Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-19
HOW THEY WERE SAVED.
Tho Skill Of the New York Firemen
Yesterday.

Those people on the roof of the Western
Union building in New York yesterday at the
fire were the employees OF the restaurant on tn e
top floor, where the majority Of the operators
q the Western Union main Office take their
meals. They were prisoners. All means of
escape were cut Of. The fire was gaining
ground. The women cried out pitifully. One
| advanced and put her foot on the railing with
the evident intention Of jumping down into
broadway. But the crowd on the street yelled
| to her to keep back and she did 30.
The first order that Fire Chief Bonner gave
on bis arrival was that ropes should be sent ND
to the roof rocket with rope attachment
WIS lot off and it landed safely. A second
rocket was sent up. 1t also carried its rope.
but the people on the roof were bewildered.
Now that they had the ropes they did not know
what to do with them. They we're helpless.
Every now and then they would be enveloped
in smoke, and the stubborn flames were creep.
ing slowly toward them.
Firemen were distributed on all tho adjacent
housetops, where they directed streams Of
| water into the fiery furnace. The water tower.
| extended to its full height. was situated on the
Broadway side OF the building. All the lower
| floors were Hooded with water. The upper
| ones were afre. They included the battery
room, the operating room, the gallery, the
dressing room, the main Office OF the Associated
| Press. on the top floor OF the building, and the
restaurant adjoining it.
| II did not seem likely that the women on the
roof could be saved. There were no fire escapes
| from the roof. Had there been fire escapes
there would have been no danger. A long
| ladder was rushed upon the roof of No. s Dey
| street and placed against the rear Of the burn
| ing building. 1t fell fifty feet short OF the mark
| for it did not reach the women. fireman
! scaled the ladder One of the women lowered
| him rope. He climbed up, hand over hand,
and reached the eighth story Plungins
through a window he fought his way up the
| narrow stairway to the roof Here he tied the
| ropes that had been sent by rocket. hoisted up
| his comrades and lowered the women one by
one to the roof Of No. . Dey street.
| Assistant Chief Francis J. Reilly said this
morning that the additional water supply fur.
nished by opening the new aQueduct probably
saved the Western Union building. Previous
| to Tuesday last 1t would have been impossibie
| to have secured water enough to have furnished
a useful stream at the top of the building, bu,
| this morning powerful streams were brought to
| bear at the very cupOla Of the building The
| advantage to the fire department of the ln-
| creased supply OF water cannot be estimated.
| II this fire had occurred an hour later there
would have been about 400 men and women in
| the building and the panic which would likely
| have occurred might have resulted in serious
| loss of life. The exits from the operating room
are inadequate. They are 50 small, in fact: thai
| a large man has to get into them sideways
The stairways are only four feet wide and
| break off at intervals Of five or SIX feet The
| most dangerous of all the stairways is the one
| in the rear of the seventh floor down which the
| female operatives have TO wplk