Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-07-13
did not report at the company headquarters
to which they had been.
A SURVIVORS, TALE.
Fireman Faulkner Tells of His Marvel
1ous Escape From Death


longs to hook and ladder company s, the
company which was on the fatal tower, and
which, almost to q man, was sent to the
hospital or death.
Faulkner was on the tower. 1t was he
who made the awful jump to the roof be-
low. Three of his unfortunate comrades
saved his life. A spraned ankle is his only
physical reminder.
81 don't know how | came off 80 lucky. ~
said Faulkner. "I've had narrow escapes
before; have stood on window sills and seen
three upper floors fall past me, but never
went through anything like this. When
dropped / struck on three mon who had
jumped before. That was all that saved
me.
"When l came down three others had
fallen across one another from the same
rope. AS | dropped from tho burned rope
| struck them. That was what saved me-
striking those other men. 1t broke my fall
and | rolled over with only one injury-a
sprained ankle, from my foot striking on
the bodies under me. l picked ysolf up
and helped to carry the other fellows who
had dropped from the tower to the edge of
the roof and send them down ladder.
'We had most of the boys picked up and
carried away when the tower fell, but not
all of them. don't know how many were
loft there when tho tower foil, probably
tour or five. | think
Mono of Them Were Saved.
Their bodies will never be found, for they
must have been burned to ashes | be-
lieye / was the only one OF these who came
down the rope who escaped without serious
injury.
"There must have besn IS or 90 fremen
in the tower, but / don't know the exact
number. Twelve men of our company were
up there, and some of No. 2's men. Half a
dozen Columbian guards went with us, but
we chased them down before the fire became
serious. | supposed they all reached the
ground without injury.
"When we went up in the tower we had
no idea tine fire would be serious. We had
been up there twics before to put out fires
precisely like this one and knew how we
would have to work. The two fires before
made this one worse. The wood in the top
OF the tower had been partially charred or
parched by the other two fires and caught
more quickly and burned more rapidly this
time.
The construction Of the tower made 1t a
trap, although the fire was at the start in
the very top. Burning embers began to
lower down.
The timbers in the tower caught and
burned like matches. 1t was like fire in
an elevator shaft. A stiff breeze was blow
ing, and this increased the drought inside
the tower. The fire cracked and roared up
through the chimney formed by the walls
of the tower like furnace.
'The flames shot above US and made the
top of that tower look like a rolling mill
chimney. The crowd down below warned
us Of our danger. But for that none OF US
would have escaped. We didn't realize our
danger.
THE dropping embers caught below, as
l have said, and
Burned Through the Stairway
and the sides of the tower, so wo could not
get back that way. II we had had a line of
hose up there that we could get at, it would
have taken us all down, for hose does not
burn easily.
1--WE had one line of hose up there. but
after Marshal Murphy and one or two others
had goue down that way, the wind veered
and blew the flames to that side, SO that it
was impossible to take that path to the
ground. We thought the ropes would carry
us down, but the fire was ahead of US
When we were ordered into the tower |
TOOK up the ropes with which we were to
draw the hose.
'As soon as the cries OF the crowd warn
cd US that the tower was on fire below Us we
threw out the ropes to the roof below and
started TO descend to the roof that way.
There were two galleries around the tower,
one at the very top where we wore, and the
other 20 or 20 feet below.
"The flames broke out below this lower
gallery and quickly burned off the ropes.
We did not know that; we supposed the
ropes reached the roof. All OF us tried to
go down that way, but we had TO drop
from the lower gallery, where the ropes
were burned Off. | did not know that until
came down myself suppose it was the
came with the other boys.
II was one of the last men down from the
tower. / saw most of the boys who went
before me strike the roof, but | never for a
moment supposed it was because the rope
had been burned. When the men struck
the roof they would rebound into the air six
or eight feet
''Some OF them broke through the roof or
broke in and stuck in the hole; others went
clear through the inside of the building.n