LYNN — Commercial and residential buildings are now routinely inspected in Lynn for potential fire hazards, a potentially life-saving protocol that started because of a horrific fire at a manufacturing plant 92 years ago that claimed 20 lives.
Nearly 2,000 inspections of various types of businesses, commercial buildings and residences are inspected annually by the Lynn Fire Prevention Bureau, which was created as a result of the Preble Box Company Plant fire on Brookline Street, according to Fire Chief Stephen Archer.
This past Sunday marked the 92nd anniversary of the catastrophe, which occurred on Nov. 8, 1928 and resulted in two explosions that killed 12 workers and eight residents in the area, seven of whom were from the same family living in a nearby home.
Considered to be the highest loss of civilian life from any single fire event in the city, it was a tragedy that could have been prevented if the manufacturing company, which built toe boxes for shoes out of a flammable material (cellulose) had been inspected beforehand.
“That facility would have been inspected for any hazards on site and hopefully that would have caught something (prior to an) explosion,” said Archer. “It perhaps could have been prevented with the establishment of a fire prevention bureau. One thing for certain is that countless lives have been saved by the establishment of the Fire Prevention Bureau in the wake of that tragedy.”
Ironically, just prior to the fire, Lynn Fire Capt. John Day had been advocating for the creation of a fire prevention unit that would have been tasked with conducting inspections of manufacturing facilities, such as Preble Box Toe Company, and multi-family homes in the city, according to Fire Lt. Ed Whittier, the department’s historian.
Day, who warned about the dangers of celluloid use in factories, recognized the fact that inspectors were needed for manufacturing buildings and multi-family homes, which were fire hazards at the time, said Whittier.
He finally got his request three days after the fire caused 20 deaths. The department’s Fire Prevention Bureau was officially established on Nov. 11, 1928 on the orders of then-Mayor Ralph S. Bauer, who called for drastic action in the wake of the tragedy, which essentially incinerated workers in the plant and members of the Blaney family in their own home, according to Whittier.
Shortly after the explosion, Bauer penned a letter to State Fire Marshal George C. Neal, recommending that he revoke all permits to city factories handling explosive materials, similar to what caused the Preble Box catastrophe, that were not located at least 500 feet away from any other building, according to a Nov. 8, 1928 Daily Evening Item article.
“I am out to clean up every fire hazard in Lynn,” Bauer said at the time. “I do not care who it hits. The loss of life in the Preble Toe Box explosion has stunned the city and we must prevent a recurrence of it.”
By Jan. 6, 1929, it was reported that the fire prevention bureau had already performed 686 inspections, which was a “tremendous amount of inspections” done in such a short period of time, Whittier said.
Members of the Blaney family, who lived on Groveland Street, had just been sitting down to breakfast when the fire broke out at the manufacturing company shortly after 7:30 a.m., according to Archer.
The initial explosion in the compact area woke up the whole neighborhood — 25 to 30 foot flames shot out of the building and eight employees were killed after they were either blown out into the street or smothered in the concrete building’s collapse, Whittier said.
Twenty-five to 30 employees were inside at the time of the explosion and the eight bodies were recovered from the ruins of the plant.
“There were two explosions — the second one was more massive,” said Whittier. “(It caused a) complete cave-in and the explosion caused people to be blown out of the building on fire.”
The explosion ignited a number of nearby houses, including one on Timson Street and several on Groveland Street. At least five buildings were on fire at the same time, including the Blaney family’s Groveland Street home, which killed seven family members, five almost instantly.
“There was also a pedestrian who was walking by who was killed, (but) the real tragedy here is the Blaney family,” said Whittier.
The mother, Lillian Blaney, 37, and four of her small children were killed after being trapped and smothered in the fire, but the father, Harry, 39, and one of their sons, who were both burned in the fire, died later at the hospital, Whittier said, noting that the Blaney children ranged from six months to 15 years old.
At the hospital, the family’s patriarch was never told his family had perished in the fire, Whittier said.
“They all had to jump out of the second floor window to escape the flames,” said Whittier. “They couldn’t even get down the stairs. (The fire) trapped that family and basically incinerated them.”
The Preble Box Toe Company Plant fire was a “very serious one” as far as legalities were concerned, said Whittier, explaining that the tragedy set off a series of finger pointing from city officials.
“You would never be able to run a place like that in a residential neighborhood today,” said Whittier.
But there was ultimately no prosecution, as investigators could not find any evidence of negligence.
The cause of the fire was never determined, but there were different theories at the time. A witness reported seeing an employee smoking a cigar, which was prohibited at the plant due to the flammable nature of the materials that were being manufactured, while others have speculated that the explosion was caused by spontaneous combustion, Whittier said.
Today, the Lynn Fire Prevention Bureau performs nearly 2,000 inspections of various types of buildings throughout the city annually, in addition to running fire safety programs in the schools and conducting plan reviews of new construction projects in the city, according to Archer.
When the inspections are performed depends on the type of facility and the situation, said Archer, explaining that some are performed periodically as required by state statutes or local codes, others at the sale of property, and some are done as a result of a complaint received or a hazard noted by a fire company in the course of their routine duties.
Despite being such a significant event in the city’s fire history, Archer said it is interesting that the tragedy has not been more talked about and acknowledged over the years. Still, there’s no denying the impact the catastrophe has had on city and fire department procedures.
“We always learn from tragedies like that and there’s always lessons learned from questions,” said Archer. “It’s unfortunate sometimes that the tragedies have to occur to learn those important lessons. Certainly lessons were learned from the Preble Box Toe Company fire and lessons that will hopefully prevent a similar tragedy from occurring in the city.”
