Forest Park Highlands Fire - July 19,1963 Silent Footage

Forest Park Highland Fire - July 19,1963, At 2:30 p.m. that day, smoke curled from part of the large building that included the restaurant. Wind quickly whipped the fire through the old building, made of wood and corrugated metal. Soon it was an inferno, the flames jumping from carnival ride to ticket booth until most of the park was engulfed. The Fire Department declared it a general-alarm blaze 45 minutes later.
About 260 firefighters, many of them called in from their day off, ringed the park with 46 trucks. But heat was nearly unbearable at 125 feet. Assistant Fire Chief Robert Olsen ordered firefighters back from the consumed restaurant building, forcing them to abandon a pumper.
Firefighters drew water for their pumpers from the park's swimming pool. They also doused themselves with helmets of pool water for relief.
It took eight hours of fighting to declare the blaze beaten. It also cost the department a scorched pumper and almost a mile of hose. The cause never was determined, although Olsen suspected it began in an electrical shop in the basement of the restaurant. Little remained but the Comet, the Ferris wheel and merry-go-round.

[@mariesmith599]

Wont ever forget seeing that on TV I was 11 years old when it burnt down.

[@terrihenricks4160]

I went to the Highlands when I was a kid (as my mother had when she was growing up in St. Louis). I vividly remember when it burned down. In retrospect, the place (which was built before modern codes) was a fire trap. Fortunately, the fire occurred on a weekday afternoon when there were relatively few people in the park and I don't believe there were any serious injures. The park was known to be in its last days even before the fire, as plans were already on the boards to build a community college on the site.