Fire Buffs promote the general welfare of the fire and rescue service and protect its heritage and history. Famous Fire Buffs through the years include New York Fire Surgeon Harry Archer, Boston Pops Conductor Arthur Fiedler, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and - legend has it - President George Washington.

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

PULMOTOR



The Pulmotor was an early 20th Century pressure-driven device for reviving people overcome by smoke, fumes or in respiratory distress. This is a photo of a victim of a waterworks tunnel accident in Cleveland, Ohio.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

MISSOULA ROXY - 1994

Photo: City of Missoula
On Feb. 19, 1994, fire struck the 
Roxy Theater in Missoula, Montana, following the matinee. "Ruled as arson and unsolved to this day, rumors persisted, describing a sleazy underworld of nefarious characters and jealous lovers who had both been promised the theater" upon the owner's death, according to the Roxy's website. Today, it is a community non-profit theater. The Roxy was was built in 1937.

UNION PACIFIC MILL - 1910



Before the fire

In 1910, flames devoured the 
Union Pacific Rolling Mill in Laramie, Wyoming, which produced steel rails. The roof collapsed shortly after the arrival of firefighters. The  Boomerang newspaper reported a locomotive spark ignited the fire. The Republican newspaper said the blaze started in one of the stacks. The details of this fire are posted on the website of the Cavalryman Steakhouse of Laramie.

CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE - 1973

Photo: Protest Denver
On March 17, 1973, an explosion rocked the Crusade for Justice building at 1547 Downing Street in Denver during a police raid and gun battle. The Crusade for Justice was an activist organization affiliated with the C
hicano movement.

HITTING THE PLUG

Photo: Washington Park Profile
Denver Engine 3 hooking into hydrant system at rowhouse fire in 1970s or 1980s. 

Sunday, December 17, 2023

BROOMFIELD - 2018


Photo: North Metro Fire Rescue
On June 27, 2018, North Metro Fire Rescue crews battle a fierce house fire in the 7000-block of West 119th Place in Broomfield, Colorado. "All residents were able to evacuate safely in time, but the house was destroyed by the heavy flames and smoke, and the family lost some of their pets in the home," North Metro said.

BAKER RESERVOIR - 2023


Photo
: Adams County Fire Rescue
On Feb. 12, 2023, firefighters rescued a 155-pound St. Bernard that fell through the ice on Baker Reservoir in Adams County, Colorado. The dog's owner "did the exact right thing by calling 911, not going out to the ice, and giving dispatchers the information as to exactly where they were located," Adams County Fire Rescue said.

COLE CREEK - 1923


On Sept. 27, 
a bridge collapsed in heavy rain east of Casper, Wyoming, sending a passenger train into Cole Creek, according to the Wyoming Historical Society. An estimated 30 people died. Roundhouse, track and bridge gangs responded to the emergency from Casper as well as Alliance, Nebraska.

CASTLEWOOD DAM - 1933


At 11th Street in Denver

On Aug. 3, 1933, the Castlewood Dam crumbled, sending a 
deluge roaring for many miles.

Up to nine inches of rain caused the dam to fail and s
even people died in Denver, according to the National Weather Service.

"
Pounding down on Franktown, tiny village on a hillside four miles below the dam, the surging tide swept on six miles to Parker, at times on a mile-wide front, and picked up tons of debris as it swirled into suburban Denver and sent Cherry Creek on a rampage through the heart of the city," the Associated Press reported.

"Denver police and firemen with sirens going full blast sped through the Country club residential district warning everyone to flee from their homes in the lowland area. Emergency ambulance corps took invalids from many homes," AP said.

SANBORN MAPS

 

Sanborn Maps are detailed diagrams of U.S. cities and towns published in the 19th and 20th centuries by The Sanborn Map Company for the insurance industry to assess risks. Sanborn produced maps detailing 12,000 America communities.

FROM THE EDITOR

 Your editor had some bad breaks medically in 2023 and is now back in the fold.  

