RUNS & WORKERS

Photo: Private collection

On Nov. 2, 1961, a two-alarm blaze gutted the interior of the Phipps Auditorium in Denver City Park and smoke from the fire caused damage to the adjacent Museum of Natural History.

Photo: Greeley Fire Department
Firemen drag hose at blaze at Balcom Industries Inc. insecticide plant in Greeley, Colorado, in days before HAZMAT response. Date unknown.

Photo: Museum of Western Colorado via Beacon
On Oct. 2, 1956, a fire and explosion destroyed C&B Tire and Recap at Third Street and Rood Avenue in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Photo: School website

On March 22, 1950, an electrical short triggered a fire at the Colorado School for Deaf and Blind in Colorado Springs. Students rescued a painting of General William Jackson Palmer, the school's benefactor. Firefighters contended with low hydrant pressure.

Photo: Daily Camera photo
On Feb. 9, 1932, high winds fanned a fire at the Boulder County Courthouse. Firefighters from Boulder, Longmont and Denver could do little "but watch the watch the building burn," the Daily Camera reported. The clock tower collapsed. The roof caved. The county's records, nonetheless, survived.

The Masonic Hall Lodge burned in Longmont, Colorado on Feb. 13, 1905.

READY TO RUN

No easy task. Harnessing horses. Photo said to be of old Fire Station No. 5 in Denver

DENARGO MARKET - 1971

Photos: Denver Public Library 

On July 7, 1971, fire destroyed the Denargo Market, a produce warehouse in Denver.

``Firefighters were hampered by the lack of fire hydrants in the area and a loss of water pressure,'' according to Denver Public Library researcher James Rogers.

Firefighters contended with other hazards, including two railroad tank cars filled with carbon dioxide, 50 kegs of black powder in a nearby property and 13,000 volt power lines, according to Rogers.

The 1971 inferno was the second major blaze to strike the market, the first occurring Dec. 16, 1952.

FORT COLLINS FLOOD - 1997

Photo: City of Fort Collins

On July 28, 1997, rains lifted Spring Creek over its bank, sending a flash flood crashing into Fort Collins.

Five people died, 50 others were injured and 200 homes were lost.

"Chaos. It was a lot of chaos," said Poudre Fire Authority Chief Tom DeMint, quoted on the 20th anniversary of the flood by Fox 31 Denver.

Four of the deaths occurred in a mobile home park on College Avenue, according to the Colorado Encyclopedia. The fifth occurred in a residential neighborhood.

Poudre Fire Authority Captain Steve Fleming described the mayhem to the Coloradoan newspaper:

``We had campers and propane cylinders; there was a trailer on fire, explosions at the laundromat, train derailment, people yelling for help, oil in the water ... and all of it happened within 30 minutes.''

Damage was estimated at $200 million.

7TH STREET - 1974

Photo: Daily Sentinel

On April 9, 1974, wind-whipped flames swept the Seventh Street industrial area of Grand Junction, Colorado, destroying Mesa Feed and Farm Supply, H&M Electric and the Daily Sentinel printing plant, which was packed with rolls of newsprint.

A lumber yard also burned.

Embers drifted for blocks, setting alight the American Linen Co. on Ninth Street, according to a report in the Daily Sentinel marking the 30th anniversary of the fire.

Retired firefighter Mike Page said "red hot" pieces of tin broke loose as flames engulfed Mesa Feed while smoke reduced visibility.

``The wind was so strong it was blowing the smoke horizontal,'' Page recalled in an interview with the Daily Sentinel ``When we arrived at the scene and crossed the railroad tracks, we couldn’t see because of the smoke.''

Three firefighters were injured battling the blaze.

The fire broke out on the same site as a Nov. 3, 1898 fire that destroyed the Grand Junction Milling and Elevator Co.

DENVER POST - 1904

Frank Lunt of Truck 2

On Sept. 20, 1904, fumes from nitric acid spilled in the engraving department of the Denver Post led to the deaths of four firefighters.

Lieutenant Charles Dolloff of Engine 4 was the first to succumb to his injuries followed by John "Handsome Jack" McGlade and Frank Lunt of Truck 2 and Captain Charles Eymann of Truck 1.

About a dozen other firemen were injured, including future Fire Chief John Healy.

The size the spill of Nitric acid, HNO3 - a colorless, corrosive, fuming chemical - was estimated at 10 gallons.

Reporting on the effects of nitric acid, the Journal of the American Medical Association provided the following account:

"The Denver Fire Department was called to the office of the Denver Post Sept. 20, 1904, at 4 p. m.

"On arrival they were informed that a carboy of nitric acid had been accidentally broken in an attempt to remove the stopper with a hammer.

"The acid spread across the floor, coming in contact with the zinc used in etching.

