Fire Buffs promote the general welfare of the fire and rescue service and protect its heritage and history. Famous Fire Buffs through the years include New York Fire Surgeon Harry Archer, Boston Pops Conductor Arthur Fiedler, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and - legend has it - President George Washington.

Friday, January 20, 2017

SUMMER OF 1977, BROOKLYN




When Brooklyn burned in the Summer of 1977, flames leaped and heat radiated from an abandoned factory, spreading over four city blocks.

According to The New York Times:


``On July 13, 1977, a power failure plunged New York City into darkness and, within minutes, mobs of looters raced through dilapidated blocks of wood-frame apartments toward Broadway, the neighborhood's main shopping street.
``By morning, the street, shrouded in the shadows of an elevated train line, was a shambles of broken glass, wooden police barricades, looted stores, flames and smoke - the most heavily damaged street in the city during a steamy night of looting, with 124 stores ruined.

``That was the first blow to the Bushwick section. A few days later, as a less spectacular trail of arson, drugs and crime wove its way through half-abandoned side streets, a 10-alarm fire, one of the largest structural fires in the city's history, erupted near another anchor of the neighborhood, Myrtle Avenue, and destroyed 24 buildings in a four-block area.''

No comments:

Post a Comment