ENGINE 162/LADDER 82/BATTALION 23 (CONTINUED)
FIRES/EVENTS
1963 SI BRUSH FIRES
April 20, 1963 – Major brush fires swept across several parts of SI due to high winds and very dry conditions. 121 homes and businesses were destroyed. Fires were simultaneous in Tottenville, Pleasant Planes, Princes Bay, Huguenot, Annadale and Mariners Harbor. 1500 firefighters and 100 fire companies operated at these fires to include Jersey City mutual aid engine companies.
Photos: 'Black Saturday' scorched Staten Island 50 years ago: April 20, 1963
Updated Jan 03, 2019; Posted Apr 20, 2013
By
Dean Balsamini | balsamini@siadvance.com
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Longtime Staten Islanders will never forget Black Saturday, which occurred exactly 50 years ago today.
Three large brush fires, one starting in Rossville, one in Tottenville and another in Mariners Harbor, destroyed 100 houses and left more than 500 homeless. The fires caused more than $2 million in damage.
April 20, 1963, began as a dry and windy spring day, but ended in steam, soot and tears. Flames consumed brush and forest, taking the Island homes with it and leaving behind "the heavy smell of smoke and the gloom of desolation," in the words of an Advance reporter.
Although residents referred to it simply as "The Fire," the conflagration came in three parts, two on the South Shore and one in Mariners Harbor.
The largest began around 10 a.m., raging from Arthur Kill Road in Rossville into Annadale and Huguenot, fanned by westerly winds gusting at 50 mph. Spreading north to Arden Avenue and south to Bloomingdale Road, it marched eastward, leaped Drumgoole Boulevard, then Amboy Road, and moved as far as Hylan Boulevard.
The second blaze erupted at almost the same time near the Tottenville beachfront. It swept eastward along Hylan Boulevard and along Page Avenue, consuming homes, a restaurant, a filling station and the South Shore Swim Club as it advanced. It stopped near Mount Loretto.
Meanwhile, in Mariners Harbor, a blaze erupted at about noon, destroying 11 homes between South and Western avenues as a single fire company tried to hold it in check. It burned south to Forest Avenue and north to Richmond Terrace.
Although homes, businesses, sheds, cars, livestock and pets were destroyed by the blazes, only 36 people were treated at hospitals; five were admitted. No deaths were reported. As the embers cooled 10 hours later, residents crowded shelters and blasted the city for poor water pressure conditions on the South Shore. Throughout the blaze, firefighters often stood helplessly when no water came from the hydrants.
"Some firemen cried as the houses burned down," one woman lamented. "There wasn't any water. The firemen stood by and couldn't do a thing."