The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-07-02
FIRES FATAL SWEEP.
One Man Killed and
Nine Injured.
FIREMAN WIEHRS DEAD.
Seven People Caught by a
Falling Wall
$4,000 Or PROPERTY BURNED.
A. J. Miller g Go. the
Heaviest Losers.l
J. COHEN And BYCK BROS. SUFFER
A Fund for the Dead Fire.
mans Family.
]. COHEN And BYCK BROS. SUFFER
A Fund for the Dead Fire
mans Family.
CONDITION OF THE WOUNDED.

Oue uTtinhH hlLleul uluo peOplo AhJuieu
and $15O,0OO Of property destroyed, is the
record of last nights fire.
John f. Wiehrs. driver of Protection
Hose CoEpany's reel, was killed by falling
wall and nine others were injured, two at
least seriously.
The fire broke out in the moss room, on
the third floor of A. J. Miller & Co.. fur
niture, carpet and house-furnishing estab-
lishment, Nos. 14S and $50 Broughton street.
at 6:45 o'clock, and an alarm was turned
in from box IA The fire was
confined to the Miller building, al
though the western walls of the
building fell in on the roof of L. E. Byck &
Sons dry goods store. The total loss will
approximate $150,OOO. with an insurance of
from $50, 900 to $4,000.
As soon as Chief Puder reached the scene
of the fire he recognized that it would be a
bad one, and turned in second alarm to
call out the reserve forces of the depart
ment. There was the same difficulty to
contend with that the firemen have had at
previous fires-a lack of hydraulic pressure
and until the engines got to work very
dows of the building on Congress street
lane being metal-lined aud closed, very
little attention was paid to that part of the
building, and the force was kept on the
Broughton street side, where the fremen
from ladders reaching to the third story
windows, fought the fire as best they could.
DRIVEN BACK BY THE FLAMES.
The heat was intense and the smoke
sitting, and several times the ladders took
fire, driving the firemen down until the
ladders could be shifted. When the fire
melted through the lane windows, ladders
were run up, and tue streams which had
been playing upon the north wall and roof
were then directed inside the building
through the wind ows.
At 1880 o'clock the roof of the third floor
gave way, and the northwestern wall
fell on the lane side. This caused the
western wall to fall IN on Byck's store and
it was here that Fireman Wiehrs met his
death. A short ladder had been run up to
the roof of the Byck building, which is but
a story high. and Wiehrs, Morris Butti-
mer, Murray Lepinsky, Henry Good
son, Richard Hart, Ed Pacetti and a
young man named McEvoy had gone
upon the roof to adjust long ladder
against the western wall of the Miller
building, othat line of hose could be
taken up to play upon the roof from which
the flames had begun to issue. The ladder
had been placed against the wall, but as
the top projected some three or four feet
above the building, the men were in the
act of lowering it when the crash came.
THE FATAL CRASH.
Not man had yet stepped his foot on
the ladder. Had it been moment later
the loss of life would have been greater. 1t
seemed a miracle that the men escaped, as
they did, except one. The falling walls
crashed through thei roof of the
Byck building, carrying the roof, timherss
and men with it into the debris, with vol
ume Of scalding water, which was emptied
off of the hot metal roof.
1t was a painful moment. A shout went
up from three streets as the walls fell, and
strong men grew weak, for it was believed
that many were buried in the ruins. The
crowds blocked the Congress Street lane
entrances at Whitakerand Barnard streets.
and it looked as if the men who were fight
ing the fire from the lane had been buried
by the walls, but fortunately all escaped
there. A colored man in the lane was
struck on the head by falling bricks, and
received severe scalp wounds, but after
treatment at Heidt's drug store he went
away, saying that he was not hurt much.
PULLED OUT OF THE DEBRIS,
On the Broughton street side the result
was more serious. Hundreds saw the men
go down with the walls. Alderman
McDonough and Reid, Chief Fireman
Puder, Sergt. Killourhy, Officer Pat Rus
sell, and others rushed into the smoke to
the rescue. Wiehrs was taken out first and
carried to the city dispensary, where he
was laid out on the floor, but there was no
sign Of life except faint huttering of the
heart. He was bruised internally about the
chest and his neck was broken. A cloth
was spread over the dead fireman and at
tention was given to the living.
Murray Lepinsky, one of the call men of
the department, had a compound COM
minuted fracture of the left shoulder blade
and internal injuries. He was treated by
DIR. johnson, and was removed
to st. Joseph's Infirmary. Lepin.
sky's injuries may prove fatal.
II he survives, his physicians said