17 Buildings Destroyed, 9 Damaged by Lynn, Mass., Conflagration
features
“It’s a whopper doozer of a fire,” said a deputy chief who came to help from more than 20 miles away. He described the Lynn, Mass., conflagration about as well as anyone could.
The fire was discovered in an unoccupied building in an old section of Lynn at 2:35 a.m last Nov. 28. Within 17 minutes, the eight-story building was fully involved and a seventh alarm had been struck. Two minutes later, flames jumped a street and ignited another eight-story structure.
“It’s war, really,” said a chief from another mutual-aid department. And an army assembled to fight it—600 fire fighters and 150 pieces of apparatus from about 80 departments. All 104 responding engines pumped at one time or another. Before it was stopped, the fire destroyed 17 buildings—five of them eight stories high—and heavily damaged nine others.
“It’s like watching my heart being cut out,” said the mayor of Lynn. The tremendous losses—$35 million in real estate plus another $35 million in smoke damage, factory equipment and personal possessions—would not have been near as high five years ago when many of the structures were vacant. But Lynn, an old city with numerous dilapidated factory buildings, had spent $18 million in federal and state money to rehabilitate the area where the fire started.
Biggest fire
“It’s the biggest fire I’ve ever seen,” said Lynn Fire Chief Joseph Scanlon. That says a lot because Scanlon has been in the fire department for 32 years and was aware of the big fires before that—when his father was chief of the department. And Lynn is a good place to see a lot of fire. In the first nine months of last year, 88 fires went to multiple alarms, including one for six, one for eight and one for 10.
To protect the city of 90,000 along the Atlantic Ocean just north of Boston, Scanlon has 269 fire personnel, nine engines, two ladders and two rescue units—and a very good mutual-aid system.
As planned, mutual aid began to respond into Lynn, for station coverage at first, as soon as Lynn District Chief Paul Kirby sounded a third alarm at 2:42, four minutes after Engine 5 and Lieutenant Allen Downey arrived to report fire coming out the front first-floor windows.
Sprinkler disconnected
If you wanted to have a big fire, a good place was where the Lynn fire began. The interior of the old, vacant building was wood, and the floors were oil and solvent-soaked from years of industrial occupancy. The building had a sprinkler system, but it was disconnected. The rear was open from basement to roof, and a fire could move rapidly to each floor.
The reason for the sprinkler condition and the opening was that the building was being torn down as part of the area’s rehabilitation, and the problem would have been gone soon.
Downey’s crew connected to a hydrant and began to attack. Water supply was more than adequate for the first-arriving companies at a “normal” fire, and hydrants were abundant. “We had 48 and 36-inch mains there,” Scanlon explained, adding that all had recently been reamed out.
left—photo by Dave Gregory.
by Lynn, Mass., Conflagration
Soon after crews set up lines, however, the rapidly spreading fire forced them to abandon their positions. And as soon as additional fire fighters and hose lines were ready, walls started to fall into the street.
Scanlon arrived at 2:49 to find the first building fully involved. An eager fire officer, he does not wait to be called to big fires. Instead, he listens to the busy fire radio all night every night. This time, after hearing the first reports, he sensed trouble and responded.
Fire jumps street
Winds at 17 to 20 mph carried heat across the street and ignited both wings of an eight-story building. At 2:55, Scanlon had a conflagration.
“These buildings had working sprinkler systems, but the fire overpowered them all,” Scanlon said, “and we could not get to the Siamese connections to augment the water. I can remember looking up at the windows and seeing the sprinklers operating. But each one was just a spurt because heads on all eight floors went off at almost the same time.”
He did not take time to order an eighth and ninth alarm, jumping straight to the lOth-alarm call at 2:55. By then it was what Scanlon referred to as an OMJ call, meaning “Oh my Jesus, send help!”
By then, too, all Lynn apparatus had been committed, and the mutual-aid total was about 13 engines and four ladder trucks from 13 other departments. When Scanlon declared a conflagration, the pace of mutual-aid calls quickened. Five more departments were dispatched at 3:00 and 10 more in the next 10 minutes.
Seeing the wall of flame 200 feet long and more than eight stories high, seeing fire fighters forced back again and again—even with extra help arriving— and seeing fire jump a street so easily, one had to wonder what it would take to stop this fire storm. An immense thermal column was created in which heated air carrying still-burning debris, rose over the fire. This created a partial vacuum at ground level and caused cooler air to blow into and feed the flames.
Spreading too fast
The heat forced a couple of emergency evacuations of fire apparatus, too.
