The 2016 Official White House Christmas Ornament was unveiled last week featuring an antique fire truck to commemorate a fire that damaged the West Wing on Christmas Eve 1929.
President Hoover, the 31st President of the United States, was hosting a Christmas party for his staff and their children in the Entrance Hall of the East Wing when the fire was reported.
"As the big new 1927 Seagrave pumper of Engine 1, the first-due engine at the White House, roared through the front gates, Captain Edward O’Connor could already see fire behind the small attic windows of the West Wing," fire buff and U.S. Marine Col. Robert Debs Heinl, Jr. wrote. "So could Central Battalion Chief C. W. Gill as he sped westward along Pennsylvania Avenue. With Engine 1’s line stretched from the pumper to the front door of the Executive Offices, Chief Gill led the hosemen inside the smoke-charged building. Amid the heat and fumes, Gill called for Rescue Squad 1, in those days the only firemen with “smoke helmets” (respirator masks), to lead the way up the attic stairs. As they advanced the hose line into the attic, the atmosphere grew thick and heavy. Suddenly a rush of hot gas, a blast of heat, and a fireball of flame whooshed into the stair well, blowing Chief Gill and most of his crew down to the main floor."