the closest
and was the first stop. For that group of six dads, this would be the only stop they needed...<i>all</i> found their child in the funeral home.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, a Montgomery County school bus and driver was
procured, the kids climbed aboard, and the surviving kids finally
started their journey home, arriving back at Williamsport High School
four and a half hours after the accident...a shade after 4AM, after
what had to have been the longest, saddest bus ride any of them would
ever take.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The funeral home in Williamsport would have to borrow
hearses to transport the bodies of the deceased back home, and the
funerals would go on for six days, about two and on at least one day,
three a day., making for a long, sad, dismal week in April, a week
that's still known as Williamsport's darkest hour. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, speculation and finger-pointing...both
official and unofficial...started almost before the bus with the
surviving kids aboard arrived back in Williamsport. Investigators
knew the basic, broad cause of the crash...Percy Line had driven the
bus in front of a train.. What they wanted to know was <i>why???'</i></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The investigators knew the crossing bells were working
properly...they had been checked by the first right-of-way engineer
to reach the scene, less than an hour after the accident occurred.
While there's an over-ride switch that could be used to cut out the
bells when a train was 'shifting' (Switching cars onto the siding),
the box it was located in, in the watchman's shack, was locked, and
when unlocked and checked, it was found to be in the proper position. On top
of that, the bells were confirmed to be working properly several
hours later. When the first east bound train to be allowed through
after the crash passed, the bells began their attention-grabbing
'Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding' just as they should have. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The red lanterns that had been placed in the boxes by
the watchman when he went off duty were in place as they should have
been, and were visible for at least a couple of hundred feet if not
more. And the button reflectors on the warning signs...which should
have let Percy know he was approaching a crossing almost a hundred
yards before he reached it...were visible, for a couple of hundred
<i>yards</i> when headlights hit them. So there was no way, they
speculated, that Percy line...despite his claims to the contrary...
didn't know he was on a crossing. And, BTW, this was apparently the story he was sticking to...that
he had no idea he was on a railroad crossing until he saw the train's
headlight. He also stated that he 'Saw a red light (The lantern) but
didn't realize that it indicated that he was right on top of the
crossing...he thought it indicated an open ditch'. When asked how he
missed the button reflector warning sign...which several of the kids
<i>and</i> Louise Funk did see...he stated that he had been trying to
figure that out since the accident.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He said that his head was moving constantly from side to
side, and he was looking to the right as he passed the red light, and
heard the bells at that point...this was also apparently
when he saw the train and punched it. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">State Police and ICC investigators contacted all of the
surviving kids, and those who had been awake stated that they could
see the cross-buck signs <i>and</i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the lantern, and on top of
that, the crossing was well lit with street lights. This wasn't a
dark, unprotected crossing on a back road, keep in mind, but was,
rather, a signal protected crossing hard by the railroad station in the middle of a small but
thriving community. The same kids did state, however, that they
didn't hear the crossing bells or hear the whistle, but then again,
it wasn't their job to listen for them. </span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwlmvdTXcxvhFCPoNNatyYzpKl7JVdBu6oCqfUuQAnSkJZTSnyNY4OZhLaPQxqyG3SKFHhmmA5NQzIoolms47CPuVmAZRaR2V857ObINa_4tbkrpuPl8DwYo1ujcCOswb1fLGd-UZ6rz8/s1600/Crossing+at+night.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwlmvdTXcxvhFCPoNNatyYzpKl7JVdBu6oCqfUuQAnSkJZTSnyNY4OZhLaPQxqyG3SKFHhmmA5NQzIoolms47CPuVmAZRaR2V857ObINa_4tbkrpuPl8DwYo1ujcCOswb1fLGd-UZ6rz8/s640/Crossing+at+night.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Photo of the crossing and crossbuck taken very shortly after the accident, showing how well lighted the crossing and immediate area were. Also note that the red lantern, placed in the box on the crossbuck sign by the watchman when he went off duty, is still in place in this shot. This is looking towards the east...the bus would have been coming towards the camera. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo used courtesy of <span class="_5yl5">Debi Carbaugh Robinson</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;">Louise Funk told investigators that she saw the headlight of the
locomotive as it disappeared behind the west-bound passenger shelter.
but didn't realize what it was until it reappeared after it cleared
the shelter, and that's when Percy Line...by then crossing the
track that the train was on...also saw the fast approaching headlight
and punched it. And of course, by then, it was too late. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Ahh, time for Rob to
speculate again...First, let me say that there's a reason that there
are now limits to how long drivers of commercial vehicles...be
they buses or trucks...can be on duty. Percy had gotten up early that
morning, driven his normal route, then gone to his regular job, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><i>then</i></span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
driven the afternoon bus route</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
before driving the kids to Rockville. Meaning that, when he <i>should</i>
have been heading home to a nice quiet evening he was instead departing Williamsport for a 2 ½ hour (One way) road trip that would get him back
home well after midnight. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">It had been years
since Percy drove this route for any reason, so he wasn't completely
familiar with it. It was dark and rainy, not a good combination when
you </span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><i>are</i></span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
familiar with the road, potential pure hell when you're not. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">There
was little or no traffic on the road until they approached the
crossing, when he met Steven' roadster as it crossed the
tracks. While both Line and Louise Funk said the lights didn't blind
him, I'm going to say that that's all but impossible. While the
lights may not have completely blinded him, it's all but impossible
at night to not have your night-vision compromised by the lights of
an oncoming car, if only for a few seconds. The bus wasn't but about
60 feet from the crossing when it passed Stevens' car, which means
that Percy was either staring into the roadsters headlights for
several seconds, or pulling that trick we all learn early in our
driving career...looking to the side slightly so he wasn't staring
dead into the lights....until he was only a couple of bus lengths
from the crossing, and this could well be the reason that he didn't
immediately recognize the cross buck sign...It </span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><i>doesn't</i></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><i>,
</i></span><span style="text-decoration: none;">however, explain why
he didn't recognize the bells</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><i>.
</i></span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">Percy told the
investigators that he heard bells about the same time he saw the
train's headlight, and assumed that they were the engine's
bells...but investigators determined that the bells he heard were
almost definitely the crossing warning bells, which were hard by the road, between the crossbuck sign and the tracks.. Think about it...by
the time Percy saw the headlight...seconds before the bus was
hit...the train was probably already sliding, Engineer Shewbridge was laying down on
the whistle (Which, of course, Percy also stated that he didn't hear
until the last minute), and steam locomotives are </span><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><i>not</i></span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
quiet pieces of machinery. If you factor all of that in and realize how much noise the locomotive was making, you realize that there's no way he heard the engine's bell
as the train approached. (Try something...next time you're sitting
at a crossing, listen for the bell on the locomotive and see when you
hear it. While you're at it, keep in mind that diesel locomotives are <i>way </i>quieter in operation than steam locomotives.) So it's a near sure bet that he actually <i>did</i> hear the crossing bells, whether he knew
it...or wanted to admit it...or not.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Now, the windows in
the doors of the school bus were small, and the door obscured Percy's
view of the tracks somewhat...but this appears to have been a moot
point if you believe his story, because, again, according to him he
didn't even know he was on a crossing until he saw the train's
headlight. That being his story, I won't mention the fact that if he
had stopped before he crossed the tracks and opened the door he'd have had a clear view all the
way to the railroad station...Oh...I just did.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">What do I think
happened? The combination of the droning bus engine, wipers,
darkness, and the fact that he was already beyond tired lulled him
into that sort of semi-hypnotic state that all of us have
experienced, and even driven while under the influence of. Most of us
didn't drive a bus while that tired, though, and none of us drove a
bus full of kids in front of an oncoming train because of it. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Had this been today, Percy wouldn't have been allowed to
make the trip...as he was working for a company that contracted it's
buses out, he would be considered a commercial driver and a driver
for hire, and there would have been a limit to the number of hours he
could be on on duty, and a minimum number of hours he had to spend
off duty and resting. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But it wasn't today...it was 80 years ago, when the
concept of over the road commercial drivers was still pretty new, and
when laws governing them were still very much in the developmental
stages, if they had even been considered at all.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So, as he approached the crossing, with the headlights
from another car partially blinding him, he was very likely sort of zoned out
from sheer exhaustion. And he may, indeed, <i>not</i> have realized
where he was until too late because of that very fact.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Louise Funk did an awesome job after the accident
happened, keeping her composure as best she could, helping the kids
who survived, and notifying Dr Zimmerman of the accident....and, while she shares a very tiny bit of the blame here,
too., you can well understand why she did what she did. She knew they were approaching the crossing, but she made the
mistake of assuming that Percy Line knew he was approaching it as
well...a very understandable assumption. But still, had she reminded
him of it, as she did with every other hazard, 27 real tired kids
would have trouped off of the bus in Williamsport at around 1AM, and
I wouldn't be writing this. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As I read the ICC Report narrative on the accident, the thought occurred to me that, had I been sitting behind him, I would have been saying
something to the effect of 'Percy...Railroad crossing. <i>Railroad
Crossing</i>! <i>Dammit</i>, Percy, stop the ##@! bus, <i>railroad
crossing!! </i>Probably smacking him on the shoulder to get his
attention by the time it got to the 'Dammit, Percy...' stage. But I wasn't there.</span> Louise
Funk married, and lived a full and productive life, passing away in
2005...seventy years after the accident... at the age of 98. I have
a feeling that, in the back of her mind, she wished she'd done <i>just</i>
that throughout the seventy years that passed between the accident
and her death.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">After the accident she was allowed to go home and
rest...she was, understandably, on the verge of a nervous breakdown,
with nerves that were probably humming like just-plucked guitar
strings. Her error was actually a small one, and an understandable
one at that...it wasn't her responsibility to see that the bus
stopped at railroad crossings, and Percy was known to be a very
competent driver. Actually, IMHO, she should have gotten far more recognition for her
actions in the immediate aftermath of the accident than she did.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As for Percy, once the Maryland State Police questioned him the first
time at the scene, he made himself scarce, and wasn't found until the
next day, when he was promptly arrested and charged with
Manslaughter. A contingent of parents from Williamsport came to
Rockville that very day to bail him out, and a grand jury refused to
indite him, citing the weather and the fact that the crossing was
<i>known</i> to be one of the more dangerous crossings in MD. And
for his part, I have a feeling that having the deaths of 14 young
people on his conscience for the rest of his life was a far worse
punishment than anything the State of Maryland could have given
him...but I can't completely let him off the hook here. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Yes the weather was nasty...I myself <i> despise</i>
having to drive in such weather, especially as I get older because of
the way it compromises visibility...and yes it was a dangerous
crossing, with screwed up sight-lines for drivers if a train was
approaching from the west because of the railroad station and
passenger shelter, but if Percy had stopped the bus at the crossing and opened the door to watch and listen for an approaching train, it
wouldn't have gotten hit. Period. I still have trouble getting my
mind around the fact that laws had to be enacted to get school bus
drivers to stop and check for oncoming trains at grade crossings...something that should be common sense.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This accident grabbed national headlines instantly, and
was front page news in just about every major newspaper in the land
the next day. This type of accident has the ability...to this very
day...to give parents of school age kids the sweaty-horrors. Parents
all across the U.S. Were thinking 'My kids ride a school bus...and it
has to cross the tracks...'</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">You'd think that <i>this</i> one would have caused some
laws to be at the very least, <i>considered, </i> but that wasn't the
case. It <i>did</i> however, grab the immediate attention of a
gentleman named Franklin Delano Roosevelt...the resident of 1600
Pennsylvania Ave., in Washington, D.C. at the time. FDR, like the rest of the nation, was
horrified at the accident, and the concept of school buses (And other
traffic) having to deal with unguarded, unprotected grade crossings.
He pledged 200 Million dollars to replace grade crossings with
overpasses, thereby eliminating grade crossings altogether.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Of course it was impossible to replace <i>every</i>
grade crossing in the US...but <i>one</i> crossing got eliminated
almost immediately...the Baltimore Road B&O crossing. The
watchman's hours at the Baltimore Rd crossing were increased to 24-7
as an interim measure, then right-of-way was purchased, and Veirs
Mill Road was extended across the B&O tracks and out to
Baltimore Pike...and When I say '<i>across the B&O tracks' </i>I
mean just that...included in the extension was a bridge over the
tracks.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The Baltimore Road crossing was closed immediately after
the bridge opened (And when I say immediately, I'm betting it was 'at
the same time') and that's the set-up to this day, with Veirs Mill
Road crossing the tracks on a now multi-laned bridge, and Baltimore
Road dead-ending at the tracks.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>***********************************************************************************</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The 14 students who died in the crash</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">MARGARET EVA ZIMMERMAN.<br />
PAUL McELROY.<br />
CARL BRINDLE.<br />
NORRIS DOWNS, JR.<br />
PEARL EMERSON.<br />
VIRGINIA MYERS.<br />
LEROY KENDALL.<br />
CLAUDE MYERS.<br />
BERTHA CASTLE.<br />
ELVA HARSH.<br />
MARY LOUISE DOWNS.<br />
PHOEBE KELLEY.<br />
LOIS WINTERS.<br />
JAMES FLURIE.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">*************************************************************************************<b> </b> </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***>Notes, Links, and Stuff<***></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>The other posts in this series</b></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>in the order they were posted.</b></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html</a> Evans, Colo December 1961 </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html</a> Spring City Tenn. August 1955</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html</a> Congers New York </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
March 1972</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html</a> Lake Station Indiana</div>
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October 1971</div>
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html</a> Stratton Nebraska </div>
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August 1976</div>
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.htm</a> Fox River Grove Illinois October 1995</div>
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html</a> Conasauga Tenn. March 2000<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html </a> Sandy, Utah Dec 1938<br />
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html</a> Proberta, California Nov 1921<br />
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html</a> Shreve and Berea Ohio Jan. 1930<br />
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html</a> Crescent City, Florida December 1933<br />
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<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html</a> Rockville, Maryland April 1935<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html</a> MAson City, Iowa Oct. 1937<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html</a> Eads, Tennessee Oct. 1941<br />
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<b><***></b><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I got lucky on this one...I found both the ICC report
<i>and</i> a couple of in-depth articles from newspapers of
the era, as well as a Facebook page that included a
<i>slew </i>of pictures of the bus and the crossing, always a help in
understanding what happened...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">...and speaking of that Facebook page, and the photos, some huge thanks and serious props are in order. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I'd like to thank Deba Carbaugh Robinson for allowing me to use her pictures in this post. They helped make explaining just what happened that night a whole lot easier, and added to the post exponentially</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">On to the Notes... </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b> <span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Those pics that Debi Carbrough Robinson let me use? Most of them are also in 'The Rockville Tragedy', the excellent book she wrote about the accident. I ordered and read the book, and it's far more informative than my small post is. Also, while all of my posts deal more with the nuts and bolts of what happened in the various incidents I post about, her book goes into great, and touching detail about the kids on that bus, and how the crash affected the small town of Williamsport.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;">She's a native of the area, and now lives in Williamsport, and her grandmother knew several of the kids who were on the bus, so this story touched close to home for her. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If you'd like to grab a copy of her book...and you should, it's an awesome read...<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rockville-Tragedy-Debra-Carbaugh-Robinson/dp/1512141100/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458057109&sr=1-1&keywords=the+rockville+tragedy">it's available on Amazon .</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b> <span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Two
years after the tragedy, a library was built on Potomac Street in Williamsport (Also
Md. Rt 11 and the maid drag through town) and named Memorial Library in memory of the 14 students killed in the accident. A pair of plaques
inside the front door list the names of the 14 kids as well as the story
of the crash. The library's still there today and serves as one of the
few physical reminders of the crash.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's
a small but imposing single story brick building with a columned white
portico, and is located at 104 Potomac Street in Williamsport if you're
ever n that area and wan to stop and pay respects to the 14 students.</span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB9jc1-UK03KQXvsPn2IoSrm0yZL447sBQsk7cf1FpO31D93EsdJkqzOkSgQOiuXs2TE8J3twinGeIuMrvruLVRKHZN7VOx7rDjgqHMq-3Ptd3s8jekbfevzRUVwKlrholW_zxXDBm8lY/s1600/Williamsport-Library.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB9jc1-UK03KQXvsPn2IoSrm0yZL447sBQsk7cf1FpO31D93EsdJkqzOkSgQOiuXs2TE8J3twinGeIuMrvruLVRKHZN7VOx7rDjgqHMq-3Ptd3s8jekbfevzRUVwKlrholW_zxXDBm8lY/s640/Williamsport-Library.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Memorial Library, in Williamsport Md</td></tr>
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<b><***></b></div>
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Six of the students who died in the crash were Seniors...Williamsport's small Graduating Class of 1935 was reduced from 33 students to 2<span style="font-size: small;">7</span> students in one tragic instant.</div>
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Also, WIlliamsport lost more citizens in the bus accident than were killed in WWI. Only five Williamsport residents who fought in Europe in WWI died in the conflict...Nine fewer than the number who died in the bus crash.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: small;">While that long, dreary week of funerals was rough on the entire town of Williamsport, it was particularly hard on the Leaf family. </span></span></span>Not only did Albert Leaf first survive the accident, then help remove a close friend (Phoebe Kelley) who later died, from the wrecked bus, his dad owned the</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: small;"> funeral home in Williamsport that handled all fourteen of the funerals. This being a family run business, young Albert probably assisted in preparations for these funerals. It also meant that his family very likely knew all of the kids who were killed and their families, and had very possibly hosted them in their home for those small town neighborly social events that are an integral part of the life of all small towns.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: small;">Also, back in that era the great majority of small town funeral homes were just that...funeral <i>homes</i> as in the undertaker and his family lived in the building, usually upstairs while the business was conducted downstairs. If they didn't live in the building, they likely lived in a house next door or behind the building. This would have very likely made it all but impossible for any of them to slip away and try to decompress for a few minutes, and would have surrounded Albert with reminders of what happened for that entire week, even more so than the rest of the surviving kids.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">If you've read this series of posts in the actual
sequence they were posted in, this one might sound a bit familiar,
and there's a good reason for that. In many ways the Rockville crash
was a near-clone of the Shreve, Ohio bus/train crash five years and
change earlier, in January 1930.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Both accidents happened at night, while on the way home
after an extracurricular activity. Both occurred during inclement
weather. The crossings in both accidents were within the limits of a
small town and protected by automatic bell signals, but no flashing light. Both crossings were protected as well by a watchman who had gone off duty at 10PM...a half hour before the Shreve crash, an hour and a half before the Rockville crash. The train hit the
rear portion of the bus in both crashes, killing everyone sitting in
the back of the bus, and leaving many of those sitting in the front
of the bus relatively uninjured.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> The injuries in the Shreve bus crash
were worse than those in the Rockville crash, probably due to the age
of the bus and the type of seating. The bus in the Shreve crash had perimeter seating, while the Rockville bus had the modern seating arrangement we're used to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Fatigue is a factor in commercial
vehicle crashes to this day, despite the laws governing hours on duty
and rest periods. While these laws have been in place for decades,
like all laws, they aren't always followed, and there have been
several major bus crashes with-in the last few years involving
buses...all owned by budget, 'Fly-By-Night' type outfits. While none
have involved trains, all have involved driver fatigue, among other
safety problems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One in particular comes to mind because it happened only
forty or so miles north of where I'm typing this, in Bowling Green,
Va, on May 11<sup>th</sup>, 2011, when a Sky Express bus with 55
people aboard went off of the side of I-95 northbound, hit an
embankment and rolled several times.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Everyone aboard was injured and four were killed. The
driver, as it turned out, had been awake for pushing 24 hours with
little or no sleep and had fallen asleep behind the wheel. He was
arrested and charged with four counts of Manslaughter, and at trial
was convicted and sentenced to forty years with thirty-four years
suspended.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></div>
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<br />
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Percy Line, James Shewbridge, and William Busey were all three arrested and charged with Manslaughter, and Percy's arrest is understandable, but why would the engineer and fireman of the locomotive that hit them be arrested and charged? It's not like a train is maneuverable or easy to stop. Once a train gets up to speed, the brakes are there more to give the engineer the impression he was doing <i>something</i> to avoid an accident than to actually avoid it, because 99.99% of the time once a train's close enough to whatever is fouling the track for the engineer to see it, it's far too close for the brakes to get them stopped. The train crew can do nothing about this...they're just along for the ride at that point. So just why were Shewbridge and Busey charged at all?</div>
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This was a common tactic back in that era (And actually, well into the middle of the twentieth century) and was just a technical charge that ensured that those charged would be available for any investigative hearings...in other words it was pretty much the same as a supoena. Shewbridge's and Busey's charges were dropped without any other action. The Grand Jury declined to indite in Percy's case.</div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The Rockville crash became a major national news story, literally over night, and the entire nation was horrified by the
crash, including President Franklin Roosevelt. Of course, unlike the
very great majority of the other people reading the news paper
articles about the accident as they drank their morning coffee, he
could actually do something about it, in the form of taking action in an attempt to prevent any further grade crossing accidents.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Within a day he'd issued a presidential order, approved
by congress, dedicating 200 million dollars (That'd be just shy of
3.5 Billion dollars today) to replacing grade crossings in the U.S.
with highway overpasses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Of course, there was no way that every crossing in the
United States could be replaced. The logistics just didn't exist,
even with millions of men out of work who'd love to have a
construction job working on these new overpasses. There were just too
many grade crossings, and some were on roads that saw fewer than ten
vehicles a day...heck there were some in extremely rural areas of the
country that probably barely saw twenty vehicles a <i>week</i>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So the most dangerous crossings, with the most potential for a train-motor vehicle collision, had to be targeted. The
Baltimore Road crossing in Rockville was among the first to go, of
course, and dozens of other grade crossings <i>were</i>
eliminated...including one that I'm aware of, less than two miles
from where I'm typing this.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> US Route 1 follows almost the exact
route through Chesterfield County, Va. today that it did when it was built
in 1926, except for a stretch of road less than a mile long,
beginning, if you're headed North, just south of Willis Road, and
ending at the main gate of Defense Supply Center Richmond. This
'New' alignment was built in about 1935 or '36 and includes a bridge
over what was then the Seaboard Airline Railroad (Now CSX). </span>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The original alignment still exists, and most of it is
known as Perrymont Road. A short stretch, maybe a quarter mile or so long, is part of Chester Road (Va. State Route 145) and stretches from the original Chester Road-Route 1...now Perrymont Road...intersection to a curve a few hundred feet east of Chester Road's
'new' intersection with the 'new' alignment of Route 1. From that curve north about another quarter mile or so, to where the 'new' align men veered away from the original alignment, the old US Rt 1 alignment was abandoned...but you can still see where parts of it were.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> When present day Perrymont Rd/Chester Rd was still US
Route 1, it crossed the Seaboard tracks at a grade crossing, and if
you know where to look you can actually see where the crossing was. If you stand at the curve where Chester Rd bends hard to the right to
intersect with Route 1...now known as Jeff Davis Highway...and look
northward up Route 1's old alignment, which now runs through the parking lot of a business, you can see the road bed of old Route 1 on the other side
of the tracks, lined up just about perfectly with the section of the original alignment that you're standing on.You're looking at the long-removed Rt 1/Seaboard RR grade crossing. I'd be just about willing to bet the proverbial dinner at
Applebees that this grade crossing was one of the ones that FDR's 200
million eliminated, resulting in the new bridge a few hundred feet
to it's east.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Continuing with the subject of FDR's eliminated grade
crossings and new overpasses...it was an awesome project and a worthy
effort, and it doubtless saved an untold number of lives...but it was hit or
miss. It <i>had </i> to be. As noted earlier, there was just
absolutely no way to replace <i>every</i> grade crossing with an overpass.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I love it when I can use things right near home as
examples...home being Chester, Virginia, about fifteen miles south of downtown Richmond. Let's look at the grade crossing on Old U.S.Route 1 that I
discussed above, as well as a couple of others in the immediate area. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sure, the Route 1 grade crossing was eliminated, but several others
nearby <i>weren't. </i>Back in the day</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">, for example,</span> Chester Road crossed the
seaboard tracks at least twice and possibly three times between Route
1 and Chester...a distance of about five miles. One of these crossings was less
than a half mile from both the new Route 1 bridge and the crossing it eliminated. None of these other crossings, however, were eliminated. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In the late 30s or early '40s Chester Road was
rerouted, straightened and widened somewhat, bypassing the crossing nearest Route 1, but<i> not</i> eliminating it...they just renamed the road. Originally, if you were headed towards Route 1 on Chester Road, you hung a brutally sharp left-hand curve after you crossed the tracks. This curve became a 'T' intersection when Chester Road was realigned, and old Chester Road, from the old Kingsland Rd/Chester Rd
intersection to that new 'T' intersection, became the eastern end of Kingsland Road,
crossing the Seaboard tracks where Chester Road had crossed it while
it was at it. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The second crossing was just south of now long gone
Kingsland Elementary School...now the site of present Chesterfield
County Fire Station 17... and existed until 1966, when most of the
former Seaboard tracks were torn up after the Seaboard and Atlantic
Coast Line merged. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There was probably also a third crossing closer to
Chester, which was eliminated completely when Chester Road was
realigned in the late 30s or early 40s, and that one <i>was </i>replaced by a bridge...an
already existing one. Part of that end of Chester Road was shifted to the right-of-way of an
abandoned interurban line, which the Seaboard tracks had crossed on a
bridge. The abutments of the bridge are there to this day, flanking Chester Road. And yes...Chester Road actually was <i>that</i> crooked back in the day! </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> None of the three crossings were replaced with overpasses due
to FDR's initiative, and all of them claimed a number of lives over
the years.The Kingsland Road crossing, in fact, is still there, crossing a section
of the old Seaboard tracks that became part of CSX. This crossing's now protected
by modern gates and signals, but it still occasionally claims
a victim who is stupid enough to try and run the gates.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqI7FXd_K3S9-4VtnCCEgmUugdxjVOB5UPoPRhMgnAUCPGMCDgHvjoCpKkLtS6jxhy9LYn0F4YptLdHSxNLs9ctKtHO3lGxvwSxj_VmZQ-C6n43Wgtkryja5NHZb7E3zZAENqid5UDIO0/s1600/Chester+Rd.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqI7FXd_K3S9-4VtnCCEgmUugdxjVOB5UPoPRhMgnAUCPGMCDgHvjoCpKkLtS6jxhy9LYn0F4YptLdHSxNLs9ctKtHO3lGxvwSxj_VmZQ-C6n43Wgtkryja5NHZb7E3zZAENqid5UDIO0/s640/Chester+Rd.jpg" width="574" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">I live just about a mile and a half or so from one of the bridges that was likely built because of FDR's push to eliminate grade crossings. This is about ten miles south of downtown Richmond,Va and is a satellite view of present day Chester Rd and US Rt 1 (Jefferson Davis Highway), showing the new and old alignments of Route 1 and Chester Rd, the former Route 1-SCL grade crossing, the bridge (Likely one of the ones built due to FDR's edict) that replaced it...and the near-by crossing that wasn't replaced. That crossing's still in place, and has regularly been the scene of train-car collisions to the tune of one every few years even though it's been equipped with lights and gates for decades. From what I understand, it's record from the thirties through about the mid sixties...when it finally got signals...was even worse.<br />
<br />
The blue dashes represent the old US-1 alignment, the red dashes represent Chester Road's original alignment. You can still see the old US-1 roadbed between the tracks and Route 1 (Also known as Jefferson Davis Highway in this part of the world.)</td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-size: small;">...And to continue with the subject of eliminating grade crossings...the Baltimore Road crossing had actually been slated for elimination a couple of years before the bus crash...the crossing was well known and often cited as one of the most dangerous crossings in Maryland. The state was awaiting funds, which didn't become available until FDR's federal program to eliminate grade crossings nationwide went into effect immediately after the accident. </span><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>
</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One thing that I've mentioned several times and that
can't be reiterated enough is the absolute lack of counseling
provided to survivors of incidents of this nature in the past...a
situation that existed right up until about thirty or so years ago.
