Captain George E. Bartels

Last Call: Fri, Aug 21st, 1959

Date of Incident: Tue, Aug 18th, 1959

Cause of Death: Burns

Service Time: 13 years

Age: 33

Survivors

His wife Phillys.

Incident

A fire was started from a spark at a gasoline bulk filling station while two men were filling there tanker truck. Later in the incident after firefighters had arrived on the scene to douse the flames an explosion occurred. A 20,000 gal. tank exploded engulfing several firefighters in flames and killing Captain Bartels as well as Captain Peter Sirna, Firefighter Virgil Sams, Firefighter Neal Owen, and Firefighter Delbert Stone.

Captain Bartels was a U.S. Marine veteran of WW II.