Seven Charleston Firemen Killed in Dime Store Fire
Seven members of the Charleston, W. Va., Fire Department met death as a million dollar fire raged out of control for eight hours in two dime stores in that city on March 5. At least 15 other fire fighters were injured, two critically.
All the city’s fire forces were mobiled on six alarms as flames swept through the three-story Woolworth Building and jumped tc the roof of the adjoining Kresge store. Aid was also sent from neighboring communities.
The fire, starting from an undetermined cause in Woolworth’s, was discovered at 3:55 A. M. by police Patrolman Wayne Casdorph. First arriving firemen found the blaze centered in the basement at the rear of the store, which is reached by a winding stairway from the ground floor level.
Two fire companies attacked the fire, working down the circular stairway through dense smoke. Other forces attempted to ventilate while others stretched lines to the first floor. At 4:05 A.M. the floor above the men collapsed and tons of merchandise cascaded down upon them, burying most of the men to their armpits. A number managed to work free. Some with other rescuers struggled to aid less fortunate comrades, but the fire finally drove them out.
According to Fire Captain E. F. Merrifield, who managed to work his way out of the wreckage, the section of floor that caved in was about three feet wide and ran the full width of the building at the rear.
George Coates, a negro fireman, three years on the force, himself uninjured, went in after the trapped men, and never came out alive.
The bodies of the first two of the victims were recovered from the wreckage at 1:07 A. M. They were Firemen Frank N. Miller and Freddie Summers. The other bodies were recovered later. They were Firemen J. P. Little, Frank Sharp, Richard McCormick. George Coates and Emory Pauley. Confined to the hospital in oxygen tents were Capt. Charles Glendennin, overcome by smoke, and Fireman Carl Wiblin, seriously burned.
The two buildings are located on Capitol Street, the main business thoroughfare. The Woolworth building was burned out; the roof of the Kresge store was burned and partly collapsed. The Fleetwood Hotel next to Kresge’s, and the Charleston Rational Bank Building, separated by a fire wall from Woolworth’s, were damaged by smoke and water.
All fire department personnel was called into action by Chief J. Louis McLanc of Charleston, who directed operations. Aid was summoned from Huntington, Dunbar and Marmet in the effort to control the fire. Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corp. sent special gas masks to the scene as the acid smoke from the burning contents made fire fighting a major hazard.
According to Chief Me Lane, the block where the fire occurred is nothing but details of local police were aided by State police and national guardsmen in controlling the crowds of spectators and maintaining traffic. All gas and electric service in the vicinity was cut off.
A sad incident in the tragedy was the death of the veteran fireman Frank Sharp. Manning one of the hose lines throughout the fight was his son. Fireman B. L. Sharp, three-year member of the department, who knew his father had died in the basement.
