P.A. Meyer Fire State Street, Erie, PA pt. 1
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| P.A. Meyer & Sons aftermath of fire. Photo by Chester Wasielewski. ©2012 Debbi Lyon. |
P.A. Meyer & Sons was located on State Street in Erie, Pennsylvania, in between the Warner Theatre and Trask's department store (which was torn down and replaced by Mid City Towers, shown on the right in the picture above.) P.A. Meyer's caught fire in the winter and was completely gutted.
See the article "Warner Theatre State Street about 1965" for a photo of P.A. Meyer's before the fire: P. A. Meyer before the fire. This article was published on Old Time Erie blog on May 21, 2012.
Bruce Moorhead was a rookie on the Erie Fire Department when the call came in. "Got called in on Friday night, around 7 p.m., got relieved Sunday morning at 7 a.m. I believe the snorkel froze with the basket hanging out over the burnt out building," said Bruce. "That was one h--- of a cold night." He responded from Station 8 at 23rd and Ash Street.
The building that formerly housed P. A. Meyer & Son caught fire on Friday, January 27, 1978. By that time State Street had been changed to include a pedestrian friendly shopping area as part of the Erie downtown redevelopment under Mayor Louis Tullio. The planters shown here are barely visible with all the snow plowed up against them.
Enjoy more fun facts and photos of historic Erie, Pennsylvania at: Old Time Erie
See the article "Warner Theatre State Street about 1965" for a photo of P.A. Meyer's before the fire: P. A. Meyer before the fire. This article was published on Old Time Erie blog on May 21, 2012.
Bruce Moorhead was a rookie on the Erie Fire Department when the call came in. "Got called in on Friday night, around 7 p.m., got relieved Sunday morning at 7 a.m. I believe the snorkel froze with the basket hanging out over the burnt out building," said Bruce. "That was one h--- of a cold night." He responded from Station 8 at 23rd and Ash Street.
The building that formerly housed P. A. Meyer & Son caught fire on Friday, January 27, 1978. By that time State Street had been changed to include a pedestrian friendly shopping area as part of the Erie downtown redevelopment under Mayor Louis Tullio. The planters shown here are barely visible with all the snow plowed up against them.
Enjoy more fun facts and photos of historic Erie, Pennsylvania at: Old Time Erie
What year was the fire?
ReplyDeleteI was home from the USAF the night this happened. I had been a volly firefighter in Erie and was an USAF firefighter so I went down to watch. They went from the first alarm to the 3rd alarm in about 5 minutes. It went to a full general alarm with about 30 minutes with several volunteer FD's in to assist. The building had a lot of renovations inside so the fire was very difficult to get at. The Erie FD guys took a hell of a beating trying to get in to fight it. In the end it was a surround and drown. The wind and cold made it even worse. Everything froze very quickly.
ReplyDelete