CENTRAL BLOCK - 1953

On Aug. 29, 1953, flames toppled the Central Block in downtown Pueblo, Colorado, and destroyed the neighboring McCarthy Building.

O.G. Pope, 88, an attorney who had an office and apartment in the red sandstone block, was the sole fatality. 

As the masonry crumbled, "We started running fast. Don't know where, just fast," said C.C. Wood, a Pueblo fire captain. 

Speaking in a 1990 interview, retired Pueblo firefighter John Mikus said the blaze "was kind of a mixed-up affair. The chiefs weren’t there as they were all at a fire chiefs’ convention. There was a new crew at the Central Station. Since they were new, they shouldn’t have gone out – they didn’t know where everything was. They even hooked onto the wrong plug."

In an interview with the Pueblo Chieftain, photographer William "Bud" Hawkins, who snapped an award-winning photograph of a falling wall, recalled: ”It wasn’t even going good when I got there. I took a lot of pictures and thought it looked like a dry run but then it took off."

The Central Block housed the Cosmopolitan and Grand hotels, the Western Union telegraph office and a variety of businesses. It was erected in 1890. The McCarthy Building was built in 1891. The structures were located at First and Main streets. 

"The Central Block was pretty tall and it was built to burn: There were offices all around the outside edge and an oval thing (ground floor-to-roof rotunda) in the middle so you could walk around on all the floors and look down," Hawkins recalled. "That was like a flue.”

Writing in Fire Engineering in 2012, Ronald Spadafora, a New York City firefighter, noted "an atrium allows the builder to take advantage of available sunlight and provide enhanced ventilation" but "also provides a horizontal and vertical pathway for fire and the products of combustion."

Mr. and Mrs. T. A. Cross, who lived in an apartment in the Central Block, were awakened by the crackling of flames, The Rocky Mountain News said, and Mrs. Cross went to Mr. Pope’s apartment to warn him.

Pope told her “this fire doesn't amount to much” and went back to his bedroom, the News said. Shortly thereafter, a firefighter said he heard Pope screaming, but couldn't reach him.

After the fire was out, firefighters requested a steam shovel to comb the ruins for Pope's remains.

The blaze started shortly after 3 a.m. and spread to a paint store, setting off hundred of gallons of paint and other chemicals. 

A spectator described it as a "giant blowtorch."

Pueblo Fire Chief Ed Chief Colglazier praised police Patrolman Raymond Marshall for rousing tenants of the Grand Hotel and Assistant Fire Chief Charles DiPalma for doing the same at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, the News said.

HAUNTING - 2020

 

Photo: Cortez Fire Protection District
Flames devoured a two-story house undergoing renovation on Highway 160 south of Cortez, Colorado, on June 3, 2020. The chief of the Cortez Fire Protection District, Jay Balfour, told the Journal newspaper: "It was going pretty strong. We had to play defense and fight it from the outside.” There were no injuries. Firefighters from Lewis Arriola, Dolores, Mancos and Ute Mountain provided mutual aid.

LIFE ON LADDER - 2023

Photo: Trinidad Fire Department
Firefighters in Trinidad, Colorado, battled a house fire on Nov. 5, 2023, with the assistance from the Hoehne Volunteer Fire Department, Fisher's Peak Volunteer Fire Department and Pinon Canyon Fire & Emergency Services.

DENVER FIRE RESERVE

Clipped article from The Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 27, 1952 

FLAGLER AIR SHOW - 1951

On Sept. 15, 1951, an aircraft performing a stunt plowed into spectators at an air show in rural Flagler, Colorado, claiming 20 lives - including 13 children and the pilot of the doomed craft.

Many other spectators suffered severe injuries.

"News of the tragedy was flashed by phone to all surrounding towns and to Denver," The Rocky Mountain News said. "Ambulances and doctors rushed from as far east as Goodland, Kan., and as far west as Denver to aid the victims.

"The injured were carried by car and ambulance to the tiny hospital here," the News said. "Dr. John Straub and Dr. W. L. McBride and a staff of volunteer workers performed yeoman tasks in rendering first aid to the injured."

Victims were transferred to hospitals in Denver, Goodland and other communities.

Flagler's population at the time was about 700. Attendance at the air show from the town and its surroundings was well above that.

The military sent "four SA-16 rescue planes from Lowry Field, loaded with doctors, first aid men, plasma and medicine, landed at the tiny site of the tragedy to join in rescue activities," the News said.

Time Magazine quoted Charlie Keller, a farmer attending the show with his wife, Kathy, teenage daughter Zenelda and 6-year-old twins Johnny and Josephine,

“I saw this plane coming. I hollered. ‘Mama, duck!’ I dived between two cars. There was an awful roar, and then this loud crash," Keller said.

