DENVER IN FLAMES, Dick Kreck, 2000
Most people today know little about Denver's fiery past.
How many know of the midnight explosion and fire at the Gumry Hotel, which killed 22 people, the worst toll in the city's history?
Or that the world-class firefighting crew at Denver International Airport can trace its roots to the 1961 crash of a United Airlines DC-8 at Stapleton, which revealed a fire department woefully undermanned and under equipped?
Or of Company 3, the city's legendary company of African-American firemen, wiped out in a hotel fire in 1895?
In Denver in Flames, veteran Denver Post columnist Dick Kreck recounts in compelling, journalistic style the triumphs and tragedies of the Mile High City's firefighters and the disastrous fires they fought between 1863 and 1974.
More than a history of the city's great fires, Denver in Flames paints a moving portrait of heroism and tragedy, chronicling events that led to long-term changes in city ordinances, building codes and firefighting techniques and that have shaped Denver's appearance over the past 140 years.
CONTENTS: Chapters include: The Booming of the Flames; The "Great Fire"; "Good G-d Almighty"; "Remember the Saint James"; A Pit of Horror; So the People May Know; "Good-By, Billy"; "Get Out, Damn It; "It Looked Like Hell"; "Go Where the Smoke Is"; "G-d Will Take Care of His Children"; "In the Dark of Night".
Appendices include: Construction in a Designated "Fire District"; Losses in the "Great Fire": April 19, 1863; Colorado Fires Set by Union Arsonists: 1968-1974; Denver Fire Chiefs: 1872 - Present; Notable Denver Fires: 1860 - 1999; Denver Volunteer Fire Companies: 1866 - 1884; Honored Denver Firefighters.
Also included are notes, bibliography and an index.
6" x 9", 294 pages, B&W photos & illustrations, softcover BD2100 / $18.95