The Hoboken Docks Fire
Added 2023-04-04 10:15:01 +0000 UTCHere are a couple of details I came across while reading that didn’t quite fit in the video.
Disposing of merchandise
A huge amount of merchandise was burned during the fire. While it was nothing compared to the loss of human life, it was estimated to be of around $6 million in value, and presented quite a challenge to the workers tasked with clearing it up.
Here’s a snippet from a Times article from 1900 that covers just one facet of the clean-up operation:
“Employees of the board of health today disinfected the ruins of the Campbell's warehouse, owing to the stench arising from them. The smell, it was said, was due to a large quantity of beans stored in the building. Dr Helfers said that the water-soaked beans decomposed. He added that in a couple of days they would be dug out of the ruins and dumped far out at sea.”
The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse
In the video I mention the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which had a lucky escape when she was pulled away from the fire by two tugboats. She was left scorched, but not seriously damaged, and nobody on board the ship was killed.
The Kaiser went on to have a rather interesting career. Just five years after her narrow escape, she collided with the RMS Orinoco, leading to the death of five passengers. Later, she also saw an assassination take place on board, when the mayor of New York City was shot while on vacation in 1910.
During the war she was converted into an armed cruiser. She sank three allied ships, spared two passenger vessels, and ultimately was scuttled by her own crew when she ran out of ammunition during a fight with the HMS Highflyer.
All in all, quite a storied career for a ship that first sailed in the late 1800s!
Comments
In retrospect it seems crazy - so much highly flammable stuff stored close together in wooden buildings on wooden piers next to partially-wooden ships...
Fascinating Horror
2023-04-07 08:12:36 +0000 UTCTalk about a recipe for disaster! Guess it only becomes obvious once it’s over. Seems a lot of people missed a lot of signs! Those damn portholes!!
2023-04-07 02:42:06 +0000 UTCThat's so interesting - especially using kerosene to extinguish smouldering fires within bales. Kerosene is useful stuff: I've come across it being used to waterproof material and to clean up solvents... but never to fight fires before.
Fascinating Horror
2023-04-05 17:04:40 +0000 UTCThis was a new one for me, and I enjoyed it. Cotton-related fires are a concern in the American South. My dad said that when he was young, the gins kept kerosene on hand to extinguish smoldering sections of bales. Cotton absorbed the kerosene faster than water. If they suspected a bale had a fire smoldering inside, they’d isolate it outside the gin for safety. Although modern baling equipment packs the cotton to a very high density, there are still risks when the bales are processed. I suspect we have at least one gin fire every year in Georgia. But we’re told that the densely compacted and wrapped “modules” are fire resistant.
Jennifer Durham
2023-04-05 03:12:57 +0000 UTC
