The two-story Pendleton Town Hall, which also housed the fire station and police headquarters, exploded on the night of January 9, 1936, while town board members met on the second floor and several men sat talking on the first. After Irvin Taylor, a 50-year-old Pendleton toolmaker, dropped his glasses through a floor grate, Town Marshal Galand Brookbank helped remove a manhole cover on an old cistern so Taylor could go down to look for them. When someone in the room lit a match, the building exploded, likely because of sewer gas in the cistern. The roof blew into the air, the building burst into flames, and the glow was visible in Anderson nine miles away. Taylor and four other men were killed, and a dozen people were injured, many seriously. Pendleton also lost both of its fire trucks, which were housed in the building, and one fell into the basement. Fire equipment had to be brought from Anderson, and an interurban train blocked by fire hoses stretched across the street provided light for rescue workers as citizens from across town rushed in to pull victims from the flames and rubble.