Muni; News; U.S.S. Constellation Fire at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
- Collection
- Muni
- Series
- News
- Contributing Organization
- WNYC (New York, New York)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/510-057cr5nx69
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- Description
- Description
- On December 19th the USS Constellation, a naval aircraft supercarrier, caught on fire, claiming the lives of 50 civilian workers and injuring as many as 330 others. This incident occurred only three days after a freak mid air collision of two airplanes over Park Slope (one plane crashed in Staten Island), killing 128 passengers and 6 people on the ground. According to a December 24th article in the New York Times, the fire on the USS Constellation began with an ill-fated series of events: "The valve assembly was knocked out of the tank by an 1,800-pound steel plate resting on a wooden pallet. The pallet was hit by a heavy steel trash bin that had been nudged by a fork-lift truck. The fuel gushed from the tank and ran through work holes in the steel flooring to decks below, on one of which it came in contact with 'hot work'- either a welding or cutting torch or steel that was hot from such work." Nearing the end of construction, the USS Constellation was due in the Pacific Ocean by mid-1961, keeping with the Pentagon's Cold War strategy to have three carriers in operation there at all times, with one exclusively holding planes designed to carry nuclear weapons. On this day, the WNYC mobile unit was reporting live from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In a series of telephone calls a reporter describes the scene as the Fire Department battled for 17 hours to extinguish the blaze, in spite of snowfall above and smoke billowing below through cavernous steel passageways. The fire was initially accelerated by wooden scaffolding used in construction and the ship appeared to start sinking as water was increasingly pumped in to combat the flames. Workers were trapped below deck in air tight compartments for hours until fire fighters could rescue them - a hole was cut in the hull of the ship to aid these efforts. Most who perished in this incident breathed in poisonous fumes from the fire. The WNYC reporter interviews Lt. Richard Hahn, the public information officer and Lt. Douglas W. Smith, Communications Officer.
- Description
- 4s. 16in.
- Description
- Low level squeal can be heard on the first report. Sound of mic adjustments and engineers discussing the levels.
- Broadcast Date
- 1960-12-19
- Genres
- News
- Topics
- News
- Subjects
- United States. Navy.; Fires--New York (State)--New York.; Fires.; New York (N.Y.) Fire Dept.
- Rights
- Owner/Custodial History: Municipal Archives; Acquisition Source: Municipal Archives; Terms of Use and Reproduction: Municipal Archives
- Media type
- Sound
- Duration
- 00:00:00
- Credits
-
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
WNYC-FM
Identifier: 150511.2 (WNYC Media Archive Label)
Format: BWF
Generation: Transcription disc
Duration: 00:00:00
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WNYC-FM
Identifier: 150511.1 (WNYC Media Archive Label)
Format: BWF
Generation: Transcription disc
Duration: 00:00:00
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- Citations
- Chicago: “Muni; News; U.S.S. Constellation Fire at the Brooklyn Navy Yard,” 1960-12-19, WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed May 1, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-510-057cr5nx69.
- MLA: “Muni; News; U.S.S. Constellation Fire at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.” 1960-12-19. WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. May 1, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-510-057cr5nx69>.
- APA: Muni; News; U.S.S. Constellation Fire at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Boston, MA: WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-510-057cr5nx69