FF ALFRED BOLD FIREHOUSE EXPLOSION:
New York Times Archives
14 Are Hurt, 2 Seriously, In Queens Firehouse Blast
By
Lawrence Van Gelder
An explosion, rumbling out of the cellar of a crowded Queens firehouse as the day and night shifts changed, enveloped two firemen in flames yesterday and sent a dozen others reeling and pitching about the renovated 71. year‐old building.
The blast, believed to have been caused by vapor from a basement tank freshly filled with more than 200 gallons of gasoline, touched off a dramatic battle to save the lives of the two men most seriously injured.
With the exception of fireman Alfred Bold, who was rushed by Coast Guard helicopter from Jamaica Hospital, where he was first taken, to the burn, unit at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx, and of Lieut. Walter Mischke, who was sped to Jacobi Hospital in a specially equipped medical van, the firemen reported injured in the explosion were treated at Jamaica Hospital and released.
Mayor Beame and Fire Commissioner John T. O'Hagan rushed to Jamaica Hospital after having been informed of the blast.
When the explosion jolted the two‐story brick building at 101.02 Jamaica Avenue in the Richmond Hill section, “a fireman's helmet came rolling out,” said Rocco Guarrici, an attendant at a nearby gasoline station. “And then I saw a fireman who seemed to be engulfed in flames. Two other men came out and rolled him on the ground to put the flames out.”
Wall Tiles Buckled
In the kitchen at the rear of the firehouse, erected in 1913, renovated in 1971 and housing Engine Company 294, Tower Ladder 143 and the 51st Battalion, flaming gasoline reddened the floors and tiles buckled from the walls before the eves of fireman Ted Schmitt.
Of the firemen officially listed as injured, six were burned, one suffered smoke inhalation, and the others reported injuries to the head, neck, shoulder, chest arm or back.
The effects of the explosion were confined to the firehouse, and some firemen expressed the belief that the force of the explosion had been lessened because the doors were opened and because of the presence of a basement‐to‐roof vent in which hoses are dried.
Commissioner O'Hagan, who had just finished meeting with Mayor Beame at the Fire Department's headquarters, 110 Church Street, when he received the initial report of the blast, said it seemed the explosion had been “in association with a gasoline delivery, and possibly caused by leaking gas or vapors.”
An immediate investigation was undertaken by the Fire Department's borough commander and the fire marshal's office, but no determination of the cause was expected for few days.
Yesterday's explosion and fire occurred at 9:07 A.M., and the situation was reported under control at 10:02.
O'Hagan in Communication
According to aides, when the gravity of the situation became clear, Commissioner O'Hagan began hurrying toward Queens by automobile, receiving continuing reports from the scene by radio telephone.
En route, he requested that Dr. John Stein, the head of the special burn unit at the Abrkham Jacobi Hospital of the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, be notified and put in touch with medical officers on emergency duty at Jamaica Hospital. The Commissioner finally concluded that fireman Bold, 39 years old, a former policeman appointed to the Fire Department 10 years ago, should be removed to Jacobi, where greater expertise was available.
He requested Coast Guard assistance, and a helicopter landed on the Van Wyck Expressway, carried away the fireman, and landed again on the lawn of Jacobi Hospital.
Lieutenant Mischke, 59 years old, a former state trooper who joined the department in 1941, made the journey from Queens to the Bronx in a vehicle called a Mervan, in effect an emergency room on wheels operated by the Emergency Medical Services Division of the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation.
Both men were in critical condition, Lieutenant Mischke with second‐ and third‐degree burns covering 45 per cent of his body and Fireman Bold with second‐ and third‐degree burns on 75 per cent of his body.
explosion, believed to have been caused by vapor from 200-gal basement gasoline tank, rips through firehouse at 101-02 Jamaica Ave, Queens, injuring 14 firemen; Alfred Bold and Ltd Walter Mischke sustain severe burns and are taken to special burn unit at Jacobi Hospital by order of Fire Comr...
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