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

areman,s life Is one long series or
$3.50 c.,,s have heard story after
story of hair-breadth escapes "he1l
The great grim death all but touciieo
lhe man. then changed its mind ana .ee
MIN go unhurt. 1t is hard 10 understa1'a'
They take risks that TO the spectator
snem absolutely hopeless; yet they come
M, alive. climb a ladder and go into u
,ra.n. Often hurt, but rarely killed.
but the stories of narrow escapes s''o"
.he deadly danger.
Tho nerils of fire-nghters are fnnum-
erable. Everything about burning
h,i;ding is a source OF greater or less
danger. On the outside are tine walls ana
shi,nneys. cornices. shutters. Wlnoo"
caps and stills, sign boards and any
thing else which may break on or purh
from its fasteninss and drop 'ist'e a.
The fire and smoke, the gas, the electro
wires, the water in the cellar, the weight
OF the weakening floors above, and the
rafting and crashing Of all sorts OF Things
here, there and everywhere.
Tn factories and warehouses more 1han
one man. cropping about through rooms
packed thick with smoke INA. NV Nc"
can See through, has walked OF ih'o eiie
air and shot down trap-door"a! OF al
elevator shaft that hau stood gaping De
fore him unsupported IN INC oal MISS
Floors have gone down with men Oh
them. or worse with men under them'
walls have fallen with men in the win
dows and going down with the brlchs
md the timbers; stairwayS nave sapeo
omen and crashed into great pits Oh see1h-
ing roaring flames while nremen stooo
anon them: and men have been caNght
!, 1fe n
shenl, hemmins them in 10 DEAN 'fa'
seemed as certain as death could be.
Ye, year after year the chief, watching
over his men as father over his chill
6rcn. has been able to look back and say:
Another year. and not man lost May
81 ever be thus
The smoke causes all the trouble AS
Chief Fuller said to me one day: IL lt
were not for the smoke we could put out
env fire in ten minutes" But the smoke
IS there. 1t hides everything. it STILES
and beats the men, and it carries with II
gases that spread the fire hlther ana
thither about the building without APP
parent rule or reason.
When Phillips C. STEMS store. on Main
street. opposite the postoffice, burned on
the night of January 30. 1881. the smoke
poured In such great volumes from all
parts of the building that the fire itself
was hard 10 reach. Chief Fuller led en-
CINE companies g. 4, and into the sub
cellar, entering from the alley back OF
the store They pushed on through the
dense smoke. Walter GathrigIlt lighting
the chiefs way with his torch, and they
worked hard to cut off the fire at its
base.
Some one came to the door and yelled:
'Look out for the top floor"
Chief Puner went back and looked up:
and in a moment every man was ordered
out Of the sub-cellar-
The fremen had Rarely reached the al
ley before. with the noise OF thunder,
the floors. from the top of the building
downward. crashed through into the sub
cellar. and tons upon tons of wreckage
lay on the very spot where the chief and
thirty Of his men had stood three minutes
before.
At the Savage & Bereridge fire, Fehru-
ary 3, 1892 the smoke and the. gases of
combustion which filled the building ex-
ploded with a great dull puff, after the
fire was practically out, and started of
the connagration for the second time.
Smoke. and the gas that goes with it.
is supposed to have cause the eXplo-
sions wllic.- helped TO make the Jeffer-
son Hotel fire so hard TO fight; and the
same agency blew out The front windows
OF the Hablitson building last year at
Seventh and Main streets, soon after the
Gre had started.
At another fire, that which damaged
lhe meat-packjng house Of w. S. Forbes
{; Co, one of these explosions played
part. Engine Company No. crawled
through a little window about two feet
square. close 10 the ground, and dropped
into the cellar. While they We're fight
ing the fire down there. the pent up gases
between the upper floors exploded and
blew out through the roof. They didn't
blow down; and that was what saved
the men of No. I.
To the spectator who cannot know
what is happening inside building, the
falling of Was seems the most terrible
danger of 1ne fire-fighters. And perhaps
it is.
Back in the '10's. at the burning Of The
Thomas factory at the foot of Seventh
street. wall fell with four of No Is
hosenlen in the windows The men wen,