Master Streams Contain Philadelphia Mill Fire
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Staff Correspondent
Photo by Robert T. Burns
The Bromley Mill, a 620 X 500-foot complex that had been pre-fire planned, was the site of what had been long expected—a massive fire.
Dating back to 1889, the complex in the Kensington section of Philadelphia had a four-alarm fire that made the sprinkler system virtually useless three months before the larger fire last July 29. The April 5 fire started in the powerhouse and only quick work by Philadelphia fire fighters halted the fire as it got considerable foothold in the upper section of the building on A Street, on the west side of the complex.
When Engine 2 reached the Bromley Mill on July 29, Lieutenant Larry McDonald ordered all engine companies to lead off with 3 1/2-inch lines, and a minute later, at 7:00 p.m., Captain Donald Smith of Ladder 3, the ranking officer on the fireground at the moment, radioed for a second alarm. The complex had five buildings three to five stories in height, a seven-story office tower and a single-story building.
Fire extending
Heavy fire was taking possession of an interior building on the eastern end of the complex and rapidly extending into buildings east and west of it that were separated by 25-foot-wide driveways, as well as into the main building on Lehigh Avenue.
Engine 25, second due on the box, was ordered by its officer, Lt. McColgan to set up a deluge set at the rear on Gurney Street. Engine 14, commanded by Captain Arthur Martin, was ordered by Chief Joseph Worton of the 10th Battalion to lay a 3 1/2-inch line with a deluge gun to the Gurney Street side.
Engine 50, entering the courtyard off Somerset Street, stretched a 3 1/2-inch line to Ladder 12’s ladder pipe, and then Lieutenant Mike Rosehman ordered Engine 50 to stretch a second 3 1/2-inch line to a deluge gun in the courtyard. Ladder 3 set up a ladder pipe on the Lehigh Avenue side of the building.
The third alarm was ordered by Battalion Chief Worton at 7:04 p.m., and he followed it one minute later with the fourth alarm.
High pressure main used
In Philadelphia, one engine company on the second alarm is designated as the water supply company and a battalion chief as the water liaison officer. In this case, the latter was Chief Domenic Kulak of the 3rd Battalion. All BC cars carry water maps of their areas. From the map, Kulak quickly determined that he had a 20-inch high pressure main on the south side of Lehigh Avenue that ran up A and B Streets as well as along Somerset and Gurney Streets at the rear of the building. The high pressure system, placed in service 76 years ago, was to prove its value once again.
On the north side of Lehigh Avenue was an 8-inch main off the domestic water supply (not usable in front of the fire building) and a 6-inch main on the south side of Lehigh Avenue, as well as 6 and 8-inch mains generally throughout the area with 30 to 40 psi static pressure.
Across Lehigh Avenue from the Bromley Mill, set well back from the street, was Episcopal Hospital, whose grounds stretched from Front Street to B Street, a distance of 1000 feet, which meant that no engine company could stretch in directly from the south.
On the north side, along Gurney Street, was a branch of the Penn Central Railroad in a 25-foot-deep cut paralleling the street. The only access from the north was a bridge at B Street. These were two formidable access handicaps to be overcome.
Patients reassured
Engine 61 responding on the fourth alarm was ordered by radio to take a hydrant on the south side of Lehigh Avenue, and then go into Episcopal Hospital and work with hospital personnel in reassuring patients in the 500-bed hospital that they were in no danger. The presence of firemen in running gear and helmets seemed to go a long way in allaying the fears of the patients. The wind was blowing away from the hospital.
Assistant Chief Harry Knorr ordered the transmission of the 5th alarm at 7:17 p.m., and at 7:26, Deputy Commissioner Harry T. Kite requested the sixth alarm.
Commissioner Joseph A. Rizzo arrived on the fireground and after consulting with his ranking officers, set as his priorities the protection of the dwellings in the immediate area and confinement of the fire to the buildings of origin.
