Four Baltimore Firemen Killed in Apparatus Crash
Every man aboard each of two pieces of Baltimore fire apparatus was either killed or injured, on Nov. 9, in a collision while en route to an insignificant brush fire at Glen and Key Avenues, that city.
The accident, reported the worst of its kind in the history of the Fire Department, came at the intersection of Park Heights and Rogers Avenues, not far from the Maryland Jockey Club. The alarm on which the companies were responding came from a box at Rockwood and Ney Avenues.
The two fire department units, Ladder 22 and Engine 46, left their houses shortly after 3:00 P.M. with four men on each piece. Ladder 22 responded north on Park Heights Avenue and Engine 46 proceeded north on Reistertown Road and turned cast on Rogers Avenue. The sirens on both trucks were being sounded as they approached the corner of Park Heights and Rogers Avenues.
A patrolman, John W. Stiegler, on special traffic detail at the intersection, was engaged in shepherding some 20 school children from a school bus, across the thoroughfare, when he heard the siren of Ladder 22 coming up ParkHeights Avenue. As he hurried the youngsters onto the sidewalk, he heard the warning signal of Engine 46 approaching east on Rogers Avenue.
Stiegler gauged that both trucks would reach the intersection at about the same I time and hurried into the center of the intersection and endeavored to signal the pumper to a stop, because he estimated the ladder truck was traveling at a faster speed and he believed it had the right of way.
In some unknown way, the driver of the pumper either failed to heed the patrolman’s signals, or became confused over them, because he did not check speed. Stiegler barely leaped to safety before the two heavy vehicles crashed together.
Following the impact, the pumper careened about 50 feet to run into the rear of a parked car. The ladder truck caromed into a steel light pole. All but one of the eight men riding the two vehicles were thrown from their positions with the impact. Two were killed instantly and two died shortly after reaching the hospital.
The dead are: Joseph A. Remekis, 35, driver of Ladder 22, who was pinned in his truck when it struck the pole. It was necessary to cut him loose with a torch; Charles Paff, 57, thrown from Engine 46; James W. Haynie, 26, also thrown from the pumper; and Joseph B. Magaha, 25, who was catapulted from the ladder truck. Injured were William Flanigan, 40, Engine 46, multiple lacerations, fractured leg and internal injuries; Harry Burke, 58, Ladder 22, fractured skull and other fractures, condition critical; Joseph H. Greiser, Engine 46, multiple fractures both legs, other fractures and possible internal injuries, condition critical; Kenneth Medley, 32, Ladder 22. shock and internal injuries, least seriously injured of the casualties.
Fireman Medley said be heard and saw the pumper approaching and although he braced himself on the running board of the t.ruck, he was thrown against the turntable with the crash, and bounced off into the street. He got to his feet and staggered into the drug store on the corner, where lie telephoned for ambulances.
Three of the injured men were thrown onto the grass lawn at 5501 Park Heights Avenue and a fourth was flung onto the concrete approach to the front door.
A pharmacist, Lewis Taich, employed by the drug store, and others who witnessed the crash, administered first aid. Ambulances began to arrive about fifteen minutes after the collision. West Baltimore Hospital, meanwhile, had been alerted to receive the casualties and special details of doctors and nurses worked over the injured and dying as rapidly as they were received.
According to Fire Department officials, both pieces of apparatus were following a “generally outlined route” in response to the alarm. In Baltimore, according to P. W. Wilkinson, secretary of the Board of Fire Commissioners, movement of apparatus responding to corner box alarms is not governed by any kind of “hard and fast rule,” changing traffic conditions making it impossible to dispatch fire apparatus on fixed routes. An investigation into the collision was immediately instituted.
A routine inspection trip is said to have saved the life of Lieut. Leo. Y Curran, regularly attached to Engine 46. He was out of quarters when the alarm was received and the acting officer in charge of the company was Fireman Charles Paff, who rode beside the driver in the seat the Lieutenant would otherI wise have occupied.
