1968 — Jan 9, Fire, Paper Box Factory and Tenement Building, Brooklyn, NY — 13
— 13 AP. “13 killed in Brooklyn fire.” Syracuse Herald-Journal, 1-9-1968, p. 1, col. 2.
— 13 Hofmann. “Fire Kills 9 Children, 4 Adults in Brooklyn, New York Times, 1-10-1968.
— 13 NFPA. “Bimonthly Fire Record.” Fire Journal, July 1968. p. 44.
— 13 NFPA. “The Major Fires of 1968.” Fire Journal, Vol. 63, No. 3, May 1969, p. 13.
Narrative Information
NFPA: “The worst loss-of-life incident in residential property [in 1968] took 13 lives. Two separate fires, both in a combined commercial-residential property, caused the holocaust. An apartment house fire in Brooklyn, New York, on January 9, 1968, originated in the first story, which was used as a paper box factory, and quickly burned into and spread up open stairways, trapping and killing 13 on the upper stories. Lack of proper evacuation training led a family of seven people in the second story to join a family of seven in the fourth story. When the head of one of the families left the fourth-story apartment to escape through a roof hatch, he left the door to the apartment open, allowing the fire to enter and claim its victims.” (NFPA. “The Major Fires of 1968.” Fire Journal, Vol. 63, No. 3, May 1969, p. 13.)
NFPA: “Industrial-Residential. Paper Box Plant, Apartments. No Escape Training. Jan 9, 1968, Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Fire of undetermined cause that originated in an unoccupied paper box factory in the first story of a four-story brick, wood-joisted building burned through into the four interior stairways leading to the upper floors and cut off the interior escape routes for the 24 families living in the top three stories. Those stairways and a common corridor connecting them across the rear of the first story were separated from the remainder of the first story by a plaster-on-wood-lath wall. The upper stories were divided into four sections by 12-inch-thick brick walls, with each section containing two apartments in each story. The first story was undivided.
“First-arriving fire department apparatus had to be committed to the rear of the building to protect the approximately 130 occupants on the five fire escapes from flames breaking through windows in the rear wall.
“Search of the building after the fire revealed that 13 victims had been trapped in an apartment on the fourth floor. When smoke was discovered in the building a family of seven left their second-story apartment and joined another family in the fourth-story apartment. The head of one of the families then left the apartment, leaving the door open, opened a roof bulkhead, and climbed up to the roof thinking the rest of the people in the apartment were behind him. The open roof bulkhead proved a good flue, drawing smoke and fire up through that section of the building. Training in proper evacuation probably have saved both families. The family in the second-story apartment should have left the building immediately when they noticed smoke in the building. When they found the interior stairway untenable, the family in the fourth-story apartment should have kept the door between the apartment and the hall closed and used the outside fire escape.” (National Fire Protection Association. “Bimonthly Fire Record.” Fire Journal, July 1968. p. 44.
Third Alarmer: “….First due companies were confronted with a horrifying sight! Panicky and terrified parents, screaming in Spanish and English were hurling their children – some of’ them undressed – from the upper floors of a now heavily involved combination factory and tenement building – to the dubious safety of an adjoining roof several floors below! Others were trapped on fire escapes – some jumping to the street below as flames roared out of windows and onto the fire escapes. The temperature was a bitter two degrees above zero, and would shortly drop to minus one degree!!….
“Over 100 tenants were miraculously snatched from the raging inferno and owe their lives to the speedy and heroic action of members of Ladders 108, 146, 119, Rescue 2, and Squad 3, who, along with other firemen and their officers, and policemen – performed one daring rescue after another in almost impossible fire and weather conditions. But, alas, for two unfortunate families, these heroic efforts would prove to be of no avail!!….
“The 75-year old structure located at 232-234 Johnson Avenue, at Bushwick Avenue, was a 4-brick, 50′ x 75′ non-fireproof construction – of mixed occupancy with a paper bag factory on the ground floor, and occupied multiple dwellings above….” (Third Alarmer. “Brooklyn Box 270 – Bushwick Ave & McKibben St (Williamsburg)…Jan. 9, 1968,” V20, N1, Winter 1968, p. 8.)
