Remembering The Hackensack Fire

[x635 4,066]

From "The Secret List" FirefighterCloseCalls.com

 

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Hey, 

Today we remember Hackensack (NJ) Fire Captain Williams, Lieutenant Reinhagen, and Firefighters Kresja, Radumski, and Ennis who were killed in the Line of Duty while fighting a fire at the infamous Hackensack Ford, on July 1, 1988.
 
NOTE: To the younger Firefighters on The Secret List and visitors to FireFighterCloseCalls.com, please take time to study this fire and WATCH the below "raw" video and story on this fire. It is a "must see" study for all firefighters.
 
These 6 men were in the structure, a bowstring truss building, when the roof suddenly collapsed. Williams, Kresja, and Radumski were killed instantly, and Reinhagen and Ennis, despite heroic rescue attempts, were trapped and died from carbon monoxide poisoning.  

 

This fire caused significant awareness and changes in many aspects of firefighting not only in Hackensack, but all of North America.
 
(From the NFPA Report):
5 Firefighters from the Hackensack, New Jersey, FD were killed in the Line of Duty while they were engaged in interior fire suppression efforts at an automobile dealership when portions of the building's wood bowstring truss roof suddenly collapsed. The incident occurred on Friday, July 1, 1988, at approximately 1500 hours., when they received the first of a series of telephone calls reporting "flames and smoke" coming from the roof of the Hackensack Ford Dealership.

Two pumpers, a ladder truck, and a battalion chief responded to the first alarm assignment. The first arriving fire fighters observed a "heavy smoke condition" at the roof area of the building. Engine company crews investigated the source of the smoke inside the building while the truck company crew assessed conditions on the roof. For the next 20 minutes, the focus of the suppression effort was concentrated on these initial tactics.

During this time, however, little headway appeared to have been made by the initial suppression efforts, and the magnitude of the fire continued to grow. The overall fire ground tactics were shifted to a more "defensive" posture (exterior operation) and the battalion chief gave the order to "back your lines out." However, before suppression crews could exit form the interior, a sudden partial collapse of the truss roof occurred, trapping six fire fighters. An intense fire immediately engulfed the area of the collapse. One trapped fire fighter was able to escape through an opening in the debris. The other five died as a result of the collapse. 

This incident and an earlier similar incident at the Waldbaums supermarket fire in Brooklyn, New York, 
http://stevespak.com/waldbaums.html   provide important lessons to the fire service regarding the fire ground hazards of wood truss roof assemblies. 
 
ARTICLE:
http://tinyurl.com/339u4z9 
RAW VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTR1xctPAfw&sns=em
RESOURCES:
http://tinyurl.com/2uchtoq     

 

 

[vodoly 535]

Some different footage I am seeing for the 1st time very sad

[nfd2004 750]

This is one of Hackensacks SADDEST DAYS. I remember it well. As x635 mentions it, this brought in a new awareness to a new way of fighting fires with truss roof construction. As I remember it, it gave a new awareness to how fires would be fought depending on the type of building construction. We learned that some roofs would actually collapse much quicker than others and in very large sections under fire conditions. A dangerous place to be on or under.

 

 It wasn't long after the Hackensack incident in which another truss roof collapsed killing six firefighters. This would be in 1978 when Six  FDNY members were operating on a truss roof at a Walbaums Supermarket in Brooklyn, NY.

 

  We learned how these light weight truss wooden roofs were held together with gusset plates having very little holding power. Roof construction became a big part of building surveys as well as the age of the building. Newer constructed buildings were actually more dangerous to firefighters than older buildings, by the shear fact that older buildings would hold up much longer.

 

  Those of us who were around won't forget seeing the desperate attempt those Hackensack Firefighters made trying to save their Brother Firefighters. Just as those FDNY members did. In fact they breached through a brick wall but it was too late.

 

  One firefighter was seen waving good by to his family from that Walbaums roof as they had just dropped him off at work. Minutes later that roof collapsed and he was one of six that were gone.