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KSHB KANSAS CITY, Mo. Nov. 29, 2018 — Thirty years ago, six Kansas City firefighters lost their lives in a tragedy that shook the metro area. 

Decades later, the community gathered to remember the men and the day they took their last call. 

On Thursday, Jacqueline Oldham tried to remember her father, Michael Oldham, as others honored his sacrifice. 

On Nov. 29, 1988, Oldham was 3 years old. 

"Every year we remember this date, and it's nice that the rest of the city shares with that," she said. 

November 29, 2018 by Tony Rizzo Kansas City Star

On Thursday, the 30th anniversary of an explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters, members of the Kansas City Fire Department gathered at the site of a memorial built to remember the loss of life. Thousands of Kansas Citians vividly remember that house-shaking, window-rattling moment. Jolted from their 4 a.m. sleep by a thunderous explosion that could be heard and felt dozens of miles away, the community soon learned about the calamity. On Nov. 29, 1988, the Kansas City Fire Department crews of Pumper 30 and Pumper 41 were dispatched to put out a fire at a construction site near 87th Street and what is now Bruce R. Watkins Drive. That’s when a burning trailer containing thousands of pounds of ammonium nitrate exploded. The firefighters died instantly.

November 29, 2018 marks the 30^th anniversary of the explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters. Although five people were convicted of the crime in 1997, a cloud of mystery still surrounds the case. No physical evidence or eyewitness ever tied the defendants to the scene and they all maintained their innocence.  The Kansas City Police Department considers the case unsolved.

The explosion destroyed most of the evidence making it difficult for investigators.  Down a dirt road and across US Highway 71 from where the blast occurred, a security guard’s pickup truck was also set on fire. Police collected numerous items from the truck and send them to the crime lab where they tested positive for evaporated gasoline. They then bagged the items as evidence in hopes they could provide clues at a later time.

Through a Missouri Sunshine Act request beginning in 2014, Kansas City police released thousands of documents and dozens of photographs to the public. In a photo showing the inside of the guard’s truck, a startling observation can be made. Combustible materials, including a yellow sweatshirt, a plastic grocery bag, a women’s vinyl billfold and a paper booklet appear with different burn patterns than the damage to the rest to the truck. According to fire department dispatch records, the truck fire burned for a minimum of seventeen minutes before firefighters extinguished it.

(Click here to see full sized image)

Arson expert Bradley Henson, IAAI-CFI, formerly the Fire Marshal of Olathe, KS, independently analyzed the pickup truck photos and concluded “it would have been impossible for those items to have been present at the time of the fire nor should they have been in the condition found if they had been in the original fire.” Henson saw evidence of two separate fire events.

The Kansas City Firefighters Case and the Railroading of the Marlborough Five

J. Patrick O'Connor

On the night of November 29, 1988, near the impoverished Marlborough neighborhood in south Kansas City, an explosion at a construction site killed six of the city’s firefighters. It was a clear case of arson, and five people from Marlborough were duly convicted of the crime. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick O’Connor, the facts—or a lack of them—didn’t add up. Justice on Fire is OConnor’s detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters’ deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. Available at KU Press and Amazon

January 14, 2018 By Joe Robertson Kansas City Star

The stories exploring the power of Kansas City Star journalist Mike McGraw’s life-changing work could begin in any of a hundred places.

They could just as well begin with the black-and-white photograph McGraw’s son Andy McGraw remembered hanging from a light switch in his house growing up.