Fire Escape Collapse

Fire Escape Collapse

Fire Escape Collapse, also known as Fire on Marlborough Street is a black-and-white photograph by Stanley Forman which received the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1976^[1] and the title of World Press Photo of the Year. The photograph, which is a part of a series, shows 19-year-old Diana Bryant and her 2-year-old goddaughter Tiare Jones falling from the collapsed fire escape of a burning apartment on Marlborough Street in Boston on July 22, 1975. The fire escape at the fifth floor collapsed when a turntable ladder was extending to pick up the two at the height of approximately 50 feet (15 meters). Bryant died from her injuries, but Jones survived the fall, which was softened by her landing on Bryant's body.^[2] The photo also shows falling potted plants. The tillerman of the first fire engine to arrive at the scene, Robert O'Neill, asked Bryant to lift the toddler Jones to him on the roof, but Bryant was unable to and O'Neill jumped down to help before the ladder could reach them.

The photo was taken with a motorized camera. Originally published in the Boston Herald, the photo circulated in over a hundred newspapers and led to the adoption of new fire escape legislation in the United States.^[3] Other photos of the series show Bryant and Jones waiting for a turntable ladder and the moment of fire escape's collapse with both victims on it.

References

“The Soiling of Old Glory: the Story of a Photograph that Shocked America" by Louis P. Masur. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2008.