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

apart and covered Chlef Puller WITH SCOT
from his head to his feet. The stack had
missed the two men by little more than
an arms length
All kinds of things cut loose in a
burning building, At Boyd's factory, at
Sixth and Cary streets, floor tell at
ona end and roOmful of loaded to-
bacco hogshcads came laundering down
the incline. The noise was tremendous,
and III the smoke and darkness no one
knew what was coming. These hogs
heads chased the firemen out of doors,
and hard luck would have come to any
one who had fallen; Tor a hogshead of
tobacco weighs near enough to tor
to roll a man into horrible fairness.
In narrating the incident Of the hogs
heads, First-Assistant-Chef Shaw spoke
of something which had never occurred
to me.
do you know he said that nothing
else in all the world makes a man feel
as he does when he's cropping about in
a burning building with smoke all around
him, perhaps creeping along on his knees
or crawling along like q snake to keep
out Of the flame and the smoke, and to
hear a noise that he can't locate or can't
understand. a man a such time doesn't
know where to go or what to do. II he
can find the door he usually gets out iii
time to save himself if the danger is
real one. If he can't find his way out
readily ne has to take the chances and
wait until the noise has stopped or until
he finds where and what it is.
After a fire department has worked on
a building for an hour or so with half
dozen or more throbbinS steamers throw
ing water into the fire. the cellar gets to
be a pool of dirty, foul-smelling water,
Uttered with refuse of all kinds Some
times men have to go into it. at the
Savage & Beveridge fire Chief Fuller
found it necessary to send his men into
the flooded cellar. 1t was the Sd of Feb
ruary, and the night was cold and raw.
The firemen hesitated a moment. The
Chief seeing this. plunged in first; and
the men followed him without a muir
muir. The water was armpit deep and as
cold as ice.
I could tell story after story of the
deeds and the narrow escapes of these in
trepid fighters of fire; Of the time that
Fireman Snead, cinging to ladder held
up by one mans hands against the steepe
OF Broad-Street Methodist church, fought
the fire at that dizzy height and never
seemed to think of the risks he ran. |
could tell Of the way they build bridges
with their ladders and cross from Win
dow to window, or from roof to roof, WITH
fire all about them; OF fires of terrible
scorching heat, where the men tooi
doors and chopped holes through them to
make shields through which to work the
hose and keep from being driven back
from the flames; of men who have faint
ed from heat, and smoke, or who have
fallen at their post from cold when the
spray from the hose festooned burning
r,,'!1ires with icicles and sheets OF gilt
tering ice.
-ue.. nave fought fires when rumors
% 1r;o,,
der in the cellars beneath their feet. ana
when row after row Of whiskey barrels
as explosive as powder itself, have had
their slaves charred to the thickness Oh
q cardboard before their very eyes
I could tell in detail of these things and
hundred Others but for the present Will
give but two incidents, both OF which are
familiar. in a measure. TO every one put
which in some of their phases are as
stories heretofore untold.
The fire which destroyed the planters
warehouse at Fifteenth and Cary streets
January 5, 1900 was what I would call
nervous sort of a fire. One the south
east it licked up against the big gas
holder of the upper gas works, until the
iron of the tank was nearly red-hot.
don't know what the firemen thought;
but the spectators We're fairly SUI e that
the tank would blow up and wipe that
section of the town Of the city map. Yet
the firemen We're all around the place;
and the tank was kept wet through
out the whole time Of the fire.
Then some one started rumor of the
presence of an absurd quantity of pow
der in the Carter & Ryland building on
the opposite side OF Cary street. Inis
story was effectually disproved by the
Chief.
Then, as often happens. came a danger
unsupported and unknown. The me-.
faced it and fought it, and | doubt il
any of them ever realized what it meant.
The fire jumped Fifteenth street ana
attacked the building of Kingan & Co.
Back of kingan's main building was a
wooden she'd and in this shed We're tanks
filled with anhydrous ammonia. Its pres
ence was felt by all the men who We're
near it, Firemen Bullock and Crump.
Of Steamer No. 1. were overcome by the
fumes But none of these men knew at
that time what kind of stuff anhydrols
ammonia was.
Mr.. Robert Lecky. Jr., who 8 fire COM
missioner and insurance man. has I'M
usual opportunities for research along
these lines. cites the case of fire at
Armour's big packing establishment at
Sioux Falls. Here the anhydrous am
monia got away, and the explosion de-
mo.shed. three tive-story buildings. Yet
at the kingan fire the men We're IN the
shed with the tanks. while the flames
were all around them.
Tho other story Is of the incident which