Box 645, 9th and Pike Streets, was sounded at 14:30, for a
fire that was discovered in the Boscov's Department Store, 1401-1411 North
9th Street. Deputy Chief Russell P. Mogel was one of the first to arrive on
the scene. One of the first things that were noticed by the chief officer
was the front windows were pushing outward nearly six inches. Behind the
glass was thick, black smoke. Knowing the building was not sprinklered and
the only fire protection the store possessed was a few soda acid
extinguishers, Mogel knew right away that the store was doomed. As he was
getting his gear on, he turned to several persons that gathered nearby and
said, "Say goodbye to Boscov's!" For a seemingly long time, Mogel worked
the fire himself.
Mogel ordered the men operating the apparatus near the
structure to don their air masks because of the thick, choking smoke that
filtered into the immediate area.
Fire Chief Russell C. Bowers was walking his dog in the
wooden area of Mt. Penn when he saw the smoke. Bowers worked his way back
to his house, dropped off his dog, then proceeded to the fire. Assistant
Chief Merle A. Gerlach was dropping off clothing to be dry cleaned at an
establishment near 13th and Hampden Boulevard. He never heard the initial
tapping of Box 645 or the subsequent second alarm that followed. Gerlach
eventually saw the huge plume of smoke and responded. Deputy Chief Albert
P. Batastini and Assistant Chief Harry L. Stauffer eventually arrived on
the scene as well.
The second bell was transmitted at 14:35. The third, or
general alarm, began to tap out at 14:47. Once the engines that responded
on all three bell alarms went into service, the water pressure in the area
began to decrease.
Not only did firemen have to contend with the heavy fire in
the Boscov store, and protecting the exposure buildings, but they also had
to extinguish an engine fire on the Friendship's 1957 GMC rescue truck,
during the fire. The author's father, Anthony Miccicke, was employed as a
relief driver for the Junior Fire Company from 1966 till the early 1970's,
was on duty and drove the company's 1959 Mack 750-gallon pumper, known as
Engine 2, to this fire. He took a hydrant at 10th and Pike Streets, and fed
several hand lines that were run to the roofs of homes on the north side of
the 900 block of Pike Street.
With the huge plume of smoke that was given off, and the
tapping of third alarm, people began to rush to the scene. Traffic came to
an almost stand still around several of the streets in the area. Both the
on coming, and off going shifts from the Reading Police Department, were
sent to the scene to help with crowd control, and directing traffic.
A warehouse at 1411 North 9th Street, used by Boscov's, became almost like
a pressure cooker, mostly because the roof of the structure was not
ventilated. Fire then spread to a dwelling at 1413 North 9th street, before
it could be controlled.
Deputy Chief Mogel special called an engine from the
Oakbrooks, and the Keystone's aerial, to the scene at 16:30. By 18:30, the
fire was listed as under control, although firemen did not begin a full
interior attack until almost 21:00. A"out tap" was recorded at 02:02. Two
still alarms were dispatched the following day, one at 08:00, and again at
10:30, for flare ups.
Numerous firemen were injured during the blaze. Paul Heckman,
a 56 year old from the Washington Fire Company, sustained bruises, Harold
F. Sallade, 52 of the Liberties, injured his left shoulder, Dale A.
Sweigart, 22 of the Liberties, was treated for exhaustion and an injured
left knee, Samuel A. Hetrich, 51 of the Schuylkill, received multiple
bruises, Walter O. Derrick, 45 of the Schuylkill, a strained left knee,
George C. Kline, 25 of the Reading Hose, an injured left eye, and Charles
Ludwig, 26 of the Schuylkill, punctured his right finger. Two relatives of
Deputy Chief Mogel were also injured. His son, Russell Mogel, Jr., a 23
year old from the Oakbrooks, sustained a cut above the left eye, and
Richard B. Mogel, Chief Mogel's brother, who was a 41 year old member of
the Neversink, injured his right eye.
A team of investigators, consisting of State Police Fire
Marshal Michael A. Wisniewski, the Bureau of Fire's Fire Marshal Ralph B.
Pennypacker, his assistant Florin Monasmith, and a detective from the
Reading Police, Kenneth Sweigert. They concluded that the fire started in
the basement of the Boscov's Department Store, and caused an estimated
$300,000 in damage. On November 20, 1967, the same team of investigators
probed the cause that destroyed Boscov's West, located on Penn avenue, in
Sinking Spring. Not only did our Fire Marshal and his assistant respond to
the call in Berks County's Fire Zone 4 area, but the Friendship, Reading
Hose, Schuylkill and Junior's ambulance, also responded. The Boscov family
suffered the loss of two department stores in less than ten months.
Solomon Boscov was a Russian immigrant who sailed to America
in 1911. His first endeavor was peddling lemonade on the streets of
Washington, D. C. After failing, he came to the Reading area under the
impression that the people here spoke Yiddish. Instead, Solomon Boscov
found that the language was Pennsylvania German.
Mr. Boscov first sold dry goods door to door, carrying his
merchandise in a sack he carried over his shoulder. As business got better,
he progressed from carrying a sack to pushing a cart to driving his goods
around the streets of Reading in a horse-drawn wagon. In 1921, he opened
Economy Shoes & Dry Goods on the northeast corner of 9th and Pike
Streets. Solomon, his wife Ethel and his family resided in an apartment on
the second floor. In the mid-1960's, Solomon Boscov opened two more stores,
Boscov's North, located just south of the Reading Fairgrounds in Muhlenberg
Township, and Boscov's West, in Sinking Spring.
A historical marker was placed on the site of Boscov's first
store, 9th and Pike Streets, on Tuesday, August 3, 1999, thirty years to
the day that Solomon Boscov died. The historical marker became the sixtieth
marker placed in Berks County by the State Historical and Museum
Commission.
Thanks to Tony Miccicke for sending us this
story.
