WOOLWORTH'S - 1949

Photo: 209 Capitol Street Development

On March 4, 1949, seven firefighters died in a fire and collapse at the F.W. Woolworth & Co. store in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. A dozen or more were injured. Firefighters Richard Gilmer and J.P. ``Jigs'' Little were manning a cellar pipe when the first floor fell into the basement. Gilmer survived. ``I didn't hear or see no more of Jigs at all,'' Gilmer recalled at a memorial service fifty years later.

Firefighters lost:

• George Coates
• J.P. ``Jigs'' Little
• Emory Pauley
• Frank Miller
• Fredie Summers
• Richard McCormick
• Frank Sharp