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Hudson Model Railroad Club holds open house

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Staff added in some Luzerne County departments this year

<p>A four-story warehouse known as the Brown Block building was destroyed in a massive inferno that injured 27 firefighters in March 1943.</p><p>The building located on East Market Street, Wilkes-Barre, stood between the Jersey Central and Lehigh Valley Railroads, and was constructed by the S.L. Brown and Company in 1879. Today, the Jewelcor Building stands in its place.</p><p>Four food companies used the Brown Block to manufacture, store and ship their goods via trucks and rail cars.</p><p>One of the food manufacturers, J.B. Carr Biscuit Company, used most of the building and the basement to ship biscuits to the U.S. Army and Navy during World War II. Due to the contract with the U.S. Department of War, agents with the FBI and Naval Intelligence assisted city officials looking for the cause of the fire.</p><p>City Fire Chief Ambrose Saricks believed a spark from an electric wire in an office of the biscuit company caused the blaze that spread through an elevator shaft to the roof. The fire was fueled by grease and oil-soaked wooden floors, the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader reported March 25, 1943.</p><p>Three rail box cars scheduled to be shipped March 24, 1943, to service men overseas were destroyed.</p><p>Wholesale grocers American Stores Company, Williams Brothers and Franklin Beef Company lost considerable amount of food inventory in the fire.</p><p>John Jendrzejewski was walking past the warehouse when he noticed the blaze in the office of the biscuit company. Jendrzejewski ran inside and shouted a warning before running to a fire box on Pennsylvania Avenue to pull the alarm, the Times Leader reported March 24, 1943.</p><p>A general alarm was sounded at 7:21 p.m. on March 23, 1943, and within minutes, flames were shooting 100 feet in the air.</p><p>Fire departments from Edwardsville, Forty Fort, Hanover Township, Kingston and Plains Township responded to assist city firefighters.</p><p>&#8220;For more than three hours, the city firemen, with the aid of at least sixty volunteer firemen from other communities as well as volunteers from civilian defense units in the area, battled the flames which repeatedly threatened to spread to nearby buildings,&#8221; the Times Leader reported March 24, 1943.</p><p>Freight houses of the Jersey Central and D&amp;H Railroads were in grave danger of burning. </p><p>Walls collapsed onto East Market Street and adjacent railroad tracks causing passenger and rail cars to stop.</p><p>First aid stations were set up in the Laurel Run railroad station.</p><p>Although no one was killed, 27 firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation and lacerations from falling debris. City firefighter Fred Wolsifer was admitted at Mercy Hospital for injuries he sustained when struck by a snapped cable.</p><p>Three days after the blaze while firefighters remained at the scene hosing down flareups, Assistant Fire Chief Jay McGuire suffered a heart attack and died at Mercy Hospital.</p><p>&#8220;Millions of gallons of water were used to quench the Brown Block fire, and many thousands more are still being poured into the smoldering timbers and rubble. In volume of water consumed, the fire set an all-time record for Wilkes-Barre City,&#8221; the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader reported March 26, 1943.</p><p>It took more than a month to remove debris from the scene.</p><p>Months after the fire, a business in Ashley filed an application with the Wilkes-Barre Board of Health to build and operate a slaughter house at the site, the Times Leader reported Dec. 21, 1943. The application was denied.</p><p>The blaze resulted in the city to install additional fire alarm boxes throughout the downtown area.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The four-story Brown Block warehouse on East Market Street, Wilkes-Barre, was destroyed in fire in 1943. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_WB-Fire-2-1943.jpg</photo0><caption0>The four-story Brown Block warehouse on East Market Street, Wilkes-Barre, was destroyed in fire in 1943. </caption0><photoCredit0>Wilkes-Barre Times Leader March 24, 1943. </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_WB-fire-1943.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">What was left of the Brown Block warehouse after a fire in 1943. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_WB-fire-1943.jpg</photo1><caption1>What was left of the Brown Block warehouse after a fire in 1943. </caption1><photoCredit1>Wilkes-Barre Times Leader March 24, 1943. </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Ed Lewis</p><p>elewis@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Look back: 27 firefighters injured battling massive 1943 blaze