1976 — Dec 22, Fire, Fields Department Store (5-stories), Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY– 12

— 12 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 139.
— 12 NFPA. “1976 Multiple-Death Fires in the [US].” Fire Journal, V71, N5, Sep 1977, p. 64.
— 11 Greeley Daily Tribune, CO. “Firemen Recover 11 Bodies…” December 24, 1976, p. 15.
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Narrative Information

NFPA, 1977: “Mercantile. Department store, Brooklyn, New York. Twelve civilians died and 11 other civilians and 6 fire fighters were injured in this fire that occurred shortly before 2:00 pm on December 20, when the store was filled with Christmas shoppers. The building was a five-story, non-fire-resistant structure. The fire started from an unknown cause on the stairway leading from the first to the second floor. When the first apparatus arrived, the building was already heavily involved in fire. Occupants were reported to be trapped on the second floor, but because of the dense smoke, fire fighters were unable to locate them immediately. Fire fighting necessarily had to be conducted from the exterior, due to the heavy smoke and structural collapse within the building. Some of the victims’ bodies were buried in debris and were not recovered for more than two weeks.” (NFPA. “1976 Multiple-Death Fires in the [US].” Fire Journal, 71/5, Sep 1977, p.64.)

Newspaper

Dec 24: “The fire that swept through .a downtown Brooklyn store Wednesday [Dec 22] took the lives of at least eight shoppers and employees, Fire Department officials said yesterday. The bodies of four persons, two men and two women, were discovered yesterday morning in the debris‐littered interior of the Fields linen and giftware store at 520 Fulton Street. Four others, including a 5‐year‐old girl and a 14‐year‐old girl, were reported missing.

“But firemen were unable to continue their search for the bodies’ because’ they feared the brittle cast iron columns might collapse. Shortly after 1 P.M. the building, at the corner of Hanover Place and Fulton Street, was declared unsafe by the Buildings Department. It will be demolished this morning, but the search for the bodies will continue. The death toll ‘could go higher,’ said Fire Commissioner John T. O’Hagan, who with Mayor Beame, arrived at the scene yesterday afternoon.

“One of the dead was Sarah Behar, 31 years old. She and her husband Eli, who lived in Brighton Beach and were employees of Fields, were trapped inside the store on the second floor, which Mr. Behar said was not crowded with customers. They could not get downstairs because of heavy smoke and so they Went upstairs to the third‐floor storeroom. ‘It was full of smoke,’ said Mr. Behar, who is also 31. ‘I broke the windows but there was no fire escape. The smoke got heavier and heavier. We could not breathe. We put our heads out a window. Then I remembered an emergency door. I moved through the smoke and dark to reach the door and I took a breath. Then I went back to reach her. But couldn’t because of the smoke. I cried out. But she couldn’t find me. I tried three or four times to get to her, but couldn’t reach her. I thought to myself, ‘The two of us to go is no good.’ Then I threw myself down the steps. I was the last one out. People saw my wife screaming at the window. She was afraid of heights. All I keep hearing is her scream: ‘I don’t want to die.’ What do I do? I have two small children.’

“Only the walls of the five‐story building, whose fire escapes were laced with icicles, remained standing. Exactly when the fire began remained a mystery.

“Commissioner O’Hagan said there had been a delay in reporting the fire. He said the head cashier had tried to telephone branch store a block away and, failing to get through, then ran across the street to use another telephone. The first report to the Fire Department came by way of policemen who spotted smoke along the busy thoroughfare. The blaze, Commissioner O’Hagan said, ‘was in an advanced stage,’ having completely enveloped the building, which also housed a National shoe store, when the fire trucks arrived at about 1:55 P.M. Commissioner O’Hagan said the fire had probably been burning a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes before the first trucks arrived. It was finally brought under control at 10:01 yesterday morning, more than 20 hours after it began…. An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the fire. Commissioner O’Hagan said it was too early in the inquiry to know if the fire was “suspicious” in origin.

“Some relatives of the victims began gathering Wednesday night in the bitter cold to await word. One who kept the vigil was Morris Kashioff, 53, whose wife, Yolanda, 39, a cashier at Fields, was missing….

“Yesterday morning, as hundreds of Christmas shoppers looked on, firemen sorted through the rubble of the building, the roof and floors of which had collapsed. They gave up their search for victims about three hours later, after finding the first four bodies. The police later identified six missing females known to have been in the store at the time of the fire. They were:

Mrs. Kashiof, 39, an employee, of 1625 East 12th Street;
Kerma Smith, 5, of 483 Pennsylvania Avenue;
Cassandra Goode, 20, an employee, of 10603 Glenwoon Road;
Nancy Ades, 22, an employee, of 345 East 86th Street;
Mrs. Behar, of 2934 Brighton 12th Street, and
Santina Brown, 14, a shopper, of 586 Park Avenue, all of Brooklyn.

“Officials do know that the blaze began in the Fields store under a stairway between the first and second floor landings. Mrs. Kashioff worked in the second floor toy department during the Christmas season, her husband said.

“The fire spread quickly across the second floor and through an open door at another stairway and moved upwards. Mr. Kashioff said he heard of the fire and arrived minutes later.

“As Commissioner O’Hagan described the direction of the fire for reporters, Mr. Kashioff blurted out in tears: ‘Twenty minutes. I came here. I watched. Twenty minutes. We waited that long for the fire engines’.” (NYT. “At Least 8 Believed Dead in Fire That Engulfed Store in Brooklyn.” 12-24-1976, p. 1.)

Dec 24: “New York, (UPI) – To the accompaniment of a loudspeaker blaring a scratchy rendition of ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ for the Christmas shoppers milling along Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn, firemen lugged four canvas body bags from the charred shell of a five-story department store that had burned and then collapsed. Officials said four more bodies still may be inside, but the search was temporarily suspended Thursday afternoon for fear that the building’s cast-iron columns might give way and bring down what little is left standing….

“The three-alarm fire broke out Wednesday afternoon [Dec 22] in the five-story building at 526 Fulton St. in Brooklyn’s busy shopping district. It housed a shoe store at street level and a department store above. Firemen controlled the blaze by late Wednesday night, but the building had collapsed meanwhile and could not be searched until Thursday morning, when the bodies of two men and two women were recovered… [Fire Commissioner John] O’Hagan said missing persons reports indicate the death toll might reach eight.” (Berkshire Eagle, NY. “Fire Takes at Least Four Lives as N.Y. Department Store Burns,” Dec 24, 1976, p. 3.)

Sources

Greeley Daily Tribune, CO. “Firemen Recover 11 Bodies…” December 24, 1976, p. 15. 11-8-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img

National Fire Protection Association. “1976 Multiple-Death Fires in the United States.” Fire Journal, Vol. 71, No. 5, September 1977, pp. 61-64.

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

New York Times. “At Least 8 Believed Dead in Fire That Engulfed Store in Brooklyn.” 12-24-1976, p. 1. Accessed 10-7-2021 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1976/12/24/archives/at-least-8-believed-dead-in-fire-that-engulfed-store-in-brooklyn-at.html