Large fires still plagued Wakefield firefighters. On the early morning of March 12, 1972, box 36 was received at 6:12 AM for a fire in the business block at 419-421 Main Street, corner of Richardson Avenue. The Diskay discount department store was totally involved. At 7:42 AM, for the first time in history, the first official fourth alarm was requested by Chief Maloney.
Fire destroyed the one and two story brick joist building, located adjacent to the Theatre Building where the first suspicious fires occurred thirteen months before. Responding on the multiple alarms were Reading Engine 2 and Ladder 1, Lynnfield Engine 2, M_- pieces from __ communities.
Another suspicious fire occurred on April 16. The first alarm was received from box 34 at 3:06 A.M. At 4:13 Chief Maloney requested the fourth alarm. This fire destroyed the Hazelwood Cottage Restaurant, a 2½ story frame building at 348 Main Street, opposite Avon Street. The fire communicated to the adjacent 3-story brick building occupied by Johnson’s Dress Shop at 350 Main Street.
In the early morning of Saturday, April 29, 1972, the fires stopped when an alert police officer spotted another officer acting suspiciously inside Ames Drug Store at 381 Main Street. He was arrested while still in the store, and was brought to police headquarters where he admitted to setting several fires, many of them multiple alarms.
Without doubt, Wakefield firefighters breathed a deep sigh of relief with the knowledge that the long months of unusually hard firefighting had ended and their routine would return to normal. Wakefield came to be known as the training ground for the Greater Boston Fire Departments during this period.
Firefighter William P. McAvenia, having received severe internal injuries when he fell from a second floor porch of 78 Cedar Street, succumbed on August 19, 1972.
The total alarms for 1972 were 1304, including two second alarms, three third alarms and two fourth alarms.
Sunday, October 14, 1973 was a windy, dry day that proved fateful for the city of Chelsea. On this date Chelsea experienced a conflagration that destroyed eighteen blocks of the waste-trades district and three-decker tenements before ninety-five communities could contain the fire. Wakefield’s Engine 1 responded to the fire at 5:33 P.M.; Ladder 1 responded to Revere to cover their Central station. The fire destroyed four and five story buildings around the location of Engine 1. Flying embers eventually started a fire in the attic of City Hall, a few blocks distant. Wakefield Ladder 1 responded to the fire from Revere and a 2 1/2 inch line was stretched over the aerial ladder to the attic. Engine 1 returned to Wakefield at 8:15 A.M. on Monday, October 15.
Multiple alarm fires kept firefighters busy in 1974. The first serious fire occurred on March 11 at 10:55 P.M. in the Ames Drug Store at Main & Albion Streets. Three alarms were necessary to contain the fire that destroyed Ames, Florence’s Corset Shop and Ray Parker’s Men’s Store at 381-385 Main Street. Tragically, Fire Lieutenant Robert T. Sullivan succumbed at the fire while assisting in operations in Florence’s Store, at 383 Main Street.
On Saturday, March 31, box 431 was transmitted at 3:12 A.M. for a house fire at 226 Vernon Street, corner of Aborn Avenue. A second alarm was transmitted at 3:19 A.M. as the 2½ story frame house was completely involved, claiming the lives of three teenagers.
