The Portland daily press., 1890-07-19
OCCUPANTS DRIVEN TO THE ROOF
When Flames Burst Out In the West
ern Unions Building.
Everybody Saved After son,e narrow
Escapes From Death.
Telegraph Business at New York
PafaIyzed by the Fire.

Union is afre." A man shouting these
startling words ran down Broadway toward
the colossal structure of the great telegraph
company at o'clock this morning, Flames
were belching forth from the front windows
of the sixth story 20 feet above the brown
stone building on the north. Men and
women were emerging from the basement
doors on Broadway and Dey streets, having
Just completed their nights work on the
seventh floor, while other men and women
were entering to take up the days work at
the clickers. An American District messen-
ger heard the man shout. Running as never
messenger boy ran before. he reached the
fire alarm box at the corner of Maiden Lane
and Broadway and quickly sent out the
alarm that brought the engines and trucks
from the nearby houses.
They were there in six minutes, the horses
painting. the engines putting and smoking.
1t was an appalling j,b that the plucky
hremen had before them. The fire was far
mp above the roofs of all the surrounding
buildings. 1t would be impossible to reach
1t from the ground with the most powerful
streams which their engines could throw
AT this moment the head of a man his fea-
lures distorted with fright, appeared over
the edge of the roof of the building. The
building is nine story structure, and it was
4o 1eet from that roof to the one below, that
OF the building occupied by the American
District Telegraph office. Running to that
side the fremen could see men and women
runniuO ahnut wildly ohonfinr ooJ ,a.oo,.
ing. Some of them were on their knees,
some clung to others, and some triei to find
something out of which to make ladder, or
some other means of communication with
the roof below, w,while smoke came up through
the skyllghts and other apertures in the
roof: They were telegraph operators who
had peen belated in leaving the building,
ana lad been trapped on the seventh floor
wnere the operating room is loc0ted.
Ihe corridors and stairways were filled
with smoke, and to have attempted passage
through them would have resulted in suffo-
cation.
Lines of hose were united in order to make
tnem long enough to reach, and the firemen
carried them up through the nearest build
ings, while another corps carried ladders
up through the American District Telegraph
building, and, by splicing them together
made them long enough to reach the roof,
Wnere the wild and screaming operators
clambered down from their positions to
safety on the lower roof.
When the fire broke out the operators were
most of them in the restaurant on the
still in the operating room directly over the
battery room. Smoke came through
apertures through which the wires pass
from the battery room into the operating
room. 1t was dense and sitting, and the
operators, with one accord, left their
Instruments and rDehQd nQll mall IN ha
staircases, not waiting to collect their wear
ing apparel. The elevators run no higher
than the fifth floor, and the stairways were
last filling with smoke, but the operators
many OF them escaped in the two big
elevators. The elevator was kept running
till the drum operating it from above began
to smoke and sparks fell from it. Then the
lift was abandoned and the rest of the
operators took the stairs.
:, Inc battery room was raging furnace and
the big room on the floor above was filed
with smoke from corner to corner. Then
the operators who were in the restaurant dis
covered their situation and fled to the roof to
be rescued as related. TIE ceiling of the
battery room is literally web of wires and
cables. some of the latter being Of immense
size and containing many wires, and covered
with insulating material made of very in
hammable stuff. The women who had fled
to the roof stood directly over the battery
room, and presently tongues of flame shot
along the walls of the building and into the
air directly before them. Then it was that
panic seized them and the widest scenes re-
suited.
One of them clambered to the iron railing
that skirts the roof on Fdlton street. She
was a cook in the restaurant. The crowd in
the street yelled to her: "Don't jumpl Stop
there! They are coming" She climbed
down the stone roof again and wrung her
hands in an agony of fear.
Mrs. Adams, an operator, had a narrow es-
hi bo
the time the fire broke out, and she grabbed
handful of night messages which she had
been sending, and ran down the stairs, and
the messages she saved are all that were
saved from the building. Building Engineer
Clark was asleep at the time the fire broke
out, and his escape was marvellous, although
there was one man, Mr.. Sheehan, the all
night wire chief, left. who slid down wire
to ladder which was put up on the Dey
street side.
The extreme height of the blazing building
made the work of the firemen exceedingly
difficult. A stream from the top of the wa
ter tower extended to its full length. barely
Te reached the windows OF the burning floor on
the Broadway side. There were two hours
OF fierce fighting before the flames were got
ten under control, and even then this result
was attained more for the reason that the
ire had burned out all the inaammable ma
building were completely DESTROYED. This
includes the operating room, battery room,
the gallery, the dressing rooms. the main of.
flee of the Associated Press In the top of the
All the lower floors were literally Hooded
with water.
In the operating room there were about
5000 instruments, which are valued from S35
to $40 each
Above the operating room is the living
room and the Associated Press offices. The
Associated Press will be heavy loser, as its
rooms are completely gutted, all of the rec
ords, libraries, valuable scrap books, etc.,
being burned.
William Quinn, bookkeper and clerk, sue
ceeded in securing over 900 vouchers, which
were all made out and signed, ready to pay
off the force today. There were 40 men and
80 women in the building at the time the fire
time books of the Western Union were de-
stroyed, Had the fire occurred an hour later
there would have been between 800 and 1000
people in the building, and the loss of life
would have been enormous, as the exits from
the operating room are entirely inadequate
to let out so large force in so short time.
The company carried its own insurance,
the amount Of which could not be ascer-
tanned from the officials. The building con-
tains the offices of Jay Gould the Pacific
Press, together with the operating rooms of
the Western Union Telegraph Company.
1t is stated that the fire caught from a sin
gle wire over the switch and was caused by
OLD wires crossing the live one.
Mrs. Adams received the last message
taken in the operating room. 1t was from
Albany, from happy man notifying a
friend that he was father
1t is expected that 100 wires will be in use
at the temporary quarters at 415 Broadway,
The firemen took the hose out of the build
ing at about o'clock although the water
was till deep on the floor.
A survey made of the upper
floors found the cables and pneumatic tubes
intact and thew will be soon availah for
use. General Eckert cf the Western Union,
is of the opinion that the loss to that compa-
ny will not much exceed 100000. A new
switch board is on the way from Philadel-
phia. The Associated Press will use the ex-
ecutive room on the fifth floor, and such 9th
er rooms as can be had in the neighborhood.
| Assistant Chief REILLY, of the fire depart
| ment, stated today that the additional water
supply furnished by opening the aqueduct
| probably saved the Western Union building.
w. j. Dealy. manager of the operating room,
says the fire was confined to the battery
room, operating room and one floor above.