Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Drama

Hitting close to homeLocal firefighter's book details decades of fires in Haverhill

By Mike LaBella Staff Writer Sep 25, 

     

Of the many incidents he responded to during his 32 years as a Haverhill firefighter, Ralph Brown will never forget the fire he was at to on the night of May 19, 1976. 

In his new book, "32 Years on a Home Town Fire Department," Brown recalls the blaze that took the lives of a mother and five children and injured six others. The tragedy made such a lasting impression on Brown that he dedicated a chapter to it, which he titled "The Day Heroes Cried."

"A little piece of each firefighter died that night," Brown recalls in his account of a devastating fire that broke out in a cluttered house near the bottom of High Street, not fire from his fire station. "After the fire was out and it was time to remove the bodies from the building ... This was the day that heroes cried."

Brown's inch-thick book was four years in the making. 

"I thought it was time the citizens of Haverhill learned about some of the things firefighters did over those years," he said. "It's a part of history I thought people would want to read about."

During the 1970s and '80s, Haverhill was the scene of many terrible fires, and many of those were intentionally set by people trying to collect insurance money, Brown said.

"There were a lot of heroes during those years and they are the firefighters I dedicated my book to," said Brown, who retired from the Fire Department in 2000. 

His book includes accounts of many of those fires, along with newspaper reports and photographs from various sources, including The Haverhill Gazette and the family of late Haverhill firefighter David Turner. 

"Every time there was a fire and it was in the newspaper, Dave would cut it out and put it in plastic," Brown said. "He saved everything about fires in Haverhill.

"I have so many of his clippings that I plan to donate them to the Haverhill Fire Fighting Museum," Brown said. "It would be great to display them on a moving wall."

'We could hear kids yelling and screaming'

In describing the 1976 fire that killed the mother and five children, Brown wrote that he was working at the High Street station when, about 11:30 p.m., a telephone alarm came in. He drove the Engine One crew to the scene of the blaze, which was close to the station.

"We could hear kids yelling and screaming from the second floor," he wrote in the book.

Firefighters ran into unexpected problems after entering the front of the building. As they worked with a hose to force the flames back, they tried to move up the stairway but kept slipping and sliding down. Water was soaking stacks of boxes of clothing and papers that a resident had cluttered the stairs with in preparation for moving.

Other firefighters used a ladder to reach the second floor, which by then was engulfed by flames.

Brown worked the pump as other firefighters battled their way through a burning and smoke-filled second-floor living room, sometimes being blocked by stacks of furniture they had to climb over. When they reached the room containing the children and mother, it was also engulfed in flames.

"It was too late for the five children and mother who lost their lives in the fire," Brown wrote.

Fire
It was too late for the five children and mother who lost their lives in the fire," Brown wrote.

Firefighters did rescue others from the building, including several people who were trapped on a flat roof and others who were inside the rear of the house.

"After the investigation, they found that this fire was set," Brown wrote. "Days later they had the person in police custody and it turned out to be a relative. The person who started this fire used lighter fluid as an incendiary." 

Investigators found that the rear hallway door had been boarded up from the inside, Brown wrote.

"Even today occasionally I can still hear those children crying and screaming for help," he wrote.

A community recovers several times

Haverhill has had several devastating fires over the last century or so, and in most cases the areas affected bounced back.

"Each massive fire they had the city rebuilt," Brown said, noting in particular the fire of 1882 which destroyed the leather and shoe shops on both sides of Washington Street. 

He said because there was a delay in reporting that fire, the flames got a head start. That, coupled with cold weather and wind and wood-frame buildings sitting close together, spelled disaster.

"Nine years before, in 1873, in the same area on Washington Street, a fire consumed 35 businesses," Brown wrote. "Also in 1989 (Feb. 11), another fire in the same area consumed four large buildings and completely destroyed them."

