1944 — July 11, USAAF A-26 crash into Westbrook Trailer Park, fire, So. Portland, ME–19
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 3-26-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–19 Biddeford Daily Journal, ME. “Maine Matters…Another Victim.” 8-7-1944, p. 4.
–19 Maine.gov. Maine State Police web site. “Maine State Police History.”
–19 Portland Press Herald. “Redbank 1944 Air Crash Memorial Selected,” April 2, 2009.
–18 Mireles 2006. Fatal Army AF Aviation Accidents…US…, V2, July 1943-July 1944, p. 851.
–17 Lowell Sun (MA). “Plane Tragedy Toll Hits 17,” July 13, 1944.
–17 NFPA. “Fires Causing Large Loss of Life.” Handbook of Fire Protection (11th Ed.). 1954
–17 NFPA. “Plane Crash Fire Kills Seventeen.” Quarterly of the NFPA, V. 38, N. 1, July 1944.
–16 Valley Morning Star (TX). “Identification of Fire Dead Completed,” July 14, 1944, p. 12.
–15 Dunkirk Evening Observer. “15 Killed When Bomber Crashes In Trailer Camp,” 7-12-1944
Narrative Information
Maine.gov: “A US Army bomber crashes into a trailer park in South Portland killing two crewmen and 17 persons on the ground. It is the worst plane crash in Maine history and troopers are among those called to the scene.” (Maine.gov. Maine State Police web site. “Maine State Police History.”)
Mireles: “At 1642 EWT, a Douglas A-26B flying in very poor visibility crashed into a trailer park at Portland, Maine, killing pilot 2Lt. Philip I. Russell and engineer SSgt. Wallace Mifflin. Sixteen civilians were killed on the ground and 18 were seriously injured. Four civilians received minor injuries.
“The airplane had taken off very early in the clay from Barksdale Field, Shreveport, Louisiana, on a cross-country flight to Portland, Maine, via Bradley Field, Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The pilot had not been cleared for instrument flight. Apparently the A-26B had attempted to land at Portland Municipal Airport even though the airport was closed down at 1635 EWT due to poor visibility. Heavy fog and low-lying clouds prevailed at the destination airport at the time. Investigation revealed that the pilot was apparently issued an improper clearance to land from unauthorized personnel at the Portland Radio Range Station. The A-26B arrived at the airport from the south, flying parallel to the North/South Runway on the west side. The airplane then disappeared into the fog and apparently made a left turn, returning to the field flying to the southeast, paralleling the Southeast/Northwest Runway on its northeastern edge. While flying to the southeast at the southeast end of the airport at approximately 200 feet agl, the A-26B was seen to enter a vertical bank to the right just before entering a bank of thick fog. Moments later the airplane was heard to crash into the Westbrook Trailer Colony at 310 Westbrook Street. The airplane struck the terrain on its starboard wing and cartwheeled into 12 occupied trailer residences, exploding violently into flames upon impact. Several juveniles were among the dead and injured. The pilot’s parents, wife and new baby were present at the airport, waiting for him to land. Seventeen trailers were damaged or destroyed.” (Mireles 2006, 852.)
National Fire Protection Assoc. “Plane Crash Fire Kills Seventeen.” Quarterly, 38/1, July 1944:
“Seventeen persons, including five children, lost their lives and many others were injured when an army bomber crashed in the midst of the Westbrook Trailer Camp at South Portland, Maine, on July 11, 1944. The two men in the plane were among the victims. More than 300 persons, mostly women and children, were in the camp at the time, were thrown into a panic by the crash, explosion and fierce fire that demolished the flimsy ‘trailers.’ The plane, a twin-engine job designated as an A-26b attack bomber, with a fuel capacity of approximately 400 gallons, was unable to land at the near-by airport because of fog. For reasons undisclosed, the plane struck the ground just outside the camp, bounced high into the air, exploded and crashed again among the trailers, spreading death and destruction as flaming gasoline and oil showered the immediate neighborhood. The plane had refueled earlier in the day in Connecticut so it is probable that only a fraction of the total gasoline capacity remained in the tanks.
“The ‘trailer’ camp, owned and operated by the Federal Public Housing Authority, provided living quarters for shipyard workers and their families. It consisted of 100 plywood ‘trailer’ units, each mounted on a foundation of posts or blocks and arranged in a staggered fashion, with an average interval of about 12 to 15 feet between trailers. The camp was divided by three roadways, each forty feet in width and these were instrumental in confining the fire. Each trailer is heated by two kerosene burners located on either side of the entrance doorway, the fuel supply for which is contained in 50-gallon drums supported just outside on wooden ‘horses.’ Each trailer is equipped also with a gasoline stove for cooking. It is reported that the kerosene and gasoline supply for the trailers, ignited by the crashed plane, added to the intensity of the fire.
….
“The camp considered itself exempt from all municipal regulations for the safety of trailer camps and was operated without benefit of permits for flammable liquids or other hazards.
“There was no connection to the public fire alarm system in the camp area, but the alarm was sounded from the near-by Red Bank Village housing development. The South Portland Fire Department responded immediately and attacked the fire with hose lines supplied from public hydrants located outside the camp site….
“Eighteen trailer units, valued at $2500 each, were destroyed before the fire was finally extinguished. Several additional units were damaged. Many of the trailers were involved as a result of actual contact with the crashed plane, its parts, or showering fuel. Also destroyed was a general laundry house valued at $10,000. Preliminary estimates as reported in the newpapers plance the damage at $100,000.”
