In this months column, I present historic fires or significant events in the fire service from November 1916. A reminder: Readers are encouraged to share information from their departments. November 4,1916: Asbury Park, New Jersey: Secret service agents assigned to protect President Woodrow Wilson assisted in a spectacular rescue of four women trapped by a fire in the Hotel Sum-merfield. The women, one of whom was the wife of the presidents stenographer, were trapped on the third floor and in danger of being suffocated by the thick smoke that filled the three-story wood-frame building. As the fire alarm sounded at 12:10 p.m., two of the secret service agents, Edward Starling and John Slye, were among the first to reach the hotel. Fifty people in the dining room exited the building quickly, as the two agents and several firefighters entered the smoke-filled building and made their way to the third floor. There they found the women trying vainly to find a way out. Other firefighters had thrown ladders to the windows and the women were carried safely to the street. The fire in the basement was then extinguished.
展开▼