He wrote in his book that the 10-alarm fire at 70 Washington St. on the night of Feb. 11, 1989, triggered another fire at 54 Merrimack St. 
Brown was home at the time and was called in to help battle the fire on Washington Street.

When he got to the High Street station, he was called to 54 Washington St. on a report of a fire on the fifth floor rear of the building. 

He wrote that in this case, the fire was started by a hot ember from the Washington Street fire that landed on a piece of rusty siding and was touching the outside wood wall.

These and many other stories of fires in Haverhill are discussed in detail by Brown and also include illustrations.

A treasure trove of 25 short stories, most of which are on the lighter side, comes under Chapter 5, "Days of Recall." 

In one story titled "The Melted Phone," Brown recalls responding to a fire in a second-floor apartment building on Maple Avenue.

"The whole room was lit up by fire," he wrote. "We we moved further into the room extinguishing the fire before us. I was right beside a melted telephone sitting on a table. Not much was holding it together. The phone rang. I picked up this melted mess with wires hanging down and placed the receiver near my ear and said through my mask, I can't talk to you right now I'm busy putting out this living room fire."

In another story titled "Fire is Not for the Birds," Brown recalls an incident in which he responded to a church on Winter Street. As he and other firefighters approached, they could see smoke coming out of a hole in the outside wall of the building. Firefighters quickly put out the blaze.

"As we looked around to see how this fire started, we noticed a bird's nest in the area where the hole was in the wood siding," Brown wrote.

There was half of a cigarette butt in the bird's nest. Brown wrote that a bird had picked up a lit cigarette butt, yet it was not giving off enough smoke to hinder the bird. As the bird flew with the butt in its beak, the wind from its flight fanned the cigarette. When the bird dropped the butt into its nest, it caused the nest to catch on fire and the bird to fly away.

Students help print book

Brown completed his book last year and brought it to Whittier Regional High in the spring for printing. 

"They put it into a binder for me and they did a great job," Brown said, noting that he paid for all of the materials needed to print 153 copies.

He gave about 50 copies to friends and others in exchange for donations to the city's Fire Fighting Museum.

Brown left 100 copies of his book at the Fire Fighting Museum and asked for donations as well.

"There are none left," he said of the books. "But if you would like to download the book and leave a donation, you'll be able to do this on the museum's website by the end of October."

He suggested checking this website in several weeks: www.haverhillfirefightingmuseum.org/.

"I like helping the museum," Brown said. "It's great place to learn and they also have a class in which they teach kids about fire safety, which is an important thing for kids to learn."

Decades of big fires in Haverhill

Nov. 8, 1972: 3-alarm arson fire destroys business block on Main Street where Pentucket Medical building is now.

Feb. 2, 1978: Welfare office at 42 Primrose St. destroyed by fire.

Feb. 13, 1979: 4-alarm fire destroys five-story Ross, Noyes and Carleton Building on Wingate Street. It had to be demolished. 

Nov. 8, 1972: 3-alarm arson fire destroys business block on Main Street where Pentucket Medical building is now.

Feb. 2, 1978: Welfare office at 42 Primrose St. destroyed by fire.

Feb. 13, 1979: 4-alarm fire destroys five-story Ross, Noyes and Carleton Building on Wingate Street. It had to be demolished. 

April 30, 1979: Fire destroys four Quonset-hut style buildings at 12 to 20 Duncan St., which were used as warehouses.

Dec. 17, 1979: 12 firefighters injured during blaze that destroyed two houses at 52 and 56 Arlington St.

March 12, 1980: Young boy dies in fire that destroys home at 16 Arlington St.

March 4, 1987: Firefighter Michael Sullivan rescues 3-year-old boy from Tyler Avenue apartment building gutted by fire.

Feb. 7, 1988: Firefighters David Curtin and Raymond Galinsky badly burned while searching for children in burning building at 22 Orchard St.

Feb. 11, 1989: 10-alarm fire on Washington Street destroys several downtown buildings.