Not only was there absolutely <i>no</i> counseling...kids who
survived major incidents such as this were expected to just 'suck it
up' and get on with their lives. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The thing is, kids who survive fatal incidents involving
family or friends are traumatized on several different levels, none
of them healthy. They are afraid for themselves, wondering if they
are going to die or (And this one's particularly traumatic for teens
and tweens) be disfigured. They are afraid for their friends. They miss
their friends who were killed, and (This one's sometimes over-looked
even today) there's often a boat-load of Survivor's Guilt as they
wonder why their brother, sister, or friend died and they survived.
Worse, Survivor's guilt is sometimes made worse by the parents of
children who died asking the surviving child why <i>they</i> lived, but their child died. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This is trauma that just does <i>not</i> go away. Oh it
can be buried and not thought about, but it''s never forgotten, and
many of the now senior citizens who, as children and teens, were
involved in fatal incidents of all kinds will tell you that they <i>still</i>
suffer from the mental trauma that was inflicted on them decades ago.
Some go weeks and months without thinking about it...and then the
memories will come crashing back down on them when they see, say, a
school bus sitting at a railroad crossing. Others think about it daily.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The kids who weren't involved in the accident itself,
but who lost friends were also traumatized, a fact that wasn't even
given <i>any</i> thought until fairly recently. I can tell you for a fact
that kids were expected to just 'deal with it' right on up to the
Seventies...while, thankfully, nothing this tragic ever befell either
Chester, Va or Southampton County, Va...my adopted and actual home
towns...I had friends injured and killed in car accidents, and
remember my dad telling me that it was 'None of my business' </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Today, of course, counselors are provided for both the
survivors, and the rest of the students in the school(s) involved in
tragic incidents such as this...we can thank the hard-learned lessons
taught by the kids from the 1910s right on through the 1970s for
this.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A quick note about 12<sup>th</sup> grade...or actually,
the <i>lack</i> of a 12<sup>th</sup> grade. I have a sneaking
suspicion that several readers have picked up on the fact that none
of the kids on the bus, six of whom were seniors, had reached the
age of 18 yet, despite the fact that the accident happened in
April...only a couple of months before graduation. There's a reason
for this, of course. In 1935, there <i> was </i>no 12<sup>th</sup>
grade, and kids were 17 (And occasionally 16, depending on where in
the year their birthday fell) when they marched in to the auditorium
or onto the football field to the strains of 'Pomp and Circumstance'.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This, of course, also meant that the four years of high
school...Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior...were each pushed
back a year, making eighth grade the Freshman year of high school.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This changed in 1941, when the 12<sup>th</sup> grade was
added in the great majority of school systems nationwide. This, of
course, meant that everyone who started the 1939-40 school year off
in as a freshman, sophomore, or junior (8th, 9th, and 10th grade before '41) suddenly found themselves
with an <i>extra year </i>of high school. The 1939-40 11<sup>th</sup>
grade class would have graduated as the class of '40, and would have
been the last 11<sup>th</sup> grade class to graduate as seniors.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> This also
meant that there wasn't a class of 1941, because the rising 11<sup>th</sup>graders were now Juniors, therefore there was no actual Senior class. Ninth
grade became the Freshman class, and eighth grade was knocked back to
being the last year of junior high. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I don't know what would have been
worse...being in 10<sup>th</sup> grade in 39-40, thinking 'Next
year's my last year'...and suddenly having <i>two</i> more years to
go before you graduate, or being in 8<sup>th</sup> grade in '39-40,
and having to spend two years as a Freshman! </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> <b><span style="font-size: medium;"><***>LINKS<***></span></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
I found some really good, interesting sites when I was researching Rockville...I sorted through them and posted the best of 'em here.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.829500660439655.1073742313.149116271811434&type=3"> https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.829500660439655.1073742313.149116271811434&type=3 </a><br />
First up, the Facebook album containing pictures from <span class="_5yl5">Debi Carbaugh Robinso's excellent book about the crash and the people involved. Ms Robinson also gave me permission to use some of these pictures in this post, and they made understanding just how the accident happened much easier. The books available from Amazon, BTW, the links up at teh beginning of 'Notes'.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="_5yl5">This album's part of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Conococheague-Memories/149116271811434?ref=ts">Conococheague Memories</a> , a Facebook page about the history and memories of the Williamsport area, also hosted and maintained by Ms Robinson, and also an excellent site.</span><br />
<span class="_5yl5"><br /></span>
<span class="_5yl5"><a href="http://articles.herald-mail.com/2012-04-10/news/31321502_1_facebook-page-accident-victim-bus-train-crash">http://articles.herald-mail.com/2012-04-10/news/31321502_1_facebook-page-accident-victim-bus-train-crash</a> An article about Ms Robinson's book, published in the Hagarstown, Md <i>Herald-Mail.</i></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://articles.herald-mail.com/2000-07-22/news/25136651_1_bus-crash-train-survivors">http://articles.herald-mail.com/2000-07-22/news/25136651_1_bus-crash-train-survivors</a><br />
Another <i>Daily Mail</i> article, from July 2000, about a reunion of survivors of the accident.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-04-09/news/1995099001_1_williamsport-dead-students-washington-county">http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-04-09/news/1995099001_1_williamsport-dead-students-washington-county</a> Baltimore Sun article about the accident and it's aftermath from April 95. the 60th anniversary of the crash.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://reedbrothersdodgehistory.wordpress.com/historic-timeline/original-location-aerial-views/">https://reedbrothersdodgehistory.wordpress.com/historic-timeline/original-location-aerial-views/</a><br />
A Wordpress post about the history of a Dodge dealership in Rockville, with some very interesting vintage aerial views. There's both a pic, from a distance, of the accident crossing (4th picture down), as well as a pic of the Viers Mill Rd bridge under construction (3rd pic down). Note about teh pictures...several of these pics are captioned as being from the 1920s when, in actuality, they are from the mid to late 30s.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-23789441178094176892016-03-21T12:44:00.006-04:002023-03-03T07:35:15.754-05:00Mason City, Iowa Bus-Train Crash<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Mason
City, Iowa Train/School Bus Crash</b></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> Oct. 22, 1937</b></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>New and
Old technology's tragic Mason City meeting</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">For
our second tragic field trip, we're heading for a town that both
music lovers and John Dillinger fans...Thirties gangster-philes
in general for that matter...know well. Mason City, Iowa.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Back in February 1959 a
Beech Bonanza departed from Mason City's airport, taking off during a
snow storm, and flew off into music history...that day, February 3</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">rd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">,
1959, would go down in history as 'The Day The Music Died'.
Twenty-five years before that, in one of the most infamous of his
many bank robberies, John Dillinger and his gang knocked over the
First National Bank in Mason City. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> The deaths of Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, and J. P. Richardson, AKA The Big Bopper, were commemorated with a a #1 hit song and Dillinger's robbery of the First National Bank has been re-enacted annually for years...these two events have become permanently ingrained in Mason City's history. But, unless you dug down real deeply in the dusty file bin containing near-forgotten events, you'd very likely never hear about the</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> train-bus crash that killed ten students, two teachers, and the bus driver, because Mason City's most tragic event is apparently also its least well known.</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCtLM4uLBxrbp-g6BjaTX2IphIigE9tOtZs0AGAEtDZzvHsDJEnaywln6HS_VhCekIRWJOIEFccgSomihAhRr8zU5lKBVvkmVvHKyXHZLDlWB8eSg-_E4w46Jf7F8GpxebF6WRhFM_wuI/s1600/Image1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCtLM4uLBxrbp-g6BjaTX2IphIigE9tOtZs0AGAEtDZzvHsDJEnaywln6HS_VhCekIRWJOIEFccgSomihAhRr8zU5lKBVvkmVvHKyXHZLDlWB8eSg-_E4w46Jf7F8GpxebF6WRhFM_wuI/s320/Image1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Mason City is best known as the city where the fatal flight that became The Day <br />
The Music Died originated, as well as the site of one of John Dillinger's<br />
most infamous bank robberies. Sadly, however, the bus-train crash that's<br />
Mason City's most tragic event is all but unknown<br /><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">On October
22</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
1937 the U.S. was still in the midst of The Great Depression, though things
had eased a bit since the Depression's worst year...1933...and some
areas weren't in as bad a shape as others, often because of the amount and type
of industry that called the city or region home. Mason City's a good example of this.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> The city has a population of about 27,500 today and was only slightly smaller back in 1937, with a population of about 25,000, when it
was still known as one of the largest producers of brick and tile in
the country.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">Brick and tile manufacture was a </span><i>huge
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">industry, thanks at least in part to FDR's Works Projects Administration, which erected thousands upon
thousands of government buildings, from post offices to new city
halls to fire stations, during the mid Thirties. <i>Way</i> more than a
few of the bricks used to build those buildings came from Mason City, which boasted no fewer than
eight </span><i>big</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> brick and
tile plants in 1933, and the oldest and largest of them all was the Mason City Brick and
Tile company, located on what was then the city's southwest boundary. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span>
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</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">All
of this industry provided thousands of jobs for Mason City area
residents, easing the trials of the
Depression for them significantly...But it was </span><i>still</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> The Great Depression. Jobs were still scarce, and school systems
did everything in their power to try and help soon-to-graduate
students find work after they received their diploma. Never mind
college...college enrollment in the thirties was at it's lowest ebb
in history thanks to the Depression...these kids needed jobs </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">when they graduated</span></span>, both
for themselves and to help their families .</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">To
this end, Renwick High School...located in tiny Renwick, Iowa, sixty or so road miles from Mason City... sent the school's vocational class on
a field trip to Mason City to tour the various industries and
businesses every fall. So, early on that fateful October 22</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
twenty-nine kids climbed aboard an already elderly,
wood-framed, mid-20s vintage school bus, sat down in the perimeter
seating that the ride was inevitably equipped with, and settled in
for the sixty mile trip north up State Route 17, then east on
US 18, kicking back and socializing and generally enjoying the two
or so hour ride. They'd spend the whole day touring Mason City's
industries, taking in several plant and business tours with, of course,
a lunch break somewhere in the mix.</span></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HYtjG_k0dC_UuUJYgUiNyqK01JMNUWMCnV7ixlm6HevRpxXX90YYpRu4A7e6N08J1cfaBsd-GDlrUIFE1MRICj3K8afuNTLsM-DUqQ2z1Ja9igIrEn4qid4JonyHq3AOPktERsRHvuU/s1600/Renwick_Public_School.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HYtjG_k0dC_UuUJYgUiNyqK01JMNUWMCnV7ixlm6HevRpxXX90YYpRu4A7e6N08J1cfaBsd-GDlrUIFE1MRICj3K8afuNTLsM-DUqQ2z1Ja9igIrEn4qid4JonyHq3AOPktERsRHvuU/s640/Renwick_Public_School.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Old Renwick High School, known in later years as Boone Valley School, where the fatal field trip originated. The building now houses a hardware store/implement dealer</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7qVJmjPezj43HvWcBHE7Bn57XNcJCmEvdFr0yUrziFjqsGZVIGDN7wViO2lr_08wLD-7Wr-ggbYdUnUSLmVfClSGMZrpBcwgxcfSYtJjFrkxX5ypjwK0ewuAEVCgamyO5JN3ws0yfg30/s1600/masoncitybrick.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7qVJmjPezj43HvWcBHE7Bn57XNcJCmEvdFr0yUrziFjqsGZVIGDN7wViO2lr_08wLD-7Wr-ggbYdUnUSLmVfClSGMZrpBcwgxcfSYtJjFrkxX5ypjwK0ewuAEVCgamyO5JN3ws0yfg30/s640/masoncitybrick.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Mason City Brick and Tile back in the 30s...this is the plant the bus was leaving when it was struck by The Kansas City Rocket.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;">Sometime after lunch they rolled in to Mason City Brick
and and Tile, and started their tour of that facility...it was their
next to last stop of the day...</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">*** </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">...and we'll, for the moment, leave them touring MCB&T
while we take a look at a little bit of Railroad history...trust me
it's both relevant and necessary.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">...By the early Thirties railroads were </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">the</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
way to move large amounts of both people and goods at high speed, and
the steam locomotive was absolute </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">king.
</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Railroads,
however, were looking for more efficient and economical ways to move
said large amounts of goods and people than the steamer. Steam engines were high
maintenance beasts and needed lots of infrastructure to keep them
rolling. Electric locomotives were far more efficient, could haul
legitimate ass, and some railroads made good use of them...but they
required even </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">more
</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">infrastructure
that would need to be built with funds that, in the midst of The
Great Depression, weren't always available.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So, railroad executives took a long, hard look at both the gasoline powered rail cars that
were used on short lines, and the diesel powered switchers that had
been in use here and there since the early part of the decade. And, at some point as they examined them, someone had the thought 'HMMMM...if they took the diesel electric drive system in the
switchers, and made it bigger and more powerful, and put it in a
passenger locomotive.... HMMMMM. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Chins
were likely rubbed meaningfully in every railroad executive board
room in the land, and in 1934 the Burlington, Northern and Quincy
Railroad...better known to railroaders and rail-fans as 'The
Burlington...was the first to actually put the concept into practical use when
they developed, had built, and placed in service a streamlined,
stainless steel, articulated train-set they called '</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Pioneer Zephyr'. </span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">While
a full description of this pretty amazing machine would be far too
long for this post, lets just say it was successful, and </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">fast.
</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Like
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">REAL</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
fast. As in 'Denver to Chicago in just over 13 hours' fast, on it's inaugural trip in May of 1934.
That's an average speed of 77 or so Miles Per Hour. It was also a huge success, staying in service until 1960.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Now lets fast forward a few years to the Chicago, Rock
Island, and Pacific Railroad...better known as simply The Rock
Island. Their big revenue earner </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">on their primarily Midwestern routes</span> was freight...particularly
agricultural freight...and the
combination of The Great Depression, and the Great Dust Bowl hit them with
a double-whammy, reducing freight volume...and thus
profits... astronomically. As 1934 drew to a close, bankruptcy was looming like a malignant storm cloud just over the horizon</span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In 1935 the Rock Island gained a new CEO by the name of
Ed Durham, who hired a guy </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">named John Farrington</span> to act as what would likely be called Chief Operations Officer today. Farrington immediately set
about scrapping aging equipment, accumulating capital from then sale
of said old stuff, and using the capitol to modernize the Rock Island's operations. The Crown Jewels of this modernization
would be six semi-articulated streamliners pulled by EMC Diesel
locomotives, to be named 'Rockets' </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRYUF4RJ-wHof0e5G8T5F9vggqrLaVkuYdmzV1dDzK1u_vlsN_PmmIWOB9Z74TMUX3NWWvbx-qhrhVwJRHja1Gk16IChHUpRM_0m2KMdDC6HHTC6jvIEYgI04ijj1eIQd_H7lobfG7iM/s1600/ff07b.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRYUF4RJ-wHof0e5G8T5F9vggqrLaVkuYdmzV1dDzK1u_vlsN_PmmIWOB9Z74TMUX3NWWvbx-qhrhVwJRHja1Gk16IChHUpRM_0m2KMdDC6HHTC6jvIEYgI04ijj1eIQd_H7lobfG7iM/s640/ff07b.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Promotional painting of the <i>Rockets</i> used for advertising. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">These
trains looked radically different from The Zephyrs. The EMC
locomotives that were delivered in 1937 would have looked modern to
any kid, railroader, or rail fan of the 50s and 60s, with their
rounded nose, set back, full width cab, split windshield and slab
sides. The trains, like the Zephyrs, were semi-permanently coupled,
articulated train sets, and like the Zephyrs, they were </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">fast,
</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">but
the <i>Rockets</i> improved on the earlier streamliners...they were both more powerful
(A V16 diesel of 1200 HP V/S a V-8 of 600) </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">and</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
more comfortable, featuring wide seats and cocktail bars. They were
also only semi-articulated, making them more practical. While the two or three coaches were
permanently coupled together, the locomotives and observation cars
were coupled to the trains using conventional couplings, so they could be used in other applications if needed.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">There were six <i>Rockets</i>, and they were put in service on
five routes, each train named after it's route.:</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The <i><b>Texas Rocket</b></i>
ran from Fort Worth to Houston, Texas.</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The <i><b>Rocky Mountain
Rocket</b></i> ran from Kansas City, Missouri to Denver, Colorado.</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The <i><b>Peoria Rocket</b></i><b>
</b>ran from Chicago to Peoria, Illinois. </div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The <i><b>Des Moines
Rocket</b></i><i> </i>ran from Chicago, Illinois to Des Moines, Iowa.</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And, for this post, most
importantly...</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The <i><b>Kansas City
Rocket, </b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">which
ran </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">two </span></i>trains
daily from Minneapolis to Kansas City, Missouri.
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The afternoon run from
Kansas City to Minneapolis is the run we're looking at...and this
brings us back to the kids at Mason City Brick and Tile...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
*** </div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The tour of Mason City Brick
and Tile probably took an hour or so, then the kids trooped out
of the building into the crisp fall air and climbed aboard the bus,
grabbing their seats. We all well know and remember the hierarchy of school
bus seating, whether it's a brand spanking new 2016 Thomas or Bluebird with all
the bells and whistles or an 80+ year old wooden bodied bus with
perimeter bench seating. The bus fills up from back to front. You
save a seat for your best friend. And of course your girlfriend. And,
to that end, fifteen year old Corwin Peer (Bet his friends called him
'Cor') held hands with pretty
sixteen year old LaVonne Helmke and the two of them walked to the
rear of the bus and plopped down in the last two seats on the right
side of the ride, giving each other those looks and smiles that have been
the proprietary domain of teenage couples from time eternal, Levonne likely giving Corwin a couple of those giggly, nose-crinkly little smiles that
girls have turned their boyfriends to putty with for centuries. Keep these two in mind.<br />
<br />
The kids were
probably getting tired, and they still had one more business to tour
before setting out on the two hour ride that would put them back
home in Renwick in time for a late supper, but they <i>still </i><span style="font-style: normal;">
had reserves of energy that only kids that age can boast of. They
were laughing and joking and talking, and goofing off, and having a
good old time. As I've noted, that's the primary purpose of a field
trip from a kids-eye view. Sadly, their good time...and their lives...were about to be brutally shattered.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-F8BIWUFY4BGL2Ogphtkxc712nuHAyBgYeY7Ox9_1FHzV6gPqv9LiniV_qwW5Tz_G04p35MlxNmzLC4654dCCgsr3t336LfCnHt59d8m8NRW-qTGAaFFWmbxcMO2Het707OcwMFm3EXU/s1600/MAson+City%252C+Iowa.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-F8BIWUFY4BGL2Ogphtkxc712nuHAyBgYeY7Ox9_1FHzV6gPqv9LiniV_qwW5Tz_G04p35MlxNmzLC4654dCCgsr3t336LfCnHt59d8m8NRW-qTGAaFFWmbxcMO2Het707OcwMFm3EXU/s640/MAson+City%252C+Iowa.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A satellite view of the south end of Mason City, with the approximate area of the accident...shown in further detail in the satellite view below...noted,. The Rocket's inbound route in denoted with red dashes. This area, deeply inside the boundaries of Mason City today, was on the far southwest city line in 1935. </span></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkT89nowBEugz_iI5GhK8-SScAKN-9DlK-aUQFHpqsBISujv5S_6Of73V9Ha5N-ukXxYOdqky5nKD8rYHaof9R38jPTWsDtpCPwSDoer2p36PRXkJBJvIwSKFUzZl3mAcSIhTUiuPR6yk/s1600/MAson+City%252C+Iowa+Probable+accident+area.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkT89nowBEugz_iI5GhK8-SScAKN-9DlK-aUQFHpqsBISujv5S_6Of73V9Ha5N-ukXxYOdqky5nKD8rYHaof9R38jPTWsDtpCPwSDoer2p36PRXkJBJvIwSKFUzZl3mAcSIhTUiuPR6yk/s640/MAson+City%252C+Iowa+Probable+accident+area.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Approximate area where Mason City Brick and Tile...and the accident...were located. Try as I might, I couldn't narrow it down any further. We do know a few things though. (1) The Rocket was headed north, slowing as it approached Mason City's train station. (2) the bus was leaving Mason City Brick And Tile...which had buildings on both sides of the Rock Island R.R. main line. (3) It was enroute to it's final stop on the tour, and was probably working it's way back towards US 18 (Now Business Route 18), their route home. (4) The bus was hit on the left side, so it was heading west, north, or at least in a northwesterly direction when it reached the fatal crossing.</span> <br />
<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Interesting little factoid, BTW...The grade crossing I circled in yellow, right at the top left corner of the outlined area, is an unprotected crossing...I found this out as I was checking street view. Admittedly, it's on a siding serving several businesses rather than a main line, but this proves that unprotected crossings not only still exist, but do so even in urban areas. One this close to the site where a major bus/train accident occurred...no matter how long ago it was...is interesting, to say the least.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
“OK...if you guys are
ready and are, I don't know, <i>sitting down...</i><span style="font-style: normal;">can
we go?' Renwick was a tiny town, and Rex Simpson had driven the bus
for several years,...all the kids knew him and liked him, and a
couple of good naturedly smart alec remarks...possibly alluding to
their ride's near antique status...very likely followed. </span>Simpson likely just
shook his head equally good naturedly, dropped the bus into gear, let
out the clutch, and eased away from the plant entrance as
conversation and the effervescent energy of youth...that
happy-go-lucky vibe that is the hallmark of any group of
teens...filled the bus.<br />
<br />
Simpson eased along the gravel road leading
out of the plant, moving between piles of just-made bricks the size
of buildings. The MCB&T plant was <i>huge, </i><span style="font-style: normal;">covering
about thirty acres and occupying several buildings. The
building they'd just left was plant 3, and ahead of them was plant
4...the road they were on wound past that building before reaching the street that would take them to their final stop on the trip before heading home, but first they had to cross the Rock Island tracks, which bisected
the plant property.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As they
wound around the huge pile of bricks, Simpson saw a set of tracks,
just beyond and hard by the huge brick-pile....<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
* </div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
...Veteran
Rock Island Road engineer George Simpson (No relation to the bus
driver) considered himself a seriously blessed dude...he was one of
several lucky engineers who'd been anointed as Keepers of the Rocket,
so to speak. He'd taken classes and passed tests and ridden on check
rides to get qualified on the big, state-of-the-art EMC TA Series
diesel-electric locomotive, which was one of the few such noble
mechanical steeds in the nation at the time. Instead of sitting
in a semi open air cab leaning out of a side picture window with wind
and steam blasting him in the face so he could <i>kind</i> of see ahead of him, he sat in an adjustable seat in an enclosed, heated
cab, with excellent forward visibility through a wiper-equipped
car-like windshield. Behind him was the muted rumble of the big V-16
engine, and hum of the generator that powered the traction
motors, as well as one of the most modern trains in the country.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">As
they approached Mason City, the </span><i>Kansas City Rocket </i><span style="font-style: normal;">was
just about two thirds of the way through it's run from Kansas City to
Minneapolis, and they had a stop at Mason City. They would change
crews only ten miles further north...in Manly, Iowa...and the new
crew would take The Rocket on into Minneapolis, stay over night, then on the return trip
take it as far south as Manly, where Simpson's crew would take over
and take her south back to K.C.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">The
</span><i>Rocket </i><span style="font-style: normal;">was barely five
minutes behind schedule as it approached Mason City, identifiable
from a few miles out by the multiple smoke-stacks of Mason City
Brick and Tile, whose property The Rock Island main line cut right
through the middle of. Mason City's Rock Island rail depot was only a
mile or so beyond the plant. As they entered a long, sweeping curve
to the right, Simpson eased the throttle back, and gently applied the
service brakes, taking his time in bringing the Rocket down from her
customary cruising speed of 80 or so to a more sedate twenty-five
miles per hour. They passed the whistle board for the first of
several crossings...almost all private crossings on plant property...
ahead of them, and he reached up to the cab ceiling, grasped the end
of a lanyard, and started yanking it in the time-honored
long-long-short-long crossing warning signal. The horn's sound was
</span><i>still</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> a little strange
to him...rather than the melodic wail of a steam whistle it was the
deep, pissed-off-moose 'WOONK!! of an air horn.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQGJEGi0upfsuFxtGQUWC4EcU86dil-GYKmx9cj7Ekqb8lp77OLkPnqJmaOKrsCFonkMH5LODPNOzXER4nSTUTmYKM0ovZMTEUFSq2JIzscJBzdgv52hFKvy_vP5-ZYJtUjH3tOCAv__U/s1600/Rocky_Mountain_Rocket.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQGJEGi0upfsuFxtGQUWC4EcU86dil-GYKmx9cj7Ekqb8lp77OLkPnqJmaOKrsCFonkMH5LODPNOzXER4nSTUTmYKM0ovZMTEUFSq2JIzscJBzdgv52hFKvy_vP5-ZYJtUjH3tOCAv__U/s640/Rocky_Mountain_Rocket.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">An
in-service photo of The Rocky Mountain Rocket, which was virtually
identical to The Kansas City Rocket. One thing is very much conspicuous
due to it's absence...the smoke column that steam locomotives pumped
skyward, advertising their approach from as much as a mile or so out.
