Clarence A. Ramsey was a driver for the Neversinks for more than twenty years beginning in the early 1920s. During his employment he helped battle numerous fires but the two highlighted here for our October Looking Back series are of interest because Clarence is mentioned in them.
In the first story, Clarence Ramsey rescues a victim from a fire and in the second Ramsey himself was the victim and later became one of the few Reading Firefighters to die in the line of duty. It is not noted whether Clarence's efforts were ever celebrated but we would like to now if even in this small way.
W. T. GRANT'S
DEPARTMENT STORE
Friday, October 23, 1931
Sometime around 08:00, three employees at the W. T. Grant Department Store, 508 Penn Street, discovered a fire in the front of basement. In an attempt to battle the fire, they grabbed an extinguisher, but found they were unable to control the flames themselves. One of the three men, Robert Hayes, ran out of the building, and struck an alarm of fire from Telegraph Station 312, 5th and Penn Streets, at 08:11.
As the alarm was sounding, Clarence A. Ramsey, a driver for the Neversinks on his way to work, counted the taps and responded to the call for help. Ramsey was one of the first on the scene before anyone else, and located a female standing in the doorway as smoke pushed from around her. He pulled her to safety, and she was taken to a nearby hospital where she was treated for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters began their initial attack on the basement fire from the Cherry Street side of the structure, but intense heat forced the men to back out.
Noting the fire was gaining headway, Chief Niethammer tapped out an additional call for help. The second bell was sounded at 08:23.
Within twenty minutes, flames ate through the basement ceiling, and extended into the first floor. Due to the construction of the building and the heavy, black smoke that was now billowing from the structure, Niethammer ordered none of his men to enter the building. Instead, the city's eighth fire chief had six master streams set up along the front of the structure, and eight master streams placed in service in the rear of the store. At 08:44, the triple three tapping of a general alarm brought out the rest of the city's apparatus.
Thomas Kavanaugh, manager at the Mansion House at 500-502 Penn Street, began to notice smoke filtering into his establishment around this time. He began to telephone all the rooms, occupied by more than fifty guests, and informed them to begin making preparations to leave if conditions deteriorated.
Sometime after 09:00, the color of the smoke began to change to white and the volume began to die down. Niethammer organized a crew of men to make their way into the basement, where they found the flames had worked its way through the joists, and had extended into the adjoining businesses. The interior crews worked for over an hour to bring the fire in the W. T. Grant building under control.
Meanwhile, at Adler's Women's Wear, 504 Penn Street, business went on as usual. Around 10:00, an employee in the basement of Adler's noticed his work area filling with smoke. Looking around, the employee found fire breaking through a wall. Eventually, word of this reached Niethammer, who directed several Firefighters to stretch a chemical hand line into the Adler structure to douse the flames.
Finally, after almost four hours of hard work, Niethammer sounded an out tap.
Numerous Penn Street businesses suffered losses in the blaze. Among them were: the Keystone Badge Company, 506 Penn Street; the Adler store, 504 Penn Street; the Mansion House, 500-502 Penn; several dentists, jewelers, and other stores located inside 510 Penn Street; J. G. McCrory's and Company, 5 & 10 cent store, 514 Penn; and the Kline, Eppihimer and Company Department Store, 518-524 Penn Street. The total loss was originally estimated at more than $200,000, but was later aggregated by insurance companies to $109,468.
This was the last multiple alarm fire during the John George Niethammer administration. He retired from the job of Reading's top fire officer during the first week of January 1932.
READING CORRUGATED CONTAINER
Thursday, October 19, 1944
Box 154, Lancaster Avenue and Noble Streets, began to tap out its location at 22:37 when a fire was discovered in a garage attached to the Reading Corrugated Container Corporation. The first alarm brought out the Oakbrook, Liberty, Reading Hose and Keystone fire companies.
The structure was located in an open area two blocks north of Lancaster Avenue between Grace and Noble Streets. The unpaved roadway north of Lancaster Avenue later became known as Meade Street.
When Fire Chief Harry J. Brown arrived on the scene, the men from the Oakbrooks were already in service. Moments later, an explosion took the roof off of the building and the entire plant was a seething mass of flames. This forced Brown to skip the second alarm and sound an immediate general alarm for all the help he could get. Brown tapped out the triple-three general alarm signal at 22:50.
Over one-hundred Firefighters operating thirty hose lines fought the flames at the height of the fire. A shortage of hydrants in the immediate area forced lengthy hose lays, some of which were over twenty-five sections of hose line, from hydrants along the main avenue to the apparatus at the scene.
Although an out tap was sounded at 02:50, several fire companies remained on the scene dousing sizeable flare ups and smoldering debris.
During the blaze, 52-year-old Clarence A. Ramsey, a driver for the Neversinks, died of a massive heart attack. Director of Public Safety Charles M. Stoner, who was also a member of the Neversinks, told of the events leading up to the unfortunate accident. Ramsey approached the scene on the Neversinks engine and dropped some hose at a hydrant several blocks away. Once this was done, he maneuvered the apparatus closer to the burning structure. When he dismounted the engine, Stoner approached him and ordered him to take the apparatus back to the hydrant and begin pumping from there. Ramsey returned to the hydrant, but found the Friendship's engine took possession of it and in operation. Ramsey walked to the back of the Neversink's engine, began to climb onto the top and fell backwards onto the street. Unresponsive, he was taken to Community General Hospital, 135 North 6th Street, where he was pronounced dead. There were three other Firefighters that sustained injuries during the general alarm blaze. Harry Shalters, 33, incurred lacerations on his hands, Earl Musser, 39, received severe cuts on his head, and Charles W. Clausser, 33, who was treated for burns above his left eye.
The company made corrugated boxes used by manufacturing plants to ship war materials across country and over seas. Prior to that, the long, narrow structure was used as a food market. It was then used for the manufacturing of automobiles and later it housed the Reading Automobile Show.
Nothing was left standing of the building but the scattered remains of walls and twisted steel beams. A 100 by 440-foot addition that was under construction was untouched.
The loss was estimated to be between $150,000 and $200,000.
This was the first, true multiple alarm in the 18th Ward section of the city since its annexation in 1915. Four other multiple alarms were mentioned in the previous book, the John George Niethammer Years, 1916 to 1931, but all four were twin alarm activations and not true second alarms that were generated by the chief officer in charge.
Clarence A. Ramsey was a driver for the Neversinks for more than twenty years. Although employed by the Neversinks, he was a life-long member of the Keystones. A veteran of World War I, he resided at 112 North 4th with his wife Dorothy. He was also survived by his children, Margaret and Louis, two brothers, Stanley and Earle, and his sister Myrtle. Ramsey was buried on Tuesday, October 24, 1944 in the Laureldale Cemetery.
On November 21, 1944, investigators charged 33-year-old Harry Shalter, of Avenue A, Glenside, with arson and theft. Employed by the Corrugated Company, he was in the progress of burglarizing his workplace when the fire broke out. It was revealed that Harry was attempting to siphon gasoline from a truck, obtaining five-gallons, when he lost the gas cap for the vehicle. He struck a match, which naturally ignited the flammable fuel. Once he got out of the building, he ran to the nearest Gamewell telegraph station, sounded the alarm, then awaited for the fire department's arrival and assisted in fire fighting operations. Police were led to his capture for two reasons, he was not listed as on duty at the time the fire was discovered, and he was nursing burns upon the department's arrival. Harry Shalter was brought before Judge H. Robert Mays, and sentenced to 18-months to three years in Berks County Prison.
Thanks to Historian Tony Miccicke for sending us these stories.