"Sawdust was used to absorb it, and, rapidly oxidizing, burst into flame here and there, resulting in the call for the firemen.

"Mr. Bradt, foreman of the department, who was at work in the room, states that the fumes and smoke were not especially irritating until the portable apparatus began playing on the fire."

The article continued:

"Eighteen firemen and two men employed in the office were affected severely enough to demand medical aid.

"Of these, four died, two on the second day, from the direct consequences, and two several weeks later from relapse.

"The immediate symptoms complained of while exposed to the fumes were, in order of frequency, as follows: Dyspnea, pain in the stomach, pain in the chest, headache, dryness of the throat, coughing, vomiting, dizziness, difficulty in walking, and dryness of the nose.

"No unconsciousness was noted.

"Nearly all the firemen returned to their respective firehouses, not considering themselves seriously sick.

"After a few hours many of them sought medical aid, and within twenty-four hours all of them excepting one were patients in the Emergency Hospital."

In the aftermath of the Denver Post tragedy - as well as similar incidents in Milwaukee and  other cities -  Fire Engineering magazine noted:

"The most deceitful and treacherous part of such partial asphyxiation from acid fumes is that the victims, as at Milwaukee and Denver, are able to leave the scene of the fire, and for some hours to walk about and do duty, till suddenly edema of the lungs sets in, with fatal results.

"Sometimes, also, as in the case of one of the Denver victims, even after having been ten days in hospital and discharged as cured, there suddenly ensues a fatal result, and at all times, after such an experience pneumonia has to be guarded against."

UNIVERSITY HILLS - 1983

Photo: Denver Public Library

On Nov. 23, 1983, flames ravaged the University Hills Shopping Center in what's said to be the first 5-alarm blaze in Denver Fire Department history.

Flames spread through suspended ceilings and reached more than a dozen stores, many stocked for the holiday shopping season. Other business sustained smoke damage. Two of the 150 firefighters at the scene were injured.

Denver Fire Chief Myrle Wise called the blaze "one of the worst" in his 40-year career. Water from fire engines and aerial ladders turned to ice in near-zero temperatures. Thirty-five of the city's 41 piece of fire apparatus attended the fire.

According to a Facebook post by Assistant Fire Gregory Taft, police were first on the scene to investigate a burglar alarm and encountered smoke.

The first alarm was transmitted at 12:25 a.m., with Engine 24 - located across from the mall - first due. 

Engine 24 and Engine 22 entered the front doors of Yarbro Drug with 3 hose lines while Truck 22's crew climbed to the roof and reported heavy fire venting around air handling equipment and the roof sinking by about a foot, Taft wrote.  
 
A special call followed at 12:31 a.m. for an additional engine and truck, with fire dispatchers adding Squad 1 to the assignment. The 2nd alarm was struck at 12:40 a.m. The 3rd Alarm at 1:00 a.m. The 4th Alarm at 1:15 a.m. Special calls were made between  1:24 a.m. and 2:53 a.m. Chief Wise declared the 5th Alarm at 3:15 a.m.

Off-duty firefighters were called back to cover the city.

STAPLETON - 1990

Photo: Denver Fire Dept.

On Nov. 25-26, 1990, Denver firefighters battled flames at a United Airlines jet fuel depot near Stapleton International Airport for 53 hours.

Dark clouds from the blaze drifted over the city and health officials warned people with respiratory problems to remain indoors. About a quarter of the 13 million gallons of jet fuel at the depot went up in flames that reached as high as 500 feet.

"It was a monster," Denver Fire Department spokesman Mike McNeill said, with temperatures reaching 3,500F.

The fire was finally "snuffed out" when Continental Airlines, which owned tanks near the United tanks, hired the private oil well firefighting company Boots & Coots of Texas.

Denver Fire Chief Richard Gonzales said: "The reality is this kind of thing doesn't happen very often and there are very few people who do it on a regular basis." Boots & Coots president Dwight Williams likened his specialty to "riding bad horses.

CANDY LAND - 1920

On June 28, 1920, fire destroyed the machinery and stock at Alexander's Candy Land in Loveland. The fire department engaged in a "hard two-hour fight," The Loveland Reporter said. Flames damaged the adjacent Loveland Packing Company but spared the Waddell Bakery.  A defective flue was blamed.

BUTTE LINE OF DUTY - 1895

Photos: City-County of Butte Silver Bow 

On Jan. 15, 1895, a series of powder explosions ripped through the warehouse district of Butte, Montana, killing 57 people - including 13 of the city's 15 firefighters.

Fire Chief Angus Cameron and Assistant Fire Chief John Sloan Jr were among the dead.

Box 72 was transmitted just before 10 p.m., an alarm station that would become known as "Fateful Box 72."

