Being from New York, I would have to say that The World Trade Center had to have been
the worse I have ever seen, or heard about. Need I say more.........
5 years ago we hosted the Biscuit fire in Curry County of Oregon. Three 1/2 months and many acres were burned. Ultimately involved three Counties. As County Fire Chief I never saw my own bed an family for the duration. The Biscuit fire was the largest fire in Oregon history.
Hey Chief, Thank you for sharing that story with us. It's hard to beleive, that
it would take three and a half months to put out a fire, but this can happen,
and did happen in Curry Co..
February 2009. 173 civilians and two firefighters died. Smaller nmbers than some places have experienced, fewer firefighters than we've experienced in the past, but for us this was the worst on record.
The worst fires started on Saturday 7th Feb, this will be remembered as 'Black Saturday'. The weather conditions for that day had been forecast to be the worst on record - and that forecast was correct. The temperature in my area reached 47C - over 116F - RH was less than 5% and wind was strong. When the day started, my fire service, the Country Fire Authority of Victoria, had 4000 volunteers on standby. Some remained on standby as there were no fires near their area, but teams had to be held local just in case. Some worked fighting familiar types of fire. Some experienced hell.
not sure if this is the worst but its definitely one of the worst ive heard about. google Ghent, West Virginia gas explosion. they made a movie about it for the Hazmat awareness class that we take here. basically a gas technician had a bad leak start that overcame a little general store. the employees locked the doors and stayed inside!?! the local fire chief and some ems and another firefighter showed up and BOOM. lots of folks injured and worse. the store was obliterated along with some apparatus and a few lives.
the tamahere cool store fire in hamilton where one of our brothers Derek Lovell lost his life and others were burned in a gas explosion
it may not of being as big and flashy as say the southdown fire but in my opinion more costly with the loss of Derek, buildings can be replaced our brothers and sisters are gone forever
Hey Paul, Thank you for sharing your story with us. As I said in other discussions
Gas Leaks can be your worst nigtmares, I am sorry for the loss of one of our
brother Derek. Be safe brother.
The Jesusita Fire, here in Santa Barbara, as we speak is only 30% contained and is still threatening tens of thousands of people. 30K have been evacuated as we speak... This may prove to be one of the most devastating fires in my counties history. What was once wildland is now urban wildland interface, loaded with homes and people. We have a long history of wildfires in our county, and in fact in 1922, my department was the original wildland firefighting department. This fire hit areas with multimillion dollar homes in an area that we all knew would one day get hit by a wildfire... it did and it is still proving to be the most memorable fire in my counties history. TCSS, CB
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 which started when Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern. Back then they had to let the fire burn itself out but not until after it took 3 1/3 sq miles of city with it. At least that's the story I heard. I wonder if that cow fed steaks to all the FFs. TCSS