Michigan State News , East Lansing , Michigan Wednesday , October 19 , 1966 3 Miss America

NEW YORK If) — .The sodden, acrid debris of a burned-out 19th century building at Broadway and 23rd Street yielded the bodies of 12 firemen Tuesday, after the worst departmental disaster In the history of New York fire-fighting, "I know we all died a little," Fire Chief John T. O'Hagan told weary survivors of the hours-long battle against a seemingly innocuous blaze that suddenly exploded Into an Inferno of dense smoke and searing Iiame. There were tears In his eyes as he addressed his men. Last of the bodies was not recovered until 16 hours after the fire broke out and engulfed three adjoining 75-year-old buildings. The victims were burled in the cellar of a drug store near Madison Square, across the street from the city's f i rs t skyscraper, the Flatlron Building. Hundreds of grimyfiremen, someweeplng, silently doffed their helmets each time a victim was brought to the street. The 12 dead firemen left behind them a total of 51 children. One of the victims was a rookie, Daniel L. Rey, answering his f i rs t alarm—and his last.