November 20, 1942 – Fire Commissioner Michael J. Corrigan blames the lack
of water hydrants for complicating the extinguishing of a massive fire at the 82-acre
Chrysler B-29 engine plant under construction on a site bordered by Cicero
Avenue and Pulaski Road on the east and west and Seventy-First and
Seventy-Seventh Streets on the north and south.
The power plant for the facility is destroyed before the flames can be brought
under control in a 3-11 alarm fire that forces fire fighters to run hose lines
for more than a mile along Cicero Avenue.
Ground was broken for the massive plant in June of 1942 with
construction following designs by architect Albert Khan, plans that used half
the steel that conventional plants of similar types had used. By March of 1943, despite the fire, “16
buildings at the complex had come on line.
The complex ultimately used 4.3 million bricks, housed over 6,000
machine tools, had 23 cafeterias for thousands of employees, was able to handle
10 million gallons of water a day . . . Over 16,000 were employed in building
the plant; and 1,200 Chrysler personnel were involved in planning and layout of
the manufacturing.” [www.allpar.com] Today as you pass by the headquarters for Tootsie
Roll Industries and the Ford City shopping mall on Cicero Avenue, you are
looking at a site that once turned out 18,413 engines for 3,628 B-29 airplanes.
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