St. George Hotel Fire 8/1995

Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
9,091
Always been interested in this fire. Any stories from members of this site who know about it or were there? 16 alarms on tiny BK Heights streets. I recently found out that normally first due E205 was assigned on the 2nd alarm (maybe initially unavailable), accompanying L118 was still first due.

Initial report of smoke went unfounded until roofman went up and found glow of fire a few buildings down, middle of building complex. Was downhill from there from what I would imagine was a well-advanced fire that went unnoticed for quite some time.
 
Joined
Jul 29, 2019
Messages
339
I'm not an FDNY member but I work for VZ which was NYNEX at the time. I worked North Bklyn so Brooklyn Heights was part of my regular turf. I had worked many times either in or around the St. George so when I saw the news coverage I knew we were going to have ALOT of work on that block. The fire was Saturday I was off, but Monday I rode down there and was able to walk down Clark St and 51 Clark was a smoking black hole. There was nothing left and it wasn't a small building. The Marquee bldg was in bad shape these buildings were mostly not in use at the time. There was still plenty of FDNY members on site and of course Clark St was closed. In the following days the work started coming in and our guys were replacing cable, outside wire, terminals etc. I had work in 111 Hicks, buildings on Pineapple where apartments had ignited from embers. Insulation was melted from the cable and the copper was fused from the heat. We were replacing inside and outside wire on that block for a long time. In my 32 years of service its the worst damage I've ever seen. My job though was easy compared to the FDNY members who had to fight that fire. Just looking at the damage on that one block our guys were amazed anything was left standing as were the residents. The FDNY did an unbelievable job there that's why they're the best.
 
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Joined
Nov 1, 2019
Messages
396
I have the audio of the job. The dispatcher was excellent. I actually sent the guys from gettin salty some video of the job as well
 
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