NEAR ZERO

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. 

INTO THE ABYSS

Photo: South Metro Fire Rescue
Eerie scene at fire at Waste Connections transfer station on South Jordan Street in Centennial, Colorado, on Sept. 19, 2023.

FIRST FIRE

"Denver’s first recorded fire took place March 18, 1860, when a livery stable in Auraria burnt to the ground with a loss of $18,000" - Rocky Mountain News, Feb. 18, 1951

GLOBEVILLE - 1920

Photos: Rocky Mountain News

On Sept. 6, 1920, two Denver & Interurban Railroad interurban trains collided in the Globeville area of Denver. Scores of people were hurt. About a dozen died.

"Fifty patrolmen and two details of firemen were rushed to the scene," the Rocky Mountain News reported. "Ambulances were sent from hospitals and police headquarters."

Uninjured passengers aided in the rescue.

Passenger P.F. Zarina., whose brother died in the wreck,  described the collision to the Rocky Mountain News:

“I was riding with the motorman on the inbound Interurban ... the car was so crowded there was hardly room to breathe."

"As we rounded the long turn coming into Globeville, the conductor turned to me, white as a sheet, and stammered, ‘My God! What is that? Then the motorman shouted ‘Jump!"

 “The conductor and another of the men hit telegraph poles, and were crushed by the impact. I was lucky and hit dirt."

"As soon as I could walk I started to look for my brother. Pretty soon I found some firemen and policemen pulling him out of the wreck."

The News said pickpockets mixed in with rescuers, adding insult to injury.

DENVER - 1878

Scene of Denver in 1870s

In the 1870s, Denver was a growing "two-horse town" having been a fledgling "one-horse town" in the 1860s.

Fire and flash floods posed an existential threat, even after precautions, such brick construction and improved firefighting, were implemented after the Great Fire of 1863 and the calamity of the Great Flood that followed that.

Following is an excerpt of a first-hand account of an 1878 blaze at 15th and Wynkoop streets accompanied by a flash flood of Cherry Creek. It was published in the Denver Tribune of May 22, 1878. Sadly, we have yet to come upon photographs.

"Never did flood swell so," the Tribune reporter wrote that day. Well, perhaps that was true of 1878, however, greater calamities followed as Denver reached metropolis status by the 20th century. 

 

Excerpt from Denver Daily Tribune, May 22, 1878 

ORIENTAL REFINERY - 1955

Volunteer Firefighter Harold Hubbard of the South Adams County Fire Department suffered fatal injuries at the Oriental Refinery in Commerce City, Colorado, on April 5, 1955. Five other firefighters were hurt when a  gas-cracking furnace exploded. Bystanders and refinery workers were hurt, too. "All of the sudden, the whole damn building blew up," Assistant Fire Chief Kenneth Gahagen told The Rocky Mountain News. "It went with a whoof."  The blast also damaged the fire engine and the hose.

TURNER HALL - 1920

On July 9, 1920, a conflagration swept East Denver and water was scarce.

Flames gutted East Turner Hall, a social venue at 20th and Arapahoe streets, and spread to businesses - including an auto company and hotel - as well as houses. Sections of the hall collapsed, showering bricks and cinders.

A general alarm summoned 22 engine and truck companies, almost all of Denver's firefighting force. Police patrolman Forrest Ross carried a semi-conscious woman from the Madison Hotel, The Rocky Mountain News reported.  

Low hydrant pressure disrupted operations .

Quoted by the News, W. F. R. Mills, manager of the city water department, said: “An attempt to direct twelve hose streams from two six-inch mains would naturally tend to reduce the pressure, to say nothing of the fact that everywhere demand was being made on the mains by garden hoses used in fighting the score or more of fires that sprang up." 

Describing the initial stages of the fire, Denver Fire Chief John Healy said: "Engine Company No, 4, whose engine house is only a block from Turner Hall, responded to the alarm as soon as it was sent into the central station. It hardly took a moment for it to get to the scene, and when the combination wagon arrived they were unable to park in the alley on account of the flames flaring thru the windows."

East Turner Hall was located at 2150 Arapahoe Street. Earlier that day, firefighters contended with a major blaze at St. John's First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1846 Arapahoe Street. Remnants of both structures are long gone. 

FIRE RESPONSE

SAVED WOMAN

CHIEF HEALY

Chief John Healy led the Denver Fire Department for 33 years - a classical smoke eater who ushered in the age of motorized fire apparatus and oversaw a dramatic expansion of the city's emergency service.

The Associated Press described the chief as "one of the best known firefighters in the country."

Healy, who immigrated from Ireland, joined the fire department in 1894 and rose to the rank of fire chief in 1912.

He was a "fireman's fireman" - directing firefighting at many of Denver's largest blazes during the early 20th Century, including the Turner Hall conflagration in East Denver on July 9, 1920.

As an assistant fire chief, Healy was critically hurt in an acid spill at the Denver Post in 1904, but returned to duty after a six-month period of recuperation in California. 

