Aurora Line of Duty Deaths
https://www.facebook.com/fireservic...jzLtnYc9EQLsXOVrXAFsmWu7IBJ8gvWHzO_BLqE&_rdr#January 11, 1934 - LODDs
Aurora Fire Department. Aurora, IL
Captain Herbert L. Reiss, 39 - No. 4 Company
Captain John Petersohn, 45 - No. 5 Company
Firefighter Charles Hoffman, 41 - No. 5 Company
Three firefighters died in the line of duty while fighting a commercial fire in a Woolworth’s Five and Dime store on Broadway Street. Captain Reiss, Captain Petersohn, and Firefighter Hoffman were crushed to death when an exterior wall of the store collapsed. The fire was reported around 11:30PM on January 10, and the entire Aurora Fire Department responded to the alarm. Firefighters attacked the fire from both the street level, and from the roofs of nearby buildings that were adjacent to the three-story, burning store. More than an hour after firefighting operations began, the roof of the building collapsed. The front exterior wall of the building collapsed outward shortly thereafter, and six firefighters were buried in the debris.
Uninjured firefighters immediately began search and rescue operations for their trapped colleagues, but the fire grew at a rapid rate. Fire Chief Lloyd Gramely soon refocused the firefighters on suppression efforts, and called in mutual aid firefighters from Naperville, Elgin, and Batavia. Once the flames were under control, firefighters were able to successfully rescue injured firefighters from the debris, but Reiss, Petersohn, and Hoffman had been crushed to death.
Film from 1934 Woolworth fire that killed 3 firefighters in Aurora, IL
Film from 1934 Woolworth fire that killed 3 firefighters in Aurora, IL - Statter911
Wall collapse took the lives of three firemen
www.statter911.com