On Jan. 15, 1904, Paterson firefighter Harry Kelley of Engine Co. 7 was fatally injured when a pinewood ladder snapped at a general alarm fire at the Hinchcliffe Brewery.
Captain James O'Neill, who was also on the ladder, suffered injuries.
Box 18 at Straight and Governor streets was transmitted just after 7 a.m. after flames broke out near an elevator of the the fifth floor of the building.
The initial alarm brought horse-drawn Engines 3, 6 and 1 and Truck 3, with the horses struggling to over ice-covered streets to reach the blaze.
The general alarm was a sounded after a roof-top tower holding thousand of barrels of grain collapsed.
Engine 7, which was usually held in reserve in the south of the city, was added to the call, bring all of the city's fire apparatus to the blaze.
Kelley and O'Neill were manning a ladder pipe aimed at the fourth floor when they met their fate, falling 60 to 70 feet.
For full details, visit patersonfirehistory.com
