Nine employees working the Brighter Furniture Company, 300-04 Penn Street, were preparing a furniture display on the third floor of the store when they detected an odor of something burning. When they arrived on the first floor, they found fire raging out of control in the shipping department in the rear of the first floor along the South 3rd Street side of the building. A still alarm was given to the Neversink's, located half a block north, at 08:14.
Before the Neversinks arrived on the scene, a group of children walking to school noticed an orange glow through a large glass-paneled door that was similar to a garage entrance. As the youngsters ran up to the door to see the fire, heavy fire broke threw the glass and shot up from a nearby grating system over the sidewalk. The children had just passed over the metal grate seconds before this flash of fire.
First District Chief William H. Strouse and the Neversinks arrived on the scene two minutes later and found heavy fire already pushing from the loading docks. Strouse wasted no time in manually activating Box 132, 3rd and Penn Streets.
Within minutes, heavy fire was shooting from every opening on the first floor along South 3rd Street. Realizing the flames were rapidly spreading, Strouse sent in a second alarm for more help at 08:21. By 08:24, a general alarm was manually tapped out. This brought out every company with the exception of the Oakbrooks and Unions.
Twelve pumpers were in service within a half hour. Numerous hose lines were in operation in the street. More hand lines were run to the top of a building just east of the Brighter store, while others were taken to the roofs of dwellings to the south just before Cherry Street. A total of eighteen hand lines and eleven hydrants were in use at the height of the fire. Assistant City Water Engineer Francis A. Heine estimated more than 750,000-gallons of water were pumped into the building.
Flames were confined to the Brighter building. Nearby establishments and dwellings, including Harry's Cafe, 11 South 3rd Street. The Schuylkill Valley Bank received extensive smoke and water damage.
Five apartment rooms were located in a four-story section of the Brighter building, east of the actual furniture store. All five apartments were gutted by flames. Claude Focht, a volunteer with the Friendships, was overcome by smoke while working in that section of building. He was treated on the scene and later returned to fighting the blaze.It took almost three hours to blacken down the fire. Even by that time, flames were still flaring up in sizable amounts and showing itself every now and then around the eaves.
Many spectators marveled at two City Councilmen volunteering their time to help douse the blaze. Current Councilman Charles A. Hofses, a member of the Rainbows, and Council-Elect Charles M. Stoner of the Neversinks, a former assistant chief from the second district, worked from the tapping of the first bell to the out tap at 12:15. Chief Brown released the Neversinks from the scene shortly after 11:30. Four minutes after they returned to the engine house, they responded with Assistant Chief Strouse to a dwelling fire at 231 Franklin Street. The fire was caused by an overheated flue that set fire to surrounding woodwork.
Heavy smoke and the continuous Gamewell activity attracted thousands of spectators. School children stopped and watched the blaze until nearby school bells called them to class. Trolleys, buses and privately owned vehicles were detoured for blocks around the fire scene. A trolley shuttle service had to be set up on both side of the fire grounds on Penn Street. Passengers were unloaded at 2nd and Penn Streets and 4th and Penn Streets, then had to run two blocks around the police barricades to await trolleys at the other intersection.
One passenger knowing she was going to be late for work at the Brighter store was told by the conductor to relax because her place of employment was on fire. Believing he was joking with her, she sat in her seat and soon learned it wasn't a joke when she saw the heavy plume of smoke from the Penn Street Bridge.
Beside Focht, five other firefighters were injured while battling the fire. Chester Angstadt, 32; Francis Moyer, 27; Stanley Delong, 45; Lewis Krize, 31; and Joseph Dankle, 43 were all treated at the Homeopathic.
The Brighter building was a brick-constructed, combination three and four story building. Located on the southeast corner of 3rd and Penn, it fronted Penn for forty-five feet and ran south on 3rd for ninety-feet. At one time, the Obold Hardware Company occupied the structure.
The Reading Eagle mentioned this fire to be the worst Penn Street fire ever. The reporter's prejudice in naming any one Penn Street fire as "the worst" could only be interpreted as his lack of knowledge of devastating fires as the Stichter fire of January 16, 1872, the sesquicentennial parade fire of June 8, 1898, and countless others that had followed.
Chief Brown initially listed the cause as a short circuit, and later blamed a torch used to heat knives for applying shellac to finished products. Brighter Company co-owner Bernard Resnick disputed this finding, stating there were no torches in the basement, and that operation Brown described was performed on the third floor. Brown substantiated his theory after finding a torch in the ruins of the basement near an elevator shaft. Resnick was told this and mentioned that his company was the third furniture store fire within a week, and that all appeared suspicious. He speculated that there maybe someone within the area that had it in for furniture stores. The two other fires he had mentioned were the Liebman second-alarm fire, and the B.J. Smith Showroom, West Reading, on November 27, 1939.
The building was owned by the Berks County Trust Company, who estimated the loss as between $30,000 and $50,000. Insurance companies eventually aggregated the damage to $46,350.
Building Inspector Alfred E. Eckenrode reported the damage to the building was beyond repair and had to be razed. Within days, Eckenrode granted permission to raze the damaged portion of the structure and rebuild. The Miller and Kern Wrecking Company Work began work soon after.
On December 18, 1939, Fire Chief Brown wrote a general alarm memorandum that was distributed by Firemen's Union secretary John P. Wadsworth. Among the problems he addressed was a company foremen was to report to the fire chief upon the striking of second or greater alarm in order for the chief to position the trucks. Brown went on to ask that the streets should not be cluttered with engines in the front of a fire building; to leave room for a ladder truck for roof and ventilation operations; to be sure to use a gate valve on a hydrant and take the closest hydrant and not take any available hydrant as the engine approached the scene; and in the case of a general alarm, the foreman should check to see if his company's second engine is needed, if it wasn't, to send it back to station for availability for the rest of the city.
Thanks to Historian Tony Miccicke for sending us these stories.