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

AERIAL ATTACK - 2023



Photos: Denver Fire Department

Street scene of commercial building fire at Santa Fe Drive and West 13th Avenue in Denver on Feb. 6, 2023.  

Saturday, January 28, 2023

FORNEY MUSEUM - 2023


Photos: Vinny Del Giudice
In 2023, Denver's Forney Museum of Transportation hosted the "Fire Trucks to the Rescue!" exhibit. Two of the rigs displayed - old Engine 6 of the Denver Fire Department and old City Engine 4 of the Fort Morgan Fire Department - are owned by Kevin Sweeney, retired chief of operations at North Metro Fire Rescue.

Thursday, January 19, 2023

DIESEL DALMATIAN

Photo: Adams County Fire Rescue
Dalmatians, it is said, have natural affinity to horses. In days of old, the breed would help protect fire horses. This contemporary pooch, it seems, has an affinity for diesels.

COLORADO SPRINGS - 2015

Photo: Colorado Springs Fire Department
House fire in Colorado Springs in March 2015 with Engine 1 and Truck 8 on scene.

PUEBLO - 1904

Image: Pueblo Fire Museum
Firehouse death of Pueblo firefighter Andrew Baker, 42, of No. 1 steamer, as reported by the Pueblo Chieftain newspaper on June 16, 1904. Baker was cleaning a horse stall when an equine named Jim, who had a habit of biting, kicked him. Moments earlier, when Baker entered the stall, Jim snapped at him - and Baker tapped Jim with a broom.

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

DOG'S BEST FRIEND

Photo: West Metro Fire
West Metro firefighter clutching canine evacuee on the fireground. West Metro serves the Denver suburbs of Lakewood and Wheat Ridge and the old Barcroft fire district.

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

GREELEY BURNING

 

On Feb. 6, 2022, firefighters rescued a person from a house fire in the 3500-block of 35th Avenue in Greeley, Colorado. "Ladder 5 crew arrived on scene to find a working fire and immediately initiated an interior search of the structure," the fire department said on Facebook. B-Shift was on duty that evening.

Blaze at Greeley's old Tolman store at 8th Avenue and 7th Street in October 1956.

On Dec. 26, 1968, fire struck the old Sterling Theater at 926 9th Ave. in Greeley. The theater was undergoing demolition and much of the floor had been removed.
Greeley firefighters rescued two people from a fire in a two-story house in the 800-block of 4th Street on Aug. 22, 2021.
On the scene and tending to a troubled auto in the early 1960s.
Photos: Greeley Fire Department On Jan. 6, 1970, fire swept the construction site of the
library at Colorado State College - today the University of Northern Colorado - in Greeley. Firefighters endured bitter cold.

Sunday, January 15, 2023

AURORA - 2022



Photos
: Aurora Fire Department

Aurora, Colorado, firefighters on the scene of a fatal apartment fire on Jan. 24, 2022

Saturday, January 14, 2023

MAFIA BOMBERS - 1932

On April 12, 1932, a bomb exploded at Paradise Cleaning and Dyeing in Denver after the plant's owners refused to pay protection money to gangsters. Joseph Bitman, a part owner of the plant, told police he had been approached by representatives of a "protective association," according to a United Press dispatch.

BIG CHILL - 2022

 

Photo: Adams County Fire Rescue
Fighting fire and the weather, these Adams County, Colorado, firefighters are contending with flames, smoke and near-zero temperatures at an abandoned building at 60th Avenue and Federal Boulevard on Dec. 23, 2022. 

Friday, January 13, 2023

BUSES TORCHED - 1970

On Feb. 5, 1970, explosives destroyed or damaged 42 school buses in a Denver parking lot as the city moved to racially integrate its public schools. Acting Fire Chief Dan Cronin said the explosives were placed under the fuel tanks. Workers were able to move some of the buses during the fire, news reports said.

OLD LOWRY






Photos: Fire Trucks At War, Lowry Foundation
Building 357 was home to fire department headquarters at now-shuttered Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. Today, a theater group occupies the old firehouse.