A dispatch to The Denver News said: "There were three separate explosions, the first two breaking nearly every window in a radius of two miles. Men and women were mowed down like grass before a sickle."

Of the two firefighters who survived, John Flannery was at the hydrant and Dave Magee, the driver, was shielded by his team.

A fire horse named Jim also survived.

A report in the Aspen Weekly Times said:

"Chief Cameron directed the attack on the building and while some of the firemen hauled a line of house along, the others started to tear off the iron covering of the building so that they could get at the flames.

"Just as they had succeeded in tearing off a part of the covering and secured an entrance, the first explosion came.

"A blinding sheet of flame forced the roof from its fastenings and shot a hundred feet into the air, followed by a second of silence and then came the awful roar, carrying with it annihilation to those who closely surrounded the death trap, and destruction of every kind."

The Manitoba Morning Free Press in Winnipeg printed Firefighter Magee's eyewitness account of the disaster:

"After reaching the fire we laid 1,000 feet of hose, and Flannery stayed at the hydrant. I drove up to the building with the hose and then drove back about 200 feet and stopped.

``A moment later the first explosion occurred in the building and the flames burst through the roof, but no one was hurt by this explosion. The boys then went back to the building again thinking the danger was all over.

``Jack Sloane came over to the wagon and got an axe and started to cut an opening to the building. My brother William got in the back of the wagon and advised me to drive further away for fear of another explosion.

``I told him there was no danger, and got down to blanket the horses. I usually get off on the inside nearest the fire, but this time the horses were between me and the fire and it is fortunate for me that such was the case.

``Just as I pulled the blankets down from the seat and spread one of them out to throw it over the horse the second explosion came. I did not see anything, and only remember hearing the awful roar and being knocked down.

``When I recovered a moment later I found the wagon partly on top of me with the tongue across my breast and the off horse was lying right on top of me. The blankets had caught fire. Pieces of wood were burning all round me and I was momentarily chocked and bewildered.

``I struggled to get loose but I was unable to free myself. People were screaming all round me and crying for help. I could hardly make my voice heard. After a while a man came along and I begged him for God's sake to help me out.

``With his assistance I managed to get out from the the weight that was pinning me down and struggled to my feet I limped along, but was getting along slowly when a couple of men came along and carried me to the Harrison house.

``From there I was brought home. The last I saw of Jack Sloane, he was pounding away at the door, and when I saw Cameron last he was taking the kinks out of the hose between the wagon and the burning building. All of the other boys were close behind Slaone, and they were certainly all killed."

A report in The New York Times said:

"Three explosions occurred. The first was caused by nitro-glycerin stored in the private warehouse of the Kenyon-Connell Commercial Company, where the fire started. The second came from a carload of powder on the railroad track, and the third from the warehouse of the Butte Hardware Company ... 

"It was not suspected that explosives were stored in the warehouse, as such storage is in violation of the city ordinances, which are particularly strict in this respect, owing to the danger arising from the presence of large quantities of high explosives were used in mining operations.

"The firemen, therefore, went to work without any idea of the danger, and when the first explosion occurred, killing at least twelve of the firemen, the calamity was wholly unexpected.

"The men rallied bravely, however, and with such of the fire apparatus as had escaped destruction, attacked the flames, which, during the confusion, had gained great headway. The work was progressing favorably when a second explosion occurred.

"The first, it is believed, was cause by nitro-glycerin. It was bad enough, but the second, which resulted from the ignition of two cars of giant powder standing on the side tracks beside the burning building, was absolutely appalling in its force. The shock shattered buildings, knocked down chimneys, and rent limb from limb men within 300 yards of it.

"It wiped out of existence what remained of the Fire Department, killing men and horses and converting the fire engines into heaps of twisted and discolored metal.

"This explosion was the most fatal of the three for the reason that when a quantity of giant powder stored in the warehouse of the Butte Warehouse Company blew up, a few minutes later, there was practically no one left to be killed.

"The last explosion, however, was fully as powerful as the second. The warehouse was absolutely destroyed, not one stone being left upon another, and where the building had stood a great blackened hole, like the crater of a volcano, told of the force of the explosion."

RUNS & WORKERS

 

Fort Carson, Colorado

Denver

Laramie, Wyoming

Durango, Colorado 

Fort Collins, Colorado

Missoula, Montana

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Denver 

Eaton, Colorado

Pueblo, Colorado

Farmington, New Mexico

Fort Collins, Colorado

Pueblo, Colorado

BURLINGTON - 1945

Photo: Burlington Volunteer Fire Dept.

On Dec. 16, 1945, fire destroyed the Montezuma Hotel in Burlington, Colorado.

The hotel was full for the night, according to the Burlington Volunteer Fire Department website, yet there were no injuries.

A person reported as missing was found at home.

Another major fire struck a few months later at Shank's Cafe on July 13, 1946.