Joe Chambers, a Kingman native, a grandson of one of the area’s first firefighters, and the owner and operator of a local gas station, was a volunteer with sixteen years’ service with the Fire Department and the rank of lieutenant. Eleven acclaimed firefighters, two members and nine volunteers of the Kingman Fire Department died as a result of a disastrous fire and explosion that ripped apart a railroad tanker car filled with propane gas as it was being off-loaded.