1953 — Mar 11, fire/smoke, fermentation bldg. under construct., Anheuser-Busch, Newark NJ-13

–14 NFPA. “Large Loss Fires of 1953.” Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3, Jan 1954, p. 319.
–14 New York Times. “Fire at Brewery Kills 14 in Newark…” 3-12-1953, p. 1.
–13 National Fire Protection Assoc. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).
–13 New York Times. “3 Inquiries Started in Fatal Newark Fire.” 3-13-1953, p. 16.
–13 Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY. “13 Men Perish Inside Tanks at Brewery Fire.” 3-12-1953, 1

Narrative Information

National Fire Protection Association Quarterly: “Buildings Under Construction.
“Mar. 11, Newark, N.J. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., $700,000; 14 killed.

“Beer fermentation building under construction. Fourteen men died, reportedly from smoke poisoning, and 31 were nonfatally poisoned or injured in fire that originated in cork insulation on the inner surface of one of two walls that formed a 3-ft. air space on all sides of the 6-story-high, fire-resistive building. Concrete beer tanks were being installed at five levels. A torch being used by workmen laying pipes within the air space was a possible cause. Fire spread up the continuous cork surface of the walls and involved wooden scaffolding. The victims were trapped in fermentation tanks at upper levels of the building when smoke was carried into the tanks by the ventilation system of the building that had no windows or roof openings.” (NFPA. “Large Loss Fires of 1953.” Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3, Jan 1954, p. 319.)

Newspaper

March 11: “Newark, N.J., March 11 (AP) — Thirteen workmen, trapped by fire and pitch-black smoke, died today in a nest of fermentation tanks under construction at the huge Anheuser-Busch, Inc., brewery. At least 23 others were injured, or suffered from smoke inhalation.

“Three fire alarms were turned in from the sprawling 60-acre, $20 million plant on busy U. S. Route 1 near Newark airport shortly after lunchtime. Ambulances, doctors and emergency units were rushed in as workmen staggered from the new 75-foot-high six story building, their faces smudged with heavy black soot.

“The dead men — masons, carpenters and laborers — were found inside the 30 by 50-foot tanks where they had been installing cork insulation. The rescued had to crawl through small openings in the tanks, only about 28 inches in diameter, a construction foreman said. The smoke was so black ‘you couldn’t see through it with a flashlight’ a rescue workers reported.

“Firemen said the blaze apparently broke out between the tanks, which were situated four on a floor. The building of reinforced concrete with red-brick facing, housed 24 fermentation tanks with a combined 30,000 gallon capacity. The interior of the building was being line with granulated compressed cork.

“In the coating operation, some heat was generated which may have ignited the cork, said George Kruger, deputy director of the state department of labor and industry engineering division. He said the cork formed a combustible gas which permeated the structure because of a lack of ventilation.” (Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY. “13 Men Perish Inside Tanks at Brewery Fire.” 3-12-1953, p. 1,)

March 12, NYT: “….Perhaps the most dramatic story was that of Anthony Pizutelli of 233 East Kinney Street, Newark. He was one of three brothers working on the project with their father, a contractor. When he heard that men were being felled by smoke in the tanks he tried to find his brothers. Finally he located on brother, Harry, but was overcome before he could effect the rescue. Harry was among those tentatively identified as dead.

“Others tentatively identified among the dead were: [We include Harry Pizutelli’s name in list and add numbering:

1. Blessington, Michael, 120 Windfield Street, West Orange, N.J.
2. Di Ianni, Salvatore, 143 West First Street, Clifton, N.J.
3. Goodman, Vernon. 172 Avon Avenue, Newark.
4. Grainger, Earl F., 2913 Sullivan St., St. Louis.
5. Hagerman, William C., Pine Lawn, Mo.
6. Karst, Art. 677 Bergen Street, Newark.
7. Manthey, James, 4422 Arco Street, St. Louis.
8. Martin, Fred J., 322 West Market Street, Newark.
9. Miller, Otto, 59 Duran Place, Irvington, N.J.
10. Pizutelli, Harry.
11. Rommel, Gus, 693 South Eighteenth Street, Newark.
12. St. John, Archie, Irvington, N.J.
13. “Stroppolili, Joseph, 213 Liberty Avenue, Dongan Hills, S.I. [Staten Island]

“….The fourteen dead men were found in two of the tanks on the third and fourth floors of the building. Seven bodies were in each of the rectangular tanks, which are about 25 feet wide, 40 feet deep and 10 feet high.

“When the fire started the men were engaged, for the most part in applying a plastic substance to the tanks. Some workmen were using acetylene torches and others were equipped with sandblasting equipment. The acetylene torches, some of which were later found in the tanks with the bodies, were blamed for the fire by some firemen. Other firemen said the propane gas used by these torches had made the fumes particularly thick.

“To escape from the tanks the men had only one ladder. If the building had been finished the ladders would have been of stainless steel. However, the wooden ladders had not yet been replaced.”

March 13, NYT: “Newark, March 12 – Three agencies today opened investigations into the origin of the fire in the fermentation plant addition to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery yesterday in which thirteen workmen died from asphyxiation and at least thirty were injured. The agencies included the State Department of Labor, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the Police and Fire Departments, working jointly. After gathering twenty-five statements from workmen who were in the windowless six-story plant when the fire started, spokesmen said they tentatively believed that an acetylene or propane gas torch in use on the third floor many have set the fire.

“The consensus indicated that the torch flame communicated to an asphalt-base coating on the interior wall, penetrated to the 2-by-2 wooden strips between cork panels inside the wall and then deeper into another asphalt coat between the cork and exterior brick wall.

“Smoke poured so thickly into an areaway and down the open manholes of the fermentation tanks in the upper floors that thirteen of the workmen were unable to grope their way to safety. The earlier list of fourteen dead was reduced when it was found that one of the unidentified victims had been mistakenly listed by two morgues….” (New York Times. “3 Inquiries Started in Fatal Newark Fire.” 3-13-1953, p. 16.)

Sources

National Fire Protection Association. “Large Loss Fires of 1953.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 47, No. 3, Jan 1954, pp. 231-325.

National Fire Protection Association. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003). (Email attachment to B. W. Blanchard from Jacob Ratliff, NFPA Archivist/Taxonomy Librarian, 7-8-2013.)

New York Times. “3 Inquiries Started in Fatal Newark Fire.” 3-13-1953, p. 16. Accessed 5-23-1953 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1953/03/13/archives/3-inquiries-started-in-fatal-newark-fire.html

New York Times. “Fire at Brewery Kills 14 in Newark; Victims Trapped in Cork-lined Tanks Die of Fumes in Anheuser-Busch Plant. Firemen Battle Newark Brewery Blaze Where 14 Died.” 3-12-1953, p. 1. Accessed 5-23-2023 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1953/03/12/archives/fire-at-brewery-kills-14-in-newark-victims-trapped-in-corklined.html

Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY. “13 Men Perish Inside Tanks at Brewery Fire.” 3-12-1953, 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=45407477&sterm=anheuser+busch