"I got up. looked around. Mama wasn’t there. I couldn’t see the children either, A short time before the accident. Mama said to me. ‘Somebody could get killed.’ I remember I said, I guess somebody could get killed, Mama.’"

Keller's wife, daughter and son Johnny died.

Time Magazine noted: "Every family in town could count a member killed or hurt."

There was no grandstand. Families sat in or on cars. Show announcer Curtis Clarke was credited with preventing panic, asking male survivors to escort women and children from crash site and return to render aid, the News said.

Flagler is located in Kit Carson County and about 125 miles southeast of Denver. 

CANON CITY - 1929

Images: Pathe Newsreel, Private Collection and Rocky Mountain News

Click on diagram to view extent of damage

On Oct. 3, 1929, 13 people - both guards and inmates - died in a riot and raging fire at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City, and a Catholic priest "dressed for golf" emerged as an unlikely hero through a hail of bullets.

The mutineers set blazes and raided the arsenal, but inmate trusties remained loyal to the warden and manned firehoses.

"Steadily and calmly, while the gun battle raged and during the cessation of firing, the trusties aided firemen to control the fire," The Rocky Mountain News said.

Firefighters from as far as Pueblo reinforced the Canon Fire Department as flames consumed cellblocks, the mess hall, the chapel and prison library. 

The violence delayed Canon City fire crews and police from entering the penitentiary grounds.

The Colorado National Guard also arrived.

The struggle to defeat the rioters lasted almost a day.

"The battle was marked by two attempts to dynamite the cell house walls, one blast breaking all the windows, but failing to effect a breach in the masonry," the Associated Press reported.

"The hero of the dynamiting attempts was a Catholic priest. Father Patrick O’Neill, who carried the bombs to the foot of the cell house wall, under cover of machine gun fire from the prison walls," AP said.

O'Neill, 43, was a teacher with no ties to the state penitentiary. There by happenstance, the priest made two dashes from the prison gate, each time carrying 25 pounds of dynamite. He knew nothing about explosives.

In a letter the the editor of Time Magazine, criticizing its coverage of the event, O'Neill told his story, saying: "To view my purpose as one of  'death,' rather than one of mercy to the other 160 men in Cellhouse No. 3 is rank unfairness. Women and children and men too, were scared that night. Action had to be taken; and, since I had no dependants, why I volunteered. This 'hero' stuff is also distasteful to me."

Furthermore, O'Neill wrote: "I was also dressed for golf, and was on my way to the Club, when a young lady told me her Daddy was trapped by the convicts within the Pen. 'Greater love hath no man, than a readiness to lay down his life for them.' That, and that alone was my purpose."

Even so, O'Neill was honored by the Carnegie Hero Find Commission. He lived until age 84, dying in a nursing home in Cullman, Alabama, on Aug. 16 1971, according to a brief obituary published in The New York Times. He was ordained by the Order of St. Benedict in 1915.

Photo of Father O'Neill published in Rocky Mountain News 

Text of Father O'Neill's letter to Time Magazine (Nov. 4, 1929)

Sirs:

A friend has just given me your version of the Prison Episode. I am quite surprised at your unfairness. The terms you use, and the angle you viewed, agree with a certain anonymous threat from Springfield, Mo. My friend demanded that I write you, though, for he claims that your magazine endeavors to be fair and play the game square.

"Burly" is an opprobrious term. To view my purpose as one of ''death," rather than one of mercy to the other 160 men in Cellhouse No. 3 is rank unfairness. Women and children and men too, were scared that night. Action had to be taken; and, since I had no dependants (cq), why I volunteered. This "hero" stuff is also distasteful to me. But I don't care for your readers to have the impression of a Priest wishing death in preference to life.

I am not the Chaplain at the Pen. In fact, I was never in it before, having come to Colorado in September of this year. I am Chaplain at Holy Cross Abbey, and teach Psychology and English. I have been criticised for not going in this Cellhouse and persuading them to give up. Under the circumstances, that was quite impossible. I was also dressed for golf, and was on my way to the Club, when a young lady told me her Daddy was trapped by the convicts within the Pen. "Greater love hath no man, than a readiness to lay down his life for them." That, and that alone was my purpose.

Relying on your American honesty and integrity I beg to remain,

FATHER PATRICK O'NEILL, O. S. B. Canon City, Colo.

LUCKY DUCKLING - 2024

Photo: Poudre Fire Authority
On May 5, 2024, Poudre Fire Authority firefighters rescued ducklings from a storm drain in the 4000-block of Fossil Boulevard in Fort Collins, Colorado, and reunited them with their mother. Engine Co. 5 was assigned to the call.