Chapter 1 Short Story

This tragic fire demonstrated how the fire inspections and precautions were noticeably lacking safety for these workers even though “a little more than five months before the tragedy Firemen Edward F. O’Conner made a routine inspection and said the Asch Building was ‘good’ and the building was ‘fireproof’”(28). The fire finally died down with over one hundred dead bodies piled along the streets. Sunday morning “thousands of people began to form into a slowly moving parade around the city blocks”(89). The people were walking in honor of these workers and would go around trying to identify the bodies and confiscate any items the bodies my have possessed for reminiscences. On the other hand, the departments felt immediate quilt for not stepping in to fix the Asch building before, because the departments knew of the horrible safety and health precautions the Asch building had but nobody emphasized the problems. “But who was to blame?” (113). Chief Croker was quick to blame

“Tom,” Booker sighed and struggling to his feet, he moved over to the couch and sat down. “I don’t want to talk about him, I want to know if you’re

“I’m fine!” they rushed out, forcing their eyes to meet with his. It almost stung. “I really am fine.”

It’s awful to see. Jonas thought, but this really is New York at its best. Everybody is doing the right thing, and they 're doing it without being told. Before the men made it to the 12th floor, Jonas and his men had responded to two separate Mayday ( distress- signal ) messages. In both cases a firefighter needed help because he had chest pains from the climb. When Jonas reached the 27th floor he met Captain Billy Burke from Engine 21 and firefighter Andy Fredericks from squad 18.

“They were trying to get under the foam, but to no avail," he said. "They were human torches." The fire quickly spread eastward along Avenue “Y” towards 5th Street. Viewing the unfolding horror before him, Commissioner Rizzo ordered two more alarms, five additional rescue squads, and the recall of all companies which had previously been released from the fire grounds throughout the day. On these orders the fire alarm room transmitted the seventh and eighth alarms. As the fire had been placed under control nearly eight hours earlier, firefighters in stations across the city knew that the unthinkable had occurred as these additional

The van drove past the four on foot and came across the fire that was now across the road. The incident commander said the risk was to great to keep going down the road and through the fire. The IC turned the van around and picked up the other four crew members and began to drive north up the river canyon. The IC looked for safety zones and selected a site that was a rock scree above the road. A sand bar and the river were below the road where the van was parked.

To begin, the call for of additional resources, including personnel and equipment was beneficial. The text said, “The Cottage Street Fire Station, home to Engine 4 and Ladder 2, was located directly across from the mill.” Upon the initial dispatch, Lt. John Leite, a firefighter in that station, was able to immediately

“It’s not that bad here.” He tried to reason with us. We both pointed at my scared face.

Firefighters were dispatched to the residence after receiving a 6:15 a.m. call from Rogers, who reported the home she shared with her husband, Volley Rogers, was on fire, said Haun, noting that by the time they arrived it was apparent she did not make it out of the house.

At 6:34pm Incident Commander number two orders a head count and finds out two firefighters are currently missing which was last contacted via radio on the fourth floor. At 6:41pm the incident commander number two makes an announcement to all fire personal to use extreme caution because the building was dangerous and activated the third alarm and demand to clear radio communication for emergencies due to the missing firefighters stuck on certain floors where they heard emergency transmissions from victims in rescue 1 asking for help and that they were lost and out of air. And at 6:54pm the Incident commander orders the fourth alarm be struck and asked the location of the missing firefighters who were stuck in the building and tells them to activate there PASS alarms at 6:57pm one of the victims stated that their alarms were activated. With the other engines and support showed up for the third alarm they were prepared to do a search and rescue operation for the lost firefighters and while they go in after them they unfortunately could not reach the lost victims and by searching they lost all visibility and ran out of air and was

“So how did you and Ban know all of that stuff back there?” Sierra asked.

The weather at the time was mostly cloudy at approximately 45 degrees fahrenheit with a relative humidity of 62 percent. Wind averaged to be about 10 miles per hour from the northwest. The Battalion Chief arrived in less than a minute to size up that there was heavy smoke coming from the front and rear of the attic with fire in the rear. At 1719 Hours E123 which was Herbies Engine arrives on scene. At this time BC19 assumed incident command and spoke with one of the occupants to be informed that everyone was out of the building. Herbie along with a firefighter (pipeman) advanced a 1¾ inch hose line to the second floor. Fire appeared on the stairwell because a firefighter opened multiple doors to the rear covered porch. That firefighter did not inform command or his commanding officer of what he had seen. This led to a delayed discovery that the entire stairwell was engulfed in fire. A captain on the first floor informed Herbie that there was fire in the rear covered porch and stairwell over the radio. There was no reply by Herbie to confirm he got the message, but companies carried on. Meanwhile, around 1723 Hours, E49 applies water in the rear attic window with a 2 ½ inch hose, SQ5 makes entry through the front door, and TL39 began cutting the first hole in the roof. All these steps almost immediately lead to chaos for Herbie and his firefighter. Ventilation was not being controlled and nobody knew exactly where Herbie was positioned. He and his pipeman

“I don’t know,” I told her. “I haven’t heard anything since I saw them at the Brewin’s safe house the day after the last gathering. They looked pretty bad. I don’t know how you come back from such a thing.”

Mrs Perry said, “ The fire was getting out of control when the fire brigade arrived and they went straight to work.” Emergency services arrived at the blaze around 10 minutes after the call said mrs Perry.

“Did any of you hear the loud noise on the train last night?” asked Garrett.