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#Post#: 100--------------------------------------------------
28 Jan 1994 Rising Sun Baptist Church
By: Diable Fire Date: January 29, 2011, 10:25 am
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THIS IS A MEMORIAL ARTICLE FROM PHILLYFIRENEWS.COM AND THANK YOU
TO THE TWO MEMBERS WHO PUT THIS TOGETHER.THANKS TO MIKEPENCE AND
62FIREMAN FOR POSTING THIS.
Friday, January 28, 1994 "A" Platoon, F.A.R.#3
No.6
12:18 P.M. - Box 449, 12th and Fitzwater streets
E.1,11,10,PL.3, L.5,11, B.C.1,4, Rescue 1
12:26 P.M. - Special Call, b/o F.A.R. - Medic 11
12:31 P.M. - Special Call, b/o F.A.R. - D.C.1
12:34 P.M. - Special Call, b/o F.A.R. - Rescue 101
12:48 P.M. - Special Call, b/o B.C.1 - E.13, L.1, Air Unit 1
12:51 P.M. - Special Call, b/o B.C.1 - Medic 16
12:55 A.M. - 2-2-2-449, b/o D.C.1 - PL.20,E.60,27,PL.5, T.L.6,
B.C.3(LO),11,7(SO),
F .C.1
1:06 P.M. - Special Call, b/o F.A.R. - E.29(LC)
1:07 P.M. - Special Call, b/o F.A.R. - PL.49
1:11 P.M. - 3-3-3-449, b/o D.C.1 - PL.28,E.53,Sq.9,PL.34,
T.L.18, B.C.10
1:15 P.M. - 4-4-4-449, b/o D.C.1 - E.44,68,6,16, Snk.2
1:16 P.M. - Special Call, b/o D.C.1 - Medic 18B,9,6
1:19 P.M. - Special Call, b/o D.C.1 - Medic 12
1:21 P.M. - 5-5-5-449, b/o D.C.1 - E.7,PL.61,E.38,51
1:24 P.M. - Special Call, b/o D.C.1 - Medic 26B
1:34 P.M. - Special Call, b/o D.C.1 - Medic 15
2:14 P.M. - Special Call, b/o F.A.R. - E.24
2:59 P.M. - Fire Under Control, b/o Car 1
6:51 P.M. - Special Call, b/o D.C.1 - Medic 14
7:03 P.M. - Special Call, b/o D.C.1 - Sq.8
Nature: 745 S. 12th Street, Rising Sun Baptist Church, 1s/stone,
50' x 100'
Note: 2 Fire Fighters, Vencent C. Acey of Rescue 1 and John J.
Redmond of
Ladder 11, were killed while fig hting this fire. They
were trapped
in basement after an apparent backdraft. 8 Other
Firefighters were
injured.
Engine 44, assigned on 4th Alarm, did not respond to this
fire.
This was the busiest day in the history of the
Philadelphia Fire Department
with a total of 838 responses: 383 Fire, 366 Medical and
89 Other Runs
Killed in the Line of Duty
FF Vencent Acey
Rescue 1
FF John Redmond,
Ladder 11
Quote
Topic: 1-28-94
They were working side by side, fighting a routine blaze in the
basement of an old stone church in South Philadelphia.
But then flames rose up behind the firefighters and reached out
with a deadly hand. And in a moment, the Fire Department, and
Philadelphia, had lost two of its sons
Across the city last night, there was grief for Vencent Acey and
John J. Redmond, who were fathers, husbands, firefighters.
Eight other firefighters and a church deacon were hurt in the
blaze, which
went to five alarms.
No one is sure exactly what happened in the basement of the
Rising Sun Baptist Church, at 12th and Fitzwater streets, early
yesterday afternoon.
A fire somehow started. Crews were called, and after a half-hour
or so in the basement, they pretty much had the blaze put out.
There was no hint of what was to come.
"It was hot, dark," said one firefighter. "Your average fire."
Without warning, flames came up from behind. The men were
trapped.
"The fire just started traveling all of a sudden, real quick on
us," a firefighter said. "That's when we started scrambling."
Some made it out, he said.
"Some didn't get out in time."
Said one firefighter: "I'm just glad I got out alive."
Within moments, the fire crews realized that men were down. A
massive rescue effort - Fire Commissioner Harold Hairston later
called it "absolutely gallant" - was begun to get them out.
Those who escaped went back in for their comrades.
"We found out who was in there by word of mouth," said one of
the rescuers. "We'd get one guy out, and ask him who were you
with, and we'd go back in and get the next guy."
"It was hell getting our firefighters out of there," said
another rescuer, who helped bring out both injured and dead.
Even hours later, he was still shaken, dazed.
Eventually, they were able to bring everyone out - everyone but
Redmond, said Les Yost, president of the local firefighters
union.
