Synopsis:Two-Sixty-Six Franklin Street was an address dreaded by the fire-fighters of Worcester, Massachusetts. Six storeys and windowless, the abandoned warehouse was built like a giant chimney: no windows meant no vents to bleed out heat, no exit for anyone trapped inside.
December 3rd 1999 was the day their fears were realised. Within hours, the warehouse had become a lethal firetrap like no other – a deadly cocktail of fierce orange heat, poisonous gases and thick black smoke that reduced visibility to zero. The fire was so hot that water from the hoses evaporated within inches of leaving the nozzle. In one spot, the temperature reached 3600 degrees, twice as hot as inside a crematorium.
‘We always win,’ Fire Chief Mike McNamee used to say. But this time was different. This time his men weren’t fighting fire, they were fighting for their lives…
Genre:Adventure/Non-Fiction
Rating:@@@@@
Pages:321
BCID:xxx-4970388
ISBN:o-7515-3441-2
Year:2002
Format:Paperback
Comments:This is a minute by minute account of the terrible fire in the Worcester Cold Storage facility that killed six fireman, and changed the lives of many more. Despite knowing the outcome from the beginning, this book is an exciting, edge-of-the-seat read. I found my heart pounding during the account of the fire and I cried as I read of the families being informed. One cannot help but admire the courage of these men, who willingly put their lives on the line to save lives and protect property as a matter of course. Most of the time the gamble pays off, but rare as it is, sometimes the fire wins. This account of one of those times is a definite must-read.
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