Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1900-07-11

board his ship, leaped to barge, and
when he landed the roof went straight
through and after he disappeared moth
| ing but flames and sparks came out
of the barge. directly after he landed.
He leaped into furnace of burning
grain. 1t was fire that almostequall.
ed ths Chicago fire. / shall never for
get the beautiful sight that the steam
ers Main and Bremen made while
| turning out in the river. Her sides
red hot and flames roaring on the in
side of her. You know the size of
these big ocean steamers, don't you?
You can get an idea of the size OF one
from the papers. will relate to you
the exciting time thai two students of
Stevens had. They were down in the
hold of the Steamer Bremen looking
at the machinery. Occasionally a
burnt piece of cotton or waste came
down the ventilator. They were ig-
norant of the fire. Suddenly the ship
began to fill with smoke, and heated
air began flowing through the venti-
lators. WALTZ rushed to the skylight
and horrible sight met his gage.
Flames were raging oyer the skylight
and smoke was pouring through every
opening. His, VOLTS, first idea was
to get to the deck and Jump overheard.
A block and tickle were still hanging
left by the repairers of the boat, with
a piece of rope still tied to It, He had
to go many flights of iron stairs before
he reached the rope, but when he did
he climbed up and his arms being long,
managed to get on deck. His friend,
Mr.. Boone, or Borne, forget which,
tried to follow, but his arms were not
long enough, SO his attempts failed,
Wolff having left on account of the in
tense heat and smoke. Wolff escaped
by rushing through the flames and
having his coat burnt Oft him and his
hair badly singed. After rushing
through the flames to the stern of the
boat, which had rot yet caught, he
tried to get in life boat, but just as it
reached the water it sank with women
and many men, all visiting the steam
err. He climbed down the hawser and
got on barge and from there he was
pulled on the Kaiser Wilhelm and
taken out in midstream From there
he was let down on tug and he told
the captain about it and the captain
went back and rescued his friend.
His friend tells the following about
his escape:
'After trying very hard to follow
Wolff's steps, he gave it up and went
back down into the engine room.
There were many fremen and deck
hands RS his companions. The rope
had by this time been burned. When
he found all passage blocked he came
down and asked the fremen to lead
them to the boiler rooms, which are in
the very lowest part of the ship. In
one of the rooms they saw about G5)
Italians, all praying and yelling like
fends, and their teeth chartered like a
man freezing to death. He had the
men locked in under key and then
knowing that if the Italians got
mixed with them they would kill
them. From there they went to
the boilers and after cooling off
the CRATES and raking the Goals out
they crawled in under the boilers and
there they remained, getting fresh air
through the two stacks. Tt became so
hot there that one of the men told him
of the coal hole that had no coal in it,
and it opened to the outside of the
and there they went and man
aged to break out enough strips to
climb up to the coal hole and threw
open the two big iron doors and by
yelling for help the tug came up and
rescued them all. The Italians were
then let out and in this way nearly all
the crew was saved"
All the ships are still burning, and |
they can't tell how many bodies were
lost. Even today, Monday, they were
picking bodies out of the river About |
800 lives were lost, but saw at least
40 picked up during the afternoon.
They were still hauling off bodies at
II p. m. tonight. The fire started at
4:45 o'clock Saturday, and it is still
burning Monday, July 2, and the de-
partment is still fighting it.
don't know what to tell you, but it
was certainly horrible. You can see it
all in the papers. Last night another
fire broke out and they arrested the
owner of the place for the1 incendiary.
About a. M. today another broke out
and had to be fought. At p. M. to-
day another broke out on barge near
a heavy steamer, and came very near
setting the ship and dock on fire but
she was towed out of reach and the fire
tugs put it out. Hoboken has had a
great deal of excitement of late.
Fire In Illinois Town.