Remembering the “23rd Street Fire” October 17, 1966-2019; 53th Anniversary and Remembrances On October 17th, 1966, Manhattan Dispatch recorded an alarm from a resident at 7 East 22nd Street for smoke on the 4th floor of a brownstone. Box 0598 was transmitted at 2136 hours. Engine 14, 3 & 16, Ladders 3 & 12, Battalion […]

FDNY Brooklyn Box 4080: 17 Vandalia Avenue 12.18.1998

The Waldbaum’s Supermarket Fire and Collapse: FDNY 1978-2019 41st Anniversary Honor, Remembrance, Learning’s The Waldbaum Super market fire, Brooklyn, New York occurred on August 2, 1978. Six firefighters died in the line of duty when the roof of a burning Brooklyn supermarket collapsed, plunging 12 firefighters into the flames. The fire began in a hallway […]

Eleven Minutes to Mayday: Lessons from 2008 Resonate Today

Lessons from the Fireground: Watts Street Fire-FDNY 1994 On the evening of March 28, 1994, FDNY responded to a report of heavy smoke and sparks from a chimney of a three-story apartment building located at 62 Watts Street, in the Borough of Manhattan.(NYC). Smoke and sparks were evident from the chimney upon arrival of first-due […]

  On Monday, January 19, 2015, a fire occurred at a residential dwelling located at 936 Childs Point Road, Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland 21401.  The two-story occupied single family dwelling was approximately 16,386 square feet in size and sustained a complete loss to the structure and contents. The damage was estimated to be approximately […]

Before Making Entry, while in the street; Has someone completed or assigned the reconn for a 360 of the building? Have you looked at the Building and its Profile and Understood what you’re looking at? Made a Rapid Risk Assessment? Assessed the Building’s Anatomy? Considered the Compartment? Considered the Fire Dynamics? Assessed the Predictability of […]

Operational Considerations for Residential Basement Fires Basement fires in both residential and commercial occupancies are one of the most challenging tactical operations that present numerous risk factors requiring the highest degree of situational awareness, training skill sets and continuous incident monitoring and assessment to gauge building structural integrity, fire behavior and fire dynamics and corresponding […]

Buildingsonfire Lessons from the Fireground – NIST/Simulation of a Fire in a Hillside Residential Structure San Francisco, CA On June 2, 2011, a fire in a multi-level, wood-frame residential structure claimed the life of two firefighters of the San Francisco (CA) Fire Department. NIST examined the fire dynamics of this incident at the request of […]