Fire Sweeps Through Wooden Hotel, Exposures Saved With Mutual Aid
A national landmark, 100-year-old, wood frame hotel was destroyed by the worst fire in Cape May, N.J., since 1878. However, through the implementation of a pre-fire plan for the four-story Windsor Hotel, the Cape May Volunteer Fire Department kept the fire from extending to a house 5 feet from the hotel and then possibly to the rest of the block of Victorian homes.
The first report of the fire was received at 10:02 a.m. last May 18. When the Cape May Police Department transmitted the tone-activated alarm and announced that there was “a report of smoke at the Windsor,” the Cape May volunteers knew they had a serious fire.
The old historic hotel had long been a subject of concern. Chalk talks, prefire planning and several drills had proved this concern. To further send the chill up the backs of the Cape May firemen had been the report by a Cape May police car, in less than one minute, that it was a working fire.
Responding to the fire, under the command of Chief Wister Dougherty, were three engine companies and a ladder company. The Cape May Fire Department operates with two paid drivers on duty at all times. These two men respond immediately with an engine and ladder. The other two engines respond with delegated volunteers. The rest of the volunteers report to the fire scene and most of the time, there are five or six volunteers in turnout gear when the apparatus arrives.
Large volume of flames
When fire fighters arrived at the Windsor within two minutes of the alarm, they were greeted by a large volume of vented flames. The fire was visible for over 10 miles. As the fire rolled toward the front of the hotel, flames leaped 100 feet into the air. The intense heat forced spectators back to the Congress Hall Hotel, more than 200 feet away. Several fire fighters received radiant heat burns.
When Dougherty arrived on the fireground, he immediately called for a mutual aid response from neighboring West Cape May. They responded with a 65-foot ladder truck, F-574, Engines F-571 and F-572, and a utility van, F-575. The Cape May chief also requested Wildwood Crest to respond with an elevating platform, F-45, and a 1250-gpm engine, F-48, to supply it.
Although there was good accessibility to the hotel on three sides, the fourth posed a serious problem. Within 5 feet of the fourth side stood a 2 1/2-story wood-frame Victorian home. This structure could have been the first link in a chain of Victorian homes which could have led to the burning of the entire block.
Fight to confine fire
Pre-fire planning had shown the Cape May fire fighters that the stop would have to be made in this area should the Windsor burn. Faced with the fact that the Windsor was now burning, all efforts went toward saving the rest of the block, which contained 10 wood-frame Victorian homes. Most of these homes were three-story structures.
Along with the pre-fire planning, the Cape May firemen had one other asset. The wind was blowing toward the beach, where there was nothing in its path except sand and ocean.
When the Cape May apparatus arrived on the fireground, they took up their pre-fire planned positions. F-52, a 1000-gpm engine, turned from Beach Drive onto Congress Street. It stretched a 3 and 2 1/2-inch line from the point where the fire was breaking out and took a hydrant at Congress and South Lafayette Streets. The 3-inch hose was wyed into two 2 1/2-inch hose lines. This put three 2 1/2-inch lines immediately into operation on the north side of the fire.
F-51, a 750-gpm engine, set up a deluge set on the west side of the fire and took a hydrant at Windsor Avenue and South Lafayette Street.
Ladder pipes operated
F-54, a 100-foot aerial, took a position at Congress Street and Congress Place. It immediately set up for fly and bed ladder pipe operations.
F-53, a 750-gpm engine, stretched two 2 1/2-inch lines and a 3-inch line to supply the Ladder F-54 operations. F-53 took a hydrant at Perry Street and Washington Street Mall.
Only minutes into the fire, the Whitney House section of the hotel collapsed. Firemen on two 2 1/2-inch lines had to leave those lines and run for safety. These lines were shut off at the wye, and two more 2½-inch lines were quickly stretched and put in operation. It was later felt that these hand lines and the ladder truck operation were largely responsible for keeping the fire contained on the north side.
West Cape May Chief Albert Noble led his men to the sout hwest side of the fire, as directed by the Cape May chief, and F-574 took a hydrant at Grant Street and Beach Drive after stretching two 3-inch lines to the ladder truck. F-572 also stretched two 3-inch lines for Cape May’s Engine F-51 and two more 3-inch lines to West Cape May’s Engine F-571 to supply its deluge set. After a short time, the deluge set was removed from the engine and F-571 went to the area of the Cape Motel to protect it from flying brands. Although F-572 was at a hydrant, it was supplemented by two 3-inch lines from Town Bank Engine F-614.
Engines rerouted to fire
The Town Bank Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched, with Chief Marcus Patterson in charge, originally to cover West Cape May’s vacated firehouse, but while Engines F-613 and F-614 were en route, they were requested to continue to the fireground. Town Bank then dispatched F-611, a minipumper, and Engine F-612 to cover West Cape May. While on standby at West Cape May, these two engines responded to a grass fire.
When F-613 arrived on the fireground there were few hydrants left, and it took the one at Windsor and Beach Drive. This hydrant proved to be a hot and smoky spot as it was in the path of the fire. F-613 supplied a deluge set with two 3-inch lines, a 2 1/2-inch hand line, a 2 1/2-inch line to West Cape May’s Ladder F-574 and a 1 1/2-inch line to the roof of the Cape Motel to keep it wet. Flying brands burned the seat of F-613.
Engine F-614 stretched two 3-inch lines to give West Cape May’s Engine F-572 more water.
When Wildwood Crest arrived, its elevating platform, F-45, was placed on Congress Street just off Beach Drive. The deluge set on the platform was supplied hy Wildwood Crest’s Engine F-48 at a hydrant on Perry Street, just off Beach Drive.
The Wildwood Crest Ambulance Rescue Squad was also on the fireground and one engine company from the Cape May Coast Guard Receiving Center covered the Cape May Firehouse.
The cause of the fire had not been determined at this writing.
Historic landmark town
Cape May, the southernmost city in New Jersey, is one of the three towns in the United States where entire areas have been declared national historic landmarks. Cape May became a landmark because of its large amount of Victorian architecture. Besides its many wood-frame Victorian homes, it has several large wood-frame hotels like the Windsor.
The Windsor was designated as one of the historic American buildings in the United States. The Library of Congress retains the architectural plans of the 90-room hotel, which was built in 1879.
Atlantic City Press photo
The Windsor was located in an area that was struck by a devastating fire in 1878. This fire destroyed most of the city’s hotels as well as a large portion of the city itself. The Windsor Hotel had been condemned for several years and was owned by the Christian Beacon Press, headed hy the Rev. Carl Mclntire.