IT'S STILL A JOB RISK

On April 10, 1907, while chopping a hole in a roof with an ax, a fireman named Bosman accidentally amputated the hand of a fireman named Deutsch at the servants' quarters of the Grand Hotel in Durango, Colorado, according to the Telluride Daily Journal in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.

Thursday, January 12, 2023

11 DEAD IN ENGLEWOOD - 1928


Denver Fire Chief John Healy directs search for victims

On April 20, 1928, 11 workers died in a fire at the Alexander Aircraft Company in the Denver suburb of Englewood and many others were injured.

Employee Richard Trenari, 21, said: "It was a terrible inferno."

The fire was preceded by explosions in or near the paint shop, according to an Associated Press story in Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal of Dubuque.

Barred windows trapped workers in the building where silver nitrate was applied to aircraft wings, and the floors were soaked in combustibles, according to Wikipedia.

Five corporate directors were charged with voluntary manslaughter though that was reduced to safety violations and they were fined $1,000 and handed suspended jail sentences.

By operating in Englewood, the company was able to skirt Denver's building codes.

WYOMING NIGHT WATCH


Engine 2401 of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management High Plains District shines with the night sky in Wyoming.

VINTAGE FORT COLLINS


Photo: Poudre Fire Authority
On the job in Fort Collins, Colorado, in late 1920s or 1930s.  The pump is churning.

BATHTUB BLUES - 1962

"We did our job and got the hell out of there." That's how John DeJong, assistant Denver Fire chief, described the Dec. 13, 1962 rescue of Linda Jane Hinchman, a student at Colorado Womens College.

Hinchman, 17, of Glenwood, Indiana, wedged her toe in a faucet while bathing. Firemen sawed off the faucet and freed her toe with petroleum jelly.
  The freshman was "well-bundled" by classmates by the time her rescuers arrived.

She kept the faucet as a souvenir, according to a UPI wire dispatch in the Dec. 14, 1962 edition of the News-Press of St. Joseph, Missouri.

SOUTH METRO FIRE RESCUE


Photo: South Metro Fire Rescue

Colorado's South Metro Fire Rescue is major force in the Denver area.

It traces its roots to the Castlewood Fire Protection District, which consolidated with the Castle Pines Fire Department and North Douglas County Fire Protection District in 1986 and the Cherry Hills Fire Protection District in 1989, according to Wikipedia.

The name South Metro name was adopted in the late 1990s.

Its territory expanded through further consolidation and includes Bow M
ar, Castle Pines, Centennial, Cherry Hills Village, Columbine Valley, Foxfield, Greenwood Village, Littleton, Lone Tree, Parker, Castle Pines Village, Highlands Ranch, Louviers, Centennial Airport, the Denver Tech Center, Inverness, Meridian Office Park and unincorporated sections of Arapahoe and Douglas counties. 

Today, South Metro Fire Rescue operates 30 fire stations, protecting
 300 square miles of Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson counties, according to its website.

FEDERAL HEIGHTS LODD - 1976

On Jan. 7, 1976, Guyon Zimmerman, 60, a volunteer firefighter with Colorado's Federal Heights Fire Department, suffered a fatal heart attack at a trailer park fire, according to the next day's Rocky Mountain News.


Zimmerman was airlifted to St. Anthony's Hospital from the Countryside Village Mobile Home Park at 9850 North Federal Boulevard, the newspaper reported.

The fire heavily damaged the trailer home of Dale Roush.

Zimmerman, who resided at 2000 West 92nd Ave., was survived by his wife Nellie B. Zimmerman, mayor pro-tem of Federal Heights, and two adult daughters.

The Rocky Mountain News made no mention of other injuries, the suspected cause of the fire, mutual aid, etc.

Saturday, January 15, 2022

MARSHALL FIRE - 2021

Photo: Longmont Fire Department



On Dec. 30, 2021, the Marshall Fire ripped across Bounder County grasslands, destroying more than 1,000 structures in Louisville, Superior and unincorporated neighborhoods.