One of the injured, Lt. Fred Endrikat, organized a rescue crew
of six men to go in after Redmond, Yost said. A battalion chief
ordered them not to go back into the church because it was too
dangerous.
But, said Yost, they defied the chief's orders and went in
anyway.
"They knew that the only way to find the missing man was to go
in and get him before the building collapsed."
Another injured firefighter, Louis J. Brasten, also went in,
Yost said. Both he and Endrikat were from Rescue 1, Redmond's
company.
Endrikat and Brasten "were further exposed and further injured
by going back in," Yost said.
Later, the weary, grieving, smoke-blackened firefighters talked
about what it was like trying to rescue the men, knowing that
one or more were dead.
Because they hadn't been given permission to talk to the press,
they didn't want their names used. But many did want to talk.
"You work harder when you know someone's down," said one.
"You just do what you can do, and hope you're doing the right
thing," said another.
"There are things you've got to do whether he's alive or dead,"
said a third, a supervisor. "You've got to separate out the guys
who are not in shock."
It began about 12:18 p.m. as a simple basement fire, the kind
city firefighters handle all the time.
At a news conference yesterday afternoon, Hairston said
officials still don't know what caused the fire.
But, he said, it was "somewhat routine in nature at first."
"There was no reason to think we shouldn't have sent people into
that basement."
The firefighters, he said, "proceeded to extinguish the fire."
But, said Hairston, "sometime after that, the fire in some way
appears to have come up and gotten on behind them."
Yost, who interviewed a number of the firefighters, said what
happened was a "flashover" - an explosion of the superheated
gases that were in the building.
"They were cut off from the exit," he said.
Hairston, who was unwilling to use the term flashover, said that
over the next few days, fire officials will try to determine
exactly what happened.
Investigators will "interview every firefighter . . . get every
shred of evidence," Hairston said.
As they watched the old church burn out of control yesterday
afternoon, witnesses had terrifying stories to tell.
"I was driving by and the whole thing blew up," said Joe
Anthony, 48. ''The whole church just went up in flames. It
sounded like an explosion. It happened real fast."
The Rev. Dorothy Wilson, pastor of the Church of God a block
away, watched as "two firemen just came running out and
collapsed on the ground. Another firefighter was hanging out of
the window waving his helmet. He couldn't even speak. I saw him
drop his helmet and he fell backwards. They went up the ladder
to get him, but I never saw them bring him down."
A few minutes later, she said, she saw them bring two more
firefighters out the front door and give them cardiopulmonary
resuscitation.
"By then the flames were so intense and the smoke so unbearable
they just couldn't get in there," she said.
About 22 people were evacuated from neighboring buildings, and
the Red Cross set up a temporary shelter at a nearby school.
During the fire, James J. Everett, a deacon at Rising Sun
Baptist Church, suffered smoke inhalation, fire officials said.
They said he let firefighters into the church, but they didn't
immediately know whether he was inside before the fire or
entered after it began.
He was in guarded condition early this morning at Pennsylvania
Hospital.
It was the worst day in for the Philadelphia Fire Department
since February 1991, when three firefighters died in a high-rise
fire atOne Meridian Plaza.
Acey, 42, of Eastwick, was assigned to Rescue 1, at Fourth
Street and Girard Avenue, said Hairston. He had been a
firefighter for 8 1/2 years, and was married with a daughter and
two sons.
Redmond, 41, of Mayfair, was assigned to Ladder 11, at 12th and
Reed streets. A firefighter for 17 years, he was married and had
three daughters and a son.
Redmond suffered smoke inhalation, and Acey suffered smoke
inhalation and burns, Hariston said.
The injured firefighters were identified as:
* Brasten, who was treated at Hahnemann University hospital for
smoke inhalation and released.
* Firefighter Robert J. Crossfield of Ladder 5, Broad and
Bainbridge streets. He was in stable condition early this
morning at St. Agnes Hospital.
* Lt. John F. Cummings of Engine 3, Washington and Moyamensing
avenues. He was treated at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
for smoke inhalation and released.
* Firefighter Frank X. Donia of Engine 3. He suffered smoke
inhalation and stomach pains, and was in fair condition early
this morning at Hahnemann.
* Capt. Thomas R. Donovan of Engine 24, 20th and Federal
streets. He suffered first-degree burns and was treated at St.
Agnes and released.
* Endrikat, who suffered smoke inhalation, was being evaluated
early this morning at Hahnemann.
* Firefighter Walter Jackson of Engine 1, Broad and Bainbridge
streets. He suffered chest pains and smoke inhalation and was in
criticial condition at St. Agnes.
* Capt. James O'Donnell of Engine 11, 6th and South streets. He
suffered possible cyanide in blood gases and was in stable
condition this morning at Jefferson.
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