City in Sound; Fire Inspection Team

This is Jack Angel, with city in sound, stories out of Chicago, city of the vastest movement on earth, city of all things, among them world -renowned fire department. Engine 60, air fire at 45, 19, south, one -twice ammo, four -five, one -neighin, south, one -twice. Four -five, one -twice, one -twice. It was engine 50, at 47th and Wentworth, run and gone in a moment. This is a busy company, in a side of the south side, stricken by the tenement fires. Much has burned many have died. This is

why there is something else at 50, field headquarters for Operation Action, a task force of a hundred firemen who will move among the congested buildings on emergency inspection duty so that more will not burn and that more will not die. This is their story. Chief Street Operation Action, engine 50. Tiller and Romancec, cover the 4800 block of South Park Avenue, all dwelling units, hotels, rooming houses. Okay, this Chief William Street, who had one of these two 50 men firemen teams. As a reason for this, of course, sir, but I imagine that having been on the fire department for how many years now, approximately 30 years,

you're pretty well acquainted with what the substandard construction and lack of maintenance can do, aren't you? Yes, sir. That cost lives. Yes. Of tenants, people, firemen? Yes. Do you recall any, any tough spots you were in? Yes, I recall one. I was in the attic of a bungalow and the fire started and the basement came up the sides and the gas is accumulated in the attic and one we ventilated, I decided to wait for the water and I was knocked out due to lack of oxygen. I came to in the hospital. But there's every reason in the world to clean this business up, isn't there? Yes, sir. How can we do this? I've got literally scores of calls that you make here, inspections. You see thousands of things. Who's fault is this? How can we clean it up? How can we

make it safe? It's a big problem and they're working on it now. This is one of the angles, this operation action and it's education and then action also, education without action is useless. We're trying to get the action and the education to the public by informing them of the hazards and also seeing that they correct them. Chief Street, every time you see one of these buildings, do you ever see it in terms of a building going up in flames with people inside and firemen trying to get them out? A good inspector, a fireman, he always sees it that way. He figures out how it'd be to fight it, how it'd be for the people in there, how fast will it burn? He always looks at it from that point, loss of life, property damage, and how it'd be for the guys who have to go in there. That's right. It's a bright day here on South Parkway, but the old Greystone Mansion, where we stand now at 48 -14 South Parkway, seems to cast a kind of pall over it. I would judge that back in the 90s, perhaps the late

80s, this was an imposing mansion here along South Parkway. It was a fine residence at one time. It has all two and a half stories, perhaps at the most three flat building when it was constructed, three families once lived here, and if not splendor, at least comfort and poise. Now this building once occupied by three families has been cut up into 21 flats, I understand, 21 hover like apartments and rooms. There are lots of people who live in here, I don't know how many, but lots of people. They live at the risk of their lives, and to prove it, we're here with an inspection team from the fire department, Lieutenant Walter Clark and Fireman James Rowan, and let's go in and look around. We're standing here in what was once the lobby of a fine home. It still has a hollow sound to it, but most of the living room and the great dining room at one time has been partitioned off with what appears

to be thin pine into a series of first floor apartments. So come with us up the stairwell, once ornately carved of walnut. Now chipped away, the stairs feeling like rungs in a ladder, part of the pins on the once ornate staircase knocked out, slipping, and the firemen with us said, don't sit or lean. As we approach the second floor of the building at 48 -14 South Parkway. Are these your children, ma 'am? Yes. Well you look rather young to be a mother. How many children do you have? Three. Three. And you live right here at this apartment? I live right there. How many of you are in there? Live there. Five. Five. That's two rooms, isn't it? Yes.

Would you tell me how much rent you pay on that? 14th. A week for the two rooms. Uh -huh. Thank you. Into the hallway now, past a group of tenants, and on what will be the first leg of our inspection, and here with us is the inspecting officer Lieutenant Walter Clark. We are now on the third floor of the building at 48 -14 South Parkway. The corridor to describe, I would say, is approximately 30 feet in length, with possibly four apartments in this corridor. We are now standing in front of a washroom that accommodates these four apartments. It is a, looks very much like a prehistoric washroom with a tank that is no longer in use. The connections do not

supply water. The plaster is off, the walls, the floor is sagging in spots covered by linoleum with holes in. How many people use this bathroom would you say Lieutenant? Well, I would say that the supply is the four apartments, and we'll take a rough guess of three to each apartment that's 12 people. Into one of the apartments here with the inspecting officer Lieutenant Clark, past a living room here, which you're seated about four or five people, a little boy, a lady, television set, radio, and into a kitchen adjoining. Lieutenant Clark, is that a window? That is supposed to be a window jack. The window has been broken and it is now covered with cardboard box or partially covered. How much the stove here I notice it's it's arm and

