On Wednesday, December 8, 1901, fire totally destroyed the Wiconisco Tannery, causing a total loss of about $28,000, $10,000 of which was covered by insurance. Lykens firemen were notified of the fire and responded immediately, but due to not having connections for fighting fires in Wiconisco at the time, they were compelled to leave the hose carts in Lykens and join the bucket brigade battle of the flames, which was useless. The cause of the blaze after subsequent investigation was proved beyond a doubt to be from incendiary origin.
Fire alarm sounded at 8 o'clock PM. The company responded to the Stewart property at the corner of Main and Pine Streets. The chimney was found to be blocked.
Companies 22 and 23 were dispatched to the Teter residence on Main Street for a stove fire. Engine 22 responded with a crew of six, and Truck 22 responded with a crew of five. Chief 22, on scene, reported the fire was out and held the box to Company 22, placing Company 23 in service. Upon arrival, a crew checked the stove and confirmed that the fire was out. Chief 22 placed the box in service.
Engine and Tanker 22 responded to a report of a car fire endangering a structure. The engine arrived on scene and found a car under the adjoining car port of a residence, with an engine compartment fire which was out. The resident was refilling oil in the car when it ignited briefly. No damage occurred to residence and limited damage occurred to the car.
Company 22, Engine and Rescue 23, Rescue 21 and Engine 24 along with EMS dispatched class one on the 22-1 box for a report of an attic fire at 542 Main Street in Lykens. Chief 22 went enroute POV and on his arrival had heavy smoke pushing from the top floor of a two and one half story wood frame single family dwelling with an adjacent multi occupancy structure butted up against the D side exposure. Engine 22 responded with 5 and took the A/D corner of the property having come in from the Market Street side, laying in from the hydrant on the square at Main and Market Streets. Truck 22 responded with 5 and approached the scene from the Pine Street side and set up on side A of the structure. Later into the call Utility 22 responded with 1 and staged on Main Street behind the Engine. Engine 23 responded with 4 and laid into the C side of the structure from a hydrant at Pine and South Second Streets. Rescue 23 responded with 4 and staged behind the Truck on Main Street. Engine 24 responded with 4 and on arrival staged in the Mid Penn Bank parking lot and sent their manpower forward. Rescue 21 responded with 7 and on arrival staged on Main Street beside Rescue 23 and sent their manpower forward. Command requested Company 27 dispatched class one to the scene for the RIT assignment. Engine 27 went enroute with 5 and on arrival staged behind Rescue 23 and set up RIT on side A. Crew from 22 went interior from side A through the front door with a two inch attack line while crew from Engine 23 went interior from the rear door on the C side with a hand line. Crew from Truck 22 went to the roof and vented the structure as crews from 22 and 23 knocked down the bulk of the fire on the third floor. Crew from 21 went interior from the D side of the adjoining structure at 540 and 538 Main Street to check for extensions while additional members went to the C side and worked on opening up and looking for extensions. Crews from 22, 23, 24 and 21 began overhaul and salvage of the original fire building. Finding no extension to the adjoining structures command placed the fire under control. All crews worked to complete the overhaul stage including checking the basement and other floors and securing power to the fire building. Command began releasing units as they became available and held the box to company 22 and 24. After wrapping up 5 inch Command placed the box available.
Units on scene:
Engine, Truck, Utility 22
Engine and Rescue 23
Rescue and Utility 21
Engine 24
Engine 27
Medic 6
QRS 24 with Rehab trailer
PSP
Structure assignment dispatched class one to 332 Main Street in Lykens for a reported structure fire, bringing Engine and Truck 22, Engine and Rescue 23, Rescue 21 and Engine 24. Chief 22-1 went enroute POV to the scene. Engine 22 responded with 4, Truck 22 with 4 and Rescue 23 with 4. On arrival of Chief 22-1 at a two story 15 foot by 33 foot duplex wood frame structure nothing was showing from the exterior. Investigation found that they had an oven fire that had been extinguished by the occupant with a fire extinguisher. Command held the box to 22 and 23 with a request to set up ventilation on arrival. Engine 22 arrived side A/B and Truck 22 on side A/D, with Rescue 23 staged at the hydrant at Main and West streets. Interior crews used TICs to confirm that the fire was out and set up PPV at the front door. After ventilating the structure command placed the box available.
