A neat theme this week for Sepia Saturday, and after a little thinking, I decided to go with this image since it’s a bit of a peculiarity in the photo collection. It’s mounted on heavy cardboard with a frame and is about 8″x10″ sized. There’s a very specific date and time, but no details as to who or where! Odd! The back is completely blank so I haven’t posted it here. The vehicle looks like a fire engine with a bell at the back and a tank for holding water perhaps just behind the seat. There are also hooks on the back and sides and even a length of hose lying just above the back wheel. By the looks of it, a building or something made of brick collapsed on top of the vehicle.
So, I set out to various newspaper archives to see what I could find. It was likely in central Pennsylvania, and since I have a date and a pretty specific idea of what happened, it was easy to narrow it down. There was a fire in Johnstown, PA on 17 March 1918 that started around 3am. An article even references the fact that, “A falling wall crushed a $12,000 triple combination truck purchased from the Lafrance concern last summer and felled three firemen who were standing nearby. These men, however, escaped with slight injuries.” The fire truck from the photo, based on the description of the truck, appears to be an exact match to the one from the video below.
Back in those days, whole towns burned down for lack of proper roofing material and fire walls between buildings. What a shame.
Johnstown was also the site of a disastrous flood in 1889 (hhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q62vlcFLLlM) that’s still talked about today. So, under 30 years after the flood, this fire tore through the town. Not a great track record for disasters!
You earned your detective’s badge with this post today. So very interesting.
Interesting to see the video you found, with what looks like a sofa for the driver’s seat. Good detective works.
Oh dear! Thank goodness we have come a long way in building.
Great sleuthing! First thing I thought was an earthquake. That’s what happens to your brain when you live in California.
How interesting that you were able to find the cause of the damage and the news report to accompany it.