1959 — Feb 14, Fire (from gas explosion), Apartment Building, Ashland, KY — 11
— 11 Charleston Daily Mail, WV. “Eleven Lose Lives in Ashland Fire.” 2-14-1959, p. 1.
— 11 Fields. “Recent fires bring back the nightmares.” Daily Independent, Ashland. 1-18-2007.
— 11 Kingsport Times, TN. “11 Persons Killed in Ashland, Ky., Apartments Fire.” 2-5-1959, 1.
— 11 NFPA. “Large Loss of Life Fires of 1959.” Quarterly of NFPA, Vol. 53, July 1960, p. 23.
— 11 National Fire Protection Assoc. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).
Narrative Information
Fields: “Ashland — Two recent fires — one that claimed the lives of nine in Huntington and another that killed a toddler in Ashland — have resurrected nightmares of past fatal blazes….
“…the deadliest fire to occur in Ashland proper happened in 1959, when 11 burned to death in the former Columbia Theater on Greenup Avenue, which had been converted into an apartment building.
“Jimmy Hogsten, who worked for the Ashland Fire Department for four decades — and was chief from 1971 until his retirement in 1992 — was on duty when the blaze broke out on Valentine’s Day. ‘I had been on the department for about seven years then, and I had seen fire deaths before, and I’ve seen them since, but nothing of that magnitude,’ Hogsten said. ‘I remember going through afterward, and stepping on something soft; it was a dead woman who was with child.’ That woman was Polly McKenzie, 28, who was eight months pregnant. She died along with her 30-year-old husband Jack and their three young children. Her unborn child was also counted among the dead. Others who died were James Earl Powell, 22, of Flatwoods; Gracie Blanton, 45; and Frank Artis, Frank Kirk and Clyde May, all listed at 50. ‘We all had nightmares for months after that fire,’ Hogsten said. ‘It was truly horrible.’
“The bodies were brought to the Central Station of the fire department and laid out on the concrete floor as the coroner went through the process of identifying the victims. ‘That’s what I remember, the fire department being used as a makeshift morgue,’ said George Wolfford, who was in his first year as a reporter for The Independent at the time. ‘It wasn’t the fire, it was the horror of the morgue that bothered me.’
“Wolfford’s notes on the fire list poor sanitary conditions and poor heating facilities as among the causes of the blaze. ‘There were some survivors who said they saw some men working on a gas heater in the hallway, and they figured that to be the cause,’ Wolfford said. Hogsten also recalled a malfunctioning space heater as the culprit in the fire’s origin. ‘There was only one way out of the building,’ Hogsten said, and that was through the front. There was no fire escape. ‘There was just no way for those people to get out,’ he said….” (Fields, Ben. “Recent fires bring back the nightmares. 11 killed in ´59 Ashland fire.” Daily Independent, Ashland, KY, 1-19-2007.)
NFPA: “Apartment and Mercantile Building Ashland, Ky., Feb. 14, 1:00 A.M.
“11 Killed: 7 Adults, 4 Children
“Men worked in the second floor hall all evening to repair a gas stove they had removed from one of the apartments. It is not known whether these men were professionals or not, but they had forgotten to turn off the gas when they removed the stove. At 1:00 A.M. a gas explosion ripped through this partially occupied apartment building with fire following which quickly involved the only exitways. Occupants were forced to brave flames in the hall, jump from windows (where available), or wait for possible rescue in their apartments.
“The alarm was given in error to the police department and this resulted in an estimated 10-minute delay before the fire department’s arrival.
“Twenty people were in the building at the time of the fire. Of the nine who escaped and lived, seven jumped from windows, sustaining injuries ranging from a broken spine to twisted ankles. Two were taken down fire department ladders.
“Six of the victims were members of one family which lived in an interior apartment with no windows. As the flaming hall was the only escape route it is incredible that the pregnant mother of this family was able to reach a window in time to leap. The child she carried was delivered stillborn in the hospital shortly before the mother died. Other children who died were aged 4, 2 and 1 years.
“The two stores on the first floor suffered mainly from smoke and water damage.” (NFPA. “Large Loss of Life Fires of 1959.” Quarterly of the NFPA, Vol. 53, July 1960, p. 23.)
Newspapers (at the time)
Feb 14: “Ashland, Ky. (AP) – Fire cut through an old apartment building ‘like an acetylene torch’ early today, leaving 11 dead and one missing. Eight other persons were injured. Among the victims were six members of the same family, including an expectant mother. She jumped from a window of the second floor, then died after giving birth to a still born son.
“The fire, called the worst in Ashland’s history, broke out at 1:01 a.m. and quickly cut off the only exit, a stairway at the front of the reconverted theater. ‘Almost right away people began jumping out of the windows,’ said taxi driver Anthony Blackwell, who discovered the blaze. Blackwell said he saw seven occupants standing at windows in the rear of the building on Greenup Ave. but “they disappeared when a section of the ceiling apparently fell.”
