Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-02-27
FLAMES IN A sKYscRApER.

The effects of fire in a si1yscraper
have been anxiously and scientifically
| discussed by practical and eminent fire.
men and architects. The fire last week
in Nassau and Ann streets gave the first
opportunity there had been in New York
for study of an actual outside fire work
ing on skyscraper in the most danger
Gus acre in the city, according to the re-
peated declarations of Chief Bonner,
says the New York Times
The skyscraper in question is one of
those the chief has had most fears of.
1t is the Vanderbilt building. Eight
stories front in Nassau street, with an
annex some fifty feet back rising to fff-
teen stories and forty feet wide, two
| rows of offices, each sixteen feet wide,
opening on hallway six feet wide on
each story.
The building lacks some of the mod
ern improvements. The outer lodges of
the windows are wood. The fire did not
give the most severe possible test, as it
was $50 feet from the south wall.
Twenty minutes after the flames burst
| from the roofs of the Nassau Chambers,
| in Nassau and Ann streets, the Window
| lodges and frames of the ninth, tenth
and eleventh stories of the Vanderbilt
building began to throw out little Jets
of flame. That was a little after
o'clock It was o'clock before the fire.
| men got into the burning floors OF the
Vanderbilt building.
The first thing reporter noticed was
| that the elevators were not running.
| The man in charge of them said II
would be a quarter of an hour before
steam to carry them could be got up.
The fireanen started up the steps with
the punches of hose. At the sixth story
they fell exhausted. Three reporters and
one surviving fireman carried the Ioad
up the other three stories.
On the ninth floor a group of firemer
were standing under charge of battal-
| ion chief, sheltering themselves beh1nd
the angle of the wall at the head of the
stairs The fire had by this time broken
| through the windows and tossing, curl
| ing masses of flame filled the four off1ces
| in the southwestern corner OF the annex
| AS the firemen connected the butt or the
rear section of the hose with the build
| ing water pipe and started in toward the
| fire the heavy frescoed cornice over the
office at the southwest corner dropped
with a crash. The man with the nozzle
simply looked up and down. The thirty
or forty pounds of falling weight mad
not missed the front of his helmet three
inches.
walk up to it, men, the chief shout
ed and in the men walked.
Putting the fire out there was mat
ter of five minutes. The reporter who
was watching the behavior of the sky
scraper walked up stairs. On the tenth
floor the glass panels of the doors or the
three offices nearest the corners were SO
hot that they burned the hand. On the
eleventh floor the panels were nearly as
hot, On the twelfth they were only
warm. In four or five minutes the pan
els of the tenth story quiyered ana snlV-
cred with a jingle and crash on the tlled
floors of the hallway. The fire burst
through these openings in an instant,
caught the wood cornices in the halls,
and swept along eastward fiercely
In a few minutes a new squad or nfe-
men were on that floor. In ten mlnut 2s
more, additional hose having arrived
another squad was on the eleventh hoor,
heating in the doors with axes. The
smoke by that time was so timex that
the men were gasping for breath.
On the 18th floor the battalion chlef
aslxed that the man in charge of the
building be told to give more pressure.
While a man was making his way down
the slippery steps and over lines Of hose
to carry this message, the ffemen walt
ed and caught breath as they could.
Three floors below them the fire seemed
to be sweeping right across and through
the annex Looking from one OF the
north windows it appeared that the
men were standing on an oven with nre
below them and above them.
Yet the walls did not warp. The kali
somining fell from the ceilings, the
wood castings of the floors were burned
to the tiles beneath. Desks, shelving,
cornices and window ledges and sashes
were destroyed The structure itself
did not show the slightest sign Of in
jury. Not a drop of the torrents OF
water poured from the floor above
leaked to the floor below; the flame
never broke through the ceiling. In
fact, on the tenth floor, the fire was
pretty well burned out before water was
put on it. The woodwork had been con-
sumed and the structure of the building
was left intact.
The reporter, who was on the 11th
floor when the fire burst through the
Office doors into the hallway, walked to
the last office on that hallway and back
to the head of the steps to prove to his
own satisfaction that anybody in the
most remote office there could have
gained the stairway safely.
| Studying the progress and work of
! the fire carefully, he could not see how
| there could be loss Of life in any part of
( the modern sky-Scrapers, unless eleVat-
ors were stopped and wooden hand-rails
along the stairs were burning Even
| in those circumstances, person with
! wet cotton or wooden clothing and
a cool head, could have descended from
the top story Of the Vanderbilt building
without fireman or a foot of hose in
sight. The fire had practically unre-
stricted play on three stories for an
hour. 1t was doing it's worst on one
of them for half an hour and on another
for 20 minutes Not wall or ceiling
gave way.