Mickelberry's Food Products Plant Fire
Chicago, IL
February 7, 1968
On February 7, 1968, a gasoline tanker truck was driving in an alley behind Mickelberry's Food Products Company in order to make a delivery to the company. The truck struck a garbage can and knocked off the valve of the tanker?s discharge pipe. Gasoline poured out of the tanker and ran through a doorway into the basement of the company's sausage plant, where a boiler ignited the gasoline. Two explosions spread the fire throughout the sausage factory and the company's general offices. Chicago firefighters had arrived on the scene and were rescuing office and factory workers when a buildup of gasoline fumes caused a third, more powerful, explosion that destroyed the two-story general offices section of the building and demolished a portion of the sausage factory. The explosion threw firefighters from their ladders. Factory workers, who were trapped on the roof, fell down into the rubble. Onlookers were showered with bricks, concrete, plaster, and glass. The explosion was so powerful that one section of glass block window was launched across the street, where it left an imprint in a brick building. A 5-11 alarm was issued by the Chicago Fire Department, which brought 300 firemen to the scene to fight the fire and care for the casualties. Nine people, including four firefighters and the Mickelberry?s Company President, were killed. More than seventy people were taken to the hospital, and dozens more were treated for injuries at the scene.
The names of the deceased firefighters from this incident are: Thomas Collins, Charles Bottger, John Fischer, and Edward Leifker.
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