FIRE LIEUTENANT KILLED IN PIER WAREHOUSE FIRE WHILE SEARCHI…

Vehicle Fire Boston Massachusetts in Boston, Massachusetts: On June 24, 1994, Boston Fire Lieutenant Steven Minehan of Ladder 15 died after leading his company in a successful search for two other trapped firefighters at a smoky nine-alarm blaze in a vacant waterfront pier warehouse in the Charlestown section of Boston. Lieutenant Minehan became disoriented in heavy smoke, was separated from his company, radioed that he was trapped, and died of smoke inhalation; his body was recovered several hours later. The two rescued firefighters were critically injured and airlifted to a Connecticut hospital for hyperbaric treatment for smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning, while four other firefighters suffered minor injuries in the five-hour blaze. The cause of the fire remains undetermined, though investigators suspected it may have been intentionally set after witnesses reported seeing a burning boat under the pier.