HERBERT G. MARTIN – April 7, 1954 (#111)

San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, April 8, 1954:

An 81-year-old woman perished in a fire in the Richmond district yesterday morning.  A fireman was crushed to death and another injured (Truckman George Payne) when a ladder truck overturned en route to the fire.

The alarm was sounded at 10:35 a.m. when Velma Cassel of 551 6th Avenue saw smoke from the window of the flat upstairs at 553 6th Avenue.  Responding to the alarm, Truck No. 10 was turning from Arguello Boulevard west into Geary Boulevard when something went wrong at the tiller.  Truckman Herbert Martin, 33, of 1370 10th Avenue, was at the rear control wheel.  Somehow, as yet undermined, he apparently lost control of the tiller.  The rear part of the truck slithered across the pavement grazed a parked truck and overturned.  The front remained on its wheels Martin was crushed between his seat and the body of the truck, then throw to the pavement. He died within an hour at Mission Emergency Hospital.  Then his wife, the mother of three children, arrived, she did not know of his condition.  A doctor and nurse took her by the arms and led her to an office.