FDNY Line of Duty Death
January 22, 1904 - LODD
Lieutenant George Gibson, 40
Ladder 118
FDNY. Brooklyn, New York
Lieutenant Gibson died after falling and being impaled, and then falling the rest of the way to the ground while he was operating at a four alarm fire at the E.W. Bliss Company.
Bliss Company manufactured torpedoes and projectiles for the United States government. The complex occupied the entire block and provided jobs for 1,500 people. The four-alarm fire broke out on the sixth floor of the factory. Ladder 68 (now Ladder 118) was the first company on the scene. Assistant Foreman Gibson was leading his men up a scaling ladder with a line of hose to the sixth floor. When he reached the sixth floor, when either by swaying or overcome by smoke he fell. Half way down he struck one of the prong hooks of the ladder, on which he hung impaled for a moment and then dropped to the street. The hook split open his left side and pierced his lung. (From "The Last Alarm" by Boucher, Urbanowicz & Melahn, 2007)
RIP. Never forget.
