The night the shoe factory burned

This is before my time in Boston, what was the story with the arson? Was it systemic?

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Read "The Rat on Fire" by George V. Higgins – novel based on facts regarding the Symphony Road arson fires in the 1970s.

There were many fires back in those days, so much so that the Boston Fire Department commissioned a special area that was known as the Special Services District. Officially it was District 13. It was made up of sections of the city where Fire Districts 5 (now 4) in the Roxbury-Fenway area, Dist. 9 in the Roxbury-Jamaica Plain area, and Dist. 8 from parts of Roxbury and Dorchester meet, intersected in a small triangle area. It was commanded by the Special Services District Chief, but rather than calling it Car 13, the radio calls referred to it as the "SS Car." Fires in that geographical area would see the SS Chief and the fire district chief, whose district overlapped that area, would respond. Most all fires were multiple alarms.

At the time of the shoe factory fire I was young and was with a small volunteer first responder group. Several of us were Red Cross instructors and taught classes in Advanced First Aid and Emergency Care as well as CPR. This included things such as water rescue and child birth as well. At the time this was the training that most ambulance operators were getting before EMT and Paramedic training became the norm.

We set out to the fire after several consecutive alarms were sounded and eventually made it to the rear-left side of the building on land that was generally vacant at the time. It was clear to us that no amount of water was going to put this fire out easily. That evening it was cool to cold and there was a light rain shower coming down. However in the vicinity of the fire it was not raining because the fire was creating its own updraft causing the rain to be pushed aside. At one point the fire was shooting large firebrands into the air which were then raining down around the area due to the artificial convection current from the fire. Thankfully the rain was beneficial to area roofs and porches otherwise things would have been much worse. At one point I ran over to a spectator and pulled his woolen hat off his head because a firebrand had drifted and landed on it setting the hat ablaze. He was thankful, and now out a hat.

As the firebrands increased we sought shelter on the back step of one of BFD's pumper trucks that was in the vacant lot pumping furiously. In those days BFD firefighters were still riding to fires on the back steps of a pumper and holding onto a strap so they would not fall off. BFD had built in a Plexiglas weather shield over the back step and that provided us shelter from what was essentially raining fire.

Once the firebrands died down enough we moved to the front of the building on Centre Street and observed that heavy black and gray smoke was "pillowing" out the front windows which looked a lot like black cotton balls puffing out. We knew from experience that heavy fire would soon blow out of those windows once it got enough air, so we moved back a little. Then the building's own weather caused a sudden downdraft and that black smoke and gas fell on all of us. It was rather hot and somewhat sweet smelling and tasting. That was my last memory. I woke up on the street with an oxygen mask on me because the smoke had rendered me unconscious in less than a few seconds. This is why smoke is dangerous. You have seconds.

We eventually moved back to a safer location, and when the fire was essentially spent and some areas of the building had caved in, we packed up and went home after several hours on site.

The building required attention from fire crews for several days after to make sure all of the hot spots were out, with the building eventually going up for demolition. The Stop and Shop market on Centre Street is about where that building once stood.

You can tour Plant's house in NH. It's the Castle in the Clouds. Not so over-the-top as a Newport mansion, it's interesting.