“We moved a 100-foot ladder truck with its aerial up in the air,” Scanlon said, describing the same thing with a 54-foot extended Squrt boom. We didn’t have time to disconnect hose. It was just ripped right away from the hydrant and connnections. We didn’t have time to use an ax or anything. The fire was spreading too fast, it was just too fast.
“Sure, I was nervous,” Scanlon said. “A man who’s not nervous about conditions like that, or at least apprehensive, probably doesn’t know what is happening.”
Mutual-aid network
As the net of mutual-aid companies extended wider, an area mutual-aid dispatching system plugged in. Metrofire, serving the group of cities surrounding Boston and to the south of Lynn, was one. When Scanlon needed more help he notified his dispatch office, which notified Metrofire, which notified the departments in its network.
After Metrofire, Beverly Control began to funnel companies from the north. When they exhausted available companies in their area, Beverly notified Haverhill Control farther to the north (even drawing companies from New Hampshire) and Metrofire notified Southeast Control in Randolph. Both Metrofire and Beverly communicated with Chelmsford Control to the west. As communications lines grew longer and more complex, Lynn’s dispatchers still talked only to Metrofire or Beverly.
No department, to Scanlon’s knowledge, responded to the scene without being dispatched by request of one of the controls. That’s the way the plan was set up to reduce confusion. Scanlon said that some individual fire fighters from other departments did show up with their gear, ready to help. They were put to work.
seen—photo by Murray Young.
right—photo by Bill Noonan.
The fire fighting ranged from aggressive but dangerous inside attack in some buildings they still hoped to save, to a defensive stance of throwing as much water as possible through ladder pipes and monitor guns. Falling walls continued to be a problem, especially because of their height. That danger successfully kept fire fighters away from some critical sprinkler connections they wanted to pump into.
1.3 million gph
Falling walls also contributed to a growing water supply problem. Although the area had plenty of water and pressure for normal fire fighting, this situation was too much. Then 6 and 8-inch sprinkler feeds were broken as buildings collapsed, and much of the available water was wasted. Not counting that, Scanlon estimates that an average of 1.3 million gallons of water were being pumped every hour between 3 that morning and 5 the next afternoon. More than 21,000 gpm for 14 hours.
Fortunately the Atlantic Ocean was nearby. Pumpers were repositioned and lines stretched to supplement the city’s reservoir supply.
Scanlon described one handicap in using the all-important outside companies when repositioning or other instructions were in order.
“What we don’t have, unfortunately, is a fireground communications frequency common to all the operating units. If we wanted to get a message to a unit from a distant municipality, we had to go through our dispatcher, who transmitted to the regional control dispatcher. He in turn transmitted back to the unit on the scene. Many of those pieces were far removed from their own transmitting area and had trouble picking up the relayed signal.”
Before dawn, the fire had jumped Washington St. to an eight-story apartment building just rehabilitated, and from there to a seven-story building at Carrol and Broad St. Fire fighters saved those buildings, but flames still spread from them across Carrol St. to another eight-story building and three one-story buildings, all of which were lost. From there the fire jumped a tremendous distance to ignite four other buildings. One became a separate working fire.
Found own water
Scanlon would request an additional mutual-aid company and direct to this building or that, to set up a monitor gun or ladder pipe or whatever. Each of those crews was left to find its own water. Of course, most of the units from over 30 miles away had never seen the Fire area before, but somehow they managed. There was no other way. All the Lynn crews, including all recalled off-duty personnel, were committed to the core fire area.
As the morning sun illuminated the scene better, Scanlon called in the last of the mutual-aid companies. At 6:00, he requested 10 and then the final eight by 6:26. He thought he could do the job with these.
Most of the fire’s reach was in the direction of the wind. Only one large four-story building housing, in part, a furniture warehouse ignited upwind. It was just across the street from the eight-story building next to where the fire started, but this fire was not much bothered by the width of a street, even against the wind.
For some time, the greatest concern was over the Vamp Building across Broad St. from the greatest fire area and the point of origin. Renamed the Harbor Loft II when renovated as apartments, the building had a sign outside that said “Now Renting,” and some residents had just moved in. Fortunately, during its renovation from a shoe factory (the largest one in the country at that time) to apartments, the old wooden windows and sills were replaced with metal ones. Otherwise, there would have been no hope.
Early evacuation
Evacuations had been ordered within the first 15 minutes at the Harbor Loft. In the entire fire area, 750 people were evacuated.
Broad St. was a no-man⅛-land of heat and falling or fallen bricks. Fire fighters attacked from either end, with ladder pipes at one and hand lines up the stairs at the other. The smoke was very heavy and created a problem for Scanlon. From his command post near Hurd Square, he could not see how the Harbor Loft was faring. The other reports he was getting were conflicting because no one had a wide view of the building.