Though the Rockets' EMC-TA diesel locomotives were often jokingly
referred to as honorary steam locomotives because of the heavy smoke
that their Winton V-16 diesel engines produced under heavy acceleration,
they didn't even come close to producing the volume of smoke produced
by a steam locomotive.<br /><br /> This ended up being a problem, not only
for the Rockets, but for all early diesel powered streamliners. (Diesels
didn't enter freight service until the late 40s/early 50s). These early
diesel powered trains were involved in dozens of grade crossing
collisions, and the fact that the driver didn't see a smoke column and
therefore assumed the way was clear was cited as a contributory factor
in the accident's cause on more than a few occasions. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Of course, this <i>wasn't</i> a factor in the Mason City accident, because that pile of bricks blocked Rex Simpson's view of the tracks until the last twenty feet or so before he reached the crossing. One thing that <i>was</i> a factor in the Mason City crash, and in <i>all</i>
of these cases, however, was the fact that if the driver had actually stopped at the crossing and
really looked and listened he'd have seen (and heard) the approaching
train. </span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In Mason
City, kids just getting out of school heard the distinctive
'WOOOONK-WOOOONK-</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">WONK-WOOOONK
of the </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Rocket's</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> air
horn, and beat feet to the Rock Island right of way to watch the big,
bright red diesel and it's train of shining silver passenger cars
roll past. This was a <i>major </i>thrill for these kids. Though this sight is more than
commonplace to us today, and we don't give a diesel locomotive
pulling a train a second's thought (Unless we're late for work and
caught by it), in 1937 this was akin to watching the Shuttle
land...especially if you were, say, a ten year old boy, ten year old
boys (And some ten year old girls) being crazy about trains since
there have </span><i>been</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
trains. Watching the </span><i>Rocket</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
roll past as it eased into the Mason City depot, then maybe heading
down to the depot to get an up-close look at the latest in rail
travel, </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">had become a daily ritual.</span> Today, though, would be different...</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">The
</span><i>Rocket</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> passed another
whistle board as it started threading between MCB&T plants three
and four. There were </span><i>always</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
huge piles of just-made bricks lining the tracks here, and Simpson
likely hated it...it was a safety hazard of the first magnitude.
These were unprotected, unguarded crossings, and the brick piles came
to within twenty feet or less of the crossing that he was rolling up
on. A driver had to stop with the front end of his car almost on top
of the tracks to see. If it was a bigger vehicle...Simpson left that thought unfinished, and eased the
throttle back another notch as they approached the huge pile of
bricks, and the train started slowing as several hundred tons of
momentum fought to keep it moving.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">The
pile of bricks...actually several piles of bricks with narrow ally-ways between them... was </span><i>huge. </i>It was easily a <span style="font-style: normal;">couple of stories tall, and 150 feet on a side, and so close
to the tracks that his fireman actually gave a little involuntary
flinch as the rolled past the near end of it...and that's probably just about when the front
end of the bus rolled into view...and kept coming....</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"> Simpson
instinctively reached up and yanked the brass brake handle all the
way back into emergency as he and his fireman let go with all but
involuntary curses. At 25 miles per hour or so, The </span><i>Rocket</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
was rolling towards the crossing at</span><i> </i><span style="font-style: normal;">thirty-seven
feet and change per second....Round that down to 35 feet per second,
and assume they were still a hundred feet from the crossing when the
bus popped into view, that gave Simpson just over three seconds to
see the bus, grab the brake handle, and yank it back into
emergency...even at only 25 mils per hour, it was a done deal even
before George Simpson lunged for the brake handle...</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"> * </span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
...The
same office-building-sized brick pile that was right on top of the
tracks was just as close to the road, and completely blocked any view
southward down the tracks until drivers were right on top of the
crossing. On top of that, there were a slew of railroad sidings
serving the plant, and the same road probably also crossed a couple
of them, so Rex Simpson very possibly thought he was rolling up on one of
the sidings as he approached the crossing.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
On board
the bus, twenty plus exuberant teenagers were talking and laughing
and cutting up as teenagers are wont to do, probably blocking out the
Rocket's horn...Rex Simpson cleared the brick pile, and, while still
rolling towards the crossing, likely glanced left even as his front
bumper crossed the first rail...his eyes went round with surprised
fright and he desperately foot stabbed the brakes as he saw the front
end of <i>The Rocket's</i> locomotive bearing down on the bus...</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">...George
Simpson was actually looking </span><i>down</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
at the roof of the bus as he yanked the brake handle back, then, as
the brakes grabbed and all of the </span><i>Rocket's</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
wheels locked up, he saw the bus disappear beneath the Locomotive's
bright red bull-nose a micro-instant before he heard a solid
crunching -CRA-WHUMP as a cloud of broken glass and wood splinters
flew up in front of the windshield. Other objects...Oh </span><i>GOD,</i><span style="font-style: normal;">it
was </span><i>kids</i><span style="font-style: normal;">...went
tumbling and spinning out of the bus as it...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
...Burst
like a dropped watermelon. The big diesel locomotive's front end
caught the bus just barely forward of directly amidships, snapping the
body's wooden frame as if it was made of Popsicle sticks and tearing the
thin metal side sheathing as if it was made if cardboard. The left
side of the bus, from the bottom of the window frames down, wrapped
around the front of the locomotive, while all of the rest of the
body, wooden interior sheathing, roof , and seats, blew apart in a
hail of splinters. The rear several feet of the body tore loose from
the chassis and tumbled, breaking apart and tossing kids free to land
near a second brick pile, it's occupants dazed and bruised, but for
the most part, alive...</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
...The
front half of the bus was a different story altogether. The occupants who were sitting at the point of impact were likely killed
instantly then thrown clear as the bus came apart explosively, a
couple of them landing
in front of the train. <br />
<br />
The kids sitting in the right side
seats...who had an instant to contemplate their fate when the
left-side windows suddenly filled with red locomotive as they cleared
the brick pile...were tossed clear as the right side tore away, taking the wooden interior sheathing and seats with it as the thin steel exterior sheathing rolled itself into a ball of mangled
steel next to the tracks, A coupe of
the kids fell in front of the train as they were ejected while others fell clear and rolled, a
couple of them missing death by inches as the bus' shattered frame
rails swept by above them, and the wheels of the locomotive passed
by them so close that they could feel the heat and hear the rumble of
the idling diesel over the scream of wheels against rails...<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">The
kids, for the most part, literally never knew what hit them as the
train hit the bus almost the very second it emerged from behind the
brick pile. While some of the kids sitting on the right side of the bus
may have gotten a glimpse of the front end of the locomotive a
microsecond before it slammed into them, almost all of the
survivors said that all they knew is that one second, they were
talking, joking, and socializing and the next second there was a
sudden, violent crash, and they were outside
of the bus, flying through the air and landing next to the tracks.
M</span>uch like the Rockville crash two years earlier, by some
miracle of luck and physics, many of the survivors weren't badly
injured...this time, however it was the kids in the back of the bus who caught the miracles.<br />
<br />
The rear six or eight feet of the bus body broke away from the rest of the bus and tumbled across the road, breaking apart like an egg shell as it did so. As it tumbled and came apart, the kids sitting on those perimeter benches were tossed clear..or more then likely, the bod broke apart around them. Corwin Peer and LeVonne Helmke were sitting in those last two right-hand seats, both were tossed clear as the rear end of the bus body
tumbled and broke apart. One second Corwin was looking into LaVonne's
eyes as she giggled at his antics, and the next he was rolling across
the ground. He finally stopped rolling, pushed himself up and leaned
back on his arms, realizing that, by some miracle, all he had were a
few bruises. His immediate next thought was 'LaVonne!!!' He stood up,
looking around and spotted her, also pushing her self up off of the
ground, several feet away (She's OK!!!).<br />
<br />
No probably to it even though it's not mentioned anywhere.<i>..</i><span style="font-style: normal;">LaVonne's
next thought as she pushed herself to a sitting position was
something like </span><i>'Oh my God...COR!!! </i><span style="font-style: normal;">and
she looked around even as he</span><i> </i><span style="font-style: normal;">made
it to her in a couple of giant steps, reached down, and and helped
her up...the two of them took quick stock of their injuries and
realized that neither one of them had been badly injured. I have a
feeling that a huge hug and tears took place at that instant. Then
they started looking for their friends, helping other kids up, and
quickly realized that not everyone aboard the bus had been as lucky
as they were.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fifteen
year old Robert Opedahl was another student who had been sitting in
the rear of the bus...he glimpsed the front end of the locomotive
just as it hit them, then the next thing he knew he was on the
ground...as he told investigators 'I must have been knocked out for a
few minutes'. He pulled himself to his feet...also suffering only
minor injuries... and started walking towards the crossing...in short
order he ran up on the bodies of both the vocational class teacher
and the English teacher who'd chaperoned the trip, as well as Rex
Simpson, who was being administered to by Vern Mott... </div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
...Mason
City coal dealer Vern Mott had gone to the plant for a meeting of
some kind, and was on his
way out in his own car, following a hundred or so feet behind the bus. When the bus drew abreast
of the near end of the brick pile, Mott was still a hundred feet away
from it, with a clear view of
the tracks. And, as the sole occupant of his car, he didn't have
twenty-some teenagers making
noise, so he heard the Rocket's horn...he looked towards the south to
see the distinctive,
bright red bull-nose of The Rocket's engine rolling towards the brick
pile. He watched it's approach, admiring it's
clean lines for a second before he looked in front of him, at the bus
again...the bus was still moving.</div>
<br />
Surely whoever was driving the thing heard the <i>Rocket's</i> horn...he's <i>got</i> to be stopping!!! No...wait...<br />
The bus bounced as the front wheels bumped across the first rail. <i>'Oh dear God!!!' </i>He yelled to himself, foot-stabbing his own brakes as the rounded nose of the diesel locomotive appeared from behind the pile of bricks and buried itself in the side of the bus with an explosive 'CRA-WHUMP!, blowing the bus body apart as if a bomb had gone off in it, and tossing kids out as if they were shrapnel. He watched in horror as the engine ripped free and bounced away as the chassis and left side of the bus wrapped themselves around the nose of the locomotive, the right side of the bus wadding up like a balled up piece of foil and tumbling aside as well. The rest of the bus body was nothing more than a mass of shattered splinters.<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ8uHQGLQ9kh4cU1VjRuqO7aSw4sfNfYsCUqhOgijm0kwILTBDdNRcvtPFfL9XP2t6CjBvzTiu27vr-ON9OW14uJ61qZIFrnwux9RhbPqlj5BIeF0gjGeSvfWHGZhdaym2FDxZCz0po6Y/s1600/1937_train_bus_wreck.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="542" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ8uHQGLQ9kh4cU1VjRuqO7aSw4sfNfYsCUqhOgijm0kwILTBDdNRcvtPFfL9XP2t6CjBvzTiu27vr-ON9OW14uJ61qZIFrnwux9RhbPqlj5BIeF0gjGeSvfWHGZhdaym2FDxZCz0po6Y/s640/1937_train_bus_wreck.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">One of the few photos still available of the accident scene, showing the remains of the bus wrapped around the front of <i>The Rocket's </i>diesel locomotive. The bus body was mostly wood, and burst like a dropped watermelon when it was hit. The only thing left is some of the left side exterior sheathing...which was metal...the truck frame, and a small bit of the body's left side window framing. Everything else...interior sheathing, windows, seats...and occupants...was ejected in the crash. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Mott watched in stunned disbelief for a couple of instants as as the chassis rode the nose of the locomotive, shedding parts as it was dragged for nearly five hundred feet, then bailed out of his car
even before the Rocket shuddered to a stop. MCB&T
employees...alerted by the crash..met him as they ran towards the scene. Mott didn't
have far to run before he ran up on the first victim...a teenage boy, who was lying across one of the
rails, his body cut in two by the Rocket's wheels. That horrible scene burned itself indelibly into his brain, then he heard a
grown man sobbing and looked to see the driver, Rex Simpson, curled
up next to the tracks. The bus driver had been tossed clear by the collision...but
not before bouncing off of the front end of the <i>Rocket's</i>
locomotive then, likely, getting dragged several yards by the bus as it
rode the front of the locomotive. It was instantly obvious to
Mott..who reached Simpson about the same time as some of the
passengers and train crew...that Simpson, suffering
massive internal injuries, was dying. He was. however, conscious and kept
repeating 'Oh God...I didn't see it...'</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">One
of the train crew ran to a near-by house, asked if there was a phone,
and was likely told that yes there was, and that help was already on
the way, and sure enough, they could already hear the wail of approaching sirens. Mason
City's fire department had been fully paid, operating out of a single
station, since 1909. The station was also the city hall complex, and
the alarm room was in the same building, so when the bells hit and
the guys started sliding the poles and heading for the rigs, they
knew what they had...one of the dispatchers likely opened the door
out to the bay and yelled something like </span><i>'Bus hit by a
train, guys!!!'</i> to be
answered by the shift's officer in charge telling him 'Get us some
help on the way...heavy on the ambulances!!!</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If the dispatcher was one of the good ones, his reply was likely something to the effect of <i> 'One ahead of ya,
already! </i>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Whether
the ambulance service was hospital based, funeral home based, or even
that very rare gem of that era, a fire department ambulance, the
dispatchers were wearing their fingers out dialing the phone, calling
every number on their list under 'Ambulances', and a couple of dozen
of them were soon on the way from both Mason City and surrounding
communities. Meanwhile, the train crewman called the Rock Island
division headquarters ten miles away, in Manly, and reported the
accident. The train dispatchers started making the calls they
dreaded...to the ICC, Rock Island's corporate headquarters, and the
dozens of other notifications that needed to be made even as a
question they may have asked themselves only minutes ago was likely
answered...where Manley's ambulance was heading when it blew past only a couple of minutes
earlier,
siren screaming, headed for Mason City .</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
There is
little or nothing on-line about MCFD's actions at the scene, ditto
the various ambulance crews, but, with the miraculous lack of serious
injuries, I have a feeling that the injured were transported pretty
quickly...even the few serious to critical injuries were loaded and
transported quickly as 1937 was still deeply in the era of
'Pre-hospital Care equals Ambulance With Big Engine And Lead-Footed
Driver'. In other words there <i>was</i> no actual prehospital care
other than splinting and bandaging, and attempting to stop bleeding. The injured kids were quickly placed on a stretcher, loaded, and transported.<br />
<br />
We have to keep one thing in mind about <i>all</i> of these early accidents (Of <i>all</i>l<i> </i>kinds...not just train-school bus accidents) There was <i>no</i> true pre-hospital care at all. The EMS mantra of 'Airway, Airway, Airway' wasn't a mantra yet. Spinal Immobilization? T'warnt none. Back Board??...that's what's behind the basket in basketball, right? Serious trauma patients,were two strikes down with the third strike
coming in over the plate if they weren't <i>real</i> close to a
hospital. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
At least in Mason City the great majority of the survivors suffered only minor injuries, and the transports were short...Mason City had two hospitals, Mercy and Park, both only a couple of miles form the scene...so the patients were in Emergency Rooms with-in minutes of being loaded into an ambulance. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
crews who transported patients were the lucky ones...like all of
these crashes, this was a truly horrible scene to work. Bodies were
mangled, and dismembered, often beyond recognition, and had to be
left in place as the initial parts of the investigation kicked off
before being taken to a morgue, probably at one of the hospitals.
There was reportedly blood all over the scene, even after the bodies
were removed, for days afterward.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Word
of the accident made it back to Renwick almost as quickly as it did
to the ICC, and car loads of parents made the sixty mile trip to
Mason City to search for their kids. Back in the day, when fire
departments had to deal with what's now called a 'Mass Casualty Incident',
or 'MCI' there was little or no documentation as to where any given
patient was transported. The patients were just loaded in an
ambulance...often two or three at a time...and the ambo driver then
hauled ass to the hospital. This, of course, meant that officials,
when approached by frantic parents, had no clue which hospital their
kids were taken to, making for a heart-rending, frantic, frustrating
search. This, in fact, is a problem that hasn't been fully solved to this day.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As noted above, Mason
City had two hospitals at the time...Park and Mercy...and all of the
injured were transported to one of those two hospitals. The kids with
the worst injuries were taken to Park, while the lesser injured went
to Mercy. The parents arrived in Mason City in force (I can only hope
that the bodies and, even worse, parts of bodies had been at least
covered if not removed before they got there) and went on that frantic search that's
so much a part of this type of cataclysmic accident. And, just like
the Rockville crash, for the most part they either had the weight of
a house lifted off of their shoulders when they found their
kids...bandaged, slightly battered, but alive...or devastating grief
when they found that their children had died.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of
course this time the families of the driver and two teachers also
lost a loved one. Also, not all of the patients in the two hospitals survived...fifteen year old Lillian Cedar, suffering from a skull
fracture, died at Park Hospital the day after the accident. Rex
Simpson died on the way to the hospital.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Statements
were taken from the train crew, and, after a couple of wreckers
removed the mangled bus chassis from the front of the locomotive, <i>The
Rocket</i> was allowed to proceed to Manly, where the new crew took
over as planned. Though it wasn't stated anywhere, and I, sadly,
couldn't find the ICC report for this one, I have a feeling that, at
the very least, Engineer George Simpson was asked to return to Mason
City, or at least to get in contact with ICC investigators, so he could give them a statement.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Thing
is, this was probably one of the easiest investigations that the ICC
(Or it's successor, the NTSB, for that matter) ever had to tackle...all
any of the investigators had to do was look at the driver's sight-line at the
crossing. Not only was the sight-line screwed up, there, basically,
<i>was</i> no sight-line. The view south down the tracks was
completely hidden from drivers exiting the plant until they
were, very literally, right on top of the crossing, and train crews
couldn't see vehicles approaching the crossing at all, until they
were all but on the tracks.<br />
<br />
This was a failing of both the railroad and, even
more so, MCB&T. I mean, come on...you can't tell me that the
people who had to use that crossing daily didn't, when the brick pile
grew high and large enough to hide the tracks, think to
themselves 'This is an accident just <i>waiting</i> to happen'. And,
of course, they were proven right. I have to wonder, had enough
people...or maybe the <i>right</i> people... pointed this out to
MCB&T's management, if something could or would have been done about the
hazard, but that, of course, is a tragically moot point. No one did
say anything, or if they did they were ignored. As result, ten people died...seven teens with their entire lives ahead of them, along with
two dedicated teachers, and a well liked bus driver who was said to
actually be a very competent and safe driver, died.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course we can't blame all of this on MCB&T's unfortunate placement of outside storage. Rex Simpson (Broken record time again) just drove onto the
tracks without looking, which is <i>never</i> a good idea. OK, I hear
you guys...'<i>Wait, Rob...he couldn't see the tracks...'</i></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">And you're right...he</span> <i>couldn't</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">see
</span><i>down </i><span style="font-style: normal;">the tracks. But
he could see the crossing in front of him. He could, and should, have
taken what ever action was needed, up to and including stopping the
bus and asking one of the kids to step out and take a look up the
tracks, for him. (A policy that was put in place in Utah after the
Sandy bus accident, and in rural school districts nation-wide after
the Evans bus crash).</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Even
if he thought the crossing was one of the many sidings that served
the plant, he still should have stopped...remember, </span><i>The Rocket</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
wasn't doing but about 25 mph, and maybe less, when it hit the bus,
which was old, wood framed, and as fragile as china when involved
with a collision with anything much bigger than a baseball. Getting
hit by a switch engine would have likely been just as devastating as
getting hit by a train on the main line. </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">As
I noted above, and as seems to be the case in just about </span><i>all</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
of theses accidents, Rex was considered to be very competent, very
safe, and he was well liked and well respected by the kids who rode
his bus. </span>the only problem is, no matter how competent and safe you are, it doesn't
take but one momentary lapse in judgement or attention, one mistake, to wipe that sterling record out and cause a
tragedy.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">It
still amazes me more than a little that, with the major train-school
bus accidents piling up and the death toll from them rising, it </span><i>still</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
took more than two decades for State laws requiring school bus
drivers to stop at railroad crossings to be federally mandated.
When such laws </span><i>were</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
finally put in place, it was said by many...and especially by
legislators pontificating after they were on the books... that 'Every
one of these accidents added a little bit of impetus to passing laws
that insured the safety of Our Nations Children when riding to and
from school.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Only
thing is, I have a feeling that this was little comfort to the
parents who lost children, the kids who lost friends, and the
families of the two teachers and Rex Simpson.<br />
<br />
************************************************************************************<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
List of those who died in the accident.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: large;">Rex Simpson, 35, driver of the bus.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: large;"> Lauren Morton, 29, teacher.<br />
Miss Dorothy Ross, 24, teacher.<br />
Patsy Turner, 16, student.<br />
Donald Amosson, 15, student.<br />
Norman A. Eggerth, 15, student.<br />
Lowell Kelling, 15, student.<br />
Albert Siemans, 16, student.<br />
James Bell, 15, student.<br />
Lillian Cedar, 15, student.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: small;">************************************************************************************* </span>
</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***>Notes,
Links, and Stuff<***></b></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>The other posts in this series</b></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>in the order they were posted.</b></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html</a> Evans, Colo December 1961 </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html</a> Spring City Tenn. August 1955</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html</a> Congers New York </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
March 1972</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html</a> Lake Station Indiana</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
October 1971</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html</a> Stratton Nebraska </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
August 1976</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.htm</a> Fox River Grove Illinois October 1995</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html</a> Conasauga Tenn. March 2000<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html </a> Sandy, Utah Dec 1938<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html</a> Proberta, California Nov 1921<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html</a> Shreve and Berea Ohio Jan. 1930<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html</a> Crescent City, Florida December 1933<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html</a> Rockville, Maryland April 1935<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html</a> MAson City, Iowa Oct. 1937<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html</a> Eads, Tennessee Oct. 1941<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<***></div>
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is another one that I
really thought there'd be a little more info online about than there
actually was. I would have <i>really</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
liked to have had the ICC report for this one, but it just wasn't to
be. Oh, I was even able to find the ICC report number...but searching
that very same number yielded, at best, a couple of dead links. It
just wasn't gonna happen.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I did
find a couple of good newspaper articles about the accident, as well
as both another blog post and a second genealogy site that gave me
the names of victims and participants, some of the accident details, and a decent
personal interest angle. But this is still one that I wish I
could have found more info on if for no other reason that it was the
very first major loss of life grade crossing accident involving a
diesel locomotive.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sometimes
though, I'm already behind the eight-all before I even start when I'm
working on one of these posts, and I think this was one of them. Of
course, as I've noted before, the further back you go, the less
likely it is you're going to find much on any given incident unless
it's truly infamous, truly legendary, or really unusual. and even
then, sometimes there's less info than you'd expect.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is
especially true for motor vehicle accidents if, for no other reason,
because they were (And still are) so common. Back in the day it
wasn't that uncommon for a two car accident to kill five or more
people because of lack of safety equipment and less than stellar
highways. (Sadly, we seem to be swinging <i>back</i> in that direction despite loads of built-in safety and far better highways
than existed even thirty years ago).</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But I
digress...I had to do a bit of speculating on this one, but I always
do. I hope made it informative, and a good read while I was at it.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So...On
to the notes!</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">When
the Rocket went in service, there were already several other diesel
powered streamliners in service throughout the country, and they
were racking up one statistic that </span><i>wasn't</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
made known to the public, that stat being the number of vehicles that
were being struck at grade crossings.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There was a reason that the streamliners
were being involved in so many grade crossing accidents, and it was,
simply put, because they were diesels. Before the first
streamliner...the legendary Pioneer Zephyr...went in service in 1934,
the great majority of road locomotives were steam engines, with a few
electric locomotives thrown into the mix.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Motorists were used to looking for the moving column of
smoke that marked the head end of oncoming trains, and that was,
during the day, often visible well before the train itself came into
view. In several instances, when the vehicles driver survived the
collision with a diesel powered streamliner, they claimed that they didn't realize a train was coming because they didn't see any smoke. Also, the diesel locomotive's
air horn sounded nothing like a steam locomotive's whistle (Note
here...back then the air horns of diesel locomotives were single
chime horns, which sounded more like a truck horn than what we think
of as a train horn.) and it's not at all impossible to conceive of a
driver not familiar with the sound of a streamliner's air horn
wondering just what the heck he was hearing and not realizing it was
a train. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Interestingly enough, in areas served by electric
locomotives...the </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pennsylvania Railroad's</span> iconic GG-1 comes instantly
to mind...motorists were far more familiar with the
sound of a locomotive air horn as the GG-1 (And other electric
locomotives in use in the Northeastern United States ) used the same
air horns that were installed on Diesel locomotives.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Though grade crossing accidents involving the new
stream-liners were unusually common during the first several years
they were in service, the Mason City bus crash was the first major
loss of life accident involving a diesel locomotive. Sadly, it
wouldn't be the last.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The proliferation of grade crossing accidents involving
diesel locomotives had been seen as a problem well before the Mason
City crash, and railroad executives as well as Government regulators
probably burned a few barrels of midnight oil and scratched their
chins raw trying to come up with a solution to the problem. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">One of the biggest factors in the number of collisions
was thought to be the lack of that moving smoke column to give
drivers a heads-up that a train was coming. Just between all of you
and me, I think that was a huge oversimplification of the
problem...the real problem was drivers not paying attention, a
problem that had been worked on since railroads came into being, but
it was also a problem that they could at least try do something about. Something had to be developed to take the place of the smoke column as an
attention getting device.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Enter a Chicago firefighter named Jerry Kennely, who was
assigned as the driver on one of CFD's truck companies. Like
apparatus drivers world wide he was frustrated by motorists who
seemingly ignored his rig's lights and sirens. He often used the
rig's spotlight, sweeping it side to side, to grab other drivers'
attention. This was, in fact,a very effective trick, but he often
needed a third hand to do it, so he rigged a windshield wiper motor
to the spotlight. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Now, Frank Mars...of Mars Candy Company fame...was not
only creator of various and sundry well loved candy bars, he was
also a fire buff of the first magnitude. And he lived in Chicago. And
he'd seen Jerry's motor equipped spot light in action. So he visited
the station Jerry was assigned to, had a talk with him, ideas were
exchanged, patents obtained, and The Mars Light was born. And yes,
the first ones were indeed made at The Mars Candy Company.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The Mars Light was (And is) an oscillating warning light
with the light moving in a 'Figure 8' pattern, and it became a huge
hit with the fire service...and wouldn't ya know that, shortly after
the Mason City crash, an executive of The Rock Island Line saw a
Chicago fire rig running a fire call, noted the Mars Light, and
thought 'HMMMM'.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So more meetings were arranged, a larger test light was
fabricated and installed on a freight locomotive, and knocked it out
of the park. Now, I'm having to leave a lot of stuff out here...this
is, after all, just a note...but Patents were obtained for the
railroad version of the light, and some of the first installations
were on the EMD TA series locomotives on the <i>Rockets. </i>I have a
feeling that crossing accidents decreased by at least a little because
of that oscillating white beam. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a7F25Q6LUls" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">A video, courtesy of the Colorado Railroad Museum, of a Mars
light in action on former Rio Grande R.R. F9 Diesel locomotive
#5771...the last of these classic locomotives in service with the Rio
Grande. It
shows the light's effectiveness very handily, as well as showing why the
light...in both Railroad and Emergency Vehicle warning light
applications...is known as the 'Mars 888'. Look at the pattern the moving light's throwing against the trees at about fifty seconds into the video. Interestingly enough, the original installations of the Mars Lights, on the Rockets, was the reverse of this one, On the Rockets' EMC locomotives </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">the Mars Light</span> was below, rather than above, the primary headlight, as shown below.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzS3NpiGFrKsUQBwY5WMK4SEUI4b_WsmIrYQpfvP_dTXsPK665IYmh7wHn-qacReLIYzPeipU6kATg07tHzOyykhph_8twVEXPHY9ALDYyqlMgb-kli0jkzpyEH-Dv4TTnoVIyXNYj9M/s1600/Rock_Island_TA4+WMArs+Light+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="hoverZoomLink" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzS3NpiGFrKsUQBwY5WMK4SEUI4b_WsmIrYQpfvP_dTXsPK665IYmh7wHn-qacReLIYzPeipU6kATg07tHzOyykhph_8twVEXPHY9ALDYyqlMgb-kli0jkzpyEH-Dv4TTnoVIyXNYj9M/s640/Rock_Island_TA4+WMArs+Light+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">The <i>Kansas City Rocket </i>at the station, some time after the Mason City accident, in Wichita, showing the locomotive's Mars light installation.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Several other companies got in on the act, most notably
Pyle National with their Gyralite, which used a reflector that
oscillated in a circular pattern and was first installed on
locomotives in 1948, but Mars was the original, the best known, the only
one whose lights used that very <i>very </i>effective (And patented)
'888' pattern and the only one that supplied warning lights to both
railroads and the fire service. They also had the coolest slogan of
the bunch ('The Light From Mars').</span></div>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Mars is still around...very much so in fact...as a
subsidiary of Tri Lite Corporation, and their lights are <i>still</i>
installed on fire apparatus and locomotives to this day. And trust
me, they are uber-effective. Chesterfield, Petersburg<i>, </i>and
Richmond Virginia have all used Mars Lights on their fire rigs at one time or
the other, and in the days before LED lights, when there were fewer
front-facing warning lights on the rigs, you noticed the Mars Light well
before you noticed the others.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As for locomotive Mars Lights...they are both bigger and
brighter than the FD warning lights, and were some of the most
effective warning lights ever installed on locomotives. Sometimes you
could see that oscillating beam for miles before the train actually
hove into view. And there's very little cooler looking than watching
a Mars Light equipped locomotive approaching a crossing in light rain
or fog. Both Mars Lights and Gyralites are still manufactured and
installed on locomotives, but both are, sadly, passing to the
wayside as they are replaced by less expensive...and in most peoples'
opinions less effective... alternating ditch lights.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">. Of course, all the warning lights in the world
wouldn't have prevented the Mason City crash, but if the Mars Lights
and Gyralites prevented even one driver from driving in front of an
oncoming train in the years after that accident, they proved their
worth.</span></div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I posted this as a note in the Rockville Md post, but, as both that accident and the Mason City accident involved high school kids, it bears noting here as well...<span style="font-size: small;">so again, I'll mention the <i>lack</i> of a 12<sup>th</sup> grade in that era. I have a sneaking
suspicion that several readers have picked up on the fact that none
of the kids on the bus, most of whom were seniors, had reached the
age of 17 yet, despite the fact that the accident happened in October, very soon after the start of the school year. There's a reason
for this, of course. In 1937, there <i> was </i>no 12<sup>th</sup>
grade, and kids were 16 (And sometimes 15, depending on where during the year their birthday fell ) when they reluctantly dragged themselves out of bed on the first day of their senior year and 17 (And occasionally 16, ditto) when they marched in to the auditorium
or onto the football field to the strains of 'Pomp and Circumstance'.</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This, of course, also meant that the four years of high
school...Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior...were each pushed
back a year, making eighth grade the Freshman year of high school.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This changed in 1941, when the 12<sup>th</sup> grade was
added in the great majority of school systems nationwide. This, of
course, meant that everyone who started the 1939-40 school year off
in one of the four years of high school suddenly found themselves
with an <i>extra year </i>of high school ahead of them. The 1939 11<sup>th</sup>
grade class would have graduated as the class of '40, and would have
been the last 11<sup>th</sup> grade class to be seniors. This also
meant that there wasn't a class of 1941, because the rising 11<sup>th</sup>
graders were now Juniors, and there was no actual Senior class. Ninth
grade became the Freshman class, and eighth grade was knocked back to
being the last year of junior high. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I don't know what would have been
worse...being in 10<sup>th</sup> grade in 39-40, thinking 'Next
year's my last year'...and suddenly having <i>two</i> more years to
go before you graduate, or being in 8<sup>th</sup> grade in '39-40,
and having to spend two years as a Freshman! </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b> </span><br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Back during the Thirties (And, as the video I'm getting ready to post notes, for many years afterwards) Renwick Independent School gave it's students and faculty, and the citizens of Renwick (All 432 strong back in 1937) a real treat on the last day of school. They packed all of the kids and teachers onto buses and cars and headed to a local park for food, fun, ball games, and a general awesome time...a day that was looked forward to all year and the kind of laid back, fun filled day that, sadly, has become a thing of the past in our hectic world today.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We're interested in one particular last-day picnic, though. The one that occurred om May 21, 1937, just five months before the Mason City bus accident. One of the participants filmed that year's picnic using a very early home movie camera, and watching the film we see that kids really haven't changed that much when it comes to the art of 'Having Fun', but we also see something else...some of the last pics, moving or still, taken of some of these kids. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Early in the video one of the narrators notes that it can't be any later than 1937 because of the people included in the video...though he doesn't state it, he's referring, at least in part, to the fact that several of the kids seen in the video were killed in the bus crash only five months later. One of the victims...sixteen year old Patsy Turner...is, in fact, identified by the female narrator, walking with a group of her friends, at 2:21 into the clip. Several of the other kids seen in the video, though not identified by name as being involved in the accident,, were either killed or injured in the crash. And <i>everyone</i> in the video knew <i>everyone </i>who was on that bus. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5LAeGALgyvE" width="560"></iframe>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Early on in the video, you see a kid in a white shirt who's bursting with energy waving at the camera as he runs across the frame...the very same kid seen waving at the camera on the right side of the still frame for the video.That's Corwin Peer (His cousin's the film's female narrator, BTW). <i>Speaking</i> of Corwin, as well as his girlfriend...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b> </span>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There was a tiny bright speck of light amid all the
tragedy at Mason City...but it took a few years for anyone to realize
it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Remember Corwin Peer and LaVonne Helmke? The teenage
couple who grabbed the last two seats at the back of the bus?
