The City of Batavia Fire Department will be holding a ceremony to remember Capt. Loren J. Michel, who died after helping fight a house fire 50 years ago.
The memorial ceremony will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5 at the City of Batavia Fire Headquarters on Evans Street. A new station plaque donated by the firefighters' association will be dedicated. Members of Firefighters Local 896 organized the ceremony to honor Capt. Michel's sacrifice.
Capt. Michel was the only city of Batavia firefighter to die in the line of duty.
Marty Phelps, firefighter, remembers getting the call for a house fire at 402 Bank St. around 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 5, 1965. Phelps was in the truck going down Ellicott Street on his way to the scene and saw Capt. Michel pointing to the sky.
"It looked like Pearl Harbor," Phelps said. "The whole sky was black from black smoke and we knew we had a real serious fire."
When they arrived at the scene, a lady almost knocked Phelps down and screamed that her two boys were trapped inside the house. No one knew the boys were watching firefighters battle the blaze from the backyard.
Firefighters started fighting the fire and cut a hole in the roof. According to Phelps, an explosion occured and a "massive fireball" came from the first floor of the house and down the stairway over two firefighters. They couldn't get into the house.
"Capt. Michels was standing in the doorway when the fire came down over the top of two of the firefighters," Phelps said. "The fire was so intense it flipped him and he inhaled the fire, burning his lungs."
Michels was not wearing an air pack and staggered out of the house to get some oxygen. Wilbur Hinz, president of the Western New York Volunteer Firemen's Association, helped Michels walk to the truck.
Phelps recalls the last thing he heard Capt. Michel say before Hinz drove him to Genesee Memorial Hospital.
"He flipped his face back and you could see his face was burned and his eyes were red," Phelps said. "He was gurgling and said, 'I want to see my wife and daughter.' "
Thirty minutes later Capt. Michel collapsed in the emergency room and died due to smoke inhalation. Hinz had gone to tell Michel's wife, Carol, that he was receiving oxygen at the hospital but would be home soon. Hinz returned to find Michel's dead. An autopsy confirmed his cause of death as pulmonary edema.
Capt. Michels served the department for 24 years. In March 1965, he was awarded "Fireman of the Year" for his role as a Genesee County mutual aid instructor for 17 years.
Currently, a plaque honoring him is outside the fire department. The plaque will be moved inside when the new one is dedicated Wednesday morning.