Companies withdrawn
Chief A1 Brown of the 4th Battalion was placed in charge of the B Street side, where the fire had grown so intense that walls threatened to fall. Therefore, apparatus and men were pulled out. Brown ordered Ladder 10 into East Sterner Street to set up a ladder pipe and had engine companies operate deluge guns up and down B Street. Engine 43 operated its Squrt at B and Lehigh, and men took 1 3/4-inch lines to the roofs of dwellings well back from the danger of falling walls. Amazingly, there was only one extension of the fire, slight damage to a dwelling at 305 East Sterner Street.
Another priority was to stop the fire on the Lehigh Avenue side of the building before it could spread westward to the office tower, and possibly all around the block. A heavy concentration of aerial platforms, Squrts, and deluge guns were placed in operation in this area. Engines 27, 59, 13 and 71 were ordered to report to Knorr, who directed them inside to cover fire doors on all floors with 2 1/2 and 1 3/4-inch lines and to protect the windows which were now being threatened by a fire in a onestory, 200 X 200-foot section that was separated from the main building by a 30-foot driveway.
At 7:27 p.m., Rizzo special-called DL-1, the giant deluge gun, along with Engine 11, both housed in the same station. DL-1 was set up at B Street and Lehigh Avenue, the point where the fire was most intense—across the street from the hospital, and Visitation Roman Catholic Church. Fed by 3 1/2-inch lines from Engines 11, 47, 2 and 28, DL-1, capable of discharging 2500 gpm for a distance of 400 feet, was instrumental in effecting control at that point.
Ember patrol established
The commissioner’s next order was for Tac 2 and Tac 29 (minipumpers) to report to Battalion Chief Richard Sottung for ember patrol on the 2700 and 2800 blocks of Lee, Water, Mutter, Mascher, Hancock and Waterloo Streets. Although baseball-size embers were raining down in this area, no fires were reported.
With the embers blowing skyward, another special call was placed by Kite at 8:20 p.m. for a 100-foot aerial. Ladder 23 got this assignment and raised its aerial to the mill roof on A Street. Its ladder reached only about two rungs above the roof, even though the building was only four stories high at this point. At the same time, Ladder 23 raised ground ladders for units to advance lines to the roofs of dwellings on A Street.
After Knorr, assigned to the interior attack on Lehigh Avenue, reported that they “would hold,” Rizzo felt he had the fire stopped at the office tower. However, he found that heavy fire in the one-story building in the courtyard was now threatening the fire-damaged powerhouse, which in turn perilled the long building on A Street.
Rizzo ordered the seventh alarm struck at 8:34 p.m. and had incoming Engines 46,49, 41 and 62 report to Kite in the courtyard to place deluge guns along the driveway between the powerhouse and the A Street building. Division Chief John Devenney was then placed in charge of this area.
Rizzo declared the fire under control at 9:11 p.m., only 2 hours and 16 minutes after the initial alarm, and most units were able to take up within five hours, although a fireground detail remained for about 48 hours.
At the height of the fire, dozens of homes were ordered evacuated, and services at a funeral home on East Lehigh Avenue were disrupted. Fire officials allowed the services to continue in the basement of a church across the street after pallbearers picked their way across hose lines. Candlelight was used in the church because the fire had caused electrical outages.
The fire was controlled with a massive application of water by 28 deluge guns, three Squrts, two aerial platforms, three ladder pipes and various hand lines inside and on adjoining dwelling roofs.
The next morning, the city attempted to have the owners demolish the dangerous walls on the Lehigh Avenue side. Lehigh Avenue, a 100-foot-wide street, remained closed to traffic for almost two weeks until City Solicitor Sheldon Albert had a contractor demolish the wall. The owner will be billed for this work.
Remaining on site is a 500 X 360-foot, four-story section of the mill, the seven-story office tower and portions of the burned-out powerhouse.
Philadelphia Fire Dept. photo by M. Fowler
