PHOTOS: It was just after 9 AM and already the temperatures were in the 90s.
A work crew was pin-welding insulation onto a gigantic 5-million-gallon fuel storage tank in the tank farm next to the Canal Electric Plant.
But the crew had not properly grounded the tank before they began work. That mistake would cause one of the largest fires the Sandwich Fire Department has ever battled.
The date was Tuesday, August 5, 1980.
Forty years have passed since that massive tank farm fire but the events of the day are still fresh in the memories of the Sandwich firefighters who battled the blaze.
Former Fire Chief Dennis Newman, who was a lieutenant at the time, said that the day became known as Torrid Tuesday among those who were there.
Chief Newman was off duty that day spending time in Falmouth with his son when he heard the call come in on the portable radio he kept in his truck. Chief Ferdinand (Freddie) Alvezi was calling for all the mutual aid he could get.