Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-16
SOLDIERS HARD FIGHT
Battled With Flames at Fort
Hamilton.
MONEY LOSS SLIGHT
ALL-NIGHT BLAZE CAUSES GREAT
DISCOMFORT.
Flames Started in Young Mems Chris
tian Association Building
Wind Spread Sparks.
MONEY LOSS SLIGHT I

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, September 16.-A fire which
started last night in the barracks at Fort
Hamilton gave the soldiers a chance TO fight
the hardest kind of a battle, and was not
brought under control until this morning.
Seven buildings were practically Quilted.
One of these contained two wards of the
hospital and In others $50 men had their
quarters. Several magazines containing
ammunition were destroyed. The loss
amounts to more than $4,000. The men
charged on the fire as If for a night at
tack. When the ammunition buildings be-
gan to blaze up they made wide detour
around that wing. The ammunition kept
firing itself off all during the blaze
The first that anybody saw of the fire
came from the Young Mems Christian AS
sociation building. Private Murphy caught
sight OF the smoke he took his turn on
guard duty, twenty minutes after midnight.
He reused the whole garrison.
short order. Then he divided them into
two sections. one to fight the fire and the
other to form line around the buildings to
keep back the crowd
Hamilton that is equipped with engines,
hose and truck These were hauled out
instantly, but it was like a pistol charge
against a battery of gatling guns. Three
tiers and a dozen engines responded. Fire
Chief Lally directing operations. In the
work of checking the flames one of his men
was overcome by smoke, but soon recov-
cred. Nobody else was hurt
Stood in a Row.
The seven buildings destroyed stood in
row along Fort Hamilton avenue, having
been erected there at the close Of the Span
ish war. They were cheap one-story frame
structures 25x1OO feet each. Members of
the 123d Company. Coast Artillery, were
quartered in them. When the first alarm
came they all tumbed out In their night
shirts. Practically everything they had
was burned up. The men stood shivering
in the night air while their comrades from
other barracks tried vainly to save their
quarters. The best that could be done was
to prevent the fire from spreading past
the one row. -.
The wind was In league with the fire. as
though everything had been planned for
the attack. At midnight the wind blew
from the northwest. Firemen planted their
engines in front of 1t to check the advance
of the flames. Hardly had they done so
when a mounted troop of light airs wheeled
around and drew the fighting to another
quarter Before the battle was over the
breeze had veered through half the COM
pass to the southeast.
This fire has carried out suggestion
which General Grant put in his annual re-
port a good deal quicker than such reforms
are usually accomplished. Referring to the
barracks in Forts Hamilton, Constitution
and Schuyler, the general says:
The barracks and quarters are diapi
dated old rattletraps, uncomfortable and,
l believe, insanitary In every way. They
an eyesore in the community in which
they are located. The buildings cannot be
repaired except by expenditures far in ex-
cess Of their value, and 1 earnestly recon-
mend that these three posts be rebuilt"
Before the morning papers went to press
with these words the recommendation was
carried out, so far as Hamilton was con-
cerned. No red tape was used in the pro-
cess. The cause of the fire has not yet
been discovered
May Have Been Incendiary.
Many of the officers and soldiers declared
this morning that they believed the fire to
have been of incendiary origin. Three
months ago the squatters that live about
the edge of the reservation were ordered to
stop tramping through the grounds as they
had done Nobody was allowed to enter
without permit This angered some of
the outsiders. and they may have started
the fire as a measure of retaliation.
The Quartermaster is busy today in fitting
out the soldiers whose quarters were de-
stroyed with new uniforms. The small
boys and girls whose parents live on the
reservation, on the other hand, have the
prospect of supplementary vacation. The
fire destroyed the post school room, where
Corporal Edward 7. Weston holds forth.
Among the few articles saved are the band
Instruments so there will still be music at
Fort Hamilton. There was last night. Peo-
pie that lived nearby say they have not
heard such bugle peals for years. The first
signal shot by the sentry was followed by
clear high note that woke all the buglers.
They played their martial symphony of few
tones with spirit fit to rouse a whole bat
talon.