I write a blog about famous, infamous and unusual disasters aand incidents, and I just finished a post about the Brooklyn Theater Fire.
All of us know that this one was the fourth worst structure fire, loss-of-life wise in U.S. history, and there were multiple factors factors before the fire that lead to all of that loss of life, but the actually pretty awesome job that the Brooklyn Fire Department did at that fire's always glossed over.
They rolled in with a large building well involved, major exposure problems, and a major rescue problem (Of course they had far more manpower per company back then.)
They actually assisted in the rescue of around 150-200 people early on, then, actually searched the portions of the building they could get into . Then, assuming everyone was out of the building, managed to confine the fire to the building of origin and keep it from taking out the entire block.
(And everyone viable actually was out of the building...there was no way, with the technology available in 1876, they could have gotten into that corridor leading to the Family Circle, and all of the deaths had likely occurred by the time first due Engine 5 rolled in to the scene anyway)
If anyone wants to take a look at it, here's my blog post. It's a long one as I went into the history of the theater and the shenanigans that took place before the fire, I had to do a lot of guessing and speculating on the response and fire scene operation,..Hope I at least got in the ball park.
Any additions or corrections you guys think it needs, please feel free.
https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-brooklyn-theater-fire-brooklyn-ny.html
All of us know that this one was the fourth worst structure fire, loss-of-life wise in U.S. history, and there were multiple factors factors before the fire that lead to all of that loss of life, but the actually pretty awesome job that the Brooklyn Fire Department did at that fire's always glossed over.
They rolled in with a large building well involved, major exposure problems, and a major rescue problem (Of course they had far more manpower per company back then.)
They actually assisted in the rescue of around 150-200 people early on, then, actually searched the portions of the building they could get into . Then, assuming everyone was out of the building, managed to confine the fire to the building of origin and keep it from taking out the entire block.
(And everyone viable actually was out of the building...there was no way, with the technology available in 1876, they could have gotten into that corridor leading to the Family Circle, and all of the deaths had likely occurred by the time first due Engine 5 rolled in to the scene anyway)
If anyone wants to take a look at it, here's my blog post. It's a long one as I went into the history of the theater and the shenanigans that took place before the fire, I had to do a lot of guessing and speculating on the response and fire scene operation,..Hope I at least got in the ball park.
Any additions or corrections you guys think it needs, please feel free.
https://disasteroushistory.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-brooklyn-theater-fire-brooklyn-ny.html