By Joe Pronesti, Chris Tobin, and Alexis Shady
So much can be written and found on social media about sharing and telling firehouse stories and experiences: what’s good, what’s bad, etc. etc. I want to dedicate this Main Street Memo to a member from the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) who is now deceased but doesn’t get enough credit for what he did one night in October of 1966.
Battalion Chief Royal Fox’s story leading up to his heroic actions actually began six years earlier when, as a young firefighter assigned to a squad company, Fox was severely burned in a multiple-alarm fire that claimed the lives of three FDNY members at a textile manufacturing building on Broadway located in lower Manhattan.
That fateful night in 1960, Fox’s Squad company and members of Engine 31 were in the basement attempting to get to the seat of the fire when they decided to vacate. While attempting to do so, they were confronted by a wall of flame and heat, Fox and Firefighter Robert Barnickle pushed their way up the stairs and were rescued by fellow firefighters. They suffered severe burns.
On October 17th, 1966 Fox, now a lieutenant, responded with his company Ladder 3 to a fire in a building at Number 7, East 22nd Street. Ladder 3 was assigned with Engine 5 to the cellar of an adjoining building at Number 6, 23rd Street, the Wonder Drug Store. Firefighter Nic Cicero of Engine 5 was assigned to stay at the top of the cellar stairs; this legacy tactic was to assist the companies operating in cellars/basements be aware any issues happening above them. Remember, this was in the days prior to portable radios.
Cicero noticed the beginnings of a catastrophic collapse at the rear of the drug store and yelled to the members below in the cellar to get out. Fox was the last member out as he wanted to make sure all members left, as wasn’t the case in 1960 when Fox and Barnickle assumed the rest of the members at the Broadway building were right behind them. Fox literally pushed the member in front of him through heavy fire and heat conditions to the up the stairs and to safety.
The 23rd Street fire and collapse on October 17th, 1966 took the lives of 12members of the FDNY and was the largest loss of life for members at a single event until September 11, 2001.
Fox was awarded a medal for his heroism on that night in 1966. This month’s Memo is dedicated to Royal Fox and as a reminder to learn from the lessons of the past, no matter how long ago they are.
My number one tip from these events: leave a member at the top of the basement/cellar stairs. The proliferation of portable radios on the fire scene can sometimes lull us into a sense of false security, especially when advancing down into a cellar. Leaving someone at the top of the stairs is a great legacy tactic that must remain on today’s modern fireground.
Please take some time and read about the events that shaped Royal Fox and can also help us sixty-some years later. Below is a link to a discussion on the 23rd Street fire and on the memo you will find some QR codes that will take you to the Division 7 Newsletters on the 1960 fire and the 23rd Street collapse. The last QR code is the Board of Inquiry Report on the 23rd Street collapse from the FDNY.
Download this training bulletin as a PDF (487 KB) you can share with your fellow firefighters.
JOSEPH PRONESTI is the chief of the Elyria (OH) Fire Department. He is a graduate of the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ Executive Officer program and a lead instructor at the Cuyahoga (OH) County Community College Fire Academy. He is a frequent contributor to fire service publications and sites, including Fire Engineering and FirefigherNation.com.
CHRISTOPHER TOBIN is a firefighter assigned to St. Louis (MO) Fire Department Rescue 2.
ALEXIS SHADY is a firefighter/paramedic with the University City (MO) Fire Department.
