HENNICK, John M.
The sad death of Chief Engineer of the Baltimore City Fire Department John Hennick. John M. Hennick was born September 11, 1835 in a house at East and Ensor Streets. He joined the United Fire Company when he was 20 years old, two years later he changed affiliations by joining the Washington Hose Co. Shortly afterwards, the company was fired upon while running at Howard and Dover Streets, and he received four bullet wounds. When the Department was organized he became a callman in Engine Co. No. 2, and as such, in 1862 was ordered dropped from the rolls, being charged with disloyalty. Upon re-organization of the Department in 1868, Hennick was appointed Foreman of Engine Co. No. 2. The next year he was named Assistant Chief Engineer in place of William Ross who had been killed on a fire when the building collapsed. At the burning of Public School No. 4 in 1873, the floor fell and AC Hennick went with it, but crawled out with only burns and bruises. When the Consolidated Insurance Company building burned, he was trapped on the hot tin roof and rescued in the nick of time. AC Hennick was horribly burned in the cellar of a grocery store at Garden and Madison Sts. when a barrel of gasoline exploded, spending five weeks in agony before recovery. On April 1, 1876, John Hennick was named Chief Engineer. In 1882, at the McDonough Company Rag and Paper Warehouse fire, Chief Engineer Hennick walked into a hole in the third floor, landing on a pile of rags on the ground floor, which saved his life; nevertheless he was badly wounded. At the Empire Depot fire in 1887, the roof fell in carrying him with it. In the same year, he was in the rear alley at the Mason Cracker Co. fire looking upwards, when struck by a falling pane of plate glass, which cut in his neck and shoulder and nearly proved fatal. He spent 58 days in his bed, never fully recovering from the injury, but returned to duty anyhow. It was while on the multi-alarm Browns Cotton Warehouse fire at Bond & Thames Streets, December 1892, that Chief Engineer Hennick caught a severe cold that would eventually confine him to bed for many weeks, and where he remained until his death on February 1, 1893. Chief Engineer of the Baltimore City Fire Department John M. Hennick was 58 year old and had served the citizens of Baltimore City for 38 years . He was the only Chief Engineer to die with his boots on.
Listing Details
House
Baltimore City Fire Department
Age
58
Years of Service
38
County
BALTIMORE CITY
