Age 28. Bay Beach Road, Green Bay, WI. Born (surname Seims) on 9/30/1914, in Green Bay, WI. Died of burns (death certificate). Electrician's Mate, 1st class, U.S. Coast Guard, based at the Coast Guard Receiving Station, Hotel Brunswick, Boston. Also known as "Jerry." Was attending Electrician's Mates' School at the Gresham Hotel, Boston. His wife Olga, age 25, visiting east from the home of her sister in Detroit, MI, also died. "The first identified fatality was a Coast Guardsman, Jerome Estes, address unknown, whose body was brought to St. Margaret's Hospital in Dorchester..." (The Boston Sunday Globe, 11/29/1942). Was raised in Green Bay, WI. Was a graduate of East High School, Green Bay, WI, 1932. Coast Guard enlistment in 1935. Was living in De Pere, WI, as of 1937 street listings (same rank, U.S. Coast Guard). Made social news in February 1940 when he and a friend embarked on a three-week motor trip through Mexico (Green Bay Press-Gazette, 2/10/1940: "The two saw a professional bull fight in Mexico City"). Married on 6/20/1942, in Alpena, MI. Relocated by the Coast Guard from Harbor Beach, MI, to Boston two weeks before the blaze. Earned posthumous news mention in June 1966 when his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Amelia D. Desrochers (Born 6/21/1866. Died 8/23/1966, age 100), upon reaching age 100, was featured in a news spotlight as the last-known living survivor to recall the great Peshtigo, WI, forest fire of 1871, considered the deadliest conflagration in U.S. history (building or otherwise) with over 2,000 dead (Green Bay Press-Gazette, 6/24/1966: "But for Mrs. Desrochers there was a...grim coincidence: one of her grandsons, Jerome Estes, perished in the Coconut [sic] Grove fire in Boston in 1942"). With his wife were two of three Wisconsin Grove casualties (also Ensign John Cobb, U.S.N.R., age 24). His hometown city was one of four outside New England to lose as many as three residents each (also New York, NY, six lost, also Montgomery, AL, and Baltimore, MD, three each). Was the lone Grove victim (of 490) declared deceased at the above St. Margaret's Hospital. Parents Mrs. Madeline "Della" (Desrochers) and stepfather Mr. Clarence J. Estes. Birth father Mr. Clarence O. Seims died in 1918. Surname was changed when his mother remarried in 1923. Burial with his victim wife at Riverside Cemetery, Peshtigo, WI. Middle name Robert (middle initial misreported as "T." on the final official November 1943 Boston Committee on Public Safety master casualty list).

‍