nothing is cooking. Well, that's sorry. This stove jack is supplying heat to this apartment. In our inspection we have found that the water is down in this building and the only source of heat that these people have is turning on this range here. It's a place or can. It is one of the greatest ones that we have. I remember the Green Mill Hotel fire where a stairwell collapsed and a fireman got burnt very bad. The captain lost his life at the same company. You got out of the course? Yes, we're in the rear building when the front collapsed. How many men were in there? There was a full engine company in there on this stairwell when it collapsed. Three of them got out including the fireman that got burnt bad

and the captain got to them in a stairway. It was the only one that didn't come out. He didn't come out. No. His fireman James Rowland of inspection task force standing in front of an exposed pipe in this gym. That's a gas pipe supplying gas to the makeshift department in the front. As you can see it's got loose connections or connections but I look for a feed its makeshift and it's hanging the exposed on the wall. It uh I see goes in a sort of a piece of partition over there on the front of that apartment which uh looked as if it might not be plastered. Do you know what that is? That's the plywood. Plywood, painted, painted, painted. Plywood is fine. Well what happened here today? Throw this thing in later or exactly how did that come about? Well this hallway probably when the building is built if have the extended are we to the front of the building? But they made an apartment now by the front two rooms out of plywood. Out of plywood yes. I'm back in an open and exposed gas pipe. Right.

Fire start this way. Yes sir. If I talk to you a minute please. Yes sir. Are these your children? I them that three. I'm three small and I got two in school. I see. Do they live in the apartment two? Two kids. No all all your children. They all live here in this apartment. Let's see we got one, two, we got six then. Yeah with myself. Uh huh. There's six. There's me in the kids. How long have you lived here? Well I've been here about six months I guess. I don't want to pry under your personal affairs but would you care to tell me how much you rent your pay for this apartment? Not at all of them all. We're here in the second floor apartment now which I judge to be about two and a half rooms and let's take a look through here with Lieutenant Walter Clark. Lieutenant what do you find here? This apartment has been cut up. It was one large room with some previous time. How far back we cannot judge.

But it's been cut up into to be make two and a half rooms. The walls are made of cardboard. Not a standard partition. We test these walls and find that it is nothing more than cardboard. That's the sound of cardboard. Partitioning this bedroom from the living room. That is right. How about that wall over there with a door? The door appears to have been sealed. What's the story there Lieutenant? Well that door has been sealed off to make the half room or kitchen. And the kitchen is a very small closet space affair. It has a sink, a stove and a refrigerator in there. What kind of access is there to this apartment? In case of fire, how do you get out? The door has been sealed over here to the bedroom and the kitchen. There's one door in the front but aside from that I mean if you were in this room and the

place caught fire how would you get out? Well in a case like that the front exit the door that we just came in was been blocked off by fire. The only other means of escaping from this apartment there are three windows located in the back of the building and they are facing a roof. A flat roof of approximately 20 feet in length from the windows. So I gather you'd go off on the porch and then drop about 20 feet. That is right Jack. The porch is either your roof or the second floor is nothing more than a roof and no stairs after you get out on it. So there you four you'll drop 20 feet to the ground and maybe use your life or break your legs. Well we responded to an alarm a fire one day on the south side and

we were ordered into the building and we were ordered in the second floor the building and we pulled the ceiling and the chief ordered us in through the ceiling by a roof ladder and it was supposed to be an attic and when we got up there we found that it was substandard partitioning into a substandard partitioning made into cubicles and at the time we could not find no stairway or anything and one the fire was out we found later on that there was a child burned up there due to the substandard partitioning is the only one means of the address. No way out accepting the one means. This is a long narrow stairwell the likes of which I've never seen before there is no light here there's the dim light of daylight breaking through a partial window here which seems to have been partially blocked at the bottom of this stairwell which leads to no place no place whatsoever is Lieutenant Clark. The stairway in my

opinion I have never encountered in all my years in the fire department the stairway leads from the second floor right down to the first into three solid walls no place to go any event that you were on the stairway and a fire occurred well how did it get this way what what sense does it make where does the stairway begin and end here that is a good question Jack where it begins and where it ends we find coming down as stairs that it ends nowhere now sometime when they cut this building up they had no use for the stairway so therefore they sealed it off well this was a means of egress wasn't it at one time it was a means of egress for the tenants on the second floor so that when it was cut off they in effect cut off part of these people's lives potentially. Ah yes I'd say that depriving one more means of access to this building that is right Jack all buildings should have two means of egress and one of one were caught in this stairwell here

