The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-07-24
WIRES BURNED OUT.
Western Union Office Much Dam.
aged.
Telegraph Service in New York
Crippled.


Crippled.
The Western Union Telegraph office in
New York has been recently visited by .
very disastrous blaze,
How The lire started no one can explain,
except MS guess. Two men who were IN
the battery room on the sixth floor little
before O'Clock in the morning saw ilama
running along wire in that part Of the room
near the western windows. These men
James Dowd, q battery tender From what
Dowd says II is thought that the wire must
have been crossed somewhere by an electric
light wire.
Telegraph wires entering the Western
Union building are not sheathed with any
insulating substance, except inside the build
ing. III they Were, the insulation at the
point of contact with the electric light wire
In the street-perhaps miles away-might
have been set atlame, and the damage would
have begun and ended there, As it was the
super-charge of the current had nothing to
make fire of until 1t reached the battery
room at 1875 Broadway, but there it had
plenty of material.
There were 500 tables in the operating de-
pa.tment, some having more than one
transmitting instrument, so that in all there
were 1900 instruments. In the centre of the
big room was the distributing ring table,
whence messages We're distributed to the
operators. Near the ring was the switch
board, the largest IN the country. Some 80
teegraphers were in the operating rooms.
II was Just in the hull between the changing
of the night force for the day force. Work
was slack. Perhaps there were hundred
small messages on hand for out of town.
The door ut the Broadway entrance to the
building at what is called the eastern stair
case was open, but as yet none of the men
on the day shift had come. The door at the
other end Leading to the Webster staircase,
which is used exclusively by women, was
open, too. and through it had come three
women who begin their work at I A. NJ,
instead of 8, and thus get away earlier in the
afternoon. These women were Mrs, NJ. IL.
Adams, Miss Emma Anderson and Miss
Anna Foley. They had just got in and
were not at their places when Operator
A. M. Lewis smeled rubber burning.
Neither he nor any of the others in the I'M
mense room had been warned by either
Dowd or Larryzy, who were down stairs
yainly fighting the fire. Soon after Lewis
shifted the unmistakable odor of burning
rubber. 1t was detected also by others. Then
ley saw smoke coming up through the
apertures in the floor through which the
wires passed from the battery room.
Lewis and Night Manager Tobin and
Watchman Moran dashed to the walls for
hand grenades, and smashed them on the
door in the flames. 1t was of no avail. They
tried the fire extinguishers, but they were
useless also. Next they got the fire hose,
and, aided by others, tried to throw water on
the growing fire. Some of the hose pipes
were so old that the water burst them. All
this time the others in the room thought that
the fire would be of little consequence.
The women stood by and encouraged the
amateur fire fighters in their work. Pretty
soon they all saw that their efforts were not
sufficient, and then Tobin ordered Messenger
Martin Doyle 10 hurry down stairs and have
an alarm sent out. Doyle half tumbled down
the winding staircase that runs from the
seventh floor to the fifth, and then took the
.traighter flights that go down the rest of
the building. He yelled fire" at every
landing, and his voice was the first that
raised the alarm and told the cleaners on the
various floors of their danger.
Doyle finally reached the street, and from
the open box at the corner sent out the sig.
nal. While Doyle, the messenger boy sent
by Night Manager TObn on the most i'm.
portant errand he had ever had, was making
his fast trip to the alarm box, iooin and his
men and the three women were making up
their minds to get out of the operating room.
The women went down their staircase all
right, though the smoke that blew into it
from the battery room was about sitting.
Most of the men went down the eastern
staircase safely. Five, however, who lin.
gered to save some records found that the
IRE had reached out to the staircase SO that
they could not go down that way.
The flames in the battery room at this time
made that place raging furnace. The cell.
ing of the room is literally covered with
lines of wires and cables, some of the latter
being of immense size and covered with in.
sulated material of a highly inflammabls
Latuse. When the operators had all left the
building the crowds in the streets discovered
half a dozen or more women standing on
the roof of the structure, which is covered
with iron ra ling.
Just beneath where the women stood
flames could be seen bursting from the VIM
dows and curling upward. The women
were comparatively calm for time, but,
noticing the scathng flames beneath them,
they began to scurry backward and forward,
evidently puzzled as to what they should do.
This sight caused great cOmmotiOn on the
streets be'Ow.
One woman was seen to raise herself above
the iron railing and peer in terrified way
down the side of the building on the Fulton
street side. The crowds standing by the
railing of st. Paul's Church waved their
hands and shouted shemselves hoarse. Stay
there! the firemen are comingn' "Don't
jumpw went up from the excited people,
but it is doubtful if even an echo of the eX-
sited shouts reached the imperiled women.
The woman who had clambered up the
railing desisted from her purpOse-if it was
such--of jumping, and returned to her posi-
ton on the roof, wringing her hands and
looking appealingly to the crowds below.
Meanwhile the life-saving corps of the fire
department and many of the regular force
were bending their energies to the rescue.
A ladder was raised to the roof of the
building, No. 8 Dey street, and another
thence up the burning structure. In raising
the ladder from the street great delay and
difficulty were encountered because of the
mass of wires centering there. The
ladder from the roof proved
too short to reach the women. Life
lines were brought into requistion.
From the top of the ladder line was shot
up to the roof by means of a bomb. In this
way strong ropes were placed on the top OF
the building, and the women were safely
lowered one at time to the roof of s Dey
street.. This successful rescue ELECTED shout
after shout of appreciation from the crowds
who witnessed it from the sidewalk.
Firemen were distributed on all the ada.
cent housetops, whence they directed
streams of water into the fiery furnace. The
wafer lONtI. W It's iuil uiu
good service.
The fire was got under control about
o'clock, after burning fiercely for two hours.
The entire upper portion OF the building was
destroyed. The fire burned and melted Out
all the wires entering the building, and it is
thought it will takes week to repair the
damage.
The Associated Press loses telegraph in.
struments typewriters, furniture and all Of
its, books, papers and records dating from
1916 and valuable reference library. This
loss is irreparable. All of the material for a
history of the growth ofthe press in America
contained in letter books and files, is lost
and cannot ever be replaced. The money
value is estimated at s150,000. There is ne
insurance.
Many of the employees lost their clothing
which had been place in the cloak room
Gen. Eckert of the Western Union is OF
the opinion that the loss of that compcny
willnot much exceed 100000. lie also be
lieves they will be able TO employ a consid
cradle force in the main Railways in a day oil
two. The Associated Press will use the
executive room on the fifth floor and sucl
other rooms as can be had in the neiehbor
lood.
DASHED INTO AN ICEBERG.
An Allen Liners Narrow Escape from
Des ruction.
Tho A Iia,, limo o. J;torDion orrivoI