Remember Corwin thinking, first and foremost of his girlfriend as he
regained consciousness after getting ejected in the accident?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The two of them dated all the way through high school,
and got married on New Years Eve, 1942. They lived a long, fruitful
life, and were married for sixty-four years...Corwin passed away on
Jan 16<sup>th</sup> 2006, and LaVonne passed away just under three
years later, on Jan 1, 2009, a day after the 66<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of her and Cor's (Again...you just <i>know</i> that was
his nickname, right up to the day he died) marriage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> <b><span style="font-size: medium;"><***>LINKS<***></span></b></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Wasn't that much on-line about the Mason City accident, but at least one of the links was a pretty awesome blog for car enthusiasts...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://throwinwrenches.blogspot.com/2014/01/taking-time-for-safety-train-collisions.html">http://throwinwrenches.blogspot.com/2014/01/taking-time-for-safety-train-collisions.html </a></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Blog post about the Mason City that also goes into detail about the history</span> <span style="font-size: small;">of the <i>Rock Island Rockets </i>as well as early streamliners in general. The video I posted is also posted here. 'Throwing Wrenches' is an absolutely <i>awesome</i> blog if you're a car nut, BTW...when you finish the post about the bus crash, check out the rest of the blog. Be warned though...you'll end up in front of your computer reading for a few hours!</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://iagenweb.org/cerrogordo/news/1937train_bus_wreck.htm">http://iagenweb.org/cerrogordo/news/1937train_bus_wreck.htm</a> An article from an Iowa History and genealogy site that also bears exploring if you like history. </span></span></span></div>
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<div id="hzImg" style="background-color: white; border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.33) 3px 3px 9px 5px; cursor: pointer; display: none; left: 103px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 4133px; z-index: 2147483647;"></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-61475662112343405912016-03-21T11:52:00.002-04:002023-03-27T22:36:59.801-04:00Eads Tennessee Train/School Bus Crash Oct 1941<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Eads
Tennessee Train/School Bus Crash Oct 1941</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Some
accidents just defy explanation. Oh, the root cause...say, 'Driver of
bus drove onto an active railroad-highway grade crossing in front of
an oncoming train'...may be as obvious as sand on a beach, but the
<i>reason</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">said driver drove onto
that crossing may be an ongoing mystery that may never be solved.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Several, if not most, of the accidents I've covered in
this series of posts fall under that very heading. The driver, if he
survived the accident, may offer a reason that he didn't stop, but
the parents of the kids involved, the investigating officials, and the
general public at large may just look askance at that reason and say
'Yeahhhh...right...no way you didn't see the train' and assign their
own reason...carelessness, impatience, apathy, some combination of
the above...to the accident. This opinion then becomes the official
unofficial reason the accident happened. Note here I specified <i>reason
</i>that the accident happened. For our purposes here, there's a
subtle difference between 'Cause' and 'Reason'. The 'Cause' is the
official, physical action, along with contributing or mitigating
factors, that resulted in the accident happening. The <i>reason</i>
however digs a little deeper...it involves the mindset of the person
primarily responsible for the accident in the first place. </span>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Every once in a while, the reason an accident happens is
so obvious that it jumps out and punches you. Two train-bus crashes,
fifty years apart and both also in Tennessee... <a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html">Conasauga, Tennessee</a>,
and <a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html">Spring City Tennessee</a>...come immediately to mind. Both of those
drivers intentionally ignored laws in order to save time, and as a
result children died and both drivers saw the insides of jail cells. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html">Fox River Grove Illinois</a> on the other end of the scale,
was a true and tragic if entirely avoidable accident, but also had
both an immediately obvious cause, and an almost equally obvious
reason for that cause to be able to exist in the first place.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The drivers in those three accidents all survived and
were therefore able to offer their own reasons for the accident
happening, as improbable as those reasons may have been. If, however,
the driver dies in the accident, forever taking his thoughts and
reasonings with him, and there are no known mitigating circumstances
that could have prevented him from seeing the on-coming train or even stopping at the crossing, you just
might have a true mystery on your hands. While I've already posted
about a couple of these...</span><a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html">Proberta,California</a> and <a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">Mason City Iowa</a> come immediately to mind...the accident I'm posting about in this
article just may be the most mystifying one of the bunch.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">We're
heading back to October 1941, to the then extremely rural
southwestern corner of Tennessee... Whoa Rob, I hear ya say...you're
talking about Memphis. Memphis basically </span><i>is</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">the
southwest corner of Tennessee, and, even 74 years ago, there wasn't a
whole lot rural about Memphis...</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Chill, gang...I'm talking about the county that calls
'The Blues City' it's county seat...Shelby County, which was, indeed,
very rural back then. Now, today, Memphis takes up the entire
southwestern quadrant of the county, with a narrow eastward-pointing
finger of the city actually splitting the east end of the county in
two, while several small cities further divide those two halves of the
eastern and northern portions of the county into even smaller </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">chunks of</span> rural forest, farmland and small incorporated
communities. Really, look below, on the right, at a map of present day Shelby
County...there isn't a whole lot of truly rural area left. Now, look below, left ,at a map of Shelby County from 1941...</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioZqvkWw9zsE7G3zk9GQHsyDx4gVp7cN1hAWVzA9oYwZLD50QgHTT8UA4Zzc5MywBB8KdJpaXE1lRd8ecHFstN0iUftzGKZf23X6RQs9Kc74OWbvMkeqsFO9EEbCJ8t17WyII8i5iLYzM/s1600/Shelby+County+Then+And+Now.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioZqvkWw9zsE7G3zk9GQHsyDx4gVp7cN1hAWVzA9oYwZLD50QgHTT8UA4Zzc5MywBB8KdJpaXE1lRd8ecHFstN0iUftzGKZf23X6RQs9Kc74OWbvMkeqsFO9EEbCJ8t17WyII8i5iLYzM/s640/Shelby+County+Then+And+Now.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
To see just how much more rural Shelby County was back in 1941 than it is today, take a look at this side by side comparison. I grabbed the Wikipedia map showing the cities of Shelby County, looked up a map of Memphis from 1941 (1940 was the closest I could find) as well as a map of annexations over the years (Memphis went on an annexation binge starting in 1944 or so and ending in the last decade and a half.) and made a quick and approximate schematic of Shelby County 1941 vs Shelby County today. <br />
<br />
While I had to guess at both circa 1941 Memphis' exact location on Shelby County's western border and 1941 locations with-in the county for the other six then-tiny towns, this little schematic still gets the point I wanted to make across. In 1941, Shelby County was almost all rural land. All of the towns, with the exception, of course, of Memphis, had populations of under 1000 back in '41, with several miles of farmland and woods separating them. Eads was surrounded by miles of rural farmland and woods on all sides.<br />
<br />
Today, Memphis, Germantown and Collierville are contiguous as are Memphis, Bartlett, Lakeland, and Arlington. Eads, while it still has a good bit of unincorporated land to the west and south, is hard by that narrow eastward-pointing finger of Memphis, and is on the far eastern side of an island of unincorporated land with cities on three sides.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">...A</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">nd you can see that, back
in 1941, Memphis was <i>way</i> smaller, both population and
area-wise. Also, all of those small cities were tiny towns boasting between
400 and 1000 or so people back then,</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and most of the county was made up of rural farmland and woods with a few </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">unincorporated rural communities scattered around.</span></span></span> One of those tiny rural communities is still to
this day unincorporated, unannexed by Memphis, and almost as rural as it was in 1941. And that </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">tiny</span></span></span> community, situated hard by the Shelby County-Fayette
County line in the far east central end of Shelby County, is Eads,
Tennessee. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span>If you were able to also look at two maps of Eads...one from 1941, and one
from today...side by side it'd take you just about two seconds flat
to realize that the street layout hasn't changed at all in the last
74 years and change. I-269 has been added on the western edge of the
village, of course, and the main roads have been widened and marked,
and most importantly for our story, the Nashville, Chattanooga, and
St Louis Railroad's tracks are long gone, but a resident who moved
away as a child in 1941 could very likely return as a senior citizen today and
find their way around with no problem at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9pP-Ac0wwcsIzwYJOf2S54CL34nbW-hRWTcjDFd-ULMZEZSanqeM4BgkWzWvYNNImGjF3HsXmJJu9tBGX9cJgGFBRJAHVaxkl2BP1-PGiiiKALxRScSJ-KDslnoXLPxTtjMkCzOrKC2U/s1600/Untitled.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9pP-Ac0wwcsIzwYJOf2S54CL34nbW-hRWTcjDFd-ULMZEZSanqeM4BgkWzWvYNNImGjF3HsXmJJu9tBGX9cJgGFBRJAHVaxkl2BP1-PGiiiKALxRScSJ-KDslnoXLPxTtjMkCzOrKC2U/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">If you got rid of I-269, and made US-64/Tenn. 15 a two lane road, this
map of Eads would look almost exactly like a map of Eads from 1941.
complete with SR 205 (Arlington.Collierville Rd) wiggling through the
village in a torturous set of 90 degree curves. Seward Rd also follows
the exact same alignment as it did in 1941, and while the rail line is
gone, the right of way is still there, running between Washington Street and Seward Road.</td></tr>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Then
as
now, the village consisted of a post office, a couple of churches, and a
number of houses. It also very likely boasted a few more businesses
back in 1941 than it does now. To get there from Memphis, you jump on US
79 in the center of Memphis, then hang a right on U.S. 64/Tennessee Rt 15 and drive
due east for</span></span></span> <span style="font-size: small;">just about 20 miles, until you g</span>o under I-269. A tenth of a mile or so after you go under the interstate you'll<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> hang another right onto State Route 205, also known as
Collierville-Arlington Road. You drive south on S.R 205 for a half
mile or so, until it heaves itself around in a sharp 90 degree curve to the left and becomes Washington Street. </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Immediately after you come out of that curve</span></span></span> SR 205 again branches off to the
right...south...but for
now we're going to ignore S.R.205 and stay on Washington Street. You're now in the tiny
and pretty community of Eads. Pretty. Peaceful...the kind of
community where chirping birds and the occasional barking dog are very likely far
more prevalent than traffic, even with I-269 close by.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Now we're gonna take a quick tour of Eads. The old
Post Office, though now replaced by a modern building at Washington
and Jefferson Streets, is still there and it looks like several
former stores on this same stretch of Washington Street are now private homes. A couple of newer businesses
have been added and a small civic center sits on the south side of
Washington Street, at the intersection of State Route 205 and
Washington, riding point on a huge open lot that you just know has
played host to more than a few pick-up base ball and touch football
games.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> A hundred yards or so beyond the Civic Center, Washington
Street 'T's into Jefferson Road, right in front of the new Post
Office. Hang a right on Jefferson, go about 150 or so feet south, then hang a left
back onto Washington Street and head east. Note
that you are paralleling a long narrow strip of cleared land that is
all but obviously an abandoned railroad right-of-way...the former
right of way of the aforementioned Nashville, Chattanooga, and St
Louis Railroad. </span>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Another road parallels Washington Street on the other
side of the old right-of-way...that's Seward Road. Keep driving east on Washigton Street and you'll reach a
road branching off to the right, connecting Washington Street and
Seward Rd. Stop here a minute and look around. Diagonally across
Washington Street, to your left, there's a small cemetery, one that
was there 74 years ago...keep that cemetery in mind. It has a heart-rending story to tell.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Now...hang a right on to the connecting road, stop on the old crossing, then look to your left. Seward road climbs a hill and then disappears around a sharp curve to the right. A driver </span>on Seward who was <span style="font-size: small;">approaching Eads and</span> wanted to cross the tracks would come around that curve,..to the left for
him...then come down the hill and hang a sharp right onto the connecting road to do so. Pay particularly close attention to this intersection.
This is where our story <i>ends</i></div>
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<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">To
your right as you sit on the old crossing, Seward Rd, as noted,
parallels both the old Railroad right of way and Washington Street before intersecting with
that southward-continuation of SR 205, AKA Collierville-Arlington Rd, right
in the middle of yet another 90 degree curve. If you hang that right
off of the connector road onto Seward Rd, then jog slightly to the
left onto SR 205, go back under I-269, and continue onward for a few
winding miles you'll reach George R James Road. Immediately south of
that intersection, to the left, is a modern athletic complex. This
was, until 1974, the site of George R James Elementary School...and
that's where our story </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>begins</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDE-iCJ2wkm_RpQCfNkJqw_ekd8TEOZnJVLA-JJU-KOPkxED0H612fzizpVjHLN2aq3GHBmeRkzYWHUOwm6M3CyvFNNB1fmiAJOuFwrwa9843-T_BVvwRCojAYFObb_W9fZA66BHFUMdI/s1600/Eads+Tennessee+Sat+View.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDE-iCJ2wkm_RpQCfNkJqw_ekd8TEOZnJVLA-JJU-KOPkxED0H612fzizpVjHLN2aq3GHBmeRkzYWHUOwm6M3CyvFNNB1fmiAJOuFwrwa9843-T_BVvwRCojAYFObb_W9fZA66BHFUMdI/s640/Eads+Tennessee+Sat+View.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Modern satellite view of
Eads, with the location of the accident crossing circled in red, the
bus' route up Seward Rd denoted by blue dashes, and the old N,C, and St L
Railroad right-of-way denoted by red dashes. While the track had been
gone for decades, the roadbed still exists and is easy to pick out.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2jmCsegA5MVOQlPhMIAkUPyYPswbc2jKmikw2cCff_NMS7ULytIu-n9Wm3x_SJT9XPkAfFQK5CqXD5YyEabUvhTpkwAP9n7c4esgNU2VdRWGSoaw4ieb3JGtlYkXu649XpNCwTr4pFtQ/s1600/Eads+Sat.+View.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2jmCsegA5MVOQlPhMIAkUPyYPswbc2jKmikw2cCff_NMS7ULytIu-n9Wm3x_SJT9XPkAfFQK5CqXD5YyEabUvhTpkwAP9n7c4esgNU2VdRWGSoaw4ieb3JGtlYkXu649XpNCwTr4pFtQ/s640/Eads+Sat.+View.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Satellite
view of the accident site, showing the direction of travel of both the
train and bus. After getting hit, the bus probably ended up in a brier
patch at the edge of the woods on the south side of Seward Rd. It ended
up 90 feet from the crossing, which would have put it probably just
below the 'gh' in right-of-way. Townspeople had to hack a path through
the briers to get to the kids still trapped on the bus and bring them
out. Only the fact that a passenger aboard the train crimped the leaking
fuel line and disconnected the battery, preventing the bus from
lighting off with the trapped kids still on board, kept the tragedy
from being even worse than it already was<br />
<br />
Eads' cemetery, where Melvin
Richmond was buried, is also indicated. The cemetery was not only
with-in rock-throwing distance of the accident scene, it was almost
visible from his parents' house, which. I believe, was just west of the
crossing on Seward Road</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">October
10</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">th</span></sup> <span style="font-style: normal;">1941.
WWII was well under deadly and bloody way in Europe, and the US was
just under two months away from being suddenly and brutally dragged
headlong into that deadliest of all wars, But to the kids erupting
from the exits of George R James Elementary as the last bell rang,
this was just a warm, lovely October Friday. They had the weekend
stretching out ahead of them, the Mid-South Fair was open in Memphis,
and several of the kids planned on attending if they could get their
parents in on the plan, as said parents were essential to said
plan...they'd be needed to either chauffer or chaperone (Depending on mode of transportation...family car or bus) as well as to handle ride-food-souvenir financing duties.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">As
the kids living in and around Eads climbed aboard the bus that
Benjamin Priddy had driven on this same route for the past fifteen
years and grabbed seats, one little girl propped her arm...encased in
a cast...on one of the seats so a couple of her friends could sign
it. As the group of giggling girls brainstormed witty slogans to
decorate their friend's cast with two of the older boys...11 year
old Melvin Richmond and his older brother Tom...were hatching a plot
to get a couple of girls that they liked to go with them to the fair.
It would require lengthy discussion, finesse, persuasion and would
likely involve flirting and an abundance of giggling from the young
ladies...and they would likely </span><i>not</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">be
able to pull it off before they got off of the bus.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
solution to this problem was simple. The Richmond brothers lived on
Seward Rd in Eads, probably near SR 205, and usually got off of the
bus at their house, but today, to buy themselves a bit more time,
they told Priddy that they'd stay on the bus all the way up Seward
Road to the Fayette County line, where Priddy would turn around, then
get off in Eads on the way back through and walk across the tracks to
get home. With any luck, that'd give them </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>plenty</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">of time to
convince the girls to go to the fair with them.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So as Priddy dropped the bus into gear, let off the
clutch, pulled out of the school and hung a left onto
Collierville-Arlington Road, The Richmond brothers put their plan in
motion as the rest of the kids on board the bus engaged in the very
same energetic conversation and horseplay that has started the
instant that final bell rings on countless Friday afternoons in countless
schools for countless decades. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">The bus was packed when it left GEJ
Elementary, but Priddy started dropping kids off within a mile or so
of the school, so when he went through Eads the first time...when the
Richmond brothers would have normally gotten off...he was down to
twenty-five or so kids aboard the bus. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">OK, I'm having to guess a bit here, but I'm pretty sure the bus stayed
on Seward Road as it went through Eads the first time, probably dropping any kids who lived on the Seward Road side of Eads off on the way through.</span> The Richmond boys usually got off then, but on this fateful Friday afternoon they stayed on for the entire trip to try and convince the girls to go with them to the fair. Priddy then dropped kids off all the way up Seward Road, turned around at the
Shelby County-Fayette County line and crossed the tracks on his way back through Eads so he could drop all of the rest of the kids who lived there off at some central point in the village. It had to be something like that, because if all of the kids living in Eads had gotten off the bus on that first trip through town, the accident featured in this post never would have happened.<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">One thing that is pretty certain
though...as Priddy turned the bus around and headed back towards
Eads, a N, C, and St L passenger train, bound for Memphis and
running twenty or so minutes late, was only a couple of miles out of
Eads, rumbling west at about 50MPH with veteran engineer Joe Darnell
at the throttle.</span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As Priddy approached Eads on Seward
Road, he was heading just about due north, staring at a heavy
tree-line that, in early October, probably still did a pretty good
job of hiding the tracks. The kids were still talking, cutting up and generally being kids, </span><span style="font-size: small;">paying
attention to their surroundings just enough to know how close they
were to being released from scholastic servitude for the weekend. The
Richmond boys had either found success or been blown off, and Priddy,
as he'd done thousands of times before, slowed and steered the bus
into the sharp left-hand curve that swung Seward Road parallel to the
tracks. </span><span style="font-size: small;">He made it around the curve just
fine, but somewhere in the hundred or so yards between the curve and
the crossing </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>something</i></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">happened.
