Comments on: 5 Famous Fires and the Lessons They Taught Us

By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:46:44 +0000

I remember when I was about 12, I was cooking something on the gas stove and the pot holder I was using to hold the skillet caught on fire… and I just stared at it. It was like my brain refused to compute what I was looking at! Who knows what would have happened if my grandfather wouldn’t have been in the room–he saw it, pushed me aside, and proceeded to stomp the flaming pot holder to death. My mother, who was also in the kitchen, never noticed it until my grandfather started stomping on the floor… I’ve always wondered why I just stared at the fire, as if willing it to go out, instead of actually doing what my grandfather did. My father is a firefighter, so it’s not like I hadn’t been told what to do. It’s a little perturbing.

By: Megan

Megan — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:24:02 +0000

The Our Lady of the Angels fire is still remembered annually in Chicago. Terrible tragedy.

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:06:13 +0000

I think that the people owning these buldings should have had more precausion. They may not know what will happen, but it’s always good to be on the safe side. Like the Triangle Shirtwaste factory, they should’ve thought into the future that if there was a fire, you should not be locked into a building where you’re working. I’m not saying they weren’t doing the right thing, I’m just saying they should’ve thought things through. I also think that the ways the fire system is now is good, even if the world did have to have some bad things to happen to them; you learn from your mistakes. Who knows, maybe something else will trigger people’s minds to come up with another fire safety rule.

By: LG

LG — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:15:31 +0000

I am not sure what has been learned in the aftermath, but the Ycua Bolanos fire in Paraguay deserves mention here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ycu%C3%A1_Bola%C3%B1os_supermarket_fire

By: Willow

Willow — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:32:42 +0000

@Matthew, as has already been pointed out, that figure of $70 a week for the Triangle workers is incorrect. The highest paid in the factory, the cutters (notably a role dominated by slightly older men), earned around $14 a week – most of the workers there earned around $7 a week working a 54 hour week…

By: CJ

CJ — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:15:36 +0000

Just remember that when us ordinary folk are running from the fire there are some brave men and women running by us to get to the beast…lets keep them in our thoughts and prayers.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:43:04 +0000

I would like to point out that $70 dollars a week comes out to almost $1,600 a week in 2011 dollars. Yes the conditions were grueling and the accident was preventable and horrible, but that is a fantastic wage for a woman in semi skilled labor in that era.

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 02:09:33 +0000

Call 911 right away! It sounds obvious, but don’t waste valuable time thinking the situation isn’t bad enough to warrant the call. Dispatchers can notify the responders based on later information if it ends up not being an emergency.

A structure fire with adequate oxygen can double in size every 30 seconds. As a member of a volunteer company, I will tell you if I’m getting out of bed at 2 AM, I’d much rather show up at a small incident than a big disaster.

By: dredzone

dredzone — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:35:43 +0000

please,don’t forget the hotel vendome in boston where 9 of boston’s bravest answered their last call on 6/17/72; and the worcester cold storage abandoned building that enveloped 6 of that city’s dearest jakes! remember, to pay the ultimate price, when warranted, is their job description.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:14:07 +0000

In addition to PASS there’s also RACE.

R- Rescue those in immediate danger
A- Activate alarm
C- Contain fire (i.e. behind a fire door)
E- Extinguish and Evacuate

I work in the nursing industry and we’ve always had PASS and RACE on the backs of our ID badges at my current job. I’ve always found that to be such a simple tool because in the panic those acronyms would be so easy to forget.