Providence RI Fourth of July Fires - 1980s

[nfd2004]

Providence, RI like the FDNY, on the Fourth of July, fires would be seen burning throughout the city in the 1980s.

Every Fourth of July the city would plan for a very busy night of fires with dozens of car fires, rubbish fires and building fires. Many of those building fires would be started in vacant buildings, but very often with the close wood frame exposures throughout the city, the fires would also spread to the nearby "occupied" exposures.

For the Fourth of July, Providence FD would man all their reserve apparatus giving them an additional five engines and two ladder companies. They would also bring in mutual aid companies from the surrounding towns of Cranston, East Providence, North Providence, Johnston and sometimes Warwick FDs.

Once the sun went down, the fires began.

Here are some photos of those fires and some of the Providence fire apparatus back in those very busy 1980s.

Special thanks goes to Providence Firefighter Dan Rinaldi for passing this onto us.

www.105firephotos.com/Rhode-Island-Fires/Providence-RI-4th-of-July-fires-from-the-1980s

 

[res23cue.net]

one of my photos from the night before the 4th fires in providence

 

[Dan R]

Yes, what Bill says is all very true. My first year on the job we had 13 building fires and that was nothing compared to the heyday of the 70's. This would'd be a big deal in a city the size of New York City but Providence is only 18 square miles. Below you will see from the book this isn't one of those stories that seems to get bigger with time. In the pictures below it cites just a 7 hour period and I believe I read somewhere that in that four day period the city had 104 building fires but I'm having trouble locating that article. I grew up on the South Providence/West Elmwood line and the 3rd and 4th of July were out of control and it wasn't seen as doing anything wrong, this was the culture at the time. My friends and I would pile stuff up to burn for weeks getting ready for those two days. The saying was "celebrate the independence of your country by burning down a small piece of it". When we weren't watching a bonfire we would ride our bikes around the neighborhood and watch the building fires. What I would do to have had a camera back then. That era in Providence wes not well documented as far as photos go but those sure were some crazy times.

 

[Dan R]

Here are a couple of typical 4th of July pictures of 3 deckers going good. I took both pictures in what might have been 1987.

 

[firebuffkevin]

Providence, RI like the FDNY, on the Fourth of July, fires would be seen burning throughout the city in the 1980s.

Every Fourth of July the city would plan for a very busy night of fires with dozens of car fires, rubbish fires and building fires. Many of those building fires would be started in vacant buildings, but very often with the close wood frame exposures throughout the city, the fires would also spread to the nearby "occupied" exposures.

For the Fourth of July, Providence FD would man all their reserve apparatus giving them an additional five engines and two ladder companies. They would also bring in mutual aid companies from the surrounding towns of Cranston, East Providence, North Providence, Johnston and sometimes Warwick FDs.

Once the sun went down, the fires began.

Here are some photos of those fires and some of the Providence fire apparatus back in those very busy 1980s.

Special thanks goes to Providence Firefighter Dan Rinaldi for passing this onto us.

www.105firephotos.com/Rhode-Island-Fires/Providence-RI-4th-of-July-fires-from-the-1980s

tHANKS FOR THE PIX. GOTTA LOVE THOSE mACKS