The lights had been out - but not for long, at Los Angeles Fire Department Station 32, when the crew was alerted at 10:23 PM on February 7, 1968 to a possible structure fire at 3075 Wilshire Boulevard.

Clifford Collord with daughter Nancy

Leading the way in what would prove to be his last departure from their 1915-era quarters, 47 year-old Captain Clifford Collord and Engine Company 32 joined Engines 11 and 13, Trucks 11 and 29, Salvage 32 and Battalion 11 Chief Vernon Braden in a swift response to the Wilshire Center address.

Though no external evidence of fire was noted at the nine-story United States Borax & Chemical Corporation, a security guard told first-arriving firefighters of a small rubbish fire on the third floor.

The fire department personnel rode the elevators to investigate.

On the third floor white smoke was observed oozing from a small hole in the floor of a room near the elevator. Chief Braden reported back to LAFD Dispatchers at the Westlake Signal Office that Engine and Truck 11 would handle a small fire.

Chief Braden, his firefighter Aide (driver) Robert Skemp and Fireman Gerald Babcock of Engine 11, along with a security guard, entered an elevator and rode to the second floor. At the same time, Captain Clifford Collord, along with his firemen, Richard Matthews and James Oliver, entered an adjacent elevator and a maintenance worker took them to the same floor.

When the first elevator with Chief Braden stopped at the second floor, the inner door opened, but the outer door remained closed. Fire and smoke began to fill the elevator. Unknown to the men inside, a fire was burning in a lunch room and spreading along the second-floor corridor. The men tried pushing the elevator button to take them back to the ground floor to no avail. The elevator was inoperative. The emergency alarm system in the elevator was not functioning, their hand-held radio calls not heard, nor were their screams for help.

Meanwhile, in the other elevator with Captain Collord, his crew and the maintenance worker also stopped at the second floor. The doors opened... (read more...)

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To learn more about our Brother Clifford and other members of our Department who have paid the ultimate price in their service to the City, visit the LAFD Museum and Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Hollywood or click:

http://bit.ly/LAFD-LastAlarm

Submitted by Brian Humphrey, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department