CHESTER ST BROWNSVILLE BKLYN 1970

[68jk09]

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I rec'd this from Ira Hoffman...he is asking anyone who was at the Chester St Fire in Brownsville BKLYN in 1970 to contact him... here is his message as well as his pictures of the job which scroll automatically...(in pictures # 23 & 24 note how far the debris field spread from the bldg after the collapse) ... QUOTE...
From: Ira Hoffman ira@fire-police-ems.com

Sent: Tue, Jan 18, 2022 3:00 pm
Subject: Chester Street Fire 10/2/1970

I realize that it was 50+ years ago, but if anyone worked at that fire, please let me know. thanks, Ira UNQUOTE.

the fire:

 

[jtsjc1]

I'm no engineer or expert but just looking at the first pictures it just seemed like that building was gonna come down. When the slideshow got to the collapse pictures I'm thinking "I knew that building was coming down". I can't explain why that came into my head either.

 

[ta176]

I was assigned to E 233-2 and we were the first unit on the scene at that fire. The article in the WNYF written by Frank Cruthers had never made mention of that fact. We came in from the East New York side of Chester St. and had fire blowing out the first two floors. Things changed rapidly while we were operating our line. When the Chief approached us, he took the Lt. to the Pitkin Ave. side of the building to show him it was fully involved at that time, which we were unaware of.

 

[Lt. Q]

I was between tours that day, going from Manhattan to Queens by train to take care of some business. I stopped by to buff the job for awhile and was amazed how much fire there was.