MIDWEST TRUNK - 1934

On the night of Nov. 30, 1934, Fire Lt. John Kessels and his crew from Engine Co. 2 were advancing a hose through dense smoke on the third floor of Midwest Trunk & Bag Co. in Denver, Colorado.

"We were playing a line directly on the flames and thought we were getting along pretty good," Kessels told The Denver Post.

In an alley along the east side of the building, Assistant Fire Chief Andrew Mahon shouted orders.

Then ...

A wall collapsed, pinning Mahon to the wall of an adjacent building, trapping Kessel beneath a timber support and burying others in brick and mortar.

A dozen men down.

...

The Midwest Trunk & Bag Co. building was located at 1524-1526 15th St. at Wazee Street in the warehouse district.

It was constructed of hand-pressed brick three decades earlier with timber supports.

It had been considered "one of the finest buildings in lower Denver," according to The Rocky Mountain News.

At 8:34 p.m., the first alarm was turned in by a nightwatchman who discovered flames in the rear of the structure.

Crews thought they had the fire under control soon thereafter when a whoosh of air sent flames rocketing up an elevator shaft 75 feet into the night sky.

Denver Fire Chief John Healy ordered a second alarm - "2-11 signal" - transmitted over the fire alarm telegraph system, bringing more men and more equipment from distant parts of the city.

...

Assistant Chief Mahon, 47, immigrated from Ireland as a young man and served as a member of the Denver Fire Department for 28 years.

On the night of the fire, he was assigned to South Denver and "covered in" on the "2-11" with his driver, Joseph Murray.

In the alley where Mahon took position, men climbed a 50-foot ladder.

On the roof, Lieutenant H.M. Klein and 10 others went about their work.

Engine 2's Kessel and his crew held the third floor.

Others covered the second.

Firemen Roxie Pomponio and Clinton Turnbull had the first.

More prowled the alley.

"Chief Mahon saw the wall was giving in and yelled for all the firemen to get out of the building and out of the path of the wall," Fireman John Treckman told the Post. "Just as he hollered there was a terrific crash.

"I saw the debris coming down and jumped into a doorway for protection," Treckman said. "I saw Chief Mahon was caught in the debris. I saw his legs sticking out from a pile of bricks."

...

R.L. Wynkoop, an employee of Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph, was about a half a block away when the wall came down and ran for the nearest phone.

"I saw a tangle of men, debris and bricks and I knew some of the men must be badly hurt," Wynkoop told the News.

He asked the police operator to "send all the ambulances you've got to 15th and Wazee. Get them there in a hurry. A lot of firemen have been hurt by a falling wall."

In 1934, fire apparatus had yet to be equipped with two-way radios.

...

Captain William Carlin of Rescue Squad 2 instinctively took charge to save the fallen firemen.

Firemen Frank Piper, O.D. Wilson and J.J. Johnson were the first to reach Mahon.

George Reynolds and Harry Moore of Rescue Squad 2 followed.

The men lifted a heavy window frame pinning Mahon to a wall.

The 50-foot ladder near Mahon snapped and those scaling it "clung dizzily in mid-air," the Post reported.

On the roof, Lieutenant Klein shouted "let's get out of here" and directed his men to ladders that remained intact.

On the third floor, a crew lifted the timber pinning Lieutenant Kessels while Fireman Ted Webber pulled him loose.

From the first floor, Pomponio and Turnbull dropped into the basement, remarkably without injury.

...

Mahon was taken to Denver General Hospital where he died the next day at 4:20 a.m.

He suffered internal injuries, a fractured left leg, a fractured left arm and spinal injuries.

On its front page of its Dec. 1 edition, the Post printed a photo of Mahon sprawled on the ground, attended to by a civilian.

Engine Company 6 suffered the most casualties: William Behrman, Eugene Sullivan, Herbert Jacobson and Captain Harry Wood.

Doctors feared Behrman and Sullivan might not survive, but they did with Sullivan receiving a blood transfusion from Fireman Frank Neujahr, one of about 20 men who offered to act as donors.

Engine 2 suffered three casualties: Kessels, Londi Ross and Ralph Paul, both of whom were advancing the hose line with Kessels.

Engine 1 suffered two casualties: John Dempsey and Charles Jones.

Squad 4's John Doherty was also injured as was Peter Golesh, driver for Assistant Chief Guy Walker.

Others suffered cuts and bruises but refused treatment.

...

For a time it seemed the fire, which started in an overheated coal stove, claimed the life of Mahon's driver, Fireman Joseph Murray, as he was nowhere to be found.

He turned up at a firehouse later that night, having been dispatched from the blaze to pick up another assistant chief.

Engine 12 never made it to the fire from its quarters at West 26th Street and Federal Boulevard.

It was struck by a locomotive at a crossing on 15th Street.

None of its men were hurt but the front of the rig was demolished.

A police radio car responding to the fire was also in a wreck with another automobile.

...

With his head bandaged and right leg splinted, Lieutenant Kessels of Engine 2 bummed a cigarette and telephoned his wife from a ward at Denver General Hospital.

According to the Post, Kessels told her:

"You'll hear about a bunch of us getting hurt at this fire. Don't worry about me. I got a little scratch on my eye. I'm alright."