"His physician has advised a lower altitude, and his friends have prevailed upon him to take a short vacation," the Rocky Mountain News reported on Oct. 14, 1904. 

Healy also served as president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

It's probably safe to say he loved his job.

GROUND ZERO

Photo: FEMA

Colorado Task Force 1 assisted in the search and recovery at the World Trade Center in New York the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

THEATER DISTRICT - 1929

Photo: Denver Public Library
Denver Theater District on Curtis Street, circa 1927-1930. To the front right is the Nanking Chop Suey Restaurant, which probably did a thriving business. 

Photo: Rocky Mountain News
Firefighters, police and spectators at Quincy Building fireground at 17th and Curtis.


On Feb. 2, 1929, seven Denver firefighters were injured or overcome by chemical fumes in a two-alarm blaze at the Quincy Building at 17th and Curtis streets - in what was then known as the Theater District.

That's where the citizenry thronged to see the movies.

The fire, naturally enough, broke out in or near a stash of films, negatives and chemicals stored in the basement of the Quincy Building by Universal Studio, the Rocky Mountain News reported.

Firefighters advancing hoses into the basement were beaten back and the crew of Truck Company 10 was partially overcome, the News said. They finally cut holes in the floor and flooded the basement.

The fire drew 2,000 or more spectators and "police struggled in vain to beat the crowds back as firemen shouted warnings that an explosion might happen," the News said.

Fire Chief John Healy directed 13 downtown fire companies, assisted by District chiefs William S. Bryan, Clarence A. Hawkins, Raymond Giffords and J. Moses   

The first alarm was transmitted at 12:16 p.m, the second alarm as ordered at 12:22 p.m., and the fire was out at 3 p.m., the News said.

DENVER FIRE CLAY - 1930

Firefighters inspecting the railroad tank car, rescuer Richard Davies (inset) and Denver Mayor Stapleton at the scene of the industrial accident.

 

On Aug. 27, 1930, deadly chlorine gas escaped from a railroad tank car and drifted into the Denver Fire Clay Co. plant - causing a major industrial accident.

Twenty-three people, including 13 Denver firemen, were overcome by the yellow-colored gas, the Associated Press reported. The tank car carried 16 tons of the chemical.

J.W. Gibbs, a plant worker, donned a gas mask and closed a leaking valve, AP said.

The firemen weren't equipped with masks, AP said. The entire crew of Engine Co. 10 was felled by the fumes, the Rocky Mountain News reported.

Richard Davies, 24, a Yale University student working at the plant, hustled into the gas to administer first aid with a flask of ammonia - a chemical that can counter the effects of chlorine, the News said.

Davies said he learned that in chemistry class.

"There wasn't time to wait for doctors and ambulances, so I just dived right in," Davies, who eventually fell ill, said from his bed at Denver General Hospital. The ammonia was stored in a plant emergency kit.

The Denver Fire Clay Co. was located at 32nd and Blake streets - in the "factory district," as the News called it.  

CASPER BANK FIRE - 1955

Photo: Casper Fire and Rescue
On Jan.  21, 1955, firefighters battled a blaze at the Casper National Bank in Wyoming in the bitter cold. Firefighter Ed Schwerdtfeger is on the nozzle of a 2-1/2 inch diameter hose line. Below him it looks like there's a booster line snaking into the bank.  

COLD CASE - 1997

Colorado Bureau of Investigation Files

On Jan. 27, 1997, Anthony Bunn, Susan Garrett, Vivian Garrett, Erik Waite, and Tad Wescott died in an arson fire at the Hacienda Plaza Inn, 11 E. 84th Ave., Thornton. Anyone with information is asked to call the Thornton Police Department.

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ROCKY MOUNTAIN ARSENAL

 

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal was the scene of many-a-fire over the years and topping the list is a spectacular blaze that seared storage tanks holding deadly chlorine gas on July, 27, 1947. 

"We'd have been powerless if those tanks exploded," Denver Fire Chief Allie Feldman told the Associated Press. No injuries were reported.

The Rocky Mountain News reported a locomotive engineer, James Priller, braved the heat and moved eight tank cars laden with chlorine from a siding near the fire. The newspaper called Priller a hero.

The fire started in coal bunkers at a powerhouse near the chlorine tanks. News reporters covering the blaze were told they did so at their own risk.

The sprawling industrial complex was located in Commerce City and manufactured incendiary bombs for World War Two. After the war, a section was leased to the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. Today, the site is a nature preserve.

Army personnel responded with eight pieces of fire apparatus kept at the arsenal, the News said. Denver sent an initial assignment of two engines and a ladder truck.. Additional Denver rigs followed. South Adams responded, too.

Feldman, Deputy Chief Patrick Boyne and Assistant Chief John Horan led the Denver firefighting force.

Other Rocky Mountain Arsenal blazes:

On Oct. 11, 1951, a gasoline bomb fuse triggered an explosion that injured nine women. Two succumbed to their injures at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Aurora.

On Feb. 28, 1952, fire destroyed a three-story building on the arsenal grounds operated by the Julius Hyman Chemical Company.

