On this day in New York · January 9, 1912
The 'Fireproof' Tower Burns Down
On the coldest morning of the winter, the building insurance men swore couldn't burn went up anyway, and the firefighters' own hoses froze solid trying to stop it.
The facts
- Date
- January 9, 1912
- Where
- Equitable Life Building, 120 Broadway, Lower Manhattan
- Deaths
- Six, including five employees and one firefighter
- Weather
- 18°F, cold enough to freeze the fire trucks' water on the building
Just before dawn on January 9, 1912, a fire broke out in the basement of the Equitable Life Assurance Society's headquarters at 120 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, a tower its owners had long advertised as fireproof. Flames raced up the building's open stairwells and elevator shafts and burned for more than sixteen hours before crews got it under control. Six people died, five employees and one firefighter, three of them trapped on the roof as the fire climbed beneath them. Companies from both Manhattan and Brooklyn answered the alarm, but the tower stood taller than their ladders could reach, and the cold turned their own water against them.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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The outside temperature at the time was 18 °F (−8 °C), causing the water from the fire trucks to freeze on the building.
Wikipedia entry on the Equitable Life Building fire
Source: Wikipedia -
Six people died, including five employees and one firefighter. Three of the victims had been trapped on the roof while trying to escape.
Wikipedia entry on the Equitable Life Building fire
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
The vaults inside, holding money appraised at $385 million, survived without a scratch even as the tower around them collapsed, a detail that told New Yorkers exactly what the building's owners actually valued. The site was rebuilt as the 40-story Equitable Building, finished in 1915 and still standing at 120 Broadway today.
Sources
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