I'm gonna have to do some guessing and speculating here, especially
with the tracks long gone, and the ICC report on the accident as long
gone as the tracks...</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Normally the
'whistle post' for a railroad grade crossing is, give or take a few
dozen feet, around 1500 feet from the crossing...about twenty seconds
away from it at 50 MPH. </span>That'd make it
no stretch at all to surmise that Joe Darnell started yanking his
locomotive's whistle lanyard in the time honored long-long-short-long
crossing signal even as or maybe very slightly before Priddy swung his bus into that
first ninety degree turn. And, it being warm, some if not most of the bus windows
were probably open, so it's a pretty good good bet that at least some
<i>some</i> of the kids on the bus heard it and that, just maybe,
Priddy did as well. But we'll never know for sure.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As
you come out
of that curve today, that tree line I mentioned above is to your
right just as it would have been in 1941, and I'm going to assume here
that the same trees and undergrowth were there 74 years back. The tree
line extended about halfway or so to the
crossing, and would effectively hide the train...as for
Priddy, as he cleared the tree line the train would still be behind
him, to his right, somewhere between 750 feet and 1000 feet away.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9mGYWlJ52a9jl2mXmBWjvqHtq-TUoGFhfFs8hxVPsfgIkdvBnB1dMJuY5zM8M_LJ98al2vrfzQpr7WtDSjhA4HGJrgQt98f2I0Nr5nPzfsoxQzBTTrMbQXWmCwtHQ5hOIsuhoydiazQU/s1600/Looking+Uop+Old+RR+roadbed.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9mGYWlJ52a9jl2mXmBWjvqHtq-TUoGFhfFs8hxVPsfgIkdvBnB1dMJuY5zM8M_LJ98al2vrfzQpr7WtDSjhA4HGJrgQt98f2I0Nr5nPzfsoxQzBTTrMbQXWmCwtHQ5hOIsuhoydiazQU/s640/Looking+Uop+Old+RR+roadbed.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">To put the following series
of 'Driver's Eye Views in perspective, here's a shot sitting on the
connector Rd, looking east up the old N. C. And St L. Rail Road bed,
with Seward Rd parallel to the R.R. bed on the right and Washington
Street, ditto, on the left. The bus would have come around the 90 degree
curve visible to the right of the old roadbed, just to the right of
mid-frame, then come down the hill approaching the crossing and turned
right onto the connector road. <br />
<br />
Look on the left side
of the frame, beneath the 'CURVE' sign, and you can see the fence
surrounding Eads Cemetery, where Melvin Richmond is buried.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQfzZbaUt25UDoc08zOjIrYMHk1gteD2K2J8txbbH_G8Ux-mVtJhS0PUZj45zKfn0rvuwgSOMHQyRvHiRIHfZait4_HHaaTAzw0eafC8ot23NYXaexk6x2IrxEQLbv0Nt__2-qmbfHvs/s1600/Seward+Rd+Approaching+Tracks.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQfzZbaUt25UDoc08zOjIrYMHk1gteD2K2J8txbbH_G8Ux-mVtJhS0PUZj45zKfn0rvuwgSOMHQyRvHiRIHfZait4_HHaaTAzw0eafC8ot23NYXaexk6x2IrxEQLbv0Nt__2-qmbfHvs/s640/Seward+Rd+Approaching+Tracks.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Drivers
eye view approaching the 90 degree curve that would swing Seward Rd
parallel to the tracks for that last 200 or so feet before it reached
the connector rd and crossing. I have a feeling this view hasn't changed
too much in 75 years, other than the road being wider and marked.<br />
<br />
The
train was still 750-1000 feet away from them, to their right, at this
point and, even if some of the kids had turned around and looked back, trees would have still blocked any possibility of them seeing it's
smoke column approaching from the right. Priddy <i>couldn't</i> have seen it from this point until he turned onto the connector road, because the interior of the bus itself would have completely blocked his view.<br />
<br />
And, yep, I know it's from the wrong lane...the 'Google Street View' car was
heading away from Eads when this series of street view were shot.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCyLzNUdJradXa80iw68n4gqMvJMGe-GM-Aec9EivVOTPMJj0_4hFFN1cfSHw3nXU1kuVrXsl3kfceyJLHCrQvLuQGULdDzNgPPn4KK_KLTIDTMu7DEBoHj90umef1d_SfSTaXcLWh2Nk/s1600/Seward+Rd+rounding+curve.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCyLzNUdJradXa80iw68n4gqMvJMGe-GM-Aec9EivVOTPMJj0_4hFFN1cfSHw3nXU1kuVrXsl3kfceyJLHCrQvLuQGULdDzNgPPn4KK_KLTIDTMu7DEBoHj90umef1d_SfSTaXcLWh2Nk/s640/Seward+Rd+rounding+curve.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Coming
out of the 90 degree curve, with the former crossing site visible and
indicated, just to the right of mid frame While I'm not sure if the
tree-line extended that far towards the crossing back then, I have a
feeling that this view's still fairly close to the way it was set up in
1941 The trees would still be blocking the view for any of the kids who
looked back towards the direction the train was approaching from, <i>but</i>
engineer Joe Darnell would have been blowing the crossing warning
(Long-long-short- long) coming up on the crossing. Engineers usually
blow the crossing warning at least two to three times between the
whistle post and the crossing, and the bus windows were probably open,
so depending on how much noise the bus engine, road noise, wind, and
kids were making, the kids and Priddy <i>might</i> have heard it</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">They
reached
the connector road that would take them across the tracks...now
Priddy would obviously have to turn onto the road in order to look to
his right and and check for a train, so as he started his turn, the
kids weren't concerned at first, even though by then they could
easily hear the train's whistle, and very possibly the iconic puffing
roar of a big steam locomotive pulling a train at speed. A couple of
them may even have looked back as they turned to catch fleeting
glimpses of the locomotive through the trees, and I can just about
guarantee they could see the moving smoke-column punching skyward.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As they made
the turn, the kids on the bus could now look down the tracks and when
they did they saw the locomotive rushing head-long towards
the crossing, still partially hidden by the trees for a couple of
seconds until it broke into the clear only half a football field or
so away and that's when they realized that Priddy wasn't slowing
down. Everyone on the bus started yelling at him to stop, screaming
'<i>TRAIN!!!'</i> at the top of their lungs as they felt the front
wheels bump across the first rail, then the second...The train's
huffing and the whistles screech was deafening...The front of the
locomotive probably looked as big as the bow of a battleship bearing
down on them...</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBgd46gw3eOIPgceQc2zyVVRGh9XJKM0ZXOLlZ5GTx5WV04uH-yzp2e3rdjqFl8prklHgwFgdyEXrMThyX71oNUX2w9hMtKpgQw5FGtYR10dv1q6pNo7RzjwGxzJBv_a3ubDLHp5KMAUw/s1600/Kids+Eye+View+out+back+window+of+bus.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBgd46gw3eOIPgceQc2zyVVRGh9XJKM0ZXOLlZ5GTx5WV04uH-yzp2e3rdjqFl8prklHgwFgdyEXrMThyX71oNUX2w9hMtKpgQw5FGtYR10dv1q6pNo7RzjwGxzJBv_a3ubDLHp5KMAUw/s640/Kids+Eye+View+out+back+window+of+bus.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">I'm
doing this view just a bit differently...they've come out of the curve,
and are on the short stretch of Seward Rd between curve and crossing
that's parallel to the tracks. Priddy would have been concentrating on
driving, looking ahead of him, and even if he <i>did </i>look back, would have no way to see any signs of
the approaching train because his view would be blocked by the bus itself. The kids on the bus, however, could certainly look
out of the back windows, and this is the view they had when they did.<br />
<br />
The train's, guessing, somewhere between 500 and 750 feet away now,
running about 50. Heavy steam locomotives are not unobtrusive...it would
have been belting a smoke column skyward even as the engineer blew the
crossing signal. and the 'CHF-CHF-CHF-CHF' of the exhaust <i>may</i>
have been becoming audible. Any kids looking back would have seen that
smoke column punching skyward over the trees, and by then, it's a good
bet they could hear the whistle...but they had absolutely no reason to
think Priddy wasn't going to stop for the train, so it's also a good bet
that they didn't say anything yet, continuing with the kidcentric
activities that were already in progress.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0P5VfggbSedcGsdx_HGfQ5KsSZJYQ9Q36MCbxT_pqoybd8J34eKugmtx4-CUmXzZ42GrVV4xi3vEDbNrsJt_lUWiisqJRLgiygeAZcSHBri85_G6bbJrpC7YrLBinJlaSzSoaRoLytM/s1600/Making+turn+looking+to+right.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0P5VfggbSedcGsdx_HGfQ5KsSZJYQ9Q36MCbxT_pqoybd8J34eKugmtx4-CUmXzZ42GrVV4xi3vEDbNrsJt_lUWiisqJRLgiygeAZcSHBri85_G6bbJrpC7YrLBinJlaSzSoaRoLytM/s640/Making+turn+looking+to+right.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Making
the turn onto the connector road here...it's iffy whether Priddy could
have see the approaching train...which was only a second or so from
emerging from the tree-line under full steam...at this point because he
would have had to look back almost over his shoulder as they
turned...the door and door frame may, or may not have hidden the smoke
column, punching skyward above the trees, from him, but it's just bout a
sure bet he could have <i>heard</i> it...and a second or so later...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7xz-qu8X2Fkst5eNdLsTpKLPNY8yZUedq_89vV0Q-nqcv_0JEkiyYQFvWirSrV2K6fOEAnYi02MYoF5s4nDCrGI9DNxBpEQUIKdMJDEgctEuyFTnvUDfvKZtBJW0Tl2obaYdnXwbAUgM/s1600/On+connector+rd+sitting+at+crossing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7xz-qu8X2Fkst5eNdLsTpKLPNY8yZUedq_89vV0Q-nqcv_0JEkiyYQFvWirSrV2K6fOEAnYi02MYoF5s4nDCrGI9DNxBpEQUIKdMJDEgctEuyFTnvUDfvKZtBJW0Tl2obaYdnXwbAUgM/s640/On+connector+rd+sitting+at+crossing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">This
would have been Priddy's view if he'd looked to the right as he
straightened the bus out once he made that turn. The train would have
been to the left of mid frame, bursting into view out of the tree line,
less than three seconds away from the crossing. Priddy would have
absolutely been able to see the train at this point, as well as get
stopped before reaching the crossing...if he had looked to the right,
and been slowing the bus to stop at the crossing as he was supposed to
do anyway. But he didn't and was apparently actually <i>accelerating</i> out of the turn at this point...<br />
<br />
The
fireman on the locomotive saw the bus the instant the locomotive
emerged from the tree-line...already all but on the crossing. He shouted
a desperate warning across the cab to Joe Darnell, who didn't even have
time to <i>grab</i> the brake handle, much less yank it into 'Emergency', before they hit the bus still under full steam.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">If the sources
I could find, along with Google Maps Satellite view, are
accurate there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of the train
getting slowed </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>down</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">,
much less stopped. The train was less than 200 feet away from the
crossing when it emerged from the tree-line, giving the fireman a
clear view of Seward Rd, the connecting road...and the bus. The
fireman would have been seated on the left side of the cab,
leaning out of the cab's picture window so he had a view forward, so
he's the one who would have gone wide-eyed and pale as, only about
200 feet ahead of them, the front wheels of the bus</span> <span style="font-size: small;">bumped
across the first rail.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> His heart was likely in his throat as he
turned his head to look towards Joe Darnell and shouted a desperate
Hale-Mary warning across the cab...but he knew even as
he did so that they were beyond too late...they were already right on
top of the bus...he probably took the memory of wide-eyed,
terrified faces in the bus windows to his grave...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">AT
50 MPH, that two hundred feet takes just a fraction over 2 seconds to
cover...just about long enough for him to yell '</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>BIG-HOLE
HER JOE!!!' </i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">across
the cab, and nowhere near enough time for Joe Darnell to even grab
the brake handle and yank it into full emergency, much less time for
the brakes to even grab. They were still under full steam when the
locomotive pilot bit hard into the right side of the bus, just about
dead-broad-side, with a deadly, horrible '</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>CRA-WHUMP!!!
</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">and booted
it almost 100 feet, back across Seward Road and into one of those
near-impenetrable roadside brier patches that are a given in any
southern countryside.</span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The bus came
apart explosively as it was hit, tearing almost in two. It was
probably held together only by the frame rails as it spun away from
the tracks, looking like a grotesque, flapping yellow metal scare
crow as it flipped and tumbled across Seward Road and slammed down
into the brier patch. Four of the kids on board were ejected as the
bus spun and flipped, two of them close enough to the tracks to land in
front of the locomotive. Those two, as well as another child who was
slammed through the bus' floor board and a forth who ended up under
the bus when it finally stopped tumbling, were killed instantly. At
least a couple of other children were also ejected as the bus bounced across Seward Road and now lay near the
road side, gravely injured. Priddy was jammed between the wheel, his
seat, and the left side of the bus, dead. </span> <span style="font-size: small;">The
rest of the kids were trapped in the twisted wreck of the bus, also
seriously to gravely injured.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The residents
of Eads heard that solid, cataclysmic '<i>CRUMP!! </i>that always
spells disaster, heard the train sliding, knew the train had hit
<i>something</i>, and knowing that the school bus was just about due
to drop kids off in Eads, were probably hoping desperately that it was
anything other than the bus as they descended upon the crossing even as
the train slid to a stop. They saw the twisted mass of mangled
yellow metal, heard the groans and sobs and pleas for help coming
from the shattered...and smoking...hulk of the bus, and started
working on getting the kids out. One of the train passengers, who
also happened to be a mechanic, bailed off of the train, ran to the bus and fought his way through the briers,
calling for someone to bring him a pair of pliers when he reached the now likely hoodless
engine compartment and saw that the
fuel line had torn loose and was dripping briskly. The battery, he
could see, was still connected...it'd only take a single arc...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Someone...probably
one of the train crew...tossed him a pair of pliers, and he quickly
and efficiently first crimped the fuel line, then disconnected the
battery, likely praying fervently that it didn't arc when he did so.
While he was doing this, someone else manged to find a couple of big
scythes or small machetes, or <i>something</i> that they could use to
cut though the briers to get to the bus...and the trapped kids.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Yet another person headed for one of the stores or maybe the Post Office, the most likely places to find a phone, and called for help. Help was
requested from Memphis and any other near by town that had ambulances
and rescue equipment (Probably few and far between in Shelby County
back then) and several ambulances headed West from Memphis on US 64, sirens screaming, As they were converging
on the scene, residents and train passengers started bringing kids
out of the bus and through the pathway that had been hacked through
the briers. At some point, one of them checked on Priddy, but it only
took a second or so to ascertain that he was dead.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">One
of the parents who heard that cataclysmic crunch was Melvin and Tom
Richmond's mom. She heard the collision, and probably stepped out on
the front porch of their house to see if she could see what it was, and
probably saw the locomotive, wheels locked and screaming against rails,
slide past, slowing to a stop. She also saw the cloud of dust hanging
in the air east of her house, over Seward Road, and just <i>knew,</i>
with that instinct that all moms possess, that something horrible had
happened to her kids. She took off running up Seward Road, first
reaching the mangled bus, hearing the cries and sobs from inside the
vehicle, then seeing the kids lying on the road and near the tracks. She
ran towards the crossing and all but tripped over Tom, who was gravely
injured, but alive. Melvin was only a few feet away, dead. She gathered
her children in her arms and, sitting by the roadside, sobbed. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There
were
eight kids who were horribly injured, and as often happened back in
the day, several of them were loaded into private cars which then
took off up US 64 for Baptist Hospital in Memphis (I still
shudder at the thought of transporting anyone with serious to
critical traumatic injuries sans spinal immobilization). This, sadly,
set in motion yet another common element in major multi-victim accidents that
you see even to this day, </span>especially in incidents involving multiple injured children. (Major Incidents with multiple patients are called 'Mass Casualty Incidents' or MCAs today, BTW.) </div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
When there are multiple injured kids, often notification to parents of where their kids are being transported...or even that their kids are involved in the accident in the first place...can't keep up with the actual transport of patients. This is especially true when you have gravely injured kids who are unconscious and carrying no ID.<br />
<br />
NOW...throw in a few kids being transported by well meaning civilians in private cars before
Fire/EMS/P.D. arrives on scene, and add a few dozen worried parents who have no idea where their child is or even if they are alive or dead. and you have he perfect mix for one of the most stressful, horrible experiences a parent will ever have to endure.<br />
<i><br /></i>
It's about as bad for a parent as it can get when this happens <i>today, </i>but it would have been even worse seventy years ago, when transport by private vehicle before help arrived was <i>very</i> common and means of communications were far less advanced. This causes the already emotionally drained, worried parents to have to go from hopital to hospital to morgue searching for their kids, without knowing where they are, how badly they are injured, or even if they are alive or dead. We've seen
this over and over in these posts,and it was no different here. It
always makes the worry and grief just that much more horrible for the
parents.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
In Eades, parents first searched among the bodies on the scene
(Something that would, thankfully, absolutely <i>not</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">happen
this
day and time) and if they didn't find their child on scene they
headed for Memphis to search hospitals there. The ones who waited
around for an ambulance to arrive (There weren't more than one or two
live patients transported by ambo...for the most part the ambulances
transported deceased victims to a morgue) had the advantage of
knowing where their child was being transported. Of course, at the time
Memphis only had one truly major hospital...Baptist Hospital...and this
is where the majority, if not all, of the injured kids were transported.
At least the parents only had to try to cut through the bureaucracy of <i>one</i> hospital to find their child rather than several of them.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
Another
common occurrence in
this type of accident...many of the bodies were horribly mangled, and
parents had to use clothing or other identifiers to identify their
child. (This would be bad enough in a morgue, after the body has been
prepped, as much as possible, for viewing and identification.. Words
to describe the horror of having to ID your child through clothing
while they're still in place on the scene just don't exist.). One of the
victims was identified only by the cast on her arm...the little girl
who, only an hour or so before had been gleefully showing off that same
cast as her friends signed it. Six of the kids on the bus died on the
scene, one other child died in the hospital.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
The
investigation...likely involving local and state officials as well as
officials from the Interstate Commerce Commission...started before the
day was over, but the only thing they could determine was that Ben
Priddy, for reasons unknown (And unknown to this very day) drove his bus
in front of an oncoming train. Of course, the fact that no one knew why
he drove onto the crossing didn't stop the speculation...in fact it
probably encouraged it.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
The
first theory that was broached was that Priddy suffered from some
unknown medical emergency just about the time he started making the turn
onto the connecting road, and was unconscious when he drove in front of
the train. I found one source that stated that he'd mentioned having a
headache that morning, and a coupe of other sources that suggest that
his bus was actually stopped on the crossing when it was hit. This is
one of those times that I'd really <i>love</i> to have the ICC report, which,
as noted above, is apparently long gone, at least on-line.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
If
the bus was indeed stopped...more telling, stopped at an angle or
stopped at an angle with the front wheels actually off of the
crossing...it would make the possibility of a medical emergency even
more likely...but again, we have no report (And very little real
information) as well as at least a couple of more theories.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
It
was also noted that when found, Priddy was clutching a pouch of
roll-your-own tobacco in one hand, which seems to suggest a cause that
sounds very familiar today...distracted driving. But I've got to be
honest here...I don't think he was rolling a cigarette as he was making
that turn. We're talking a mid or late 30s/very early 40s truck chassis
here, and driving a truck...because that's actually what a school bus on
a commercial truck chassis is...of that era was very much a two handed
job. They didn't have power steering, and <i>did</i> have manual transmissions (Automatic transmissions were <i>just</i> being introduced in some high-end cars in '41, automatics in trucks were still <i>decades</i>
down the road.). This manual transmission was, BTW, very likely
unsynchronized. So...he was making a 90 turn and having to shift as he
accelerated out of the turn, which meant up-shifting as he manhandled
the wheel. So...do you really think he was rolling a cigarette?</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
The third theory is another old bugaboo that's shown up regularly, complacency. You know, there's never been a train here...</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
This
train was a regularly scheduled passenger train that came through
several times a week if not every day at just about the same time
(Probably just before the bus went through Eads the first time), so it
had usually gone through Eads when Priddy came through on Seward Road
the first time and was in Memphis when he came through the second time,
crossing the tracks.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
Problem
was, the train was twenty minutes late on that fateful October 10th. So
it's very possible that Priddy made the turn onto the connecting road
with the thought 'There is no train'. But that doesn't explain why he
didn't see <i>or </i>hear the train that was <i style="font-style: normal;">indeed</i> there...or why he didn't hear the kids' warnings (This kinda lends a bit more credence to theory #1, IMHO)</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
Which leads us to the unanswerable question...why didn't he stop and check for a train? Every
school system had policies to that effect by then, and many if not most
states did indeed have a law requiring school bus drivers to stop at railroad crossings (though both policy and law were, obviously, pretty
regularly ignored...until a tragedy occurred.).</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
This
one's going to remain a mystery. You can speculate, and theorize, and
analyze all you want to, but the fact remains here that Ben Priddy took
the reason he drove in front of that train to his grave. And unless some
earth-shaking new evidence rears it's head (If, indeed, anyone's even
looking for new evidence) that's the way it's going to stay.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
I got the impression that the
'Had a medical emergency' theory was the one that became the
'official unofficial' reason the crash happened in the minds of most
of the residents of the Eads area at the time. It would of been the
less troubling reason in the minds of the parents of his
relatives, the kids, and the citizens of Eads. A medical emergency would have
taken it out of his hands.<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
The fact remains that, no
matter what the reason, seven children were dead. Nothing could
change that, or make the pain more bearable. The parents of those
children, as well as their young friends, would be reminded of the
accident every time they drove up Seward Rd past the crossing, the
surviving kids on the bus that'd take over Priddy's route would
likely look up the tracks almost involuntarily every time their
driver made that right turn to cross them, and they would probably all but
involuntarily flinch every time they heard the shrill wail of a train
whistle.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
For
the Richmond family, the memories would be even closer to home, in a
very literal sense. Melvin Richmond was buried in Eads' small cemetery,
which is on Washington Street, diagonally across from and only one
hundred feet or so from the crossing where he died, and almost with-in
sight of his house..<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
*********************************************************************************</div>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
The children who died that afternoon</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Glenn Sherrill, 12 and
Alma Sherrill, 9</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Hayden Austin Williams, 9</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Norma Jean Seward, 12</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Guy Anderson Jr, 12</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Melvin Richmond, 11</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenneth Bryan, 9</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700; line-height: 17.472px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.472px; text-align: left;">********************************************************************************************************</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.48px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 17.472px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<b><***>NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF<***></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>The other posts in this series</b></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>in the order they were posted.</b></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/evans-colorado-bustrain-crash.html</a> Evans, Colo December 1961 </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html</a> Spring City Tenn. August 1955</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html</a> Congers New York </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
March 1972</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html</a> Lake Station Indiana</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
October 1971</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html</a> Stratton Nebraska </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
August 1976</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html</a> Fox River Grove Illinois October 1995</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html</a> Conasauga Tenn. March 2000<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html </a> Sandy, Utah Dec 1938<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html</a> Proberta, California Nov 1921<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html</a> Shreve and Berea Ohio Jan. 1930<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html</a> Crescent City, Florida December 1933<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html</a> Rockville, Maryland April 1935<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html</a> MAson City, Iowa Oct. 1937<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html</a> Eads, Tennessee Oct. 1941<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<***></div>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">After
researching these accidents for pushing a year (I know...I
know...back <i>last </i>February I said I was going to publish Part 2 of this series in
'A Few Weeks...' ) I'm no longer even vaguely surprised when I can't
find any real information on one of them. To be honest, I'm a bit more surprised when I <i>do</i> fnd a decent amount of info...or better yet, the ICC report.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
lets be honest here. The 30s and
40s were, respectively, eighty and seventy years ago. Media storage
back then was just that...hard copies actually stored in file cabinets and file
boxes. Starting in the late 20s, most newspapers were transferred to
microfiche or microfilm but this still required physical storage, One
problem with physical storage is, of course, that it requires physical <i>space. </i>Even
when the articles were stored on microfiche, reducing the space needed
to store a microfiched copy of an entire day's newspaper to less than that required to store a</span></span></span> single article's paper file, years and years of microfiched papers could
and did still take up a huge amount of storage space. And this brings us to the <i>big </i>problem with physical storage...it's <i>real </i>easy to damage. Or loose. Or
throw out. Causing it to be gone forever.</div><div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ICC reports were similarly microfiched, and while there were far. <i>far</i>
fewer of them (Thankfully) than there were newspapers, you still had
the problem of storage, damage and loss. Volume wise, remember that the
ICC, much like the present day NTSB, investigated not only the 'Big
Ones', but <i>all</i> railroad, commercial motor carrier, and aircraft
accidents. The only reports that were archived as time went by and
storage transitioned to electronic media, </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">as I've discovered,</span></span></span> were railroad and aircraft accidents. And guess what...not all of <i>them</i> have survived to be archived digitally.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Which brings us to the wonders of modern technology. A couple of mouse clicks and you can have access to <i>anything,</i> be it old news article, or decades old ICC report<i>, </i>right<i>?? </i>Er....no. Even
with
electronic storage, clicking on a link can yield that dreaded
'404 error' rather than the goldmine of new info you were hoping for,
especially with old newspaper articles. Then, even when you <i>do </i>find an article about the incident you're researching, you realize they're
on a pay site that wants a pretty steep monthly or yearly fee for
access, and, much as I'd like to be able to access them, there are far
higher priorities, budget-wise...like, shelter, eating, and such.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> OH...yeah...those
404 errors? Ya get 'em when you search for older accident reports, too. I found an
archive that had scores of old ICC and NTSB reports archived, but the
thing is they don't have<i> all</i> of them. So far
I'm batting about .450 in finding ICC reports for the the older
accidents I'm posting about...four out of nine. Which brings us to
the Eads Train-bus crash. It was one of the crashes I <i>couldn't</i> find
the NTSB report on (Even though I <i>do </i>have the report number). And, as always, I would have loved to have been
able to find it...but it wasn't to be.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">did</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
however , find some good articles...most actually newer ones, written
around the anniversary date of the accident...as well as a good
write-up in 'Find-a-grave' (A somewhat macabre, but useful site when
searching out information on disasters), and between the articles I
could find and my trusty genealogy site I was able to get a good feel
for what probably happened and a fair description of the accident
itself as well as the general lay-out of the scene...enough to, once I
dismissed some of the obvious sensationalizing that the Media was
famous for even back then, make a good, solid guess about how and
where the bus ended up, and what went on in the immediate aftermath
of the crash. Trust me, if you don't have the accident report,<i> </i>in order to make an article such as this even semi
accurate, sometimes you have to read between the lines a little.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">For
example...it never said anywhere that the bus ended up to the south
of the tracks...but it </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">did
</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
say that it ended up 90 feet away from the crossing in the woods in a
brier patch...and while there are now a couple of homes on Seward
Road that distance from the crossing, they are both newer...as in
within the last 20 years or less...homes, so it's a good bet that
nearly seventy-five years ago, that area was all wooded. And the
train apparently hit the bus just a bit forward of broadside, given
that Priddy was killed instantly, so the bus would have likely spun
away from the locomotive with the front end swinging hard to the
left...sending it south of the tracks, across Seward Road.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
yeah, as I have to do in all of my articles from way-back, I had to
guess and speculate a bit...but, again, as always I tried to make it
readable, informative, and as accurate as possible.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So!
