The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-07-01
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a woman jumped from one of the ships
in vain effort to reach the water. The
flames drove her from the ship and she
plunged heedless1y in the direction in
which it seemed that safety lay. She
Jumped into a burning lighter alongside
the ship, and when an officer on board
ship, who still staid with the doomed
vessel, saw her and realized what would
be her fate, he plunged down after her,
hoping to drag her out of the burning
lighter into the water. He followed her
within couple of seconds and both went
down into the flames in the lighter and
persisted.
The rapid spread of the flames is ac-
counted for by the shifting of the wind.
When the fire first broke out the wind
was blowing strongly from the south.
This drove the flames across to the pier
above the one on which it started With
in few moments the wind shifted almost
directly to the opposite point. Under
the great pavilion on the land end the
flames were soon in absolute control.
Had not the recourse to dynamite been
taken to destroy the Hamburg pier the
flames might have gone on. All the
fireboats and tugs in the barbor would
not have stopped them.
Again and again it seemed as if the
firemen must abandon the fight. Advan-
tage points at which they could attack
the flames were few and their efforts
were necessarily hampered. Some of the
firemen on hook and ladder truck No. Q
of Jersey City had narrow escape. They
had gotten out as far as they could on
the pier to the south of the blazing ocks
and were endeavoring to recover bodies
of persons who might have gotten under
it. There was a burst of flames from
the pier adjoining which for time
threatened to cut off the men and set
fire to the pier. The men dropped into
the water and chung to the piles for a
few minutes and then the wind drove the
flames back and they were able to re-
treat. The smoke which poured out of
the flames and assembled high in the air
blew almost directly eastward and main
tanned it's column for distance after
about seventy miles, as it was seen clear
ly beyond Babylon, l.. /.
One man in the hospital with burned
hands and face says he was rescued by
another man more severely burned than
himself and said he was helpless in the
wafer Wnen the QUIET lHIGW dU arm dDOQb
him and buoyed him up. The others face
was fearfully burned and the other arm
was useless but he treaded water and
floated so skilfully that they floated down
the river.
tug went to their rescue. The man
who told the story said he tainted after
being rescued and did not know if his
rescuer had also been taken out of the
water.
An idea of the intensity of the beat
was given by the fact that the steamship
firemen, men who are used to working in
the fireroom of a vessel, supposed to be
the hottest place where any human be-
ing works fell back from the work of
fighting the flames, overcome by the heat.
MEN DRIVEN INSANE.
Some of these who went into the water
and were rescued and but slightly in
jured, say that when others who were
caught between the fire and water saw
death coming they went insane. Men
babbred of home and friends during the
brief moments that they and the others
faced death. The fear of the furnace
which lay between them and the land
bereft them of their senses. There were
acts of cowardice and heroism They chung
to others and refused to let go even
though not to meant death to both. One
of the survivors, was seized by another
man who chung to him frantcally and
refused to let go. The man, who was
later saved, had to beat his companion
into insensibility before he could loosen
his hold and plunge into the water.
The loss of their hose crippled the
Hoboken fremen. When they reached the
fire at first they set out to confine it to
the pier on which it started. They got
their lines out on the two adjoining and
even ran their apparatus out to pumv
from the river. When the flames spread,
the hose on the piers was lost. Some
of the apparatus narrowly escaped being
consumed and as it was one hose cart
and its horse were burned.
Later Jersey City stripped itself of all
the hose possible and sent it to the Ho-
boken firemen in a wagon for use. With
this streams were later gotten on the
fire, but it was then under control, having
burned itself out.
All of the hospitals in Hoboken and this
city are crowded with the victims of the
fire. There are scores of men burned so
Dauly tndJ lIIIie nope Is entertainer LOT
their recovery. Hudson Street Hospital
has every patient that it can possibly
take care of, as has also Bellevue. st.
Vincents and many of the hospitals furth-
err up town. There were over 200 per-
sons taken to the hospitals up to ten
O'Clock tonight and sufferers were still
coming in by the score All kinds of We
hicles were brought into use as ambu-
lances.
Saloons, stores and any other building
that happened to be open on the river
front Of Hoboken were turned into hos
pitfalls temporarily.