Page 8 - My FlipBook

BEFORE EARTH DAY—RIVER ON FIRE
Five months after oil blanketed California’s beaches, at 11:56 a.m. on Sunday
morning, June 22, 1969, firefighters in Cleveland, Ohio, responded to a call.
Sparks from a passing freight train had ignited the Cuyahoga River. Firefighters
aboard a fireboat battled the inferno, which rose five stories above the river.
Units from three battalions worked onshore to douse flames engulfing two
railroad bridges.
The next day, a Cleveland newspaper ran a 181-word story on page 11-C
reporting that the fire had caused $50,000 in damage to the two bridges,
forcing one to close. It noted that the firefighters had brought the fire under
control in twenty-four minutes. In Cleveland a river fire wasn’t news—it had
happened more than a dozen times before. The damage from the 1969 fire was
minimal compared to previous blazes. Five people had died in a 1912 fire, and
a 1952 fire had caused $1.3 million in damages.
The Cuyahoga was in trouble. A slaughterhouse dumped blood and animal
parts, and mills colored the water orange with pickling acid. In its heaviest
polluted areas, its waters were lifeless. Even tenacious species like leeches and
sludge worms, which usually thrive on wastes, couldn’t survive.

The 1952 Cuyahoga River fire destroyed three tugboats, three buildings, and shipyards along
the riverbank.

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