Fire had entered many of the windows broken by the heat, especially on the top two floors. But hard-pressed fire fighters with SCBA and hand lines were in there working after carrying their gear up the eight floors. Some reports to Scanlon indicated the hand lines could hold on; other said fire was spreading too fast. Each officer was giving an honest opinion, but each had only a limited view. What Scanlon wanted was an overall view.
At about that time, the governor of Massachusetts arrived to check out the situation—in a state police helicopter. While the politicians discussed the need to have Lynn declared a federal disaster area, Scanlon and Deputy Chief William Conway got the overall view they needed.
Aerial view
They didn’t like what they saw. After about six hours of fighting an unbelievable amount of fire, they were still in trouble. The fire was indeed spreading too fast along the roof and upper floor of the Harbor Loft. When the helicopter landed around 9:30 a.m., Scanlon called a meeting of the chiefs and said, “Set up the artillery.” All possible master st reams were focused on the building.
Photo by Bill Noonan
As the hours wore on, fatigue was certainly a growing problem for Scanlon’s fire fighters, but, relief was not possible. They were able to save the Harbor Loft, although 220 apartments were made uninhabitable as the fire burned from the top down until stopped.
Another problem could not be ignored: The various apparatus needed fuel.
“Don’t forget,” Scanlon said, “some of the apparatus traveled 50 to 60 miles just to get here.”
So the next mutual-aid call went out for gasoline and diesel fuel. He explained that Lynn was set to supply fuel for up to a fifth-alarm response, but not something like what he had. Still, only two or three pieces of apparatus ran out of fuel and stalled.
And so the battle continued throughout the day. Slowly they mastered it By 4:55 p.m., after almost 14 ⅛ hours, Scanlon could determine that the fire was contained, a term not fully understood by some officials on the scene. About 7 p.m., Scanlon declared the fire under control.
Still smoking
Two weeks later, however, it was not fully extinguished, and smoke still drifted over the area.
“We’re still getting hot spots down there,” Scanlon said. “You have to appreciate that each of these old factory buildings has a 10 or 12-foot cellar, and you’ve got eight stories of fallen brick and debris on top, so it’s like fire in a coal mine. And to make matters worse, what we’re finding is there are many, many containers of flammable liquid that were there legitimately for heating purposes long before the days of permits. We didn’t even know they were there.
“I think I’ll have to replace 8 or 10 windshields.” The chief continued, “We lost all kinds of hose (a total of 3 miles and the counting continues) and deck guns and other equipment. But I didn’t lose a man, and that’s the most important part of my job.”
Six fire fighters were injured, mostly from falling walls.
The investigation into the cause of the fire continues by Lynn fire officials and State Fire Marshal Joseph O’Keefe. Arson is strongly suspected because of the speed of the fire’s spread, elimination of other causes in the vacant structure, and a history of arson in the area. (Two arson fires in the building of origin last Nov. 4 had been contained by sprinklers, which were later disconnected.) The trouble for investigators is that a fire of such magnitude burning for so long tends to destroy much of the evidence. Scanlon indicated the sifting through the ashes on hands and knees will continue until something is found or nothing is left to find.
A major effort began to clear the rest of the large burned-out area of the mountains of debris left behind when so many brick structures were destroyed. Fifteen hundred jobs were also lost, according to the mayor.
Arson fires continued
Meanwhile, fire fighters were kept busy. The next day, Sunday, with the fire under control but many hot spots to deal with, a two-alarm house fire was fought in Lynn entirely by mutual-aid personnel and a Lynn chief officer.
A more disturbing chain of events occurred Monday and Wednesday nights. Five fires broke out Monday night and three were definitely arson, according to Scanlon. One was a three-alarm fire. On Wednesday night, three separate rooms of a school were set on fire. That incident went to two alarms. The entire school was vandalized.
“I think the big fire just brought the bugs out of the woodwork,” Scanlon said, trying to explain the rash of arson fires.
“I am high in my praise for these control centers and my own fire alarm headquarters,” Scanlon remarked, referring to the complex communications network required to coordinate the activities of so many units from so many departments. “We have had paper drills with mutual aid, but never anything of this magnitude. Yet the organization (of communications) was excellent.
“I am also high in my praise—and proud—of the diligence and cooperation received from the other fire departments. They all worked as if we were one team. Human nature being what it is, that’s something to say these days.”
Scanlon went on to recommend that any department make sure it has a sufficient supply of large-diameter hose and consider what it can do to improve its mutual-aid plan.
