By James Johnson
The fire service is an industry that is built on tradition: the color of our fire apparatus, the use of the Maltese cross in our insignia, the speaking trumpets pinned to the collars of our company and chief officers.
One of our greatest and most powerful traditions is the way we honor our fallen by remembering and learning from the events that led to their ultimate sacrifice. It is our duty as firefighters to learn from our past, gain knowledge and wisdom, and pass that forward to the next generation of firefighters so that these sacrifices are never forgotten.
Father’s Day: Its Special Meaning for the Fire Service
June 17, 2001
It was a quiet Father’s Day Sunday, when at 2:21 p.m., firefighters with the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) were dispatched to a fire in a hardware store at 12-22 Astoria Blvd in Queens. Squad 288, Battalion 49, Engine 262, Engine 260, Ladder 116, Ladder 117, Ladder 163, Rescue 4, Battalion 45, and Engine 312 all arrived within minutes of each other.
The fire was located in the cellar of the building. Roughly 25 minutes after arriving on scene, a propane tank exploded, causing a major collapse that tragically took the lives of Firefighter Harry S. Ford and Firefighter Brian D. Fahey of Rescue 4 and Firefighter John J. Downing of Ladder 163. All three members were fathers and left behind children on this tragic day.
The Buildings
For the purpose of this article, I really want to focus on the buildings. These types of buildings are found all across North America from small town “Main Street USA” to our oldest and most densely populated cities.
This incident involved two buildings of the same era, with both structures being built prior to 1930 and of ordinary construction.
Ordinary construction or Type III is one of the classifications within the building code that is really the most vaguely described, yet most firefighters tend to have a very specific building in mind when they picture it. Depending on the individual model code, Type III construction is often defined as having non-combustible load-bearing walls with combustible wood floor or roof systems. Based on these oversimplified definitions, the classification “Type III” could include a modern West Coast tilt-up building with a lightweight panelized wood roof or an 1800s or 1900s unreinforced masonry building. Two very distinctly different buildings, but both technically fall within the definitions specified in the code.
I firmly believe that identifying the era of construction is an important part of the size-up process for being able to understand the specific materials or construction practices that were used at the time. An ordinary constructed building built today and the buildings from the Father’s Day fire are vastly different, and it’s important for firefighters to be able to identify and understand the differences.
The buildings involved in the Father’s Day fire were attached and separated by a firewall. The first building was just over 2,000 square feet and triangular in shape, and the second building was just over 1,100 square feet and was rectangular. There were connecting openings on both the first floor and within the full height cellar. The hardware store, where the fire originated, occupied both the first floor and cellar levels spanning across both buildings. It is a common occurrence to find buildings of this era that have been remodeled or modified to expand the occupied floor space between what would seemingly be two independent buildings. It was found during the incident that the cellar fire door that separated the two spaces had been blocked open, allowing fire to spread between the compartments. Ordinary construction of this era was most commonly built using unreinforced masonry construction. This construction type relies on the load-bearing walls of stacked masonry bricks and lime mortar to carry the imposed load of the structure all the way down to the foundation. After years of inclement weather, the lime mortar can start to deteriorate, and without the presence of any additional reinforcement these buildings can be susceptible to significant collapse. The collapse of unreinforced masonry can be quite unpredictable and can lead to material being cast off far distances from the footprint of the building. We need to be always prepared for the potential of both interior and exterior collapse. Building codes have changed since the 1930s, largely as a result of seismic events that caused catastrophic collapses. These types of buildings now require reinforcement, most commonly by way of reinforcing steel bars, to help provide redundancy and both compressive and tensile strength to the masonry load-bearing walls.
During this incident, a propane tank located in the cellar level exploded, which created tremendous outward pressure within the building, causing the unreinforced masonry walls to collapse. At the time of the explosion, Firefighter Ford and Firefighter Downing were outside the structure on the Exposure 2 side conducting ventilation operations on the cellar windows, and Firefighter Fahey was conducting forcible entry on the second floor of building 2 with a member of Squad 288. After the explosion and a Personal Accountability Report (PAR), it was identified that four firefighters were missing. A firefighter from Ladder 116 was found buried beneath the store signage, which shielded him from the falling brick, and he was pulled to safety. Additional crew members began digging through the rubble and were able to locate Firefighters Ford and Downing, who were transported to hospital but tragically succumbed to their injuries. Heroic attempts were made to find and retrieve Firefighter Fahey. After cutting holes in floors, breaching walls, and battling intense heat and fire, squad company members were able to pull him free from the building, but unfortunately Firefighter Fahey also succumbed to his injuries while on scene.
I truly believe it is important for us to look at past incidents and to do so with both reverence for the sacrifice of our lost brothers and sisters, as well as from an educational perspective. We can learn so much from these incidents and the factors that led to the outcome to help us prepare for similar incidents in the future.
Preplanning
As I mentioned earlier, these types of buildings are found all across North America, and not just within the boroughs of New York City. One of the things that I have found to be extremely important and beneficial is company building inspections. This can take the form of formal inspections that are completed as part of the fire prevention division or informal walk-throughs with your company to preplan buildings within your district. The first thing we want to identify during an inspection is the building construction. We want to try to identify the era of the building, the types of materials used, and the occupancy. These three factors come together to paint a picture of how the fire will react under fire conditions, how the fire may spread, the potential life hazard, and lastly, the type of commodities or stored hazards that may be in the structure.
For the buildings from the Father’s Day fire, these were old prewar structures, utilizing unreinforced masonry and wood, and containing a hardware store.
The next things to look for are egress points and paths of travel. We want to see how the buildings are connected, keeping a close eye on fire separations and any remodels that may have combined multiple buildings into a single occupancy. This was the case in both the Father’s Day fire and the historic 23rd Street Fire in Manhattan that claimed the lives of 12 FDNY members, where an art dealer had taken over the cellar of two adjoining buildings and created a single space for storage.
Lastly, we want to look for any specific hazards. In the case of the Father’s Day fire, this would be the large propane tank that was improperly stored in the cellar, as well as the high volume of paints and other flammable contents.
My hope is that we can use this tragic event to promote discussions within our companies, and to encourage getting out within our districts to walk buildings and pre-plan for potential fires, while honoring and remembering the sacrifice made by Firefighter Harry S. Ford, Firefighter Brian D. Fahey, and Firefighter John J. Downing.
Never forget.
James Johnson is a firefighter in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and currently assigned to Squad 7 in Vancouver’s downtown core. James represents the International Association of Fire Fighters as a Codes and Standards Consultant, and is a Master Instructor for the IAFF’s Fire Ground Survival Program.
