Frederick’s ‘Labor Day fires’ of the early 1970s
By CLARENCE “CHIP” JEWELL
Special to The Frederick News-Post

With two major fires this year that have occurred around Labor Day and the recent 50 Years Ago column in
The News-Post that highlighted the B&O Warehouse fire in 1974 and mentioned other “Labor Day” fires,
I was brought back to my memory bank of the Frederick “Labor Day fires” of the early 1970s.
One of my first major fires as a young volunteer firefighter was the Hiltner Furniture Store in August 1971.
I was working at Ebert’s Dairy Bar on North Market Street, Extended when a customer came yelling about
how he’d just passed the furniture store on East Street and saw a huge fire, just as fire engines were just arriving.
I looked outside and saw a massive column of thick, black smoke trailing skyward over Frederick.
I called my boss, Ed Plunkert, and got permission to leave work and respond to this massive fire.
I hopped into my 1955 Oldsmobile and rushed to the scene to help. I was overwhelmed by the
volume of fire, smoke and heat generated by the highly combustible contents. As I approached the
fire scene, I was literally grabbed by Mel Schearwing, a local barber and member of the Independent
Hose Company who was recruiting firefighters to man a 2 ½ inch hose line on the north side of the building to
flow voluminous amounts of water into the large overhead door that led to the shop and maintenance area of
the store. Though the building was totally destroyed, fortunately no lives were lost and no serious injuries
occurred. An adjacent laundromat was also totally destroyed. Village Liquors and the Kwik-Kook suffered
damage. Store owner Don Hiltner soon opened a temporary location on Highland Street, only to be flooded out.
I worked several months as a part-time dispatcher at Central Alarm before being hired as a full time dispatcher
on July 1, 1972. In the early days of emergency communications, normally only one dispatcher was on duty.
Such was the case when I went to work at 11 p.m. on Labor Day, Sept. 4, 1972. Shortly after I started my
“midnight” shift, I received a call on the emergency phone line (no 911 in those days) from the desk clerk at the
Francis Scott Key Hotel that there had been a mattress fire on the fifth floor and the manager wanted just one
person sent to check it out — no fire trucks with lights or sirens to disturb the hotel guests. At age 19 and the only dispatcher on duty, I was faced with a critical decision: simply send a non-emergency “service call” to check
the hotel, or dispatch a “full assignment box alarm” to bring units in emergency mode from all four Frederick City
fire companies. For a minute I thought I would just call on the direct phone to the United Fire Company to send someone non-emergency to verify the mattress fire was extinguished. But, as there was not a policy for a “fireout” report like today, I decided to send the full fire dispatch and probably get admonished later for unnecessarily disturbing the hotel guests when I was told not to send fire engines. “Box 3” was sounded for the Francis Scott Key Hotel, and in just a very few minutes, United Fire Company Sgt. Charles “Moose” Miller yelled into the radio, “Central, this is a major fire!” How true his words. Moose parked the ambulance and ran back to the United firehouse and responded back to the scene with the United Fire Company 1939 Ahrens-Fox pumper. Arriving firefighters attempting to get to the fifth floor were faced with hotel guests on the stairways as the responders attempted to manually stretch hose lines up the staircase. This was a difficult task but necessary, because some of the hotel fire protection system was inoperable. A second alarm was immediately
sounded, sending the remaining fire engines in Frederick. Additional engines responded from surrounding
fire companies in Frederick County. Civilians with smoke inhalation and several firefighters with minor
injuries required all ambulances in Frederick, including some funeral home ambulances, to respond to
the scene. A large hose line ruptured in the stairway and created panic and confusion, which contributed to
some of the minor injuries.I was also on duty as a dispatcher for another Labor Day fire. On Aug. 20, 1974, Jim Main had completed his dispatch training and came on duty with me at 3 p.m., as the shifts had expanded to two people.
He took over the radio dispatch console at 7 p.m. and awaited his very first call as a full-time dispatcher. He did
not have to wait long. At 7:29 p.m., all four of the seven-digit emergency phone lines rang almost simultaneously to report the B&O Railroad Station warehouse on South Carroll Street was on fire. The direct line from the Citizens Truck Company rang, and I immediately answered to hear Sgt. Charles M. “Mike” Hahn, one of the paid drivers on duty, tell me, “There’s a lot of smoke coming up on the south end of town!” “Go to it, Governor!” I quickly responded, using his firehouse nickname. As the hook and ladder of the Citizens Truck Company crossed South Market Street, the driver of the United fire engine leaving quarters couldn’t understand how the ladder truck received the call before the dispatch.
The massive warehouse ran along the tracks of one of the sidings of the Frederick rail yard. Railroad boxcars would be unloaded and the shipments stored in the warehouse section of the railroad station until picked up. Much of a shipment of hundreds of Styrofoam airplanes that were in the warehouse were saved, providing joy to many kids
living in the south end of Frederick who recovered some undamaged planes from the rubble and flew them all over town for weeks. Jim Main ultimately became a career Frederick County firefighter, retiring from the Frederick County Fire & Rescue Service at the rank of lieutenant. I am sure he will never forget his first day on the job as a dispatcher
at Central Alarm. Another Labor Day fire was on Sept. 9, 1970, and caused serious damage to the kitchen area of Terrace Lanes Bowling Center, though the lanes were not damaged and the facility remained open to the public.

Clarence “Chip” Jewell has been active in the Frederick County volunteer fire service since 1969 and
worked as an early dispatcher at Frederick County Central Alarm. He retired as the Deputy Chief/Director
of the Division of Volunteer Fire & Rescue Services in 2017, having also served as director of emergency communications. He is a Past President of The Frederick County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association and currently the President of the Libertytown Volunteer Fire Department.

The Frederick County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association would like to thank Chip for his 55 years of dedicated service to the citizens of Frederick County.