LAFIRE.COM
In Memory of
Fireman Joseph W. Kacl
Joseph W. Kacl THERE is a yawning gap on the east side of Broadway just a little ways north of Fourth street bearing mute testimony to a vicious fire that snuffed out the lives of two of the departments most gallant members. In that narrow space, 40 feet wide and some 150 feet long, once stood the Gray building until the fateful afternoon of November 6, 1939. Our story today is of Joseph Kacl who was carried to his death under an avalanche of machinery and debris when the upper floors of the fire-gutted Gray building gave way. Joe Kacl was appointed to the Los Angeles Fire Department on July 27, 1937 and served most of his brief career in Battalion 1 on the B platoon. Among his probationary reports, a typical one from Captain Paul Zink, Engine 5B said: "He is quick to learn, is polite and obliging and gets along well with the members of the company...a conscientious worker in quarters and at fires." At Truck 3 where he was stationed at the time of his death he was known for his good nature, usually always in on a "stir" and his great interest in athletics, for at Lincoln High School here in the city, from which he graduated, he had been a popular athlete and a football star. The fire in the Gray Building, 336 South Broadway, started as all big fires
generally do from a seemingly inconsequential start which grew into a blaze that
threatened to be of conflagration proportions and taxed the department with some ten hours
of the toughest kind of fire fighting. Room 201 on the northwest corner of the building
housed the L.A. Novelty Company, a concern that did dish painting and other kindred
novelty work, owned by a man named Sam Trieber. Mr. Trieber put some water on a hot plate
in the back part of the room and plugged the electric cord in, then left to take his dog
for a walk. Shortly after an employee noticed smoke filling up the room and called the
fire department and in her great excitement she gave the address as 3336 South Broadway,
to which the signal office dispatched an assignment at 2 p.m. This incorrect address was
later verified by the telephone company's operator as the one having been given to the
dispatcher. About 2:03 p.m. persons outside the building noticed smoke pouring from the
second floor and some one pulled the box at Third and Broadway. |
In the front of the structure the members of Truck 3 had laddered up the front
of the building under the direction of Captain Barclay, placing 35s to the fire escapes
and the long aerial to the roof. The company then took a line off of Engine 3's manifold
and proceeding to the second floor fire escape balcony started to bore their way into the
red demon that was destroying everything in its path. By this time the fire was involving
the third floor and it looked as though it wouldn't be long before the fourth would take
off. At 2:18 p.m. a second alarm was transmitted, bringing Engines 24, 28, 58, Truck 19,
Chief Engineer Ralph Scott, Deputy Chief Blake and Division Chief George Davlin. Shortly
after engine 23 and water tower truck 24 were summoned and Chief Scott and Chief Davlin
took charge of operations from the front and Chiefs Blake and Rothermel took command in
the rear. By that time a huge pall of smoke hung over the entire area as the fire
continued to hold its own and make headway despite the terrific amount of water that was
being poured on it. On the Broadway side the big batteries of manifolds 3 and 5 as well as
lines operating from the aerial pounded away at the flames and to the rear the same was
being done by manifold 23 and water tower 24, all this in addition to the 15 or more hand
lines in operation. Around 3:30 o'clock the fire ate its way up through the roof via the
elevator shaft and for a time threatened to spread to the Trustee building to the south
where the highly inflammable supplies of the NuEnamel Co. were stored. At this time the
men working on lines in the rear of the building were ordered out but by then Firemen
Kacl, Schumacher, Richter and Ed Dawson had worked some 56 feet back into the building on
the second floor despite the heavy smoke, heat and terrific punishment in general. Kacl
had just taken the nozzle over from Ed Schumacher when as though a trap door had suddenly
sprung, the floor in front of Schumancer on which Kacl was standing, gave way and Joe went
through to the main floor. Covered with plaster and debris and stunned by the suddenness
of it all, the other three men scrambled back to a place of safety when they heard a
creaking of timber that grew into a roaring crash as the fourth floor supporting the
presses of the Wetzel Printing Company gave way and plunged through on top of their buddy.
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After this near second loss of life the chief officers ordered everyone out of the structure and wetting down and overhauling was continued from exterior points of vantage. Late in the evening another attempt was made to reach Kacl's body and shortly after midnight firemen and members of the police ambulance crew were successful in extricating his body. It was removed to the coroner's chambers where a later autopsy showed that Kacl had died instantly from depressed feature of the skull and other severe internal injuries. Joseph Kacl was of Bohemian parentage born in Canada on December 18, 1914. He was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. P. Kacl, his wife Kathryn Kacl and a son that he never saw, born several months after he was killed. Requiem Mass was said by Father Shear at 9 a.m. at All Saints Catholic church
November 9, under the auspices of the Relief Association. Interment was at Calvary
cemetery. Kacl's remains were carried to the last place of rest by his comrades of truck
3B, Captain Barclay, Auto Fireman Cooper, Firemen Dawson, Richter, Schumacher and Wood.
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This article appeared in the February, 1945 issue of the Fireman's Grape Vine.
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