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Incendio en la calle 23

Coordenadas : 40°44′27″N 73°59′20″W / 40.74083°N 73.98889°W / 40.74083; -73.98889 El incendio de la calle 23 fue un incidente que tuvo lugar en el barrio Flatiron District de Ma...

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Coordenadas : 40°44′27″N 73°59′20″W / 40.74083°N 73.98889°W / 40.74083; -73.98889

El incendio de la calle 23 fue un incidente que tuvo lugar en el barrio Flatiron District de Manhattan , Nueva York , el 17 de octubre de 1966. Un grupo de bomberos del Departamento de Bomberos de la Ciudad de Nueva York, que respondían a un incendio en el número 7 de la calle 22 Este , entraron en un edificio en el número 6 de la calle 23 Este como parte de las labores para combatir el fuego. Doce bomberos murieron tras el derrumbe del piso, la mayor pérdida de vidas en la historia del departamento hasta el colapso del World Trade Center en los ataques del 11 de septiembre de 2001. [ 1 ]

Incidente

Se reportó un incendio a las 9:36  p.m. en American Art Galleries, una galería de arte ubicada en un edificio de piedra rojiza de cuatro pisos en 7 East 22nd Street (cerca de Broadway ), transmitido como Box 598. [ 2 ] Un informe del FDNY posterior al incidente mostró que la galería había almacenado laca, pintura y marcos de madera acabados altamente inflamables en el sótano. Para cuando llegaron los primeros bomberos, la intensidad del humo y el calor hicieron imposible el acceso por el lado de la calle 22 del edificio. [ 3 ]

Los bomberos intentaron acercarse al edificio en llamas a través de Wonder Drug, una tienda ubicada en el número 6 de East 23rd Street, en un edificio comercial de cinco plantas situado en un terreno de 14 m × 30 m (45 × 100 pies ) que colindaba con la galería de arte incendiada. Como parte de un proyecto de construcción recientemente finalizado, se renovó un sótano común bajo ambos edificios, eliminando un muro de carga que sostenía la planta superior. La eliminación del muro permitió a la galería de arte aumentar el espacio de almacenamiento disponible y trasladar parte de sus suministros a un espacio que ahora se encontraba debajo de la farmacia. [ 3 ]   

The building at 7 East 22nd Street had a two-story extension adjoining the rear of the building at 6 East 23rd Street. The cellar of the 22nd Street building extended about 35 feet (11 m) under the drug store. The drugstore's floor was supported by 3-by-14-inch (7.6 cm × 35.6 cm) wood beams. 3⁄4 inch (19 mm) wood planking atop these beams was covered with 5 inches (130 mm) of concrete finished with terrazzo. The fire underneath the store weakened the wooden beams, while the thickness of the floor prevented firefighters from feeling the extreme heat below.[4]

A 15-by-35-foot (4.6 by 10.7 m) section of the floor collapsed at 10:39 p.m., one hour and three minutes after the initial alarm was transmitted, causing ten firefighters to fall into the burning cellar. Two other firefighters on the first floor were killed in a flashover. In all, twelve firefighters were killed: two chiefs, two lieutenants, and eight firefighters. It took firefighters 14 hours to dig out the rubble and reach their dead comrades. The dead men left behind 12 widows and 32 children.[3] The fire raged to a fifth alarm.[5]

Aftermath

10,000 firefighters lined Fifth Avenue on October 21, 1966, as ten firetrucks carried ten coffins to separate services at St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church and at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Firefighters came from as far away as the U.K., Ireland, Anchorage, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Northeast United States, and a group of 500 firefighters from Boston who had come to pay tribute.[6]

Firefighters killed in the line of duty include:

  • Deputy Chief Thomas A. Reilly, FDNY 3rd Division
  • Battalion Chief Walter J. Higgins, FDNY 7th Battalion
  • Lt. John J. Finley, FDNY Ladder Co. 7
  • Lt. Joseph Priore, FDNY Engine Co. 18
  • Firefighter John G. Berry, FDNY Ladder Co. 7
  • Firefighter James V. Galanaugh, FDNY Engine Co. 18
  • Firefighter Rudolph F. Kaminsky, FDNY Ladder Co. 7
  • Firefighter Joseph Kelly, FDNY Engine Co. 18
  • Firefighter Carl Lee, FDNY Ladder Co. 7
  • Firefighter William F. McCarron, FDNY 3rd Division
  • Firefighter Daniel L. Rey, FDNY Engine Co. 18
  • Firefighter Bernard A. Tepper, FDNY Engine Co. 18

Today, Madison Green stands on the former site of the 23rd Street Fire.[7]

References

  1. ↑Duggan, Dennis (September 15, 2001). "Following in Heroic Footsteps".Newsday. Accessed August 7, 2008. "Fernandez was a young firefighter in 1966 at the scene of what until Tuesday had been the worst fire disaster in the department's history when 12 firefighters died at a West 23rd Street fire."
  2. ↑Watson, Edward (1976). New York then and now : 83 Manhattan sites photographed in the past and in the present. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 158–159. ISBN 978-0-486-23361-1. OCLC 2694848.
  3. 123O'Donnell, Michelle. "Oct. 17, 1966, When 12 Firemen Died", The New York Times, October 17, 2006. Accessed August 7, 2008.
  4. ↑"The 23rd. Street Fire, October 17, 1966.", New York City Fire Department. Accessed August 7, 2008.
  5. ↑FDNY Honors 52nd Anniversary of 23rd Street Fire, New York City Fire Department, October 17, 2018. Accessed March 25, 2024. "The ground floor of the Wonder Drug Store at the corner of 23rd Street and Broadway collapsed during a five-alarm fire that originated in a storage area, which was concealed by a four-inch thick cinderblock wall illegally constructed by the building’s previous owner."
  6. ↑Alden, Robert. "Firemen Bear Their Dead Down 5th Ave. in Silent Grief; Throngs Watch as Firemen Bear Their Dead Down Fifth Ave, in Silent Grief", The New York Times, October 22, 1966. Accessed August 7, 2008.
  7. ↑Alexiou, Alice Sparberg (2010). The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the Incomparable City that Arose With It. New York: Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's. ISBN 978-0-312-38468-5. pp. 268-269