Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-12-07

taken at the Jefferson Hotel fire. tho
escape Of Firemen Auo1ph w F'ranck
and W. p. Bawsel from the top Of the
building by line OF hose.
The fire. as every one knows, began In
the top OF the building, under the roof
garden. Chief Fuller and twelve or dt-
teen men n went up in the elevator to
Franck and Bawsel. No. 6 had pulled
a line Of hose into the hall window. and
1t hung down to the engine in Main
The men worked hard, but the fire
was all through the walls and the floors,
and in a short space of time was roaring
up and down the long halls.
under the window, sill to ease up the
hose and let No. 6s men draw the line
further into the building: While he was
out there the fire forced the Chief and
the other men to retreat down the hail.
RaWsel started back and re-sntered the
building. He heard Franck calling, and
answered him. Franck, nearly choked
by the smoke, came from somewhere
down the hall.
.'Where are we?' he asked.
cat window on the Main-street
front" answered Bawsel:
"Cut off,! exclaimed Franck.
And the other man said Yes
They turned and looked down the hall;
I'VE can't set back there" said
Franck.
The hall was a mass Of flame and
smoke; and. as the two men looked. a
wierd sight greeted their eyes. The
smoke and fire formed in a Whirllng tube,
whose diameters reached from floor 10
ceiling and from wall to wall. and down
its centre it was hollow. 1t was like
looking through a mammoth pipe whose
walls we're solid fire, and it turned as
down its center was as clear and as
bright as day. At its farther. end the
men saw the carpeted steps far down
the hall beyond the fire.
Then they go out 1t was time.
They wanted a rope; but the only rope
within sight was one that the NO. 5
truckmen had used to pull up No. IS
hose: And that lay on the hall floor burn
ing like a serpent of fire..
No. 6s hose lay over the window sill.
The stop-nozzle was closed and the wa
ter stood in the pipe. It's other end was
in the street 1t was the only chance.
Only six feet Of that line was inside
the window 1t held by nothing but the
bend of the hose over the cornice and
window frame, and by the weight OF the
water in those few feet inside the win
dow.
Franck went down first. Bawsel. in the
window. sat on the hose to keep it from
when Franck was half way .oown the
crowd below broke into wild cheer.
Bawsel let himself dwon and took the
hose Salor-fashlon He dro gI his Gown GOVT
rus trip Franck was still on the line,
early to the bottom.
When Bawsel was six feet below the
cornice and far out of reach of anything
except the line of hose which he held
by his hands and by one bent knee, a
kink in the hose. where it crossed the cor
nice, Strengthened out. He dropped per-
haps six inches. To him it seemed nttv
feet; for he thought that the line was
coming loose from the top and that the
last call had come. But 1t only droppeG
six inches. In another moment he was
safe.
Ten minutes later the line of hose burn
ed off at the window and fell to the
street.
If, as the saying goes, a miss Of an
inch is as good as mile, there is no
danger in the service of the Richmond
Fire Department. Not a man mas been
killed in over thirty years. But the
narrow escapes have been more in num-
Der than the hairs of mans head.
There is plenty of danger in it; but
Chief Fuller told me, a few Gays ago:
eve never count the danger. We just
go in
And Chief Fuller and Assistant Chief
Shaw are both men who share every
peril with the men they command: Some
times they 20 where they would hesitate
TO ask another man to follow.
The whole department seems made OF
that kind OF stuff; and the record shows