Historic Indianapolis Fire & Disasters
ON THE BOOK SHELF
By John M. Malecky July, 2025
Historic Indianapolis Fires & Disasters
By Jack Finney
Available from:
FSP Books
433 Main Street, Suite 2A
Hudson, MA 01749
1-800-522-8528
E-mail: support@fire-police-ems.com
Price: $24.99
This is a soft cover book measuring six inches by nine inches and has 142 pages comprising 14 chapters. I actually read it in one day! Not because I don’t have a life but because it is so well written! The author grew up in Indiana and one of his interests is the history of the Indianapolis Fire Department. He has also read many books on firefighting, apparatus and histories and served as a volunteer firefighter and on the rescue team of the Indianapolis Speedway. All of the incidents written about happened many years ago starting in the late 1800’s and up through the early 1900’s. They were natural and manmade disasters. They are a mixture of fires, train wrecks, collapses, explosions and cave-ins. Many were the result of nature, man made mistakes, lack of information, misinterpretation of information and what have you. The results were very tragic although there were some miraculous rescues and recoveries from injury. But among some of the miraculous rescues some of the individuals later died. There are some drawings and diagrams to help the reader. One thing I learned is that the Indianapolis Speedway was originally in the city of Indianapolis. The town of Speedway was part of the city but in 1926 it became a town of its own with its own fire department. which is why the raceway track is now in Speedway. This book is a page turner at least from my perspective and I would recommend it to anyone interested in historical disasters.
No information from the author.
