06/11/2026
"On This Date" of June 11, 1957
Assistant Chief Albert P. Batastini was on his way to the Liberty’s engine house when he noticed heavy, black smoke coming from center city. Both he and the Liberties began driving in that general direction to investigate this at around 18:10.
On the way there, a child pulled Box 141, 5th and Franklin Streets. The 18:11 bell alarm brought out the Liberty’s second engine, in addition to the Friendships, Neversinks, Washington, Keystone and Reading Hose companies.
Batastini and the first engine from the Liberties encountered heavy fire shooting from an enclosed wood-framed loading shed at the Bloom Furniture building, 124-28 Wood Street. This was situated between the Bloom building and the Monahan Apartment building, 119 South 4th Street.
En route to the bell alarm, the Reading Hose’s engine, driven by Stanley M. Raezer, side swiped a vehicle while he was proceeding west on Franklin Street, which was a one way street eastbound. This occurred in the 600 block not long after he pulled out of the engine house.
Realizing that this was to much fire for the first alarm companies to handle, Assistant Chief Batastini radioed for a second alarm. The second bell brought out the Juniors, Rainbows, as well as the second piece of apparatus from the Keystones and Washingtons.
Deputy Chief Francis G. Drexler asked for a general alarm at 18:19. The triple three call for help brought engines from the Hampdens, Schuylkills and Oakbrooks.
Three moving vans parked inside the enclosed shed were well involved by the time Assistant Chief Batastini arrived. Tires on the trucks popped like balloons from the heat. Flames then spread up the northern wall of the furniture building to the roof. From there, the flames ate their way into the structure.
Firemen were directed to focus streams of water onto a vacant warehouse on Wood Street, which was smoldering from the intense heat. The volunteers also directed water onto the rear of the Monahan Apartments, 119 South 4th Street, which was in direct danger of the heavy fire.
Several paid and volunteer firemen were injured at the fire. Richard McDevitt, a 31 year old driver for the Washies, suffered a cut on his right shoulder. Paul Heckman, 47, cut his left hand. Reading Hose member Oliver Heck, 52, was overcome by smoke. Phillip Piersody, a 47 year old from the Neversinks, cut his scalp. And Alfred Gould, a 52 year old member from the Juniors, cut his right leg.
The Bloom building was sold on Friday, June 7, 1957, at a sheriff’s sale, four days before this fire. It was sold by Leo Bloom to an undisclosed buyer for $11,500.
On June 22, 1957, a 12-year-old male confessed to the damaging $100,000 blaze after he and an eight-year-old boy were arrested by Reading Police Detective John H. Feltman for shoplifting a pen and a pocket knife from a Penn Street store.
He told authorities that he threw a lit match on debris in the open docks of the warehouse, then went home to chop wood.
This was the second fire he was accused of starting during the past year. The first was on August 20, 1956 when he ignited debris outside the Universalist Church of Our Father, 410 Franklin Street.
(photos Ed Schneider and the RFD's first official photographer Nick Philipson)
