Two THFD Firemen Remember 1963 Blaze
By: Jon Swaner
Updated: March 20, 2013
On this date 50 years ago, Terre Haute suffered one of its most devastating fires.
A wind-blown fire burned for seven hours and destroyed a number of businesses between 6th and 7th Streets on Wabash Avenue.
Every firefighter on the City's fire department reported to duty on March 20th of 1963.
Only three are still with us today.
We sat down with two of them, who still have vivid memories of that fire to this very day.
Tom Champion and Danny Budd were both well into their careers on the Terre Haute Fire Department in 1963.
And both will tell you they remember well the night this fire broke out.
Tom was on the first companies to respond.
"By the time we got to 6th street, the smoke was rolling out of the basement of the bowling alley," said Tom.
The fire struck the Deming Building which house the Gillis Pharmacy and a bowling alley in the basement.
It's believed the fire started in the false ceiling of the basement.
"As we pulled the ceiling down with fire poles, and the fire was already involved and was burning into the first floor," Tom recalled.
"we run into the assistant chief and he said 'grab inch and a half hoses and start hosing down Montgomery Ward,' which was on the south east corner across from Red Goose Shoes, cause the mannequins were starting to melt," said Danny.
Montgomery Ward eventually fell.
This was a 3-alarm fire, which means the department began calling off-duty firefighters.
They needed more manpower because mother nature helped to fuel this fire.
Said Danny, "Cold blustery night... Wind blowing 35 mph gusting to 40 straight out of the west. And it hit that fire. It just moved that fire up over the top oof one building and pushed it right straight down, then right back up over the other one. Oh yeah."
A men's store down the street had a fire wall, and that's what stopped helped to eventually stop this fire.
"The Viking Mine Company come in, and we bored holes into the wall on the west side, to put dynamite in it to blow the fire out," said Tom.
Six firefighters were hurt that night, including Danny Budd, who was hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
However, Tom and Danny say they lost about 5 firefighters due to lingering effects of smoke inhalation and heart attacks.
And they say their deaths can be attributed directly to fighting this fire.
In all, the fire caused $5-million worth of damage.
Today, that figure would be close to $38-million.
A wind-blown fire burned for seven hours and destroyed a number of businesses between 6th and 7th Streets on Wabash Avenue.
Every firefighter on the City's fire department reported to duty on March 20th of 1963.
Only three are still with us today.
We sat down with two of them, who still have vivid memories of that fire to this very day.
Tom Champion and Danny Budd were both well into their careers on the Terre Haute Fire Department in 1963.
And both will tell you they remember well the night this fire broke out.
Tom was on the first companies to respond.
"By the time we got to 6th street, the smoke was rolling out of the basement of the bowling alley," said Tom.
The fire struck the Deming Building which house the Gillis Pharmacy and a bowling alley in the basement.
It's believed the fire started in the false ceiling of the basement.
"As we pulled the ceiling down with fire poles, and the fire was already involved and was burning into the first floor," Tom recalled.
"we run into the assistant chief and he said 'grab inch and a half hoses and start hosing down Montgomery Ward,' which was on the south east corner across from Red Goose Shoes, cause the mannequins were starting to melt," said Danny.
Montgomery Ward eventually fell.
This was a 3-alarm fire, which means the department began calling off-duty firefighters.
They needed more manpower because mother nature helped to fuel this fire.
Said Danny, "Cold blustery night... Wind blowing 35 mph gusting to 40 straight out of the west. And it hit that fire. It just moved that fire up over the top oof one building and pushed it right straight down, then right back up over the other one. Oh yeah."
A men's store down the street had a fire wall, and that's what stopped helped to eventually stop this fire.
"The Viking Mine Company come in, and we bored holes into the wall on the west side, to put dynamite in it to blow the fire out," said Tom.
Six firefighters were hurt that night, including Danny Budd, who was hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
However, Tom and Danny say they lost about 5 firefighters due to lingering effects of smoke inhalation and heart attacks.
And they say their deaths can be attributed directly to fighting this fire.
In all, the fire caused $5-million worth of damage.
Today, that figure would be close to $38-million.
