New York Times Archives
A FIREMAN IS KILLED IN BLAZE AT MACY'S
by D. McFadden
June 15, 1979
One fireman was killed, at least 19 firefighters and shoppers were injured and thousands of shoppers and employees were routed from Macy's huge department store on Herald Square yesterday afternoon in a tour‐alarm fire that burned out parts of the fifth and sixth floors and sent clouds of heavy smoke billowing through the block‐square building.
The blaze, the cause of which was not immediately determined, raged out of control for two and a half hours as smoke poured from shattered windows and vast crowds of routed shoppers and spectators watched from surrounding streets.
Store officials said that as many as 8,000 customers and, employees were in the building when the fire broke out, and that the evacuation, for the most part, was orderly.
Victim on Job Less Than 2 Years
The dead fireman was identified as Walter Smith Jr., 31 years old, of North Bellmore, L,I., a member of Ladder Company 24, who joined the Fire Department less than two years ago.
More than 120 firemen and 35 fire trucks, ambulances and emergency vehicles choked the streets around the store — Broadway, Seventh Avenue and 39th and 35th Streets — as the firefighting continued into the late afternoon. A rescue helicopter hovered over the area.
The fire caused a mammoth rushperiod traffic jam. All traffic was blocked off on Broadway and Seventh Avenues from 42d Street to 39th Street and on crosstown streets in the mid‐30's between the Avenue of the Americas and Eighth Avenue, and the tie‐up swelled virtually across midtown Manhattan.
Despite heavy fire damage in sales departments and additional smoke and water damage over wider sections of the store, officials of R. H. Macy & Company said they hoped to have the store open today.
Firemen told of harrowing scenes inside the building, of being lost in dense smoke, of crawling on floors in search of flames that burst suddenly upon them from behind walls and stock counters.
“It's so damn hot in there that we can't get all the way in,” Fireman Bob Kilkenny said as his exhausted comrades shuttled in and out of the store.
“You wouldn't believe the beating we're taking up there,” another fireman said, panting with exhaustion, his face black with soot.
Fire officials said a ceiling collapse may have been responsible for the death of Fireman Smith — the second killed in the line of duty this year — but how he died was uncertain pending an autopsy.
Fireman Gary Courtenay of Ladder 24 said Fireman Smith had been his buddy.
“lie was with me when we went in, but he wasn't when we came out,” said the grim‐faced fireman, his right ear and cheek burned and smeared with a first aid cream. “We were crawling along the floor, just looking for the fire, but it found us,” he said, referring to the ceiling collapse that sent flaming debris down on them on the fifth floor.
TV Cameras Evoke Anger
When Fireman Smith's body was brought out on a stretcher at 7:05 P.M., an angry incident erupted. “No cameras, no cameras!” grief‐stricken firemen shouted, using their helmets to shield the body from television news cameras. When the camera crews pressed in insistently on the stretcher bearers, tempers flared. One fireman kicked a television soundman in the groin; others hurled their helmets at the camera crews.
A policeman cried: “Respect the dead, respect their wishes!”
“We've lost a brother, we've lost brother,” a fireman sobbed.
A firemen and a woman shopper apparently suffered heart attacks during the fire. Nine other firemen suffered second-degree burns and smoke inhalation and three shoppers were felled by smoke, officials said. The injured were treated by paramedic teams on the scene, then taken to Bellevue, St. Clare's and St. Vincent's Hospitals.
Fire officials said the fire broke out about 4 P.M. in a stockroom of “Leisure World,” a sporting‐goods department on the Seventh Avenue side of the fifth floor, and spread quickly among racks of clothing and stocks of rubber and plastic sporting equipment.
Panic Among Some in Store
witnesses toga or panic among 90 customers and employees nearest the flames as ceiling sprinklers began showering water over the area and smoke began pouring through the 100,000-square-foot floor, where television and stereo sets, large appliances, games, art supplies, cameras and other merchandise are sold.
“People began running and screaming down back stairways as well as crowding escalators and elevators in an effort to get out,” said Lance Hardy, an 18-yearold New York high‐school student. “The sprinklers started going, spraying water everywhere, then people started running, dropping their packages and rushing for wherever they saw an exit sign. It was wild.”
“There was a lot of smoke,” said Linda Elmes of Wantagh, L.I. who was in an elevator with two friends when it stopped on the fifth floor. “Somebody yelled ‘Fire!’ and everybody in the elevator ran out and ran onto‐the escalator.”
Another shopper told of “people screaming ‘Fire‘ and running wild.’
Others heard windows breaking as firemen on tower ladders shattered dozens of windows around the building to ventilate the blazing area. As they did so, shards of glass showered down on surrounding sidewalks, where spectators were being herded behind barriers by the police.
Shoppers and employees who had been in the store on different floors said no alarm bells had been sounded and no loudspeaker announcement had been made. They said news of the fire apparently had been spread throughout the store by word of mouth.
Most people walked down crowded stairways, but many took escalators on the Broadway side. Others rode took elevators until these were shut down to prevent people from being trapped.
The storewide evacuation took about 90 minutes, and was orderly for the most part, witnesses said, though some looting of merchandise and cash registers was reported and some shoppers left purses and packages behind as thousands poured into the streets. ,
Arriving firemen sent second, third and fourth alarms quickly to summon help because of the intensity of the fire and the large number of people inside what Macy's has long called “the world's largest store,” a 19‐story building in the busy garment district.
At 6:25 P.M. the fire was declared under control. A large area of the sporting‐goods department was destroyed and water and smoke damage was spread over other floors.
Macy's, like other big department stores in New York, has been the target of incendiary devices in the past, but there was no indication last night that arson was suspected in yesterday's fire. The last reported case of arson at Macy's was a small flash fire In a ninth‐floor service area on Jan. 12, 1978: It caused minor damage and no injuries; a Puerto Rican nationalist group later claimed responsibility, but no arrests were made.
The building, which has housed Macy's since 1902, had been decked out yesterday with dozens of American flags in honor of Flag Day, and it was the first day of three‐day Father's Day sale. After the fire, the flags drooped from their staffs, sodden and blackened with soot.
After the flames were out last night, fire marshals continued to interview employees and to sift rubble in an effort to determine the fire's cause.
Firemen meanwhile searched the building into the evening to make sure no one had been overlooked, and officials, outside were still checking their rosters at mid‐morning, making sure that all firemen were accounted for. Assistant Chief Daniel Kane said four alarms had been declared in part to muster the manpower necessary to evacuate and search the large building.
Firemen, fighting blaze at Macy's, attempt to prevent news cameramen from filming them carrying out body of fireman killed in fire; TV soundman is kicked and firemen's helmets are hurled at TV crews; illus (S)
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