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From: tommy meehan tmeehan0421 AT gmail DOT com
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2017 10:27:38 -0500
Subject: Terminal Fires
"Hoboken_Terminal_Fire_RR_Gazette_Aug.11_1905.jpg" - image/jpeg, 1062x710 (24bit)

== the 23rd Street Terminal/Ferry burned Dec. 20, only three months after
it opened. It was accidentally set by a workman putting "finishing touches"
on pipework. (Indeed!) =

If I can be forgiven in the spirit of Thanksgiving for going off-topic,
this reminded me of a story I heard once from a buddy who was an FDNY
firefighter assigned to an engine company in Queens. (Now retired.) They
responded one afternoon to a street box that had been pulled in a
neighborhood of private homes. They were the first due company and when
they arrived they found a) a workman in the street flagging them down and
b) smoke pouring out of windows on the second floor of a nearby house.
There was a plumbing contractor's van parked in front of the house. He said
as the engine stopped he could hear some of the other guys were already
grumbling. My buddy's job was to be the first one off the engine and start
opening the nearest hydrant. As he jumped down the workman yelled to him,
"We got a fire in here!" My buddy yelled back, "What did you do? Set fire
to the guy's house?" The workman said, "No, no, we didn't do anything!" But
of course, as the firefighters assumed at first glance, they DID set the
house on fire.

What happened was, they had been adding bathroom fixtures on the second
floor, welding in new pipe, and then sealed the wall back up without
letting the pipe cool down enough. The pipe smouldered, cooking the
insulation and other material until they ignited. They had compounded their
mistake by failing to monitor the site for a specified period of time as
required by state code. (I think they went on a lunch break.) My buddy
said, "It's ALWAYS the workmen."

To make amends for going off-topic, I'm attaching a news article about the
Hoboken Terminal fire in August 1905, published in the RAILROAD GAZETTE the
following week. I have converted it from a PDF to a jpeg.

tommy meehan


Hoboken_Terminal_Fire_RR_Gazette_Aug.11_1905.jpg

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