On to the notes!</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<b><***></b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Though it was never mentioned anywhere, I can't help but wonder if the train passenger/mechanic who crimped the fuel line and disconnected the battery, thereby preventing an even worse tragedy,<b> </b>was a volunteer firefighter, or even a salaried firefighter who worked as a mechanic as a second job, assuming his department used a shift schedule that allowed for a second job. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The reason I wonder about this? Not many civilians would have instantly thought '<i>Check for hazards! </i>That type of mindset just has 'Fire Department' written all over it. Whether he was a firefighter, or just a particularly level headed civilian, the kids who were trapped on that bus probably owe him their lives, because I have a feeling that the bus wasn't more than a couple of minutes from lighting off.</div>
<br />
<b><b><***></b> </b></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A quick word about the
school where this fateful bus ride originated...George R. James
elementary School.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The building was a single
story brick and stucco, hip-roofed, eight room school building,
complete with Auditorium and library, that was pretty much a perfect
example of the iconic early 20<sup>th</sup> century rural elementary
school of the type built all over the country as the era of the 'One
Room Schoolhouse' came to a close. Millions of people who are now in
their 50s to 80s likely picture the <i>exact</i> kind of
building I'm talking about when memories of the elementary
school they attended come to mind. Heck, there are a more than a few
of them still in use, either re-purposed as anything from homes and
apartments to office buildings to a rapidly decreasing few here and
there there that are still in use as schools. But it's not the
building I'm writing this to discuss...it's the people and the
attitude.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
See...G.R.J. Elementary was
ahead of it's time in more than a few ways. The school actually
combined elementary school and what's now called middle school (Jr
High School back in that era), with first through eighth grades.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Among the classes taught
back in the day were communications...many rural families didn't have
phones back in the day, and the principal decided...rightly...that
knowing how to use a phone was a necessary and possibly even
potentially life-saving skill. This class was officially included in
the school's curriculum, probably very early on.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Another unique treat was the
providence of the school's 'upper classmen'...the Eighth Graders.
Each year G.R.J.'s very progressive principal, Ms Jane Hinton, took
the eighth grade on a field trip into Memphis so the kids would at
least get a glimpse of what a big city looked like...I know, the
thought of not visiting a city that was only twenty miles away is a
foreign concept today, but, for rural kids back in the Thirties and
Forties, especially the poorer children, a trip into 'The City' was a
maybe once a year, or even less frequent, experience.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ms Hinton made sure her
eighth graders got the whole city experience...to quote the <i>Memphis
Press-Scimitar :</i></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<i>The children are taken
to the Hotel Peabody to see how a big city hotel operates, to a
florist shop to sniff orchids, to the Sterick Building for a ride on
the elevator, to the river, police station, courthouse, and various
businesses, through a dime store, and lunch in a restaurant.” </i>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Wait...<i>what???</i>
No fire station??? <i>Come on!!!!</i></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But in
all seriousness, this was probably a trip these kids looked forward
to all year long.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I don't
know how long the trips into Memphis continued, but the school was
open through the 1973-74 school year...and would have been open
longer were it not for a major fire on an August evening in 1974. The
school was in full bloom when the first units of the Shelby County
Fire Department rolled in, so they were already behind the eight-ball big-time before the first
tone sounded and the first growl of a house siren winding up...</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
With no
water supply readily available, they had to set up a tanker shuttle
for water supply, and with the building fully involved before the
first rig rolled in, the pretty old building was doomed. It ended up
burning to the ground despite S.C.F.D.'s best efforts.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
While
the school's been gone for pushing 42 years now, it's not only not
forgotten, but is fondly remembered by generations of former and
present Shelby County residents.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<b> <***>LINKS<***></b></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
I
found several articles about the Eads bus crash, most from Memphis
Magazine and other publications local to Memphis, but I also found the
Facebook page for Memphis' awesome fire museum, and a couple of other
interesting links.</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<a href="http://www.memphisflyer.com/AskVanceBlog/archives/2008/10/08/the-eads-school-bus-crash-of-1941">http://www.memphisflyer.com/AskVanceBlog/archives/2008/10/08/the-eads-school-bus-crash-of-1941</a>
Article from Vance Lauderdale's excellent Memphis history blog. When
you finish reading this post, check out the rest of the Blog as well,
especially if you're a resident...or just a fan...of this beautiful
town.</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<a href="http://memphismagazine.com/ask-vance/the-eads-school-bus-tragedy-of-1941-a-survivors-story/">http://memphismagazine.com/ask-vance/the-eads-school-bus-tragedy-of-1941-a-survivors-story/</a></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
Another
post by Vance Lauderdale, this one from his column in Memphis Magazine.
It goes into further detail about Tom Richmond's (Melvin Richmond's
older brother) ordeal the day of the accident.</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<a href="http://memphismagazine.com/ask-vance/school-blaze/">http://memphismagazine.com/ask-vance/school-blaze/</a>
And yet a third Vance Lauderdale penned article, this one about George R
James School, the school that the kids on the bus attended, and where
the fatal trip began.</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/hvum36x">http://tinyurl.com/hvum36x</a>
Post on Findagrave.com about Melvin Richmond. This is an
interesting...and more than a little macabre...site that still yields
good research information about disasters. BE WARNED...the narrative
goes into graphic detail about his brother Tom's injuries.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/firemuseumofmemphis/posts/665111156865475">https://www.facebook.com/firemuseumofmemphis/posts/665111156865475</a>
Write-up about thr bus crash on the Memphis Fire Museum's Facebook
page. Once you've read it, peruse the rest of their Facebook page. This
is one of the better fire museum;s in the U.S. If you live near Memphis,
or are passing through or near-by, and have an interest in firefighting
and history (Or if you have kids...<i>all</i> kids are fire buffs!) don't just visit the museum...stop by and visit it person!</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: left;">
<b> </b></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6487399564596460661.post-1450690330759731932015-02-08T17:36:00.002-05:002023-03-27T22:30:29.375-04:00Evans, Colorado Bus/Train crash<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Evans
Colorado School Bus/Train Crash</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The
Morning that Christmas Died In Weld County</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Dec 14<sup>th</sup>
1961</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Back when I was a child, living in the small town of
Boykins, Virginia, the school bus bringing students home from Southampton High School (Bus #
18...yep, I still remember the number!) would stop just shy of the
railroad crossing that bisected Main Street to let the kids who lived
in town off. Now, this was a signaled crossing that had three tracks
(Two track main line and a siding), and if a train was coming, the lights and bells would
start well before it reached the crossing. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Those lights and bells gave more than adequate warning that a train was coming, but one bus rider...usually a
student who didn't live in town...would still climb down, walk
across the tracks looking in both directions, then, if all was clear,
wave the bus across before climbing back aboard. In the event he saw
a head light approaching, he'd walk back to the bus and look inside,
telling the driver something to the effect of 'Train's coming'. The
bells and lights would generally begin their warning clang and flash
just about the time he gave the driver that information.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I
lived in Boykins until the end of my 8</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">th</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
grade year, and on the one or two occasions after I hit Jr High that
I rode Bus 18 </span></span>home instead of riding with the carpool of
Boykins kids that went to Southampton Jr High, there was still a student 'walking
the track'. As I climbed off of bus 18, and walked towards my dad's
insurance office, anticipating sucking down the 16 ounce Pepsi that would be waiting for me
in the ancient 'fridge in the back room, I didn't give the 'Track
Walker' a single thought...it was just a normal part of the ride
home. I had no idea just <i>why</i>
the policy of 'walking the track' was started, nor that nearly a half
century later I'd be writing about the incident that caused it to be
put in place.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But,
here I am, forty years and change after I left Boykins, doing just that. And be warned, gang...</span>this one's gonna rip your heart out.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">To
chronicle this one we're heading out west, to one of the most beautiful of U.S.
States, The Rocky Mountain State...Colorado. When the great majority
of people think 'Colorado' they think 'Rocky Mountains'. The highest
peak in the Rockies is located in Colorado, John Denver famously sang
about Colorado's Rocky Mountains, and the entire state's at least
3000 or so feet above sea level...heck, the state's <i>known</i> as
'The Rocky Mountain State'. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Thing is, while The Rockies dominate the
western portion of Colorado there's still lots and lots of flat land
in Eastern Colorado, and Weld County...shaped a bit like a stylized
'S' and butted up against the Wyoming state line in the northeastern
part of the state...is generally dinner-table flat, covered with corn
fields, and dotted with small towns and several small to medium sized cities. One of those small cities is Evans. a pretty little burg of
around 20,000 souls situated in the western portion of the county,
hard by the southern boundary of Weld County's county seat of Greely.
It's also the site of what is, to this day, the worst...and most
heart breaking...traffic accident in Colorado history.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In
the western part of the U.S. the transition from urban 'City' landscape
to rural 'country' landscape can be as sudden and abrupt as the flip
of a switch, and from looking at Google Maps' satellite and street
views, the scenery in and around Evans goes from City to Rural just that
abruptly as you drive east on 37<sup>th</sup> Street, heading out of town towards
a curve where a rural country road used to cross the Union Pacific tracks.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">I'm taking you around your elbow to get to your thumb a bit to get to that curve, BTW, but there's a method to my madness. Thirty-Seventh Street becomes State
Route 54...and decidedly rural...as you leave Evans, heading east.
Take S.R.54 east for about a mile and three quarters past the city
line until you get to a dirt and gravel rural </span>road numbered County Rd 45 branching off<span style="font-size: small;"> to the south. Hang a right on County Rd 45 and take it south, across the Union Pacific tracks, then through the very small community of Auburn, until you get to County Rd
52. </span> Keep Auburn
in mind, BTW...this tiny community plays a huge part in the story to come.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">CR
45's intersection with CR 52 is one of those strangely laid out
crossroads that every rural community in the U.S. has at least a couple of. West County
Rd 52 'T's into CR 45 from the west, while </span><span style="font-size: small;">CR 45 becomes</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span>East CR 52<span style="font-size: small;"> at that same intersection
</span>and curves gently to the left until it's
aimed just about due east. When we reach that intersection, we're going to hang a right on the also
dirt and gravel-paved West CR 52 , blow past the left turn where a
short, dead end section of CR 45 continues south, and
head west on CR 52<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-9JTY9xVP8rXZRLvvJ9xM30MnZDeRLHlcxgQtIFdu0nitVGoPsvEndFq33Q-c8VnbMeMx7dWJqBZ0C0tXLwbyNWhdLps7L4J5Jhx-e8gaXTwPnURRC4RsqO37P9ZCm4RZWm8s7AVvYNY/s1600/Evans+Area+Map.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-9JTY9xVP8rXZRLvvJ9xM30MnZDeRLHlcxgQtIFdu0nitVGoPsvEndFq33Q-c8VnbMeMx7dWJqBZ0C0tXLwbyNWhdLps7L4J5Jhx-e8gaXTwPnURRC4RsqO37P9ZCm4RZWm8s7AVvYNY/s1600/Evans+Area+Map.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of the area where the crossing used to be. The square denotes the
approximate area of detail of the first satellite view, the circle the
approximate area of the close-up satellite view. The location of old
Auburn School, and the tiny community of Auburn itself is also
denoted...old Auburn School is where Duane Harms started his bus route
that fateful morning. Delta Elementary...where the majority of the kids
on Bus#2 were headed that morning...was located on 20th Street, well
north of the area covered by the map. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Map Courtesy of Google Maps.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The
Union Pacific tracks, along with County Road 45 and West County Road 52, form a rough
triangle, with the tracks...slanting southward from east to
west...forming the triangle's long side. West County Rd 52 parallels the
tracks for a very short distance after you turn off of CR 45, then bends to the right and runs due west. When you hang that right onto West C R 52, then round that curve to the right the tracks are probably a
good two football fields and change north of you, but they're
slanting diagonally across the landscape, closing in on the site of
what used to be the grade crossing where CR 52 crossed the tracks. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There's a reason I sent you guys on this round-about
trip, by the way. I want you, with your mind's eye, to approach what used to be the grade
crossing where CR 52 crossed the Union Pacific tracks from the same
direction Duane Harms approached it from while driving Weld County
School Bus #2 on the frigid, snow-dusted morning of December 14<sup>th</sup>,
1961.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Today,
as County Road 52 approaches the tracks it takes a sweeping bend to
the left to run parallel to them until it 'T's into County Rd 43. To
continue west on 52, you hang a right on CR 43, cross the tracks at the signal-controlled crossing there, then, </span>a tenth of a mile or so north of the crossing, take a left back onto County Rd 52 where it again continues westward. Now...go back and
take a look at that sweeping curve where CR 52 bends away from the
tracks...then look at the intersection where 52 continues westward off of CR 43.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Better
yet, take a look at the pair of maps I knocked out below to show the road layout and now long-gone RR crossing as they existed in December 1961. Back then t</span>he intersection of CR 52 and CR 43 was a '+' intersection, and CR 52 used to cross those tracks right at the point where it now curves away from them. It doesn't take but a very
casual glance to see that the road crossed the tracks at an extreme
angle...less than thirty degrees. That's the angle Duane Harms had to deal
with on that frigid December morning nearly 53 years ago as I write
this. And that's where our story starts.<br />
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-weight: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRIZv-71_wJQ7OqCbJRnLa41dEDVxTm7P4HoIuXX9Sf3cTDmEZQEeZ9E43MPQjIo86aZBb0yGb4cnqbJKHa5GUrxYaIF3-kzPK1N1tEAmFlkTj-SPUy3_aFyWUdwBDOYYrDeQPcV9vp0/s1600/Evans+crossing+area+detail.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRIZv-71_wJQ7OqCbJRnLa41dEDVxTm7P4HoIuXX9Sf3cTDmEZQEeZ9E43MPQjIo86aZBb0yGb4cnqbJKHa5GUrxYaIF3-kzPK1N1tEAmFlkTj-SPUy3_aFyWUdwBDOYYrDeQPcV9vp0/s1600/Evans+crossing+area+detail.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Satellite view of the area of the old crossing, with C.R. 52's old alignment, as well as the directions of travel of both the bus and train, indicated. You can see how extreme the crossing's angle was here. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Satellite View Courtesy of Google Maps</span></td></tr>
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<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_U9xY6EnXHm1rYhK72n_pNAeG-IJbgCW8cGLCitb0XoFPAN_cI716OolUn6zs0CWACACDJGr1xAsbJApxuLpOvgD8iquLdmtq5neEploP5ATCreskF-dqXe0MrM-HZoKFLvGAQRr5f54/s1600/Evans+crossing+overhead+close-up+with+memorial.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_U9xY6EnXHm1rYhK72n_pNAeG-IJbgCW8cGLCitb0XoFPAN_cI716OolUn6zs0CWACACDJGr1xAsbJApxuLpOvgD8iquLdmtq5neEploP5ATCreskF-dqXe0MrM-HZoKFLvGAQRr5f54/s1600/Evans+crossing+overhead+close-up+with+memorial.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Close-up satellite view of the crossing area, with the old alignment indicated. Here you can really see how sharp the angle between C.R. 52 and the tracks was, and as a result, how screwed up the sight-line for drivers looking for a train would have been. The memorial that was erected to remember the kids who lost their lives is in the center of the image. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Satellite View Courtesy Google Maps</span></td></tr>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Up
until about 1960 the kids in the Auburn area had their own school...a
small, blond-brick three room building at the intersection of County
Roads 54 and 45...but the consolidation of hundreds of one or two
building school districts across the state had closed Auburn School
at the end of the previous school year, and in September 1961 the
kids in Auburn had become students of the now long gone Delta
Elementary, as well as Meeker Jr High, and Greeley High, all in
Greeley. To get the kids in the newly formed Greeley School District
#6 into town required the use of those oil-smoke belching yellow
monsters from all of our childhoods...school buses. One of them was
Bus #2, a nearly new 1960 GMC-Wayne 60 passenger bus. It was under
the command of a slender 23 year old named Duane Harms, a school
janitor at Delta who also reluctantly took on the twice daily job of
driving Bus #2 to grab some extra income for his new family...Wife
Judy and new-born daughter Lynda. They lived, a little ironically,
next door to the now shuttered Auburn School, in the small house once
occupied by the school's teacher. On the brutally cold morning of
December 14<sup>th</sup>, 1961 Duane had gone outside and started
bus#2 up to get the heat rolling, then gone back inside to finish
getting ready and possibly...I'll even go with probably, with the
temp being a not-so-toasty 6 degrees...down a hot cup of coffee. </span><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj-xlwEYpkqmVIw0ybxyhhpOpnb-T0GkaIyvZWx7Qighda_nuIUj9bn2nSsNnj-f_MEoAwSdTpAlY3VE79Q5G5vtarNuFAJiUVfkPOGjUo1wIf5_lZZ4OxqNstBWKpagE7NNpICbnn_XQ/s1600/'61+GMC+school+bus.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj-xlwEYpkqmVIw0ybxyhhpOpnb-T0GkaIyvZWx7Qighda_nuIUj9bn2nSsNnj-f_MEoAwSdTpAlY3VE79Q5G5vtarNuFAJiUVfkPOGjUo1wIf5_lZZ4OxqNstBWKpagE7NNpICbnn_XQ/s1600/'61%2BGMC%2Bschool%2Bbus.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A 1960 GMC school bus, much like the one involved in the Evans accident.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrcpJv56Pj737rJs0zD4z1etx3wg4lk7tbsfpwTwCTo8QtgoGcpQba-M6rmvTLXCGchfwkSl4vIAFRzRImwByAnjx-J7PnelzFrOCTHCosJpvxHhAZJ17IrJ0RulK4wUj_Kpyfx82T99Q/s1600/Old+Auburn+School.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrcpJv56Pj737rJs0zD4z1etx3wg4lk7tbsfpwTwCTo8QtgoGcpQba-M6rmvTLXCGchfwkSl4vIAFRzRImwByAnjx-J7PnelzFrOCTHCosJpvxHhAZJ17IrJ0RulK4wUj_Kpyfx82T99Q/s1600/Old+Auburn+School.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old Auburn School, now a private residence. Duane Harms lived in the small house to the right <span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image Courtesy Google Street View</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile,
along the roughly square bus route he covered, around 50 kids from
six years old to sixteen were diving into the morning
get-ready-for-school-tasks we all remember. Most would catch Bus #2.
A few woke up with that scratchy throat, sore-all-over, absolutely no
energy feeling that signaled a cold coming on. Moms would feel
foreheads and, with the expertise known to Moms the world over, declare them unfit for school on that particular day...these kids would get to
roll back over and go back to sleep. A pair of sisters, tired from
getting in late from a Christmas pageant rehearsal, overslept.
Another young man caught a ride in with his older bro so he could
speak to a teacher about a project. Another, standing in the bitter
cold, had a neighbor, on the way in to town anyway, take pity on him
and offer a ride in a warm truck cab rather than a long wait in
frigid temperatures. A third had a dentist appointment. Thirty-six
kids would end up catching the bus.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Eighty
or so miles away, a trio of bright yellow and gray EMD E9
locomotives roared west across the flat plains of Northeastern
Colorado, riding point on 16 equally brightly colored passenger
cars...the Union Pacific Railroad's City of Denver, under the command
of veteran Union Pacific engineer Herbert Sommers. Sommers was a
40-plus year veteran of railroading. He'd been with the U.P since
1918, had been an engineer for 20 years, and had been promoted to
Senior Engineer four months earlier...a position that allowed him to
pick his assignment. He'd chosen the starting/homebound legs of the
City of Denver's daily round trip to Chicago...from Denver to
Sterling in the afternoon, pass the train off to another crew in
Sterling, sleep there over night, then drive the train back into
Denver on it's home bound trip the next morning. Normally, they
roared through Auburn in-bound to Denver at just a shade past 6AM,
but this morning each stop brought a huge volume of Christmas mail to
be loaded, so they were running </span>nearly two hours late. Herb
Sommers had the big E9's throttle cranked open to try to make up
time, streaking towards Denver at that section of line's speed limit
of 80 miles per hour.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Three
of Duane Harms regular passengers were waiting for him after he
finished that last cup of coffee, kissed Judy and Lynda goodbye, and
strode out to the idling bus. Their dad had decided that six degrees
was far too cold for them to stand outside and wait for the bus, he
had to go right past Duane Harms' house on the way to work, and he
knew that Duane always cranked the bus up on cold mornings so the
kids would have a warm ride when the bus reached their stop. He
dropped them off at the bus, and they climbed aboard and grabbed a
seat a couple of rows back from the front. A few minutes later Duane
climbed aboard the big GMC-Wayne, likely cheerfully greeted his trio
of early arrivals, then took the drivers seat, closed the door, put
the bus in gear, pulled out, and hung a right. His last run as a
school bus driver had begun...and twenty kids had just begun their
last hour on this earth.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As
Duane Harms drew a big square in the Colorado countryside that cold
December morning kids were chattering, and gossiping...greetings, to
both the kids already on the bus and to the driver, who was well
liked by both kids and parents, were exchanged as each new group
climbed aboard. The heater's blower motor...on high to boost heat to
the back of the nearly 40 foot long ride...was roaring. At each stop,
the motorized flasher for the warning lights kept time with that
'Tick-tick-Tick-tick' that all of us who grew up in the sixties and seventies came to know. </span>At one stop about halfway through the route a lanky 16
year old named Jerry Hembry shouted for Duane to hang on, he was
coming, then, as the warning lights ticked at them, ran hell-bent down the drive. He pulled himself up the
steps, spun around the vertical chrome bar that supported the privacy
panel separating the front seat from the step well and plopped down
in the front right-hand seat. Harms probably asked him something to
the effect of 'Where are your (Add an affectionately joking
adjective) cousins?'.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Jerry
likely replied with an equally sarcastic...but still equally
affectionate...comment about the two sisters over-sleeping. Greetings
were exchanged with the rest of the kids on board Bus #2 as Duane
Harms pulled the chrome handle that closed the bus doors, eased off
of clutch and brake, and pulled off...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Railroaders (Like the members of a few other professions) tend to <i>do</i> the job because they <i>love</i> the job.
And, like the members of those other professions, they know their job like the back of their hand. Herbert Sommers
had been taking the City of Denver out and back to Sterling...about
125 or so miles each way...daily for about 4 months now, and had the
location and peculiarities of every grade crossing imprinted
indelibly in his mind. And at every one, before he even passed the
square sign with a big 'W' painted on it...the point where he had to
start blowing for a crossing...he was supposed to reach up, grab a
wood-dowel tipped cord and pull it, pulling and releasing to blast the
E9's multi-chimed air horn in the pattern that <i>all</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
of us...without even realizing it...know by heart...</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">'WOOOOOOOOOOOONK...WOOOOOOOOONK...WOONK...WOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!!!'</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Notice I said 'Supposed to'. That pattern of horn blasts
lets motorists at a grade crossing know that a train's approaching.
And it's the series of blasts that a school bus driver was supposed
to listen for in that pre-track walker era as he pulled up to a
crossing, stopped, and opened the door. Most would reach over and
turn or flip the small switch that deactivates the warning lights,
silencing the flasher ...a noisy little beast, especially up front
where both the ticking of it's relay and the whir of it's electric
motor can be heard...and tell the kids to quiet down for a minute or
so to make sure he could hear a train blowing for the crossing.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Duane Harms had picked up somewhere between twenty five
and thirty kids when he got to the first crossing...the one on CR 45,
in the little community of Auburn...and stopped. He opened the doors,
looked, saw and heard nothing, and proceeded across. He wasn't even
really <i>expecting</i> to see a train. In the four months he'd been
driving the bus he hadn't seen one, and the one train that everyone
<i>knew</i> came through twice a day...the <i>City of Denver...</i>was
usually just about arriving at Denver's Union Station about the time
he started his route, having blown through Auburn sometime between
6:00 and 6:15. Of course the train had been late the day before,
too...even later, in fact. The Christmas Rush often did that to it's
schedule.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">From what I could gather, it sounds like Duane's bus
route had him hanging a left on C.R. 52 after he came through Auburn,
heading east on 52 for a bit picking up more kids as he went, then
turning around in a circle drive to head back towards Evans and
Greeley. He was about three quarters of the way through his route and
under a quarter mile from the evilly-angled railroad crossing where
C.R.52 crossed the Union Pacific tracks when he stopped at the foot
of a drive leading up to a big, fairly new farm house, the home of
the large and energetic Brantner clan, where he usually picked up
three of their eight kids...12 year old Bobby, 9 year old Kathy, and
6 year old Mark...but Bobby was the one who'd caught a ride in with
his two older brothers so he could ask about a school project. Only
Kathy and Mark got on board. They grabbed seats and Duane Harms put
the bus in gear and pulled forward...he had one more stop between the
Brantners and the crossing...there a ten year old named Jerry Baxter
clamored aboard into the welcome heat of the bus' interior. Duane
pulled the door shut, released the clutch, and pulled off. The
crossing was 900 feet away.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Again, this was a <i>cold</i> morning. A frigid six
degree morning with a good heavy dusting of snow hanging around. One
of those mornings that coats windshields and windows with something
that's not mere 'frost'...it's more like thin layer of ice. The bus
defroster had cleared the windshield, and the rear windows were
clear, but the side windows on both sides were all but completely
frosted over, save for about a two inch wide strip along the top of
the windows. It was toasty inside the bus by now...or as toasty as
the inside of a school bus ever gets, at any rate...but the frost was
thick on the windows, and the heat inside the bus hadn't even put a
dent in it. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>The City of Denver was bearing down on Auburn as Duane Harms pulled away from Jerry Baxter's house. At that same moment Art Larson was driving a delivery truck on CR 45, just over a half mile east of CR 52 as he rolled up to the crossing in Auburn. He had to go right past the high school in Greeley, so his oldest
daughter was riding with him. His youngest daughter Alice as well as
his son Steve were aboard Bus #2. Now...remember that familiar
Long-Long-Short-Long horn pattern blown at crossings? The one that's
blown at <i>every </i>crossing? Here's where we run into a bit of
controversy that continues to this very day.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As Art pulled up to the crossing in Auburn he noticed that the
truck's passenger side mirror was frosted over...he asked his oldest
daughter, Nancy, to roll her window down and scrape it for him. And
as she cranked the window down...before she ever reached out to
scrape the mirror...they both heard it. The fast approaching deepthroated rumble of diesels and the click-click of steel wheels
hitting rail joints. Art eased up a bit further and glanced right to
see the headlight glaring from the rounded, yellow prow of The City
of Denver's lead engine, bearing down on the crossing <i>fast</i>. He
and his daughter watched as the train streaked past, the 'Union
Pacific' painted on the sides of the cars no more than an orange
blur, windows coalescing into blurred silver gray streaks, the wheels
making rapid fire 'click-CLANK click-CLANK click-CLANK's as they
passed over the rail joints. Art's head swiveled left, following the
train. He saw the bus sitting at the CR 52 crossing, actually looking
at the back of the bus because of CR 52's extreme angle, and it's
brake lights were glowing red at him...a fact that he made a mental
note of. It took a shade under ten seconds for the train to clear the
crossing...as the rounded rear end of the City of Denver's
observation car cleared the crossing, Art eased forward, and headed
for Greeley. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Note that<i> </i>at no time did Art Larson or his
daughter hear the brassy bray of diesel locomotive airhorns...a sound
that's pretty hard to miss. As he eased across the tracks, the front
end of Union Pacific locomotive 955 was just about 10 seconds away
from the crossing at County Road 52...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Alice
and Steve Larson had swapped seats a couple of minutes before their
dad glanced down the tacks and saw the bus sitting at the crossing.
