Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1899-01-21

~%&sV -%' I-ioSVioh III LIZ, l oOo.
wv The flames were
W. leaping across
Blocker street from the finder dry
old Empire Bank on the south side,
and licking up the frames in
the tall, new "fre-proof" Manhattan
Savings Institution building OH the
northeast corner.
Second aud third alarms had been
sent in by the first battalion chief on
hand, and these the cautious chief
soon followed with fourth, and then
fifth. So the streets near the fire
were filled with apparatus. The noise
OF twenty-six steamers rose, like the
purrins of gigantic cat, over the roar
Of the flames and the din of the
shouted orders, and afar off the siren
of the New Yorker hooted it's raucous
warning to the crowding North River
craft, as the big tire-boat raced up the
river from her berth at the Battery.
1t was early in the evening, and the
great tide OF the curious was Just
setting toward the newspaper offices
in Printing House Square to watch
the bulletins of election returns. lac
changing bells of the hurrying engines
warned the crowds that the bright
light at Bleecker street and Broadway
came from no Election-night bonfire,
and they surged after the fremeu.
The streets filled up, and traffic was
blocked. Still the crowds came. The
reserves from three police stations
were ordered ont to help the men on
post They forced back the eager
spectators and got the tire-lnes suf-
6ciently extended, so that the tremen
had plenty of room to work.
And they needed room. A strong
southeast breeze beat the leaping
flames down, and drove them in level
Jets of fire across Blocker street and
against the tall Manhattan building.
Work az they might, the tremen
could not check the fire. Chief Bon
ner saw that, in spite of the best his
good men could do, the flames were
likely to take the Manhattan building,
Calls went out for special apparatus,
and then the alert operators, watch
ing in fire headquarters, heard the
little wheels of the register begin to
buzz, and listening intently, marked
the "two nines," the desperate call
for help that Chief Bonner had sent
out only once before in his career.
An instant later the heavy gong in
every station-house in the city was
hammering out the "two nines," aud
in ten seconds every engine below
Fifty ninth street, not previously
called out, had started for the fire,
while part of that above Fifty-ninth
street hurried down to take station in
vacant houses and redistrict the city.
1t was when the fire was at its worst
that the crowd in Blocker street, well
west of Broadway, saw the wonderful
rescue.
The men of half a dozen engines
had taken their hose up into the Man
haitian building to fight the flames
across the street, but in spite of them,
the fire got into the top floors of the
building they were occupying. So
they had to turn their fight against
the flames above their own heads, and
the men of the insurance patrols be-
gan to cover up everything III the
building with their big rubber
blankets. Assistant Foreman Fitz-
simmons, of Engine Three, with half
dozen meu of his company, worked
on the fifth floor of tho Manhattan
building. They were so intent on the
fight they were making in Blocker
street that they did not notice what
was going on over their heads until,
with great crash, the seventh floor
fell in ut the rear. 1t Carried the rear
of the sixth floor down with it, and the
ruins tore down the stairway, carrying
dozen men with them.
Then FitZsimmons saw that he was
cut of. His hosc-lines had been
broken by the wreck of the stairway,
and he was helpless against the flames
that flew into the room from the rear.
He ran to window on the Broad
way side, aud shouted to some of his
fellows in the street. Flames were
bursting out of the windows behind
him on the Bleecker street side.
Tho men in the street had heard OF
the wreck in the stairway. They had
seen some iiremen run out into the
awful heat and get away, and they
had seen one battalion chief carried
out SO badly injured that he would
probably never respond to another
alarm. They understood what Fitz-
simmons's call meant.
In II twinkling great extension
ladder began crawling mp the Broad
way face of the Manhattan building.
The crowd in Bfeecker street saw that
the fight for life had begun. and be-
came silent with anxiety.
The fire was near the mon at the
fifth-h window whom the top of the
long ladder came IN sight. One by
one they won't out. Fitzsimmons
waited for his men TO go first; butthe
last went through smoke and fame,
and the ass,.:an. foreman knew that
hc could not follow The men in the
street had made a mistake. The lad