Portland Press Herald, 4-2-2009: “South Portland – The Long Creek Air Tragedy Memorial Committee has announced the winning bid for its monument design. The memorial will stand on Westbrook Street across from the scene of the disaster of July 11, 1944, when a twin-engine light-attack bomber piloted by Army Air Corps Lt. Philip ‘’Phee’’ Russell crashed into a trailer camp in the Long Creek area. An explosion leveled 18 trailers, and flames engulfed the area. Russell and 18 other people died, most of them young mothers and small children. Many others were left injured or homeless.” (Portland Press Herald. “Redbank 1944 Air Crash Memorial Selected,” April 2, 2009.)
Newspapers at the Time
July 12: “South Portland, Md., July 12 – (UP) – Army and civilian authorities investigated today the crash of a two-motor army training bomber which fell in flames yesterday in a war workers’ trailer camp, killing 15 persons, injuring and burning many others and destroying 20 trailers. The bodies of eight adults and three children were extricated from the ruins and four person, including two children, died at hospitals of burns. Rescue work was hampered by an electrical storm which broke immediately after the crash….The accident occurred at the Westbrook trailer colony….Witnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to make an emergency landing. It circled the trailer camp twice, losing altitude on the second round and finally crashing into one of the trailers, trapping the occupants as it burst into flames. The blaze spread rapidly. Screams of women and children trapped in the vehicles mingled with the rumble of thunder and crackle of lightning as rescue workers risked their lives in an effort to free the victims….Major William Cloney of the first service command said the plane had left Barksdale Field, La., early yesterday on a routine flight. He said it had stopped at Bradley field in Windsor locks, Conn., for fuel only a few hours before the crash.” (Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. July 12, 1944.)
July 14: “South Portland, Me. – (AP) – Identification of the 16 charred and twisted bodies of those who died in the plunge of an Army plane into the Westbrook trailer camp near the Portland Airport Tuesday was completed Thursday. Twelve of the 25 person injured are still in the Maine General Hospital….Soldiers dug all day through debris to determine if any bodies remained buried.” (Valley Morning Star, TX. “Identification of Fire Dead Completed,” 7-14-1944, p. 12.)
July 13: “South Portland, Me. – July 13 (INS) – The toll of dead in the crash of a light army bomber in the Westbrook trailer camp rose to 17 today with the death this morning of…[one of the injured]. She succumbed at Maine General hospital. Her 9-month-old son, George, Jr., died in the crash that destroyed 21 trailer homes Tuesday, and her daughter…3, is recovering from burns at the hospital. Identification of the charred bodies, six of them children, has been completed. The FBI and the army are investigating the air accident, the worst in Maine’s history.” (Lowell Sun)
Aug 7: “The July 11 plane crash into a trailer camp at South Portland claimed its 19th victim yesterday when Mrs. Shirley May Brown, 34, of South Portland, died in Maine General hospital, Portland, of burns on the face and body.” (Biddeford Daily Journal, ME. “Maine Matters… Another Victim.” 8-7-1944, p. 4.)
Aug 10: “Investigation into Maine’s housing projects and colonies by the Attorney General’s office has resulted in the appointment of Attorney William H. Niehoff by Attorney General Frank I. Cowan as liaison officer between the State and Federal Government, Mr. Cowan said Thursday. ‘The laws for the health and security of the public must be complied with even in places operating under economic emergencies,’ the attorney general said, adding that the investigation made by his department showed ‘ample reason’ for putting someone on the job.
“Mr. Niehoff, who is also an assistant attorney general as counsel for the Liquor Commission, will leave for Washington, D.C., ‘shortly’ to confer with the Federal officials connected with housing conditions in this State Attorney General Cowan said.
“Prompting the investigation into Maine’s housing projects and colonies was the ‘appalling list of casualties’ resulting from the July 11 crash of a bomber into a South Portland trailer colony. ‘It is the opinion of the Attorney General’s Department,’ Mr. Cowan said, ‘that had the Westbrook Street trailers at South Portland been properly spaced and properly constructed, and had ordinary health and fire rules been observed, many of those who burned to death July 11, when a bomber crashed into the colony, would have survived.’ Some of the projects have been built ‘without regard to health, fire or local building laws,’ the attorney general emphasized, adding that his report showed single exits were the rule rather than the exception and that in many instances oil leaked from barrels which had been placed on wooden horses outside the trailers….” (Daily Kennebec Journal, ME. “Niehoff Given Liaison Job For Gov’ Housing Safety After Probe.” 8-11-1944, pp. 1 and 10.)
Sources
Biddeford Daily Journal, ME. “Maine Matters…Another Victim.” 8-7-1944, p. 4. Accessed 3-26-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/biddeford-daily-journal-aug-07-1944-p-4/
Daily Kennebec Journal, ME. “Niehoff Given Liaison Job For Gov’ Housing Safety After Probe.” 8-11-1944, pp. 1 and 10. Accessed 3-26-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/daily-kennebec-journal-aug-11-1944-p-1/
Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “15 Killed When Bomber Crashes In Trailer Camp,” July 12, 1944. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=36048853
Lowell Sun, MA. “Plane Tragedy Toll Hits 17,” July 13, 1944. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=57655212
Maine.gov. Maine State Police web site. “Maine State Police History.” Accessed 5-5-2009 at: http://www.maine.gov/dps/msp/about/history.html
Mireles, Anthony J. Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945 (Volume 2: July 1943 – July 1944). Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2006.
National Fire Protection Association. “Fires Causing Large Loss of Life.” Handbook of Fire Protection (11th Ed.). Boston, MA: NFPA, 1954, pp. 33-36.
National Fire Protection Association. “Plane Crash Fire Kills Seventeen.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 38, No. 1, July 1944.
Portland Press Herald, ME. “Redbank 1944 Air Crash Memorial Selected,” 4-2-2009. Accessed at: http://updates.mainetoday.com/updates/redbank-1944-air-crash-memorial-selected
Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, TX. “Identification of Fire Dead Completed,” July 14, 1944, p. 12. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=16358510