As the bus stopped at the Brantners' Alice slid out of her seat near
the back of the bus, walked forward, and sat next to a young lady
named Mary Lozano. Kathy Brantner slid into the seat next to them. A trio that I have a feeling was a bit like a younger, tween girl
version of The Three Musketeers was now complete. Only one of the
three would survive the next few minutes. Meanwhile, as Alice walked
forward, Steve Larson moved to the back of the bus and plopped down
near several of his friends...all sitting in those seats that
straddle the rear wheel wells Also near the back of the bus, seven
year old Debbie Stromberger had finally gotten her galoshes off. Near
her, six year old Sherry Mitchell sat, looking royally pissed as well
as sad...she had wanted to stay home so she could go visit her dad at
the hospital. Her mom had vetoed that idea.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Duane
pulled up to the crossing, stopping forty or fifty feet back...well
within guide-lines and law in The State of Colorado (And indeed every other state in The Union). But
he had a problem...several of them. First, to see down the tracks he
had to turn his head and look back over his right shoulder, actually
looking through the right side windows of the bus, which of course,
were nearly completely frosted over save for that two inch strip at
the top edge, cleared by the heat gathering at the upper part of the
bus. Then there were the telephone poles lining the tracks. Because
of the extreme angle of the road, an optical illusion made the poles
appear to be closer together than they actually were...more like the
pickets in a picket fence, creating</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> a </span>very definitely obstacle to
seeing something like, say, an oncoming train.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He
eased to a stop, brakes squealing faintly. (ALL school bus brakes
squealed back then...trust me on this), lifted himself as high as he
could, and craned his head around, looking back over his shoulder to
look through the windows. All he could see was frost, and a two inch
strip of day-light. The kids chattered and talked and laughed behind
him...he reached for the door lever and pulled it towards him,
folding the bus doors open. A wall of cold air poured in through the
open door. It wouldn't surprise me if someone good naturedly yelled
for him to close the door. He looked out of the door as the warning
lights...triggered by the door opening...ticked at him. He may or may
not have flipped the switch that cut them off.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">All
he could see were telephone poles. He strained his ears, listening
for an airhorn, then looked at Jerry, asking him if he heard
anything. Jerry noted that he didn't, then leaned around the door
frame, looking out of the door, and reported that he couldn't see
anything either. Someone again possibly yelled, possibly fractionally
<i>less</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> good naturedly, for him
to close the door, possibly inquiring if he was trying to freeze the
bunch of them.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The only train that was due to come through here
anywhere within a couple of hours of 8AM was The City of Denver, and
it <i>should</i> have gone through a couple of hours ago. Duane
sighed, pulled the door closed, and let his foot up off of the
clutch.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Herb Sommers watched as a school bus approached the
crossing, moving slowly as The City of Denver gobbled up track at 115
feet per second Across the cab, fireman Melvin Swanson said 'I sure
hope he stops....'</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And as both watched in horror, the bus rolled onto the
tracks...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As the bus rolled forward, the kids on board continued
their chatter and laughter, a few studying for tests or finishing up
homework, none even thinking about the railroad crossing...they
crossed two of them, twice a day. There had never been a train. Then
again, Jerry Hembry had never sat in the front seat, either. He
usually sat a few rows back, closer to the middle of the bus, but
this morning he was hard by the stepwell as the bus pulled forward.
If asked today, Jerry probably couldn't tell you what made him either
wipe the fog that formed on the inside of the window as the frost
finally began melting, or drop the upper pane of the window...but
when he did so and glanced out of his window, his blood ran cold as,
for a millisecond, his brain refused to accept as fact what his eyes
were telling it. The piercing yellow eye of a headlight, shining from
the rounded nose of a bright yellow and gray locomotive, the winged
'Union Pacific' seal across the front of it probably looking like it
was as big as the bus, really <i>really </i>close and bearing down on
them really <i>really</i> fast...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">“<i>TRAIN!!!!!!!!!”</i></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">High up in the cab of the lead engine, Herb Sommers
grabbed a horizontal brass lever and slammed it back as far as it
would go, throwing the brakes into full emergency...air dumped and
brake shoes pressed against 176 steel wheels...but the brakes barely
began to grab...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Jerry
had instinctively grabbed the chrome bar atop the privacy panel with
both hands even as he saw the train bearing down on them and yelled.
The 35 other kids barely had time to comprehend what he'd yelled
before the rounded nose of the lead engine...still moving at a bare
fraction under 80...slammed explosively into the back of the bus.
Because of the angle of the crossing, the train all but rear ended
Bus # 2, the middle of the engines front end catching the right side
of the bus between the back wheels and the back of the bus with an
explosive 'CRUMP!!!!.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The force of the collision was cataclysmic, and a few
dozen things, none of them good, happened in the same millisecond.
The rear body of the bus tore away from it's mounts while the body
mounts further forward bent, stretched...but held firm. The last ten
or so feet of the body...now unsupported and deformed beyond
imagination...ripped away jaggedly along body panel seams and wrapped
itself around the nose of the locomotive even as the left side of the
torn away rear end split apart. This rear few feet contained four
seats, and the kids in those seats were all ejected from the bus
explosively...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The rear axle and wheels ripped loose and bounced across
the snowy field next to the track as the shattered rear body rode the
front of the locomotive...part of it dragging and bouncing along ties
and rail...for 419 feet before spinning away and bouncing a couple of
times to land upright on the south side of the tracks. The front
section of the bus, with the mangled frame rails protruding from the
truncated back end like a pair of broken buck teeth, spun violently
and began rolling. Duane Harms probably went through the windshield,
which, just as it was designed to do, popped out in one piece. Jerry
Hembry was thrown all the way from front to rear and out of the chasm
where the rear ten or so feet of the bus used to be. Almost all of
the other kids in the front section were also thrown clear, only a
few riding the shattered vehicle as it rolled, finally landing on
it's right side 191 feet from the crossing, on the north side of the
tracks. The kids who managed to stay with the shattered hulk were
among the least seriously injured.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It took just about four seconds for dozens of lives to
be forever altered...four seconds between the instant that the front
end of Locomotive 955 bit deeply into the back end of the bus and the
second that the City of Denver came to a stop. Several seconds of
near silence, broken only by the squealing of train brakes and
ticking of the cooling bus engine, followed the explosive collision,
then moans and cries and calls for help rose from the wreckage. Duane
Harms and Jerry Hembry, both among the least injured of the bus'
occupants, came to and got to their feet first. Jerry found himself
lying partially in a snowy ditch with the bodies of several
kids...kids he knew...lying around him. He pulled himself to his feet
and spotted several kids either standing as if in a daze or trying to
walk away, heading for home. Jerry gathered them into a group,
picking one up (Despite a shattered collarbone), took the hand of a
little girl, and started walking towards a nearby farm house. Duane
Harms regained consciousness on the ground in front of the bus, at
first not realizing what had happened...then he saw the front half of
the bus, lying on its side. He dragged himself to his feet, and
walked around the hulk, seeing several things at once...the rear end
of the bus was gone, there was a crumpled mass of metal painted the
exact same color as the bus several hundred feet away on the other
side of the tracks, and several hundred feet beyond that, the rounded
rear end of The City of Denver's observation car, with the train
stretching beyond it...stopped. And the horrible realization of just
what had just happened...and, far worse, what he had just
done...slammed into him like a belly punch from a giant.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Albert Bindel had just missed being an eye witness. He
lived just down from the crossing...between it and the Brantner
farm...and had actually seen the bus' brake lights glowing at him as
it sat stopped at the crossing, but he went inside to gather his
three kids and get them in the car so he could take them into Greeley
to the Catholic school they attended, there-by missing the crash (A
fact that he was likely forever grateful for). He loaded his kids in
the car, pulled out of the drive and headed for Greeley...and the
crossing. As he approached the crossing his eyes saw a sight that his
brain just refused to even process </span>for an instant or two, much less believe...the battered, truncated hulk of the bus, lying on it's side.
He foot stabbed the brakes, slammed the car into reverse, and
three-point turned in the middle of the gravel road, spinning tires
as he headed back towards his farm. He shooed his kids back inside,
yelled for his wife to call it in, then hauled ass back to his car,
taking off and heading first for the Brantner farm, where he found
Joe Brantner (Who had also come with-in a hairs-breadth of witnessing
the crash) and told him what had happened. Seconds later the two of
them were making what had to have been one of the longest quarter
mile drives that anyone has ever had to make.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The first notification went to the Colorado Highway
Patrol and the Weld County Sheriff's department, and within five
minutes of the crash CHP unit 19 was dispatched to the scene of an
'Accident with injuries, possibly a school bus hit by a train'. CHP
Officer Don Girnt very likely called for the troops even as he spun
his Plymouth around on U.S. 85, flipped his lights on, and thumb
pressed the horn ring, winding the siren out as he raced towards C.R.
52 and the tracks. He'd make the run in 6 minutes.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The two towns closest to the crossing were Kersey and
LaSalle, and in both towns the peace and quiet of a frigid December
morning was shattered as their VFDs' house sirens wound up to a howl,
the cold clear air letting the rise-and-fall wail drift out far
beyond the town limits. Of course, this was fifty-three years ago. If
this same incident had happened in, say 2010, the words 'School bus
hit by a train' would have had several pumpers that were also
equipped with rescue equipment, at least one heavy rescue, and
several Advanced Life Support ambulances heading for the scene on the
initial alarm. Likely everyone responding would have been an EMT or
higher. And the first out rigs from both Kersey and LaSalle, if I'm
not mistaken, would have been manned by a salaried crew. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Things were different back in 1961, though. Both fire
companies were still all volunteer, so it took a few minutes to get
the rigs on the street. There was no such thing as true prehospital
care, unless you were lucky enough to have a Doctor or an R.N either
as a member of the rescue squad or willing to ride on a bad call.
Generally, though, 'Prehospital Care' consisted of an ambulance with
a <i>big</i> engine, capable of getting the patient to the hospital
quickly. Rescue equipment was still basically hand tools assisted by
railroad jacks, come-a-longs, and porta-powers. Wreckers were used to disentangle
trapped patients. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">On December 14<sup>th</sup>, 1961, Kersey responded with
a 1955 GMC pumper, a converted bread truck as the rescue, and a
converted hearse for an ambulance. I wasn't able to find out what
kind of equipment LaSalle had at the time, but it was probably
equivalent. I have a feeling that both Greeley and Evans also sent at
least ambulances if not also a couple of engine companies. By the
time rigs started arriving Joe Brantner was already taking care of
business.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Joe Brantner had his heart shattered minutes after
arriving at the scene when he all but literally stumbled over the
bodies of two of his children...nine year old Kathy and twelve year
old Mark. He said a prayer over the bodies of his children, looked
around at the injured children lying in the snow, and told Al to take
him back to his farm so he could grab his station wagon...he was back
in something under five minutes (Just after Trooper Girnt rolled
in)...he backed the wagon in close to the scene, dropped the tail
gate, and started loading injured children on board.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He headed for the hospital with five of them, four
critically injured...he was heading for the hospital well before the
first fire unit or ambulance rolled in.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Joe Brantner wasn't the only parent to roll up on the
scene early into the incident, nor the only one to suffer the
agonizing heartbreak of finding the body of their own children. Jim
and Loretta Ford were on the way into Greeley and ran up on it just
about the time Joe Brantner returned with his station wagon...they
had three kids, all typically rambunctious boys, on the bus, and they
found the body of the oldest...thirteen year old Jimmy...between the
tracks and the road minutes after they bailed out of their car. Their
youngest son, Bruce, was lying nearby, unconscious but breathing. And
even as they prayed over their two children, Jim Ford looked over at
the shattered front end of the bus to see their middle
son...Glenn...climb out of the wreckage, relatively unscathed. Glenn
was bruised, cut, missing his front teeth, and temporarily blinded by
cinders and debris that ended up in his eyes, though, and would be
one of the kids that Joe Brantner transported. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Another of the kids that Joe Brantner transported would
be Alice Larson, who swapped seats with her brother only minutes
before the crash. Alice was critical, with serious internal injuries.
Her parents were the third set of parents to roll up on the accident
soon after it happened. Juanita Larson would ride in with her
daughter...and wouldn't find out that Joe Brantner had lost two of
his own children until they arrived at the hospital.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They also carefully carried Nancy Alles...suffering
from fractured vertebrae, among other injuries...to the Brantner
station wagon. Her sister Linda wasn't as lucky...she was one of the
twenty children killed in the accident. Her brother survived because
he was the one with a dentist appointment that morning.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Allan Stromberger was also suffering from spinal
injuries and was also transported by Joe Brantner. His little sister
Debbie, who struggled with her galoshes in one of the rear seats of
the bus only minutes before the crash, would be the only child from
the rear section of the bus to survive. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Just <i>thinking</i> about transporting any of these
kids in the back of a station wagon, without any spinal
immobilization what so ever, would likely get an EMT or Cardiac
Tech's certification yanked this day and time. But it worked...all
five kids survived. Nance Alles, when told that she'd never walk again, told the doctor that he was lying then preceded, several
weeks later, to walk out of the hospital. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">News of the accident sped across the community like wild
fire as people learned about it, then called friends who they knew
might have kids on the bus, and dozens of parents descended on the
scene, frantic with worry, searching for their own kids until
Sheriff's Deputies and State Troopers set up a perimeter and moved
them back. Ambulances and fire rigs arrived on scene, and the crews,
with the resources they had at the time, went to work and in
something a bit less than an hour all of the injured had been
transported. The old armory in Greeley was set up as a temporary
morgue, and the bodies of twenty dead children (A two word phrase
that should never have to be spoken or written) were transported
there to be identified. And, ten days before Christmas, a town's
heart snapped in two.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Herb Sommers backed the train closer to the scene, part
of his crew heading for the shattered bus to offer whatever
assistance they could while Trooper Girnt met Sommers and got a
statement from him. Sommers, for the first of several times, made a
statement that's been more than a little controversial to this day.
He swore that he had indeed sounded the train's horn, and that the
bus, though moving slowly, hadn't stopped. An hour after The City of
Denver slammed into Bus # 2, Herb Sommers was cleared to take it into
Denver, with a promise that he and his crew would be back in Greeley
for a Coroners Hearing that afternoon.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Duane Harms was among the least injured of the
bunch...the laws of physics saved him as the drivers seat, being the
furthest from the impact and the approximate pivot point of the bus's
spin, caught the least force from the collision. Keep in mind that 'Least Force' is a relative term here. Remember, the front half of the
bus rolled and somersaulted for nearly 200 feet. He was patched up at
the hospital...a nasty cut on one leg and a few dozen bruises and
abrasions...and taken to the sheriffs department for an official
statement. And the controversy started. Of course he couldn't
remember the accident itself, or the few moments immediately
preceding it...he'd had his bell rung pretty completely. But he was
pretty sure he had stopped the bus, despite what Herb Sommers said.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Ahhh, the coroner's inquest, held at 1:45 that afternoon
at the Weld County Courthouse (Meaning that Herb Sommers and the rest
of the crew of The City of Denver had to hustle a little bit to get
back in time). The only ones who were present to testify were four
members of the train's crew, and Al Bindel, the farmer who'd been
getting ready to take his kids to school when he almost witnessed the
crash. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Bindel testified that he was absolutely sure the bus had
stopped...but admitted that, due to the angle he was looking at it
from and the distance, there was a possibility that it <i>could</i>
have been moving slowly. The train crew to a man, testified that the
bus entered the crossing at about 5 miles per hour without stopping.
Sommers also noted that he <i>had </i>sounded the horn as required,
plus a couple of short blasts when he realized the bus wasn't going
to stop. The next morning Duane Harms was charged with twenty counts
of Involuntary Manslaughter, Bond was set and posted, and a trial
date was set. And amid all of the heartache and sorrow, a pretty
amazing thing happened...something that likely wouldn't happen today.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The entire community, with a couple of notable and
understandable exceptions, rallied around Harms, and they had some
pretty good evidence as to <i>why </i>they should do so. That
particular crossing was a known hazard, and I have a feeling that
everyone had at least silently wondered <i>when...</i>not <i>if</i>...it's
completely screwed up sight lines would result in an accident. Jerry
Hembrey, from his hospital bed, insisted that the bus had indeed
stopped. He also insisted that he had <i>not</i> heard the train's
horn. Not from a distance. Not close up. Not at all. And he wasn't
the only one...Art Larson and his daughter both swore that they never
heard the train's horn.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The support for Harms continued up to the trial (And
continues, posthumously sadly, to this day). The general consensus
was that it was an unavoidable accident (I have to disagree on that
point) and that he had suffered enough from guilt and heartache of
having been responsible for the death of twenty children. Petitions
were signed and letters of support written and delivered to the
court, asking that he not be charged...or, once he was charged, that
the charges be dropped. I have a feeling that seating a jury that
hadn't heard about the case (And who didn't already have an opinion)
was just shy of impossible. Of course the hinge-point of the case was
whether or not Harms had indeed stopped at the crossing, opened the
door as required, and listened for the train...back then that was
literally all that was required at <i>any</i> crossing in <i>any</i>
state.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The trial took place in March of 1962, at the Weld County Courthouse, and lasted for four days, during which more of the
same testimony that was heard at the Coroners Inquiry the day of the
accident was heard...just in more detail. Of course, this time Jerry
Hembry was there to swear, under oath, that Duane Harms did indeed
stop the bus before driving into the crossing. And Herb Sommers still
testified that the bus <i>didn't</i> stop, also testifying that he
<i>did</i> sound his horn. Meanwhile both Art Larson and his daughter
Linda were there to testify that they never heard the horn.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Harms was the final defense witness, and his testimony
perfectly matched the statement he'd given the Weld Count District
Attorney three months earlier...he was almost sure he'd stopped and
opened the bus door, as required by law. And he was sure that he did
indeed listen for a train...specifically for the horn, and heard
nothing. He couldn't remember for sure because the memory of the
crash itself, as well as the couple of minutes preceding it was
entirely blank.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The jury got the case after four days of testimony, and
deliberated pretty much overnight before returning a Not Guilty
verdict...of course if you think this was the end of problems for
Duane Harms (Or, indeed, anyone ) you're way off. A couple of civil
suits were filed (A mere fraction of a fraction of what would have
been filed this day and time) and settlements were made in all. Then
he had to deal with his guilt and regret, and the opinions of the
minority that didn't support him. Almost the entire populace of the
area may have supported him, but that doesn't count for much when a
couple of irate fathers who had lost children showed up at his house
to make their dislike for him known...and yes that did happen, and
thankfully for all involved, words were all that were exchanged.
Within a few months of the accident, Duane Harms had packed up Judy
and Lynda and moved to California to get away from both the negative
vibes and his own guilt. He never really managed to get completely
away from either.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Then there were the parents. Twenty sets of parents had
lost at least one child, four sets of parents had lost two children,
and three of those families were tragically and completely decimated when they lost
their <i>only</i> two children. Several sets of cousins were among
the kids that died...meaning that several parents lost not only a son
or daughter, they also lost a niece or nephew. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sixteen kids were injured, with the injuries ranging
from a few cuts and bruises to critical, life threatening injuries.
In several cases a family had lost one child and had another in the
hospital clinging to life. Christmas all but came to a stop in Weld
County in 1961.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">AN interesting facet of life back than (And one that I
remember well, though thankfully I never had to deal with anything
that even approached the outskirts of being this tragic) is the
complete lack of grief counseling for the kids. The general consensus
was that the best way to get over something was to...well, get over
it. To basically suck it up and go ahead with life. We know now, of
course, that emotional trauma doesn't just go away...all of the
surviving kids on Bus #2 as well as their parents were affected by
this to some extent, and the majority of those who are still around
will tell you that it <i>still</i> affects them to one extent or the
other to this very day. A tragedy of this nature stays with you. You
may not think about it daily, or even for weeks or months at a time,
but it's always just under the surface, waiting for something as
simple as seeing a bus sitting at a rail crossing to bring it back to
the surface.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"> Another effect of the accident...one often not thought
about...was the kids who missed the bus...many of them suffered from
survivors guilt, and some still do to this day. Collean and LaDean
Yetter...the two sisters who overslept and missed the bus...are good
examples of this. Both girls ended up at the scene when their
parents went to pick Jerry up from the farmhouse he'd taken several
of the children to, saw the wrecked bus, then spent a long, torturous
day at the hospital wondering about their friends, only to find out
that they had lost many of them. And the ' Why did I live and my
friends not' thoughts began. This kind of guilt can be rough on an
<i>adult</i>. Collean and LaDean were both under 12.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Many surviving siblings also felt the pangs of
Survivors Guilt (And interestingly, some siblings born <i>after</i>
the accident also felt a form of the same type of guilt.) And, once
again, psychological effects on children (And anyone else for that
matter) resulting from being involved in an ultra-traumatic incident such this
were dealt with using the ineffective, and probably damaging 'Suck it
up and deal with it' philosophy. This wasn't intentionally abusive,
of course...it was just, sadly, the way things were done back then.
<i>I</i> remember being told not to worry about things affecting my
friends back in that same era (The phrase my dad would use was 'It's
none of your business'). Of course, as it wasn't ever anything
remotely close to this level of tragedy I can't even begin to
identify with any of the survivors of the bus crash. As for Collean,
LaDean, and any of the then-kids who survived, most if not all will
tell you it affects them...some of them deeply...to this very day. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The Brantner family was arguably, affected the most by
the bus crash...they lost two of their children in the accident, and
it seems a cloud of tragedy hung over them for quite awhile...and if
it was any family that absolutely <i>didn't</i> deserve this it was
this very religious, faithful, and hard working family.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Only seven weeks or so after the bus crash...before
Duane Harms' trial had even started...the two oldest Brantner kids,
sixteen year old Johnny and fourteen year old Jimmy, were on the way
to school in Johnny Brantners Chevy, when a pick-up blew a stop sign.
Johnny Brantner stood on the brakes, but still broadsided the pick-up
at highway speed. He was ejected, and died shortly after
reaching the hospital. Younger brother Jimmy was trapped in the car
with critical injuries.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Before the numbness and despair of December 14<sup>th</sup>
had even begun to ease up even a little, Joe and Katherine Brantner
were again getting that phone call that every parent dreads, then
rushing to the hospital, fearing for the lives of two more of their
kids. Jimmy survived, but with debilitating injuries, and to add a
twilight-zoneesque feeling to the accident, Bobby Brantner cheated
death a second time that morning. He'd ridden with Johnny and Jimmy
every morning since the bus crash...but Joe Brantner finally decreed
that he had to ride the bus. His older brothers had to go too far out
of their way to drop him off at school. The morning Johnny was
killed...Feb 7<sup>th</sup>, 1962...was the first morning Bobby rode
the bus.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">A year or so after the bus crash, Joe Brantner would
donate a good sized chunk of his property for a project. The project?
That short stretch of C.R. 52 between that curves away from the tracks and 'T's into CR 43,
bypassing the severely angled crossing where the bus crash occurred and allowing traffic on CR 52 to cross at the already existing crossing on County Road 43. CR 43 crosses the tracks, BTW, </span>at nearly a right angle...as it should be. The
old crossing was removed, and the original stretch of CR 52 between
the crossing and CR 43 was plowed under and became part of the field
next to the tracks.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Within a few months of the accident Weld County Colorado
put a policy in place that an adult...hired for the purpose as a 'Bus
Aide'...would 'Walk The Tracks' at each and every railroad crossing,
and the bus would not move until the aide waved him across. School
districts across the nation put similar policies in place...my home
county of Southampton County, Virginia being one of them. To be
honest, I'm not sure that the policy ever became state law anywhere
(And I'm being a scosh lazy because I haven't really researched it
that deeply) but I've been told that the policy is still in effect in
numerous rural school districts throughout the country. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><***>
Notes, Links, And Stuff<***></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>The other posts in this series</b></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b>in the order they were posted.</b></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/spring-city-tenn-bustrain-crash.html</a> Spring City Tenn. August 1955</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/congers-new-york-bustrain-crash.html</a> Congers New York </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
March 1972</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/lake-station-indiana-church-bustrain.html</a> Lake Station Indiana</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
October 1971</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/stratton-nebraska-church-bustrain-crash.html</a> Stratton Nebraska </div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
August 1976</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.html" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/fox-river-grove-illinois-bustrain-crash.htm</a> Fox River Grove Illinois October 1995</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html" style="color: #1155cc;">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/conasauga-tennesee-bustrain-crash.html</a> Conasauga Tenn. March 2000<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html </a> Sandy, Utah Dec 1938<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/proberta-california-train-bus-crash.html</a> Proberta, California Nov 1921<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/shreve-ohio-and-berea-ohio-school.html</a> Shreve and Berea Ohio Jan. 1930<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/crescent-city-florida-trainschool-bus.html</a> Crescent City, Florida December 1933<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/rockville-md-train-bus-crash-april-11th.html</a> Rockville, Maryland April 1935<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/mason-city-iowa-bus-train-crash.html</a> MAson City, Iowa Oct. 1937<br />
<br />
<a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html">http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/eads-tennessee-trainschool-bus-crash.html</a> Eads, Tennessee Oct. 1941<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><***></b></div>
</div>
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<br />
<br />
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This post turned into a project of some magnitude...I started off intending to post about the Evans crash...and the Evans bus crash only. Then, as I researched, and went back over my list of potential subjects for this blog, I realized just how many schoolbus-train collisions there have been over the last 110 years and change. Far <i>Far</i> too many of them. So I decided to do something a little different with this series of posts...and that's exactly it..It's going to be a two part <i>series</i> of posts, all sent out into the interwebs at the same time, both remembering the incidents and their young victims, and following the evolution of both the laws dealing with school bus safety at grade crossings as well as a minor study on how such incidents have been handled over the years. And yes, I may speculate, as I'm a bit prone to do, here and there. The fact that I don't have much sympathy for anyone who, through ignorance or idiocy, puts a bus load of children in front of an oncoming train just might peek through as well. That's the nice thing about blogs...you don't have to be impartial, and you can voice your opinion.<br />
<br />
I'm doing this in two parts, with the first series of posts covering the period from 1955 to 2000, and the second part, a couple of months down the road, covering the period from 1921 to 1954.<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">You'd think, with this accident being Colorado's worst
traffic accident, being as horrific as it was, and occurring in
fairly modern times, there would be reams of information about it on
the web. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Guess what gang...there isn't. There are incidents and
accidents of all kinds that occurred nearly a century earlier with so
much information available on line that you can pick and choose what
you want to use as research for a post such as this. The Evans
Colorado Bus Crash, however, has very little info on the web,...not
even comparatively, but very little, period. It's as if Colorado, the
country, and the world just wanted to forget about it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">If it wasn't for an outstanding series of articles
written about the accident for a now defunct newspaper, this post
would have been a couple of paragraphs long, using information from a
genealogy site that archives newspaper articles about disasters from
the past. (The very same site that I use, among other sources, to
hunt for subjects for this blog) </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">With that thought in mind, before I do <i>anything </i>
else I need to acknowledge Kevin Vaughan, the author of 'The
Crossing', a 34 part series on the accident that was published in
the now defunct Rocky Mountain News back in early 2007. This was not
only a very thorough, yet sensitive and respectful account of the
tragedy and the effect it and on the victims and families, it was my
primary source of facts and information for this post.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">A blog on the paper's site also carried information
about the series, as well as hundreds of comments, several from
family members of the kids on the bus...most notably Mary Brantner,
who was an infant when her brother and sister died in the accident.
