FDNY Fire Service Line of Duty Deaths
March 26, 1906 - LODD'S
Captain John Walsh - Engine 14
Fireman Dennis J. Healy - Engine 14
Fireman B. F. Christian - Engine 14
Fireman Thomas F. Halprin - Ladder 24
FDNY. Manhattan, New York
A Foreman and three firemen were killed by a falling wall in a four-alarm fire that started in a seven-story factory building at the southeast corner of Bedford and Downing Streets. Foreman John F. Walsh and his men entered an older building in the rear of the one on fire. From the third floor windows they were directing water into the burning structure. The men were in a building that was over one hundred years old. When the fire building’s rear wall collapsed the mass of white-hot bricks crashed upon it, crumpling it like a house of cardboard and flattening it to the ground, carrying Walsh and his men down in the ruins. Of the six men who went down in the crash two were soon calling for help. Fireman Healy was the first to be pulled out and was just barely alive. His terribly burned and battered body was buried for over thirty minutes. He died several minutes later. The collapse happened around 1:30 in the afternoon and it was late into the night before the bodies of the other three men were pulled out. All had been burned but were still recognizable.
From "The Last Alarm" by Boucher, Urbanowicz & Melahn, 2006:
A Foreman and three firemen were killed by a falling wall in a four-alarm fire that started in a seven-story factory building at the southeast corner of Bedford and Downing Streets. Foreman John F. Walsh and his men entered an older building in the rear of the one on fire. From the third floor windows they were directing water into the burning structure. The men were in a building that was over one hundred years old. When the fire building’s rear wall collapsed the mass of white-hot bricks crashed upon it, crumpling it like a house of cardboard and flattening it to the ground, carrying Walsh and his men down in the ruins. Of the six men who went down in the crash two were soon calling for help. Fireman Healy was the first to be pulled out and was just barely alive. His terribly burned and battered body was buried for over thirty minutes. He died several minutes later. The collapse happened around 1:30 in the afternoon and it was late into the night before the bodies of the other three men were pulled out. All had been burned but were still recognizable. Foreman Walsh was forty-two years old and appointed to the Department on March 16, 1891. He was promoted to Foreman in 1903 and assigned to Engine 14. He was placed on the Roll of Merit three times for bravery. He was married and had a family. Fireman Dennis J. Healy was appointed in 1903 and had a good record, while Firemen George B. Christman, Jr. and Thomas F. Halpin, Jr. were each on the job for only two years. Foreman Walsh was in charge of the companies who responded to the Great Baltimore Fire in 1904. Fireman Healy had been buried in another building collapse three or four weeks before the one that took his life. Not badly hurt, he had returned to duty and stated, “bad things come in bunches and I’m about to die soon”.
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