looking or searching in the event of fire well I would say that they would lose their life either by being burned or suffocating I remember one fire specifically because it was my very first day in the fire department we had to still alarm out southwest we get to the building and the fire was roaring pretty bad in the back of the building a woman standing on the street in her robe yelling my babies in there so we go up the front stairway we problem her hands and ease through the living dining room look at behind couches the combined chairs televisions so uh plenty to draw a saw we had to get out of the building after the fire was all out to go to the back of the building and found her baby was a 26 year old 220 founder and the father he had been out of the building and going back in for the father and either one of them made a big out again this is a very small living room here in the

basement I guess it were next to the boiler room here I can't tell one of the paper on the wall is wall paper or part of the wall I'll ask fireman James Rowan about that he's an expert I'd say that's part of the wall Jack that's just coming apart it's wall board how about that plaster over there I realize it's a building imperfection but is it also a fire hazard very much so once the fire gets in behind the plaster then nowhere where it goes it's hard to say and go any place in the building that appears to be laughing at some sort doesn't it would laugh yes would laugh uh let's go into the kind of combination bedroom and dining room here man you live here uh have you lived here very long for I know three years the floor here this is kind of loose but it won't sink through since we're on the basement is this built right over the dirt floor or would you know uh it's a concrete on the mass that he told me uh -huh boy there's no concrete around this spot here is there Jim no this is

pretty bouncy but you're be careful uh about the the kitchen here this looks like it might have been kind of tacked on next to the boiler room do you have a rare access and where does it lead yeah this is out to the boiler room here where we'll be going in just a second there's barely a room in the kitchen here to swing the door open and of course this is thoroughly an improvised kitchen I don't know what it was at one time perhaps a storeroom and could I ask you please uh what you pay for this apartment 15 dollars a week 15 dollars a week for really two rooms and a kind of a well a kind of a lean two kitchen would you call it well you take it take it easy and be careful in here will you I hope to see in the next time we're here thank you for your kindness wow this was

a case over on the west side where uh they were using a milk can in place of a space heater put a few holes in the bottom of it set it on a wooden floor get a nice fire in it and correct the window a little to leave the smoke out get warm then they can leave the building and the milk can in the meantime is burning in the floor getting a little hotter and hotter by the time anybody sees it the milk can is burned through and it's falling down on the floor below sometimes the fire gets bigger it's bigger as the milk can sits there it's heating the space up we're in the boiler room now which I think could be fairly described as incredible our patches hanging from these pipes cobwebs with dirt and patches of old plaster patching hanging down like well like maybe stalactites in a cave here not three feet from this boiler or stoker uh the wall is crumbling and it doesn't appear to be much of a wall at all does it Jim no what's left of it there's much standing up a check that isn't plasterboard is it is that a wall board or what

that's a wall board inflammable the way it is yes very so you see it right here there's nothing on the wall up in about three or four pieces three or four pieces that's all uh let's move past the boiler here where Lieutenant Clark is making his inspection uh what's the status of this basement this basement is very definitely a tremendous fire hazard to this building the walls and ceilings had been at one time plastered now the plaster has fallen off exposing the bear laugh and studying here you see there's rubbish in the corners underneath stairs in locker rooms and it is definitely rubbish it is not furniture or any useful item that can be used by tenants in this building I see and it means that if a fire did get us started it would get a pretty dog -gone good one right here in the boiler room where fires do start uh that

is correct usually a fire in the boiler room or starting in the basement usually goes up to the uh tap of the building in a very with a tremendous amount of speed and all fairness to Sam the janitor here when we were here last week the floor was covered with hot ashes which had just been dumped right here on what apparently is a kind of a dirt floor within the all inches of some of this wall board and pedaling that's been cleaned up yes it has uh Sam did a nice job on the ashes there but he has an awful lot more to do with the uh rubbish condition in this basement lieutenant of my fair when I say that there are a thousand places in this house where a tenant or a fireman could lose his life I think you're very foreign saying that Jack uh well we were leading off of Root Street and uh fire it wasn't too bad it didn't look too bad with fire a lot of smoke coming out the building all of a sudden I have a clear sky to hold second floor just collapsed on tap of three of our fireman one of them was from my company right here

you came back I guy was lucky sometimes the bell rings in the deep night and you struggle out of a stunned sleep and fall into your gear and get down the pole without ever really knowing you're there till you head for the engine and ride out into blackness by this time you know where you're going and it's too really to say when you'll be back most of the time you will but you wonder why somehow you always seem to be the first company in and why they panic like that and drop out the second story windows this one is going up good now through 20 partitioned hovels that used to be three big flats you know there are people in there and you share their fears and wonder why it has to be like it is and why nobody seems to do anything about it and why the owner is still asleep in some quiet

bed with nobody to wake him up this is Jack Angel with George Wilson an engineer whose recordings here have imprinted city in sound