The Great New Orleans Fire (1794) was a fire that destroyed 212 structures in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 8, 1794, in the area now known as the French Quarter from Burgundy to Chartres Street, almost to the riverfront buildings. The fire destroyed the royal jail. It spared the Mississippi River front buildings. Among the buildings spared was the Customs House, the tobacco warehouses, the Governor's Building, the Royal Hospital and the Ursulines Convent. Despite widespread fire damage, the St. Louis Cathedral was not destroyed but was dedicated just 2 weeks later, on December 23, 1794. The Spanish were to replace the wooden buildings with structures with courtyards, thick brick walls, arcades, and wrought iron balconies.
The Jesuit Church in Santiago, Chile was celebrating the last day of its annual "month of plenty". The priest hoping to make this year's service more grand than all other years decorated the entire church with many lights and decorations. There were so many lights that they had to start lighting them in the afternoon and didn't finish extinguishing them after the evening services until late in the night. On that night, December 8, 1863, there were 3,090 people in the churh when the last of the oil lamps was lit on the alter. Shortly after that, a jet of flame was seen at the foot of the statue of the Virgin Mary. The priest tried to outen it with his poncho, but it became soaked with oil from the lamps and ignited. People rushed for the doors. The fire darted up the garlands of artificial flowers to the roof and the immense cupola where the lamps suspended from the roof by strings dropped and exploded among the densely packed people below. The dry roof timbers ignited like tinder. Several heros rushed to the church and saved who they could through the doors. The roof eventually caved in and it was morning before the fire had burned itself out. Hundreds of people were found piled at the exits where they rushed in their panic. 2,500 people died in the fire.
The luxurious, ornate Ring Theater in Vienna, Austria burned on December 8, 1881. It was the second night of Jacques Offenbach?s opera Les Contes d?Hoffman. The balconies had filled with patrons. The wealthy class did not arrive to fill the first floor near the stage until closer to the start of the performance. At around 6:45 p.m., a stage hand used a long-arm igniter to light the row of gas lights above the stage. He accidentally also lit some prop clouds. The flames quickly spread to the curtain and the rest of the theater. The theater owners panicked and shut off the main gas line, cutting off light in the theater. Chaos ensued as the panicked crowd tried to exit. The balconies became clogged as the exits jammed with people. Fire brigades brought ladders, but they were too short to reach even the first balconies. People began to jump, killing themselves and crushing others below. Safety nets were brought for the people to jump in to. That saved as many as 100 people. The estimated death toll was somewhere between 620 and 850 people. The remainder of the structure was demolished and replaced with the Suhnhof building. This memorial was destroyed when Vienna was bombed during World War II. Today, a police station sits at the site.
1942
Seacliff Lunatic Asylum Fire - Seacliff, New Zealand
Fire broke out at the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum in Seacliff, New Zealand on December 8, 1942, at 9:45 p.m. The fire started in Ward 5, a two-story wooden structure added onto the original building, holding 39 female patients, who were locked into their rooms or into a 20-bed dormitory. The fire was noticed by a male attendant and the hospital firefighters tried to extinguish it with water from a near-by hydrant. However, the flames were too strong, and after an hour, the ward was reduced to ashes. Two women were saved from rooms that did not have locked shutters. All other patients in the ward are believed to have died from smoke inhalation. The fire was kept from spreading to other buildings.
About 300 people, most of them schoolchildren, died when fire engulfed the Friendship Hall Cinema movie theater in Karamay, Xinjiang Province, China on December 8, 1994. About 800 people, including 500 schoolchildren, were in the theater when the fire broke out. The children were from 15 local schools and were staging a cultural performance. An electrical short circuit started a small blaze in the ceiling during the performance, sending sparks cascading onto the stage. The stage curtains ignited, creating a ball of flame which engulfed the front rows of the audience. Within moments the entire hall was ablaze. More than 300 people died, most of them children, and at least 200 were injured. Most of the children who were killed were crushed in a panic to leave the building, while others died from smoke and fumes.
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