1976 — Feb 4, Tenement House Fire (7 children, 3 adults), Manhattan, NYC, NY — 10

–10 NFPA. “1976 Multiple-Death Fires in the United States.” Fire Journal, 71/5, Sep 1977, 63.
–10 National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 137.
–10 NY Times. “10 Reported Dead and 1 Missing in Fire on the Upper West Side.” 2-4-1976, 1.
–10 New York Times. “City is Accused as Fire Kills 10.” 2-5-1976, p. 1.

Narrative Information

NFPA, 1977: “Tenement house, New York, N.Y. Seven children between the ages of one and twelve years and three women died in this early-morning fire on February 4 on Manhattan’s upper West Side. The cause of this ten-fatality fire was believed to have been careless disposal of a cigarette in a first-story living room. The fire spread from a couch through pipe recessed to the second and third stories. All of the victims were killed by carbon monoxide gas.”

Newspaper

Feb 4, NYT: “Ten persons were reported dead and one missing in an early‐morning blaze today that swept through a six‐story tenement on the upper West Side. None of the victims of the three‐alarm fire at 311 West 94th Street, near Riverside Drive, was immediately identified, although a spokesman at Fire Department headquarters said all the dead were civilians —apparently residents of the building.

“The cause of the fire, on which an alarm was first received at 12:21 A.M. by Fire Headquarters, was not known this morning. Firemen were still battling to control the blaze at 2:30 A.M.

“Four of the dead were reported to have been found on the top floor. They were said to be two women and two girls about 8 to 10 years of age.

“A fireman from Ladder Company 22, one of the first units to respond, reported that residents of the building were showing panic when he arrived. The fireman, who declined to, be identified declared:

People were all over the fires, escape. There was Just a little hit of smoke. All the fire was going out the hack. People were trapped on the sixth floor, but we couldn’t get to them.”

(NY Times. “10 Reported Dead and 1 Missing in Fire on the Upper West Side.” 2-4-1976, p. 1.)

Feb 5, NYT: “An Upper West Side fire that killed 10 persons early yesterday quickly became a focus of controversy, with some survivors contending that the Fire Department had taken up to half an hour to respond to the alarm and Fire Commissioner John T. O’Hagan insisting that it had taken only three minutes. ‘When you’re waiting for emergency vehicles, a minute can seem like an hour,’ Mr. O’Hagan said at a news conference called to defend the department’s handling of the fire, which also injured 15 persons, five of them firemen.

“The Fire Commissioner said circumstantial evidence, particularly the intensity of the fire when the first companies arrived on the scene, suggested that the blaze had been going for “20 or 30 minutes” when the alarm was raised. ‘If we had been called earlier, we might have been able to help,’ he said….

“…the blaze…swept through a six‐story gray stone building at 311 West 94th Street….Fire marshals believe the blaze started in an upholstered chair in a ground‐floor apartment at the rear of the building, possibly from a smoldering cigarette. It spread quickly up pipes recesses to the fourth floor, filling the building with smoke and intense heat.

“Of those who died, seven were children under the age of 12. Two of the victims, both small children, were found in the charred remains of the ground‐floor apartment. Eight others, including three adults, were found huddled together in an apartment on the sixth floor, all asphyxiated….

“There were scenes of hysteria as dozens of residents of the building crowded onto fire‐escapes at the front and rear of the building, screaming in Spanish, “Fuego!” (fire) and “Ayuda me!” (help me). Before the police arrived and lowered to the ground the last section of the fire‐escape at the front of the building, several persons jumped from a second‐floor balcony onto plastic bags filled with garbage that had been dragged onto the sidewalk to break their fall.

“Many survivors fled into the street wearing only nightclothes. They stood huddled together for warmth in the 26‐degree cold. Some stood barefoot on the icy, slushy sidewalk.

“After the fire had been put out, the building was ordered evacuated. The Red Cross arranged for some of the 60 surviving residents to stay overnight in its headquarters at 66th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Others were moved to nearby hotels. By late yesterday, all were in hotels, and the Red Cross had provided many with bags of second‐hand clothing.

“At his news conference, Commissioner O’Hagan said he had checked tape recordings at the Fire Department’s Communications Center in Central Park. They showed, he said, the first alarm was given at 12:21 A.M. from an alarm box at 94th Street and Riverside Drive. Three minutes later, he went on, at 12:24, an engine company was on the scene. The fire was declared under control at 2:39 A.M.

“The Commissioner said he had also checked with the Police Department to determine when it had received the first 911 call. This was at 12:19 A.M. and was promptly relayed to the Fire Department, he said…. It was “the severity of the fire,” rather than any delay in his men’s response to it, that caused the deaths, he said.

“The Commissioner noted that the adults in the ground‐floor apartment, where the fire broke out, were asleep at the time, and were awakened by the cries of the 4‐year‐old child, Harold Dieujuste, who died. This suggested that the fire could have got a strong hold before the alarm was raised, he said. As for the victims in the sixth‐floor apartment, Mr. O’Hagan said that firemen attempting to reach them from the roof had found the heat and smoke so intense that it was impossible to descend the fire escape, the only remaining access.” (New York Times. “City is Accused as Fire Kills 10.” 2-5-1976, p. 1.)

Sources

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. “10 Reported Dead and 1 Missing in Fire on the Upper West Side.” 2-4-1976, p. 1. Accessed 10-5-2021 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/04/archives/10-reported-dead-and-1-missing-in-fire-on-the-upper-west-side.html

New York Times. “City is Accused as Fire Kills 10.” 2-5-1976, p. 1. Accessed 10-5-2021 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/05/archives/city-is-accused-as-fire-kills-10-survivors-charge-a-delay-in.html