Last updated: Monday, February 22, 2016, 11:26 AM Young firefighters, fresh out of the academy, used to ask Lenny Worthy about the plaque on the wall of his North Philadelphia firehouse. The one with the photos of the Center City skyscraper, consumed in flames.
On a crisp February night 25 years ago, a bucket of linseed oil-soaked cleaning rags burst into flames on the 22nd floor of One Meridian Plaza, a high-rise office building on 15th Street, across the street from City Hall.
It should have been easy to reach and easy to put out. But most of the building had no sprinklers. And the fire burned so hot that it fried the building's electrical grid, stalling the elevators.
As firefighters lugged hoses up dozens of flights of stairs, through darkness and smoke, into flames that burned deep orange and bright blue, the fire raged out of control.
In the chaos, Capt. David Holcombe, 52, firefighter Phyllis McAllister, 43, and firefighter James Chappell 29, sent out a call over the radio. They were lost, somewhere on the upper floors of the building. They wanted permission to break a window to get some air.
It was the last any of the firefighters below heard from them.
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