Winds in excess of 105 mph fed the flames and scattered red hot embers far and wide. Little could be done early on despite the determined efforts of firefighters. 

A man died and another person was listed as missing and presumed dead in one of the most costly blazes in Colorado history. It was remarkable more people didn't perish given the speed of the fire. The low death toll speaks volumes about evacuation efforts.

“It’s unbelievable we don’t have a list of 100 missing persons -- but we don’t,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said.


Longmont Firefighter Patrick Kramer captured images of the disaster, according to 9News, including this photograph. 

“Those winds and that fire would preheat the house next to it and then catch that house on fire and then it would spread to the next house, to the next house, to the next house," Kramer said. "We just tried to get ahead of it and stop what we could."

Investigators said the fire started near a religious compound in Marshall.

Home accounted for most of the property losses. A large hotel also burned as did commercial structures. A hospital in Louisville was spared thanks to the bravery of its staff, but sustained heavy smoke damage. Its patients were safely evacuated.

As the last of the flames were extinguished, Louisville Fire Chief John Willson told 9News: "It's been three days now and I still can't wrap my head around this." 

Photo: White House

President Joe Biden toured the area, consoling victims and thanking firefighters, police and first responders. 
"There’s an old expression: God made man, and then he made a few firefighters.  And there’s some truth to that," Biden said.

Sunday, April 12, 2020

DOWNTOWN DENVER

Barnett Building - 1932


Downtown Denver was primed fire in the early 20th Century, owning to antiquated building design, primitive fire protection systems and factories intertwined with hotels and other businesses.

On Feb. 17, 1932, fire broke out at the Barnett Building at 16th and Larimer streets in downtown Denver. 

Six firefighters and a watchman suffered burns and smoke inhalation in harsh conditions. Frozen hose spray glazed streets, trolley lines and fire crews while flames roared from above.

The top floors were engulfed.

"Fire Chief Healy, veteran smoke eater and one of the best known firefighters in the country, narrowly escaped death," the Associated Press reported in that day's Evening Gazette of Berkeley, California.

Among other blazes:

- On May 22, 1901, fire destroyed the Eaton-Ritchell Company, a tinware factory and warehouse occupying half a block at 15th and Wynkoop streets, according to The New York Times.

- On March 15, 1906, fire struck the Flint-Lomax Electric Manufacturing Company, 14th and Wynkoop streets, the Salida Mail reported.

- On Feb 9, 1907, a late night fire broke out at the Club Building on Arapahoe Street with the flames confined to a Denver skirt company on the sixth floor of the eight-story building, according to the Aspen Times.

- On May 30, 1910, fire gutted the fourth and fifth floors of the Spratlen-Anderson grocery wholesalers at 1638 Fifteenth St.

- On July 8,1927, an early morning fire damaged the Broadway Theatre in Denver, the Longmont Times reported. The blaze started in the properties room and spread to the curtain loft before it was stopped. The adjacent Cosmopolitan Hotel sustained smoke damage.

- On March 19, 1928, Colorado House, one of the city's oldest hotels, was "partially destroyed" by fire, according to the Associated Press. Several people jumped from windows.


- On Sept. 6, 1928, a general alarm fire consumed to Loop Market block in downtown Denver, the Associated Press reported. Twelve firefighters suffered injuries and 10 others received oxygen at the scene.

RUNS & WORKERS

On Sept, 18, 1978, fire gutted F.J. LeGrue & Co., a florist, on South Broadway, Denver. 


Photo
: Greeley Fire Dept.

Island Grove grandstand, Greeley - 1977



Photo
: Poudre Valley Fire Authority

Fire in downtown Fort Collins, circa 1970s or 1980s


Photo: Poudre Valley Fire Authority
Fire in downtown Fort Collins, circa 1970s or 1980s


16th Street, Cheyenne, Wyoming, date unknown.



Cheyenne High School, Aug. 6, 1963.