“Delmar Fannin, one of the 20 occupants of the stone-front structure, said he was awakened ‘when the fire flapped the rug at my door like wind. I heard a woman scream but was unable to tell where it was coming from. Then I smelled smoke.’ Fannin’s wife and sister jumped to safety and he and a brother-in-law were brought out by firemen.
Youth Missing
“Coroner Russell Compton said the missing person was 14-year-old Jack Kirk, believed to have spent the night with his father. The father was among the victims.
“Compton listed the other dead as:
Jack McKenzie, 30;
his wife Roily, 28;
her still-born child;
and their son, Jackie, 4;
Dickie Joe, 2;
Johnny William, 1;
James Powell, about 22;
Mrs. Grace Blanton, 50;
Frank Artist, about 50; and
Clyde May, about 50.
“Fire Chief Burris Hensley, a veteran of 46 years with the department. said, ‘I’ve never seen a blaze as destructive as this one.’ He said one of the occupants apparently made an attempt to put out the fire with an extinguisher ‘but it was moving too quickly. Those people just didn’t have a chance.’
“Most of the residents lived on the second floor of the building, the old Columbia Theater, a restaurant and sign painting shop.
Hensley, unable to give a cause for the fire, said he found a fire escape assembled in the yard at the rear. ‘It was to be installed next week.’” (Charleston Daily Mail, WV. “Eleven Lose Lives in Ashland Fire.” 2-14-1959, p. 1.)
Feb 15: “Ashland, Ky. (AP) – An old vaudeville theater, converted into apartments, burst into flames that took 11 lives and hospitalized eight other persons Saturday….
“Two patrolmen acting as human cushions managed to break the fall of some occupants who leaped from second floor windows….Two officers were the first to reach the Greenup avenue building after a taxi driver spotted the blaze. Both officers caught two men who heeded their pleas to jump….” (Hutchinson News, KS. “Eleven Burn to Death in [KY] Fire.” 2-15-1959, 1.)
Feb 15: “Ashland, Ky. (UPI) – Eleven persons, including five members of one family, were burned to death early Saturday [Feb 14] when flames swept through several small second-story apartments in a converted theater building. Nine other persons suffered burns and injuries jumping from the upstairs windows of the two-story building. Police who arrived shortly after the blaze started helped rescue some of the victims.
“Boyd County coroner Russell Compton identified the victims as Jack McKenzie, 30, his wife, Polly, 28, whose son was stillborn after she jumped from the building, and their three other sons, Johnny William, 1, Mickey Joe, 2, and Jackie, 4. Firemen said their room had a door but no windows. Other dead were James E. Powell, 22, of nearby Flatwoods, Ky., Mrs. Grace Blanton, 45, a cook in a restaurant on the first floor; Frank Artls, about 45; Frank Kirk, and Clyde May, all of Ashland.
“The building, the old Columbia vaudeville theater built in 1891 had only one exit, an inside stairway which was cut off by the flames. Ironically, materials for a fire escape which was to have been installed next week, were stored in the rear.
“The cause of the blaze was not immediately determined, although witnesses reported hearing an explosion, or series of explosions. “It was a blazing inferno, with panic-stricken people jumping everywhere.” Patrolman Curtis Keeton, one of the first to reach the scene, said.
“Twenty persons were in the apartments and sleeping rooms on the building’s second floor when
the fire started just before 1 a.m.
“Keeton laid he and patrolman Kenneth Craft were two blocks away when they got the first report. Craft said, ‘I looked up at the window facing Greenup Avenue and saw a woman standing there with flames behind her. I said ‘please jump.’ She shook her head and called out, ‘help me honey.’ She then stepped backwards and screamed and I heard a muffled explosion, and flames shot out the windows. ‘The next thing I knew, I was struck by the body of a man,’ he added. The man later was identified as Charles Fraley, who suffered a leg injury.” (Kingsport Times-News, TN. “11 Persons Killed in Ashland, Ky., Apartments Fire.” 2-5-1959, 1.)
Sources
Charleston Daily Mail, WV. “Eleven Lose Lives in Ashland Fire.” 2-14-1959, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=44441586&sterm=ashland+apartment+fire
Fields, Ben. “Recent fires bring back the nightmares.” Daily Independent, Ashland. 1-18-2007. Accessed 12-26-2013 at: http://www.dailyindependent.com/local/x1192751764/Recent-fires-bring-back-the-nightmares/print
Hutchinson News, KS. “Eleven Burn to Death in Kentucky Fire.” 2-15-1959, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=137385317&sterm
Kingsport Times-News, TN. “11 Persons Killed in Ashland, Ky., Apartments Fire.” 2-5-1959, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=57134140
National Fire Protection Association. “Large Loss of Life Fires of 1959.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 53, July 1960, pp. 7-38.
National Fire Protection Association. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).[1]
[1] Attachment to 7-8-2013 email from Jacob Ratcliff, Archivist/Taxonomy Librarian, National Fire Protection Association, to B. Wayne Blanchard.