On July 20, 1952, a worker died in an explosion on the fourth floor of another building on the arsenal used by the Hyman company.

On Oct. 24, 1953, flames erupted at a building housing the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. The Rocky Mountain News described the blaze as spectacular "with phosphorous bombs shooting hundreds of feet into the air."   

On July 4, 1953, appropriately enough, there were more fireworks at yet another Hyman company operation on the arsenal grounds. "Flaming chemicals spurted out of pipes," The Rocky Mountain News said.

On March 17, 1954, fire destroyed a warehouse.

'IT COULD HAPPEN HERE'

On Dec. 5, 1958, a Colorado newspaper took local taxpayers to task for voting down a school construction plan and made its case citing that week's deadly school fire in Chicago.

"It Could Happen Here," the Louisville Times warned its readers after Chicago's Dec. 1, 1958 tragedy. (Louisville is located between Denver and Boulder.)

Ninety-two students and three nuns perished at Our Lady of Angels school in spite of the valiant efforts of the Chicago Fire Department, the fire patrol, police, teachers, neighbors and parents. The school was old and lacked fire escapes.

"The tragic school fire in Chicago should make taxpayers who voted down a new grade school building for Louisville stop and think," the Times said. "Most certainly it will add more worry to the mothers who every time the fire alarm goes off run out to look for smoke at the grade school and listen to see which way the fire truck takes."

About two weeks later, Louisville area firefighters held school fire drills, and the Times reported: "In the St. Louis school 163 pupils cleared the building in 75 seconds. ... At the new Fairview consolidated school where rooms all have outside doors, 485 pupils were out of the building in 65 seconds and at the old Fairview building it took 77 pupils 65 seconds to clear the building."

ST. JOE'S - 1916

On Jan. 26, 1916, a basement fire billowed smoke through Denver's St. Joseph's Hospital, causing a commotion. Patients dressed and fled by fire escape in snow. Nurses rushed mothers and babies to safety. Fumes sickened nuns and firefighters, including Chief John Healy. Firefighter George Drake crashed through a skylight - and an expectant mother, Mrs. Leo Stack, gave birth thereafter. Newspapers identified the injured nuns as Sister Mary Edwards and Sister Mary Ligouri. [Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection]

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS - 1939

Photo: Museum of Northwest Colorado

On Jan. 24, 1939, fire devoured the 100-room Cabin Hotel in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, killing two people trapped in the flames.

All that was left of the three-story frame resort was "a skeleton of charred wood and ice," the Associated Press said.

Mayor Claude Luckens and others tried to gain access but were driven out by smoke, the Steamboat Pilot newspaper reported.

The battle was lost before firefighters could get water on the blaze, which started near a chimney leading to a furnace room in the 30-year-old hotel's south wing. The volunteer fire department, under the command of Chief Lavern Nelson, was very small, with just 10 or so members. 

Remains of Merle Sweet, 71, a Strawberry Park rancher, were found on the springs of his burnt bed, the Pilot newspaper.

The body of Mildred Keltner, 24, of Meade, Kansas, was located outside her room. She worked in Steamboat Springs.

The Pilot reported hotel manager C . P . Homer "rapped on doors and called to tenants to leave the building . Then he rang the buzzers in each occupied room . It was supposed that all had left the structure."

The hotel was owned by Routt County, having been seized for back taxes.

FIREMEN CHASE FIRE - 1929

Typical Denver Milk Wagon 

Pittsburgh Press - Dec. 22, 1929 

Holiday Pursuit in Downtown Denver

By The United Press

DENVER - "Julius Caesar," a milk wagon horse with a sense of humor, and the Denver Fire Department gave Christmas shoppers a treat when they played "tag" in the main business section Saturday.

Julius, as a rule, goes about his business like any ordinary horse, but when an oil stove in the wagon exploded while the driver was delivering a bottle of milk, he broke away.

As Julius kicked up the snow in a burst of speed down a busy avenue, scattering bottles of milk, six fire trucks took up the pursuit.

The firemen "tagged" Julius after a chase of five blocks and extinguished the blaze.

 

COLFAX & BROADWAY

The Denver Fire Journal uncovered more about this most unusual fire in the Dec. 21, 1929 edition of the Rocky Mountain News.

The incident began at 20th and Broadway.

When firefighters arrived "they saw the fire careening down Broadway" and "flames and milk bottles were leaping from the doors and windows on  the wagon," the News said.

The horse and flaming wagon were corralled at Broadway and Colfax Avenue, a busy intersection near the state capitol.

"The horse suffered only from fright," the News said.

[The UP story appeared on page 2 of the Pittsburgh Press of Dec. 22, 1929]

THIS IS A FIREBUG

Introducing Warren Cramer, the notorious Denver arsonist.

It's a hazy photo - but his story is pretty straight. On Aug. 26, 1935, Cramer, 17, confessed to setting 20 fires across Denver in five days - terrorizing the citizenry.

"It was fun," Cramer told police.  He even torched City Hall.

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