Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-09-30

for some time their services were hardly
needed. for the intense heat kept back the
thousands OF people who had reached there,
and 1t was not necessary to do much DO
Spectators to get near enough to the burn
ing building to be In the way Of the fire.
men and retard their work Lieut. Amiss
had left the station only few minutes
summoned from his home and was upon
the scene. directing the movements of his
omcers, before much time had passed. All
over the city. as well as far out in the
country. the officers on duty could see the
blaze shooting high In the air, and many of
them made their way In the direction of
the hre. When the general alarm was
sounded the patrol wagons in several of
gency call, and few minutes later they
rolled up in front Of the burning building
and the officers were soon In active SER
vice Capt Austin. acting as. chief of po-
upon the ground long before midnight, and
to him fell. the lot of directing the move
ments Of the police, nearly hundred in
number. The commanding officers of pre-
were Lieut.. Kelly of the sixth, Lieut. Ken
ney of the eighth and Lieut. Boyle of the
third. Night Inspectors Pearson and Cross
were also there, in addition to Lieut..
Amlss, in whose precinct the fire occurred.
There were also number of sergeants
from the different precincts.
Capt. Austin with his various assistants
managed the crowd well, so that the fire.
men were able to work without any outside
interference. He realized, however, that
when the fire was gotten well under con-
troll and it was possible for the crowd to
stand the heat near the building there
done and in order to avoid this he had
ropes stretched as far as the ropes would
go and in other places he established an
imaginary line behind which the crowd
rSf
building he feared would fall and in order
that no accident might happen the spec
tators were kept at reasonable distance.
The crowd seemed largest at 18th and
stretched. although the parking on the
north side Of Pennsylvania avenue op-
posite the fire afforded good view of the
confagration. This was protected as far
as possible by the police, and many of the
bluecoats gladly sought shelter beneath
and behind the shrubbery In order to be
protected from the shower of sparks
pieces Of burning wood and flying sheets
there was no danger Of the walls falling
across the avenue the spectators were per-
m1tted to go as near the curb line on the
north side of the avenue While the serv-
ices OF many policemen were required to
handle the throngs of people In front of
the building number of them were kept
on guard in the rear, where it was also
necessary to stretch the ropes. Here the
ter OF saving property and assisting the
many unfortunates in disreputable houses
who were frightened by the fire and had
fled from their homes to seek places of
refuge.
There was no serious disorder during the
excitement. nor was anybody injured. Sew
eral women tainted. but they soon revived
ana were able to remain aud watch the
burning timbers and heavy walls falling
There Was no occasion to make an arrest
Most of the officers who remained on duty
at the fire all night were sent home before
daybreak, and others took their places.
Today there was no necessity for so many
eh1cers, and number of them were with
drawn, leaving the work of handling the
crowds to the officers OF the first precinct
The policeman on the beat made to Lieu
tenant Amiss a report of the fire as fol-
lows:
about 11:25 pm an alarm was turned
in from box 145 for. fire in the printing Of
flee of William Gettinger in the central
power station The flames spread and de-
stroyed the entire building and contents
Estimated loss about 100000. Insurance
about 100000"