The Cuyahoga River Fire Don’t Fall in the River

Conservation Biology

CSU Digital Humanities, 08 06, 2010

Video (1:23)

Description

Tim Donovan recalls working on the Cuyahoga River the day that it caught fire in 1969.

To learn more about the Cuyahoga River fire, visit:

http://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/63

To download the Cleveland Historical smart phone app, go to:

http://app.clevelandhistorical.org/

Transcript

0:08 · and we all know about the river fire of 69 and as as somebody who’s interested in the history of Cleveland and kyoga River I know that wasn’t the best fire you know I know there was other fires that could have burned down Cleveland had not the wind shifted to from the north I remember a 52 fire I think that

0:25 · was uh I think that one probably would have won the prize for the best fire I was actually working the day that the river caught on fire actually working as a hatch tender on the ships so it’s kind of unusual when somebody would yell fire and tell you to run away from the river cu the river is generally water but when you were working down on the river at that time the river was like a cauldron it would just Bubble Up oxygen trying to get out of the river it had a coat of oil on it and you’d see

0:52 · rats float down the river the size of dogs bloated from whatever it was that they ingested and there was a rule that if you fell in the river you immediately went to the emergency room in the hospital so the idea that the idea here was don’t fall in the river