Newspapers
Jan 9: “New York (AP) – Flames raced through a Brooklyn tenement in the predawn hours today, forcing scores of persons to flee in below-zero cold and leaving 13 dead. All but one member of two families perished. Dead in the city’s worst fire since 46 died aboard an aircraft carrier in 1960 were Mrs. Modesta Diaz and her five children, aged 3 months to 9 years: Francisco and Juanita Mojica and their four children, aged 4 to 9 years, and 85-year-old Victoria Moreno, the grandmother of the Mojica children.
“Francisco Diaz, 29, the only surviving member of his family, said he was watching television with his children when he saw smoke flowing under the door of his second-floor apartment. In minutes the building was engulfed in flames, he said.
“Firemen battled the five-alarm fire for 4½ hours before getting it under control. The flames were fueled by paper cartons on the first floor of the five-story building….
“When he saw the smoke, Diaz said, he ran upstairs to the top-floor flat of Mojica, his brother-in-law. The Mojica family, he said, was huddled in the smoke-filled hallway. Diaz said he tried to open a window, but panicky children and their elders barred the way. Diaz said he shouted to the Mojica family to follow him as he ran to the roof of the burning structure. When he saw no sign of them, he said, he jumped to safety to the roof of an adjoining building. Diaz, a Puerto Rican, spoke to newsmen through an interpreter….
“Quick action by police and firemen saved other tenants today. Patrolman Ralph Sorrentino, one of the first on the scene, said he ran to the alley in the rear where men and women on the second floor began throwing children to him. He said he caught at least 20 children but missed others. ‘It was so difficult stumbling through the ice and darkness.’ One woman who jumped fell on him, he said. A man and a woman perched on a third-floor ledge against a blazing backdrop were plucked to safety by firemen with the aid of a ladder. Police said 14 firemen, two policemen and 15 civilians were treated for a variety of injuries at Greenpoint Hospital.
“The temperature stood at a record low of degrees for the day when the fire broke out about 12:30 a.m. and fell to 1 degree later. Neighbors threw blankets out of windows to the evacuees.
“Some 195 firemen crunched along in ankle-high ice as they used 39 pieces of equipment to fight the blaze. Firemen said flames at the outset were so fierce they could not enter the building.
“The fire department said the blaze apparently started in the ground floor paper carton factory and spread swiftly upward through the tenement which was home for 24 families….” (Associated Press. “13 killed in Brooklyn fire.” Syracuse Herald-Journal, 1-9-1968, p. 1, col. 2.)
Jan 10: “Thirteen persons, including nine children, died in a blaze that raged through a four-story tenement and factory building in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section for almost five hours early yesterday….
“By the time the five-alarm fire was reported under control at 5:10 A.M., the gray stone building — which had housed a paperbox factory on its ground floor and 24 apartments on its upper three floors — was burned out from the basement to the rafters. After 9 A.M., flames shot up again from a smoldering roof portion, but they were quickly put out.
“By that time, the sole survivor of two related Puerto Rican families, Juan Diaz, a 29-year-old hotel worker, was still wandering aimlessly in front of what had been his home and the home of his 13 dead relatives and friends….” (Hofmann, Paul. “Fire Kills 9 Children, 4 Adults in Brooklyn, New York Times, 1-10-1968.
Sources:
Associated Press. “13 killed in Brooklyn fire.” Syracuse Herald-Journal, 1-9-1968, p. 1, col. 2. Accessed 5-17-2015 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/us/new-york/syracuse/syracuse-herald-journal/1968/01-09/page-52?tag=brooklyn+fire&rtserp=tags/brooklyn-fire?psi=67&pci=7&ndt=bd&pd=9&pm=1&py=1968&pe=30&pem=1&pey=1968&psb=dateasc
National Fire Protection Association. “Bimonthly Fire Record.” Fire Journal, July 1968. p. 44.
National Fire Protection Association. “The Major Fires of 1968.” Fire Journal, Vol. 63, No. 3, May 1969, pp. 12-14.
Hofmann, Paul. “Fire Kills 9 Children, 4 Adults in Brooklyn, New York Times, 1-10-1968.
Third Alarmer (Bernard Grandjany, editor). “Brooklyn Box 270 – Bushwick Ave & McKibben St (Williamsburg) Tuesday, Jan. 9, 1968,” Vol. 20 (Part I), No. 1, Winter Issue 1968, p. 8. Accessed 5-17-2015 at: http://nycfire.net/files/Third%20Alarm%20-%20Vol20%20-%20No1.pdf