The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-10-12
THE FIRE BOAT Sid GOOD WORK.
The Plant of the Portland Ship Building
Company Was in Danger:

About half past ten O'CLOCK yesterday
forenoon q fire broke out In the Head
| house Of the Portland Ship Building
Co. s marine railway at South Portland.
The building in which the fire occurred is
three story brick structure and is used
for the machinery connected with the
| railway and as store house.. 1t is dry
as a finder box inside and the floors and
| timbers were completely saturated with
grease and oil. 1t is supposed that some
| one carelessly threw a match down in a
corner in which there were several barrels
of machine oil and the fire started in
this spot. The building was open and
workmen were passing in and out of it
all the time. On the railway outside
| were the steamer Forest Queen, the tow
boat William Wooley and several schoon-
ers. The fire spread with ggreat rapidity
| throughout the building and the work
men many of whom belong to the fire de-
give the alarm and q hose wagon was
soon on hand and the firemen were laying
line of hose when help arrived from an
unexpected quarter.
| Captain Goud on the fire boat was just
returning from trip down the harbor
and was backing into the dock at Port
land Pier when the fire in the. railway
was discovered. Captain Goud iInme-
diately started at full speed for kthe rail-
way and was able on account Of the high
tide to get within few hundred feet of
the burning building. 1t seemed as If the
whole plant was in danger of being de-
stroyed and the excite ment in South
Portland was intense when the fire boat
arrived on the spot. Two lines of hose
were stretched in no time and some of
the men about the railway took hold of
one of the pipes and aimed it at the
building. When they thought they were
all ready for the water they sung out
'play away No. IL Engineer Frank
Girardo opened up the powerful pumps
and the men Of South Portland had about
as exciting five minutes as any of them
ever put In. They were not accustomed
to holding lines OF hose. and they had no
idea of the strength and skill 1t required
to do SO. The hose wabbled first one way
and then the other and smashed the five
men who held hold of 1t oil about the
street. It was not until half dozen other
men had got hold of the swaying hose
pipe that the stream was steadied down
and got under control.
| 1.-TWO streams of water from the fire boat
were the first on the blaze and they made
short work of the fire. All hands about
the plant worked with will and 1t was
only a lite while before the fire was ex-
tinguished.
The first floor was pretty we'll burnt up
and she machinery was badly damaged.
The loss was about $1,000 and this is all
covered by ms urance. 1t was said that q
man was badly burned during the prog
ress of the fire, but the story could not be
substantiated. The work which was done
by the fire boat yesterday thoroughly
demonstrated the usefulness of this piece
of apparatus. Had it not been for the
promptness of this boat to reach the
scene 1t is not at. all kunlikely that the
whole plant would have been destroyed
and the loss to South Portland and Port
land would have been inestimable. The
South Portland fire department also did
excellent work and the men belonging
to 1t deserve great credit for the prompt
ness with which they assembled to fight
| the fire.