St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-08-03
A Thrilling story.
ESCAPE OF FOURTEEN BRAVE FIRE
MEN.

The difficulties of fighting fire in the
lofty blocks which are becoming an
architectural fashion in New York were
demonstrated Sunday in the burning of
the Munro building. This building is
nine stories high, and was IL hive of the
the printing industry, twenty firms
having quarters under its roof. Had
the fire occurred on working day the
loss of life must have been terrible. As
it was fourteen iiremen had a thrilling
ly narrow escape from cremation with
in its walls. The fire had climbed to
the tOpmost story and the engines fell
far short of throwing the water to the
necessary hight. To check the advance
Of the flames Chief Gicquel sent four
teen tiremen upstairs with line of
hose and their axes. The men were
only able to get to the fifth floor. Here
what is called "back draft suddenly
filed the room they were in with
smoke. 1t came so fast and in such
volume that the tiremen to save their
lives threw themselves fiat on the floor
Some distance away, overlooking Il
courtyard, were two windows. To-
Waru CneSe windows The Suf1Ocated fire
men crawled. They were cut off from
the stairs and from the only fire-escape
in the building by the smoke. Their
only hope lay in getting aid from the
outside through the windows. They
shouted for help, but the men below,
busy with the fire, did not hear them.
Suddenly two of the imprisoned men,
Tuite and O'Brien of the engine COM
pany, tainted and were apparently in Il
dying condition. Their companions
gesticulated out of the windows and
uttered frantic cries. The racket made
10y the putting engines drowned their
cries, and the word was passed one to
another to .jump-into certain death, it
Seemed-when some one below looked
up. With renewed hope the twelve
imperiled men repeated their cries for
help, but to their horror their request
was misunderstood. 1t was thought
they wanted another line of hose, and
no haste was being made to get it to
them when Chief Gicquel's attention
was called to the spot by seeing the
men below getting the hose ready. He
shouted up, What is wanted ?"
"We are cut off. Hurry up or we
must jump" came back the answer.
''It's life line they want" shouted
Chief Gicquel to those about him, who
for some reason had not been able to
hear the thrilling reply to his question.
All was excitement ut once. A ID
foot extension ladder was quickly
brought and placed i'll position. 1t was
too short by twenty feet. Out on the
window-sills were two of the perishing
iiremen ready to throw themselves
down. Chief Gicquel motioned to them
to go back, and they obeyed. He then
by signs found that they had ii piece of
string, which, however, would not
reach tho. top of the ladder. This he
directed them TO lower. Then two fire
men went up the ladder and with diff
Guilty tied the end of the string TO il
small rope, by which larger one was
Immediately drawn up. No time was
lost i'll making it fast above.
Assistant Foreman IIeeney of the
truck company started to come down
first, as he was very faint and the most
exhausted of all. He began lowering
himself hand under hand, when his
strength gave out and he slipped fully
sixty feet, tearing the skin from both
his hands. Fortunately fireman
caught him when he struck the ground
and prevented more serious injury. An
employe in the building was the next
one down and then came Tuite, O'Bri-
en-, Borland, O'Shaugnessy, Sloan, Pill
ger, Donovan aud Kent of Engine No.
I, and McClain, Breen, McClain and
McCarty OF the truck company. As
the last man left the windOw-si flames
burst from it over the courtyard. The
exciting scene was witnessed by Il
spell-bound throng that cheered loudly
at its successful completion.