I'm forever grateful to all for the reams of information and correct
facts that these two sources provided.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Of course, with 'The Rocky', as residents of Colorado
called the paper, out of business I had to dig a little to find The
Crossing's text, and finally found all but a couple of installments
thanks to 'The Way-back Machine' web archive. The one thing I
couldn't find, anywhere, were pictures of the scene...but that's not
necessarily a bad thing at all. I think the descriptions given in The
Crossing and the comments from The Rocky's blog were more than
enough. It's not the type of image I'd want to have in my mind for
any length of time. I've included links to both the blog, and 'The Crossing' below.</span>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal;">
<b><***></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">While the Evans accident was horrific in it's own right, it was <i>not</i> the worst school bus/train accident on record...that highly dubious distinction belongs to the <a href="http://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/sandy-utah-bus-train-crashthe-worst.html">Sandy, Utah bus/train crash</a>, which occurred on December 1st, 1938, killing 25 students and the bus driver, making it not only the worst school bus/train crash in U.S. history, but the worst grade crossing accident of any kind in U.S. History. In a strange twist of both history and fate,The Sandy and Evans accidents, separated by twenty-three years, share a striking number of similarities:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>Both occurred in December, in small towns in the Western U.S.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>Both occurred in the morning,while the bus was on the way in to school.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>There was snow on the ground at both scenes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>Both occurred at unsignalled crossings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>The chassis of both buses were built by GMC (Known as General Motors Truck Corp back in The Thirties)</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">>The bus windows were fogged over in both cases</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">>The driver actually <i>did</i> stop the bus short of the crossing in both cases...then proceeded after not seeing the oncoming train.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">>A passenger sitting in the front seat of the bus saw the train and shouted 'TRAIN!!!' an instant before the collision in both accidents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">>In both accidents the driver was known to be very responsible, making it all the more puzzling that he drove in front of a train.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><***></span></div>
</div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There have, sadly, been way more than a few
train-school bus accidents over the years...167 between 1902 and 2015, with the most recent happening only a couple of weeks ago as I get ready to post this, and I've found information on about 20 or so of them while
searching out subjects for this series of blog posts. Among them were a pair of accidents</span> in Alabama, in January and March of 1960...<span style="font-size: small;">nearly two
years earlier...</span>that were eerily similar
to the Evans Bus Crash, .</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The first was in Fackler Alabama, in far northeastern Alabama's Jackson County . Very similar
circumstances...A rural dirt road, slow moving school bus, and a
driver who claimed that he never saw the train that hit them, though
he cited 'the brakes giving out' as the reason he couldn't or didn't
stop. And, just as happened at Evans, the bus was torn in two by
the crash, with the rear portion of the bus being dragged nearly three quarters of a mile. This time the bus had 17 aboard counting the driver. Four
of the kids were killed, two of them not only brothers but nephews of the driver as well, while the other two were a brother and sister.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The driver not only stated that the brakes failed, he
said that they had failed 'Numerous times' in the time he'd been
driving it. The school board's superintendent, quoting the system's
chief mechanic, said that the bus had undergone preventative
maintenance within the past couple of months, and was in good shape.
Brakes included. I'll let everyone come to their own conclusions on
what actually happened.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Not much info on The Web about this one, though I did find bits enough bits and pieces on a couple of genealogy sites to get the location and general gist of what happened. There are a
couple of reasons why the accident didn't garner the same interest as
the Evans crash. There were fewer killed, a mechanical failure (True
or not) was cited as the cause, and the bus (A 1951 model) being
nearly ten years old lent some credence to the 'Brakes Failed' story,
leaving no lessons to be learned that weren't already known.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Interestingly the crossing where the accident
happened...which is still in place, on Jackson County Road 169, hard by County Road 45...is to this day still only protected by a
cross buck sign and stop sign with no lights or gates. The area...like that around
Auburn, Colorado...is still extremely rural.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The second one occurred on March 22, 1960 on the opposite end of the state, in the Wilcox County community of Coy,
Alabama. Despite the fact that, with 8
fatalities, the death toll was twice that of the Fackler accident
there is all but nothing on the web about it. I was able to find out
that it occurred in the afternoon </span>on a rural road at another unsignaled crossing and that the bus (An very late Forties or early fifties GMC or
Chevy) was hit just about broadside on the right side by a freight
train and pretty much ripped apart.. I got this info thanks to a
single captioned A.P. picture on a site that has the images for sale
for far more than I was willing to spend to post it here. Interestingly enough, I discovered that picture...and this crash...while searching out information on the Fackler bus crash.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It can be pretty well assumed that in the Coy bus crash the bus driver either
didn't see or hear the train, or thought he could beat
it...unfortunately no information about the cause of the crash was
included. And...sadly...I think I know <i>why</i> very little info is
available about this one. 1960 was still very much the era of
segregation in the Deep South. I'll let my readers make their own
conclusions from that single statement.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It should be noted, though, that the law requiring
school bus drivers to stop, look, and listen at RR crossings had been
in place for several years by 1960, but apparently some drivers just
weren't getting the message.. (The accident that finally spear-headed
a move to make it a Federally Mandated Law will be covered next in this series of
posts). </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">As to why Duane Harms never heard The City of Denver's
horn and therefore pulled onto the crossing after stopping (And yes,
number me among those who think he did indeed stop)...I have a
theory. Obviously I wasn't there, and I could be way out in left
field, but I don't think Herb Sommers blew Locomotive 599's air horn
that fateful morning...not anywhere near the crossing, or the one a
half mile or so east of it at County Road 45 at any rate. Too many
people said they didn't hear it...and I'm inclined to believe that if
they <i>say </i>they didn't hear it, it's because it wasn't being
blown for them <i>to</i> hear. Those big, multi-chime air horns carry
a long <i>long</i> way....I regularly hear trains blowing for a
crossing that's a good mile and change from my house. </span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Now, as to just <i>why </i>Herb Sommers didn't blow the
horn in the required approaching crossing pattern, I don't think it
had anything to do with incompetence or laziness...Herb Sommers had
been an engineer for 20 years and a railroad employee for 43 years, so he knew the Union Pacific's policy and procedure manuals backward and
forward. And sounding the horn wasn't exactly a major expenditure of
effort...you reached up and over to the left, grab the wooden dowel
on the end of the whistle cord, and give it a yank. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But he <i>was </i>just as prone as any of us, you and
me included, to a little fault named complacency. The City of Denver
normally went through a bit after 6AM, before anyone's really on the
road in a farming community such as Auburn. Also, there are
several grade crossings, one right after the other on that stretch of
track...back in '61 there were three within a mile right at
Auburn...the one at CR 45, in Auburn itself, the fatal crossing at CR
52, and the one at CR 43, which meant that he would have been
sounding that Long-Long-Short-Long all but constantly from the time
he approached Auburn until he was well past the fatal crossing at
C.R. 52...trust me on this, someone would have heard that horn if he
was sounding it constantly for nearly a full minute. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Two things probably happened...One, he sounded the horn
for one of the crossings before he got to CR 45 (There were several
east of Auburn as well), and knowing there was usually absolutely <i>no</i>
traffic on those back roads when he came through, and that people
were either still asleep or just stirring, didn't subject them to the
afore mentioned minute or so long airhorn concert. So it's quite possible that he didn't blow the airhorn out of a misplaced sense of politeness. Of course, on <i>this
</i> particular morning, he was coming through Auburn nearly two
hours later than normal, and there <i>were</i> people up, out, about, and on the roads.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"> This takes us to 'Thing Two'...Sommers and his
fireman were likely carrying on a conversation as they approached CR
52, possibly even about the bus, because I think it's more than
possible that, as he approached the crossing at CR 45, he saw the bus
stopped...Art Larson saw it from the CR 45 crossing. The bus would
have probably been visible, from an extreme ¾ angle from the right
rear, making the glowing brake lights visible. And, seeing the bus
stopped, Sommers assumed that the driver saw him and was going to
<i>stay</i> stopped...then turned his head for the theoretical few
seconds to make a comment to his fireman. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Remember, The City of Denver was moving at 79 miles per
hour...round it up to 80, and they were rolling along at 115 feet or
so every second. If he glanced over towards his fireman...looking
away from the windshield...for four seconds, he's just covered a
little less than two football fields since he crossed CR 45, and
before he looked up again. By the time he looked up he was less than
a quarter mile.. between 1000-1200 feet lets say...from the crossing,
and the bus is moving. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">When they do see it moving a few seconds later, Sommers
and the fireman maybe both at first think that he's just moved up a
little to better be able to see down the tracks. A few seconds later
they realize he isn't stopping... they're maybe 500-600 feet away. If
the bus is moving at 5 miles per hour as it crosses (Not at all
unlikely on the rough country road crossings of that era...we had 'em
in Virginia, too.) it was moving at about 7 feet per second. If the
bus is 35 feet long that's five seconds for it to clear the crossing.
They were about a quarter way across when Jerry Hembry cleared his
window, turned his head and stared straight into the train's
headlight...by then the City of Denver was probably a football field
or so away from them, though it looked like it was even closer. This
is also possibly where Herb Sommers threw the brakes into emergency.
Duane Harms may have punched it to try to clear the tracks...but, as
school buses traditionally have the pep and acceleration of a cruise
ship, that was all but a pointless gesture. When Jerry yelled
'TRAIN!!!', Herb Sommers yanked the brake valve into emergency, and
Duane possibly punched it, the City of Denver was about three seconds
away from them.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They almost made it across...the front of locomotive
#599 tore into the very back of the bus...the last 63 inches. Five
feet and three inches. If they had had another second or so...if the bus had been going two miles an hour faster, or if Sommers had slammed the City of Denver's brakes into full emergency the instant he realized the bus was moving...all it
would have been was a close call.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">And sadly, yes I believe that Sommers lied, under oath, about the bus not stopping, and about sounding the City of Denver's horn. One of the survivor's relatives grandfather was not only a Union Pacific employee, but was involved in the U.P.'s investigation into the crash.. Years later she found a bound report on the investigation, and read it. Though she threw it away, not wanting to stir up an old hornets nest, she stated that it was pretty damning for the City of Denvers' crew. Her theory was that they were coached as to what their testimony at both the Coroner's hearing and the trial </span>would be.</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I have all the sympathy in the world for Duane
Harms...any of us can make a mistake. And when we do we can only hope
and pray it won't be the cataclysmic kind that happened at 7:59 AM on
December 14<sup>th</sup>, 1961. But, while many of Duane Harms
supporters stated that the accident was unavoidable, it <i>could</i>
have been avoided, though, if you really look at it, you can kind of understand why it <i>wasn't</i>
avoided. That complacency that just <i>might</i> be the reason that
Herb Sommers<i> </i>didn't sound the City of Denver's horn?
Me thinks Duane Harms was suffering from a pretty hefty dose of it as well. He
had <i>never</i> encountered a train on his morning run, so he was
likely being no more or less cautious than he always was. He, in fact, took an extra step that fateful morning...he asked Jerry Hembry if
he heard anything, and Jerry also glanced out of the door, seeing and
hearing nothing.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">During testimony at his trial, Duane stated that he
probably stopped forty or fifty feet back from the tracks...with-in
both legal and district policy guide lines...opened the door and
<i>listened </i>for a train. Which he probably always did. Remember
the poles,and the optical illusion, caused by the crossing's severe
angle, that made them into an almost solid wall? Because of that
optical illusion, and the fact that he actually had to turn and look
over his shoulder to check, if this is where Harms always stopped, he
had <i>never</i> been able to see down the tracks towards the east. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There had never been a train...not even a distant head
light...at that or any crossing during his morning run and he had
opened the door every morning and heard nothing...just as he had this
morning...so he had, in his mind, no reason at all to do anything
more than he usually did. OF course, looking back with hindsight
that's always 20/20, the majority of people hear this story and say
'What was he <i>thinking??? </i>Simple...he was thinking that he
couldn't <i>hear</i> a train, and that there had never <i>been </i>a
train so there wasn't a train there <i>that </i>morning either<i>.</i>
</span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">What's really sad is the fact that the key to avoiding
the accident was sitting in the front right passenger seat...if he
had said something like 'Jerry, how 'bout running up to the tracks
and taking a look', Jerry Hembrey would have done so, seen the fast
approaching City of Denver, and all that would have happened as he
climbed back on board would have been he or Duane saying something
like 'Whoa, The City's' running late this morning!' But again, in
Duane's mind, there was no reason to send Jerry to look down the
tracks, therefore the thought never occurred, So Jerry stayed in his
seat. And Duane did the same thing he'd done at every crossing, twice
a day at each, for four months. Listened, heard nothing, and preceded
across And the rest is history.. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In the blog comments from The Rocky Mountain News
several people noted that 'Harms should have gotten out and looked'
but that wouldn't have worked either. It was probably against
district policy to leave the bus running, loaded, and unattended, so
he would have had to have shut the engine off, run up to the
crossing, looked, run back, gotten in, started the bus back up, put
it in gear, and started rolling. More than enough time for a train
that wasn't visible when he looked to suddenly be bearing down on
them. Granted and admittedly, the fact that there <i>was </i>a train
that morning makes any excuse for not looking himself somewhat moot.
But it would have been a pain in the ass to do so, and neither he,
nor, very likely, any driver had <i>ever </i>gotten off of the bus
themselves to check for a train. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Keep in mind also that this wasn't (And <i>isn't</i> )
the only railroad grade crossing with a seriously screwed up sight
line in one direction or the other. And I have a feeling that, until
more stringent Federal laws mandating otherwise were put on the
books, Duane Harms wasn't the only driver who handled unsignalled,
badly aligned crossings this very same way...by simply opening the
door and just <i>listening</i> for a train (Again, I'm talking
nation-wide...not just in Weld County, Colorado). He was just the one
that got caught. And tragically, 36 kids payed the price...20 of them
the ultimate price.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Duane Harms moved to California shortly after he was
acquitted of manslaughter in the bus crash, but bad luck still
followed him. The family moved to Southern California, where he got a
job in the maintenance department of a good sized school district,
and Judy Harms got a job teaching elementary school in the same
district. Things seemed to be looking up for them until a congenital
condition that Judy had inherited reared it's ugly head, and she
began to slip into the dark grasp of mental illness. Duane could only
watch as she slipped away from him, her body still very much alive,
but inhabited by someone that he didn't know. He first had himself
named as her conservator, than as her condition worsened and he
became unable to care for her, she was institutionalized. And fate
still wasn't finished with Duane Harms.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">His daughter Lynda had grown up to be a perfectly normal
teen...she graduated with the Class of 79, and during her years in So
Cal, she'd likely become a typical 'California Girl' and had
accumulated a cadre of close friends, as teenage girls are wont to
do. One afternoon after she graduated, while she and a friend were
out and about in the friends car, the other girl lost control, went
off the road, and slammed into a tree, apparently on Lynda's side.
Lynda had internal injuries and spent a month in the hospital before
coming home to recuperate. She recovered from her physical injuries,
but her mental condition began to deteriorate...whether from an
undiagnosed head injury, or the same type condition her mom suffered from,
triggered in some way by her accident, is unknown. She lived at home,
hardly ever going out, for years before, I believe,. she was also
ultimately institutionalized.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As for Duane Harms, he was diagnosed with an inoperable
brain tumor in the late Summer of 2007. He passed away on November
18<sup>th</sup> of that same year...finally at peace.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Herb Sommers died three weeks or so shy of four years
after the bus accident...ironically in another grade crossing
accident. On November 20<sup>th</sup>, 1965, just five days before
Thanksgiving, Herb Sommers was bringing the City of Denver into Denver
on the last leg of it's overnight Denver-Chicago-Denver round trip.
He was almost into Denver as he bore down on a signal and gate
protected grade crossing at East 96<sup>th</sup> Ave. The City of
Denver had probably slowed from it's cruising speed of 80 down to 40
or 50 as it entered the Denver metro area and approached Denver's
Union station, but that's still rolling when you have 900 tons or so
of momentum behind you. But this was a signaled, gated crossing...</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Lack of common sense is not a new ailment. Even as Herb
Sommers watched in disbelief a tanker...freshly loaded with 9000
gallons of gasoline at a tank farm less than a quarter mile east of the
crossing...slalomed around the gates and started crossing in front of
the train. With a horrified sense of Deja Vue, Sommers slammed the
brakes into emergency and the train slid....</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It wasn't even close...the rounded nose of the lead
locomotive ripped into the tanker broadside, popping it like a
balloon, unleashing a tidal wave of gasoline that didn't even have to
search real hard for an ignition source.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A fireball engulfed the locomotives and crossing, all
9000 gallons of gas lit off, and only the luck of the Irish and the
fact that the area around the crossing wasn't all that built up (And
still isn't truth be known) kept this from becoming a conflagration
of devastating proportions. The City of Denver, flames rolling from
the lead locomotive, slid nearly a mile before it stopped.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The truck's driver was thrown clear, and employees who
ran from the tank farm...Denver Products back then...dragged him
clear of the burning tanker. He would die from his injuries a week
later. DFD's white painted fire rigs descended on the scene to find
that they had two fire scenes...the burning tanker and 9000 gallons
of burning gasoline at 96<sup>th</sup> Ave as well as the fully
involved lead locomotive almost a mile south, where the train finally
drifted to a blazing stop. DFD dumped a multiple alarm assignment on
the tanker fire, and sent another assignment to the train fire, which
was knocked down fairly quickly. When firefighters entered the cab of
the burned out lead locomotive they discovered the bodies of both
Herb Sommers and his fireman. Sommers was buried three days later.
As If this wasn't tragic enough, four months later his wife of 40+
years, unable to take the grief of losing her husband any longer,
took her own life. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Two years after the bus accident, Delta Elementary
School...the school that many of the passengers aboard Bus # 2 that
morning were bound for...was replaced by a new elementary school. The
school was named 'East Memorial Elementary', in memory of the 20 kids
who died in the accident, and a brass plaque, engraved with the names
of the children, was placed on the wall in a prominent location, near
the school's office.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The school and plaque are still there, though the
school's being 'Downgraded' to a K-3<sup>rd</sup> grade school this
(2014-2015) school year.</span> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYg8gTMsvkpH29Z-ftwpDVjRYl4VoaBrdl-af24Ihmc-ftrf1gI3EC4IvPucJYQfUxnNPmkrMitwynGDLggE63SxQDmgTvgujdi2_Kiz0lkYIlyYELuwZfcRgRwPTSZdSqYPTCkVzQ040/s1600/East+Memorial+memorial+plaque.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYg8gTMsvkpH29Z-ftwpDVjRYl4VoaBrdl-af24Ihmc-ftrf1gI3EC4IvPucJYQfUxnNPmkrMitwynGDLggE63SxQDmgTvgujdi2_Kiz0lkYIlyYELuwZfcRgRwPTSZdSqYPTCkVzQ040/s1600/East+Memorial+memorial+plaque.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plaque near the office at East Memorial Elementary School. The picture to the left of the plaque is a picture of the planting of a Memorial Tree at the school on the 25th anniversary of the accident.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><***></b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">For
decades the plaque in the hall of Memorial Elementary, near the
office, was the </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">only</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
memorial to the kids who died in the bus crash, Someone always
placed flowers or a wreath on a fence post near the curve where County Road 52
once crossed the tracks, especially around the anniversary of the
accident, but there was nothing permanent to mark the site or
memorialize the children who had been killed. </span></span></span>Tim
Geisick, whose mom was Katherine and Joe Brantner's oldest daughter
Susan, <span style="font-style: normal;">had never gotten to meet his
aunt and uncle...Kathy and Mark Brantner. He had also</span> always
wondered just <i>why</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> there was
no memorial at the site itself, something he felt was completely
unacceptable. He</span> <span style="font-style: normal;">started</span>
a movement to have a permanent memorial erected at the site where the
accident took place before 'The Crossing' was ever published in The
Rocky Mountain News. The p<span style="font-style: normal;">ublication
of the series drew support and contributions, both nationally and
internationally, and donations for the monument rolled in from as far
away as Germany. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">A
land owner named Lonnie Bunting donated the land for the memorial
site as well as the first 250 dollars, and various local government
officials did what they could to smooth out the application and
permit processes. The 6500 dollars Tim needed to erect the simple
memorial was raised fairly quickly and donations of time, and help in
organizing pretty much every facet of erecting it and unveiling were
also made, leading to the memorial's dedication on August 27</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">th</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">,
2007.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It
consists of a simple but elegant 6 foot granite obelisk with the
names of the 20 children and a short paragraph telling about the
accident engraved on one face, and stands as a fitting memorial to
the twenty children who climbed aboard a school bus for the last time on
a frigid December morning a shade over 53 years ago.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn6rHtEvjpLBoz4ELl9aZ17l6pkRkDAbtiYjE76_NEf9Lg5vCEcwHRuaxoL2Se0UGurDxHHfmkDPOGlwr92s3CrF9gE64D0VO2Aj1Ho2oaQbZTch1sWlIBb9F-khq5LBEil-YE5gNpBw8/s1600/IMG_3531.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn6rHtEvjpLBoz4ELl9aZ17l6pkRkDAbtiYjE76_NEf9Lg5vCEcwHRuaxoL2Se0UGurDxHHfmkDPOGlwr92s3CrF9gE64D0VO2Aj1Ho2oaQbZTch1sWlIBb9F-khq5LBEil-YE5gNpBw8/s1600/IMG_3531.jpg" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Crossing Memorial</td></tr>
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<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSlglzugo_NLxuK5IsIoc2InQYiR0KmQtuuDERRwXCQCpLAiDEjjFo_EEik9L9CbiezdybvJPCp2HoGclv13kW7wLxe_nfFi01GXr8dNbjFT0_S0aIfBAF4e0aR_LMV10AILQ_Alm6Wa4/s1600/IMG_3527.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSlglzugo_NLxuK5IsIoc2InQYiR0KmQtuuDERRwXCQCpLAiDEjjFo_EEik9L9CbiezdybvJPCp2HoGclv13kW7wLxe_nfFi01GXr8dNbjFT0_S0aIfBAF4e0aR_LMV10AILQ_Alm6Wa4/s1600/IMG_3527.jpg" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close-up of the Memorial's obelisk, with the names of the 20 kids who lost their lives inscribed there-on.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YtSEwyFh6fykTYTgtP7Xve3fyDr3WbjbO0EB_YPQIKqTlOGfErpkHuA3KS1jzKu5qgdODLFuHgX6t9i-ARYkZDPRq-8Vag9Sag3jfAzFnu9NwPxPj9Qqpmjy5DA2zVzGaLmLay5_L2c/s1600/crossing_victims.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YtSEwyFh6fykTYTgtP7Xve3fyDr3WbjbO0EB_YPQIKqTlOGfErpkHuA3KS1jzKu5qgdODLFuHgX6t9i-ARYkZDPRq-8Vag9Sag3jfAzFnu9NwPxPj9Qqpmjy5DA2zVzGaLmLay5_L2c/s1600/crossing_victims.jpg" width="610" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Twenty Angels of The Crossing</td></tr>
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<b><***>Links<***></b><br />
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As I noted at the beginning of the 'Notes', there is very little on line about the accident, which doesn't even have it's own Wiki page. I did find a few links other than The Wayback Machine's archive while doing research, (Link to that's immediately below), most about the memorial, or forum threads/blog posts about the accident.<br />
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<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090303043113/http://cfapp2.rockymountainnews.com/crossing/">https://web.archive.org/web/20090303043113/http://cfapp2.rockymountainnews.com/crossing/</a><br />
<span id="goog_1378309999"></span>Wayback Machine internet archive link for Kevin Vaughan's series 'The Crossing. The great majority of the
chapters are searchable, though most of the images don't show up. Just
click 'View Chapter XX' at the bottom of each chapter's
description. A very interesting read.<br />
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<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140701172125/http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/rockytalklive/archives/2007/08/test_1.html">https://web.archive.org/web/20140701172125/http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com /rockytalklive/archives/2007/08/test_1.html</a> Link to the<b> </b>Wayback
Machine Internet Archive 's file of the RMN's blog post about the
accident, with comments. Another extremely interesting read! </div>
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<a href="http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?16777-Passenger-train-hit-school-bus-in-1961-Rocky-Mountain-News-33-part-series&s=6c165e2e792271d513de769485fd49c0">http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?16777-Passenger-train-hit-school-bus-in-1961-Rocky-Mountain-News-33-part-series&s=6c165e2e792271d513de769485fd49c0</a> Railroad history site forum about the accident...another school bus/train crash in Canada is also discussed.</div>
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<a href="https://brookewolfephoto.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/the-crossing/">https://brookewolfephoto.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/the-crossing/</a> Post from another blog, with the text of Chapter 1 of The Crossing included.</div>
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<a href="http://www.schoolbusfleet.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15402">http://www.schoolbusfleet.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15402</a><b> </b>Schoolbus Fleet forum post about The Crossing, with the text of one of the chapters (Chapter 27) included.</div>
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<a href="http://www.greeleyhistory.org/pages/east_memorial.html">http://www.greeleyhistory.org/pages/east_memorial.html</a> East Memorial Elementary School's page about the accident and their memorial.</div>
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<a href="http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6733512?source=rss">http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6733512?source=rss </a><b> </b>A Denver Post article about the memorial placed in memory of the 20<b> </b>kids who lost their lives.<br />
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<a href="https://www.reverbnation.com/peterschaff/song/6889920-bus-driver">https://www.reverbnation.com/peterschaff/song/6889920-bus-driver</a> Link to a song about the accident, written...but never recorded...by Len Chandler and covered by Peter Schaff. It doesn't do Duane Harms any favors, and, in fact, gets a couple of key facts wrong, but it's still an interesting tribute to the twenty kids who lost their lives in the accident.<br />
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Bonus fact...Bob Dylan borrowed the melody of his song 'The Tale of Emmett Till' from this song.<br />
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Thanks to fellow Blogger Chris for pointing me to this link!<br />
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18414805025967672048noreply@blogger.com10