The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-11
CUT OFF FIREMEN
COAST LINE FREIGHT TRAIN
BLOCKED APPARATUS.
EIGHT MINUTES LOST.
THEN TROLLEY CAR RAN OVER
HOSE AND CUT 1T IN HALF.

Fire Itself Was of Little COnse-
quence, But Under other Circum-
stances the Delays Would Have
Been FataI-BOth the Coast Line
and the Trolley Car MOtOrman
VIII BE DOcketed by Chief Ma
guire - PntrOIman Got Tired of
Waiting for Firemen and Pulled
Box the Second Time.
Excited fire horses and anxious fire.
men were blocked at the Henry street
crossing of the Atlantic Coast Line for
eight minutes, or whereabouts, shortly
after o'clock last night, while a fire
burned within a few hundred yards of
them.
After a long freight train had made
its way over the crossing the firemen
managed to reach the fire. Then a mo-
torman employed by the Savannah
Electric Company caused further trou-
bic by running over line of hose laid
out by Hose Company No. l and cut
ting it in half in two places.
AS a result. Fire Chief Mcguire will
docket the Atlantic Coast Line because
of the delay it caused, and will have
Motorman Quarterman arraigned before
Recorder Myrick for interfering with
the fremen by running over line of
hose and destroying it. Chief Mcguire
says he has a witness who held a
watch on the freight train and will
swear that it took eight minutes to get
over the crossing.
Trolley Car Run Over Hose.
He has other witnesses who will tes-
tify that the motorman was warned
that there was hose across the track,
and that he deliberately ran over it.
The fire chief was informed that the
motorman said that he had his schcd-
ule to keep. Not only win the charge
against the motorman be pushed, but
Chief Mcguire says that he will pre-
sent a bill to the Savannah Electric
Company for $35, the cost of the hose
destroyed by the trolley car.
There were other incidents connected
with the fire that amounted to very lit
tie, although the firemen were kept
from it for minutes. The patrolman
who sounded the alarm waited in vain
for some sign of the fire apparatus, and
as minutes passed and the firemen did
not put in an appearance, he had rea-
son to believe that the box had not
worked. With this idea in mind he
pulled the box the second time. In
this manner the sounding of two
alarms is accounted for.
Fireman Had Cramps.
At the fire Fireman Joe Pringle of
Hose Company No. l, was seized with
cramps and for two hours he was in
serious condition. He was removed
in the chiefs buggy to the station on
Waldhurg street, where he received at
tention
But the fire itself. A tool house in
the rear of No. 920 Henry street, east
was destroyed and the back of the
house was slightly scorched. Some of
the fence was burned, but in itself the
fire did not amount to anything. The
premises are owned and occupied by
R. e. L. Mather who recently moved
into the house.
The blocking of the fire apparatus
by the Coast Line freight train will
probably be used in an argument fav-
oring the abolishing of all grade
crossings by depressing the railroad
tracks and having them run under
the streets Collinsville is thickly
populated and had the fire started in
the Mather house instead of in an
outbuilding the damage, under the cir
cumstances. would probably have been
considerable.