They died nearly 130 years ago in the deadliest fire in D.C. Fire and EMS history. On Tuesday, crews honored their sacrifice by placing five ghostly, gray helmets along Pennsylvania Avenue, not far from where the tragedy happened.
During a storm on May 18, 1896, lightning struck a nearby electrical wire sparking the fire inside a telegraph office.
The five men who died that day — Assistant Foreman George Kettler, Pvt. Joseph Mulhall, Assistant Foreman George Giles, Pvt. Daniel Conway and Assistant Foreman Thomas Griffin — died while trying to contain the fire at the Commission House of W.S. Anderson on B Street, now known as Constitution Avenue.
“They entered the structure fearlessly to extinguish the fire growing inside. Already weakened by the fire, the structure collapsed on the valiant firemen,” said Capt. Djante Rodgers at the ceremony.
The fire department erected five gunmetal gray helmets on the light poles lining Pennsylvania Avenue, across from the National Archives, near a black-painted fire box.
“It takes a brave soul to always run towards danger, while everyone else is running in the opposite direction,” Rodgers said at the closing of the ceremony.
These are the latest of 102 decommissioned fire helmets that have been stripped down, painted gray, all to be installed across the city in honor of those who died in the line of duty with the fire department.
“There is no stand-alone memorial for us. While we work on getting that stand-alone memorial made, citizens, visitors, firefighters, families of the fallen will be able to go to the location where a firefighter has died,” Capt. Dennis Carmody told WTOP.
He said they will also place a plaque with a QR code under each helmet.
“It will bring up the photo and description of every firefighter who’s died in line of duty. We’re continuously working to update the website as we get more and more information,” he said.
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