Incident Summary
On April 20, 1942, Litchfield Fire Department Firefighter Ralph E. Borror died in the line of duty while responding to a fire at the old Litchfield Foundry. Borror and other members of Rescue Hose Company No. 3 had been at the fire station for training when the alarm was received at 7:20 PM. Borror and other members of his company were among the first firefighters on scene and they immediately attacked the fire. Borror had been operating a hoseline on the south side of the building for about 30 minutes when he collapsed. Two other firefighters carried him to an automobile and drove him to St. Francis Hospital, but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. Investigations later showed that the heat was so intense where Borror was working at the south side of the building that windows one block south had cracked because of the heat.
