Chief Kanterman’s Journal Entry 73
August 2, 1978
Six Fire Department of New York (FDNY) firefighters lost their lives in a supermarket fire. This incident is logged in the annals of fire history as “The Waldbaum’s Fire.” Waldbaum’s was a family-owned chain of supermarkets in and around New York City at that time. This particular location on Ocean Ave. and Ave. Y in Brooklyn was under renovation and had a bowstring truss roof. The top layer was simply a “rain roof” made of plywood and tar paper. Many firemen fell into the inferno, however six could not be rescued. The exposure 2 (B) side wall was eventually breached to remove the fallen.
It was my first exposure to fire service line-of-duty deaths. I was a 19-year-old FDNY Auxiliary Fireman at the time and, after college classes that day, I headed for the firehouse travelling from Manhattan to Brooklyn. When I walked in, it was like walking into a church. It was pin-drop quiet. The first guy I saw was Joe, who was mentoring me. I asked him, “What’s going on Joe, why is it so quiet?” I was used to the normal shouting, joking around, etc. There were at least a half dozen guys in that house who spoke at 100 decibels at all times—and that’s when they were happy! If they were angry, you needed hearing protection. He asked me if I had heard about the fire; of course I had heard about it, on the news, in the car, on the way home. He went on to explain that every single fireman in New York City and around the country identified with the tragedy and had the thought of, “it could have been me.”
I walked into the kitchen, and even the loud guys were quiet. Not much talking. Just stares, some with red eyes, some just blank. It was the worst loss of firefighters at one incident in the FDNY since the “23rd Street fire” in 1966, where 12 perished in a collapse. The Waldbaum’s fire took the lives of
- Lieutenant James Cutillo, Battalion 33
- Firefighter Charles Bouton, Ladder Co. 156
- Firefighter William O’Conner, Ladder Co. 156
- Firefighter James P. McManus, Ladder Co. 153
- Firefighter George Rice, Ladder Co. 153
- Firefighter Harold F. Hastings, Battalion 42
December 4, 2024
As the current liaison between the FDNY Bureaus of Fire Prevention and Fire Operations, my meeting attendance had gone up exponentially. I was asked to attend a meeting between Fire Operations and the New York City electric and gas utility on this date. This is a quarterly meeting held to discuss safety while operating in and around high-voltage yards and allied systems around the city. We also discuss new projects, which is why I was asked to attend. We call this our “White Hat” program. A chief and a utility supervisor (in a white hard hat) get together at an emergency scene and decide on the proper safe tactics to bring the incident under control.
After the meeting, the deputy chief in charge of this endeavor and our liaison to the utility introduced me to one of the utility company members, Brian, who was designated an honorary FDNY battalion chief. He went on to explain that Brian has for many years been instrumental in training hundreds of our personnel on safe operations.
Brian then went on the tell me that his father was killed in the line of duty many years ago. I asked him his last name and he said, “Hastings.” I immediately said, “Waldbaum’s.”
“Yes, I was fourteen when my dad was killed at Waldbaum’s,” Brian said.
So here I am, meeting the son of one of our fallen from 1978, 46 years later. I will admit, it was a bit emotional.
The deputy said, “Brian, tell him the whole story.”
Brian became fast friends with Caroline McManus, whose father also perished in the market. They supported and helped prop each other up during the next months and years. A few years after the fire, he chose to serve our country and joined the Navy. While stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, Caroline’s mom passed away. Brian got home a month later and immediately called her, at which time they arranged to meet for dinner. They met halfway between their neighborhoods and Brian stood at a bus stop waiting for her. He looked at me and said, “as soon as she got off the bus, I fell in love.”
Brian became a New York City police officer, and by 9/11, he was working at the Office of Emergency Management. He responded to the World Trade Center and survived the collapse of both towers. He also confessed that he regretted not becoming a fireman and following his father’s footsteps for 25 years up until that moment in time. He made peace with himself while lying under Ladder 5, trying to catch his breath, surrounded by bodies.
December 5, 2024
Brian Harold Hastings and Caroline (McManus) Hastings celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary. They have an adult son, an adult daughter, and grandson.
As I travel through my fire service journey, I have had encounters with many people that were truly by chance. I met a Medal of Honor recipient from World War II on layover in an airport. This humble Marine, as he put it, “simply charged up a hill at Iwo Jima, under enemy machine gun fire, and deployed his flame thrower to take out the nest.” He was extremely humble and almost embarrassed to tell the story (I termed him “American Royalty” in Journal Entry #7).
The first time I met Hal Bruno (around 1998), a life-long volunteer firefighter, ABC political news correspondent, contributing editor to Firehouse magazine and former Chairman of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, a group of us were discussing major fires and it turned to the Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago in 1958. Hal said, “well, when I pulled up…” We all got very quiet and let him tell us his eyewitness account.
I was teaching at the National Fire Academy in 2004 and one of the chiefs in the class mentioned that he was at the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in Southgate, Kentucky, in 1977 as a young volunteer. I turned the podium over to him for 30 minutes.
These chance meetings are rare, but when they happen, they create moments that leave an indelible mark in my mind and on my soul. Meeting Brian Harold Hastings was one of those moments.
Stay well, be well, be safe,
Ronnie K
RON KANTERMAN is the executive inspector of the Bureau of Fire Prevention for the Fire Department of New York. He is a more than four-decade veteran of the fire service and recently retired as chief of the Wilton (CT) Fire Department. He has a B.A. degree in fire administration and two master’s degrees. He’s a contributing author for Fire Engineering, the Fire Engineering Handbook for Firefighter I and II, and the 7th edition of the Fire Chief’s Handbook.
