WPBFD History

mitories at night. On November 1, 1981, fire- fighters had just settled in for a long Sunday afternoon of pro- football on television when the alarm sounded. "Beep-beep- beep, we have a report of a struc- ture fire in the 500 block of South Flagler Drive." Company 1-A was the first arriving unit with Captain Howard J. Buttery in charge. He reported heavy smoke in a one story building at 517 South Flagler that used to be the Fish Thing Restaurant. But- tery ordered Company 1-B to lay a supply line for P-307 and then lay a pump line out before Assis- tant Chief Clifton Waites ar- rived, taking over command. Acting Lieutenant Jack Beach and Firefighter George Hannah advanced a booster line onto the roof. The two men opened a ventilation hole where they di- rected their hose stream. Sud- denly the roof began to buckle

new chief. Many firefighters saw the promotion as another tactic by the city manager to gain complete control the fire department. fire across the street as they were preparing to answer the alarm on the morning of Sep- tember 3, 1981. The front of the Northshore Retirement Home at 325-36th Street was showing fire on the first floor. Rescue was the primary concern as thick smoke filled the three story building. Operations went by the book as simultaneous rescue and extinguishment mini- mized the threat. There were no serious injuries to the elderly residents although several were administered oxygen. The fire did bring to light several defi- ciencies in the equipment as ventilation was initiated. Differ- ent electrical connections car- ried on various trucks made it North Station could see the

Lamar Bell, Chief 1981-86

and they both had to leap off to avoid falling into the blaze. Hannah suffered minor injuries when he hit the ground. Robert Bothe and Jay Lupo were on a nozzle inside the building when the roof came down. Both were able to retreat, narrowly escaping serious injury. Fanned by a twenty-five mile per hour wind off the lakefront, the building was soon a fire-ball. Firefighters

difficult to set-up smoke ejectors and flood lights. The problem was remedied in a few days by standardizing all connections. Looking back it is hard to believe, but firefighters were not issued personal flashlights until October 20, 1981. This was brought about after several years of bar- gaining between the union and the city. The union

slowly began to gain control with hose lines in posi- tion on all four sides. Inspector David Jordan was called to investi- gate the suspicious fire, but the investi- gation was later turned over to In- spector Jerry Ca- toe. He found evi- dence of a flamma- ble liquid pour and the fire was classi- fied as arson. The building, which had been scheduled to be torn down,

wanted Maglites, a heavy duty flash- light that had been issued to the police for years. The fire department agreed to provide 50 cent disposable plastic lights that worked for one or two days at best. Most fire- fighters continued to provide their own higher priced flashlights and bat- teries while the "cheapos" were kept in lockers and used to find beds in the darkened dor-

2 Early stages of the Fish Thing Restaurant fire.