1969 — June 3, Fire, Apartment House, Kansas City, MO               —     12

— 12  NFPA. “The Major Fires of 1969,” Fire Journal, Vol. 64, No. 3, May 1970, p. 38.

— 12  National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 137.

— 12  Playground Daily News, Fort Walton Beach, FL.  “12 Die in KC Inferno,” June 4, 1969.

 

Narrative Information

 

NFPA Fire Journal: “On June 3 [a]…fire of undetermined cause started in the first-story rear stairway landing of a three-story brick, wood-joisted apartment house in Kansas City, Missouri. Constructed as a hotel, the building had later been converted to an apartment house. An abandoned dumbwaiter shaft in the stairway enclosure had not been used for many years. The shaft was not cut off from the stairway, and it was also open at the top into the attic area of the building. The doors at each story were open into the stairway, allowing rapid fire spread throughout the building. At the same time the fire spread up the open dumbwaiter shaft into the attic area; from there it dropped into the apartments in the third story. Twelve people, including eight children under 10 years of age, died in this fire. Investigators found sufficient evidence in the area of origin to feel that the fire may have been set.” (NFPA. “The Major Fires of 1969,” Fire Journal, Vol. 64, No. 3, May 1970, p. 38.)

 

Newspaper

 

June 4, Playground Daily News: “Kansas City (AP) – Fire roared through the top floor of a three-story apartment building near the midtown business district Tuesday, killing 12 persons including six in one family.  Eight children died in the blaze.  Neighbors, passers-by and firemen helped some of the approximately 100 residents down stairways, fire escapes and ladders while flames short more than 50 feet above the roof.

 

“One resident…stood at a third-floor window with his 13-month-old son…in his arms…he leaped…[and] was injured seriously when he landed on a paved area, and his son died an hour later in a hospital.  [His] wife…19, and their 2-month old daughter perished in the flames.

 

“The fire occurred in a middle-income neighborhood of neat private homes mingled with apartments and duplexes.

 

“Eleven of the bodies were found in the charred rubble of the building’s third floor.  Damage to the lower two floors was caused mostly by smoke and water.  Firemen found six bodies in one third-floor apartment…

 

“Two brothers…spotted the fire as they drove past the building. ‘We ran up the stairway of the building knocking on doors and telling everyone to close their windows and shut the doors.  But when the people opened the doors to escape, the draft swept up.’

 

“Flames had broken through the roof of the gray, L-shaped building when firemen arrived after they received the first call at 2:16 a.m.  ‘It seems like the fire got an awfully large start before anybody noticed it,’ said Fire Director James Halloran.  ‘It appears it started in the basement near the stairwell and the flames shot up thus unused shaft that goes clear to the third floor.  Major Sterling Ford of the Police Department said he had found no evidence that the fire had been set.” (Playground Daily News, Fort Walton Beach, FL.  “12 Die in KC Inferno,” June 4, 1969.)

 

Sources

 

National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 1983.

 

National Fire Protection Association. “The Major Fires of 1969,” Fire Journal, Vol. 64, No. 3, May 1970, pp. 37-40.

 

Playground Daily News, Fort Walton Beach, FL. “12 Die in KC Inferno.” 6-4-1969. At:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=18654751