The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-03
DIVE TO ESCAPE HAY FIRE.
TWO MEN AND A WOMAN GO
OVERHEARD ADLAZE.
Water. water, Quenches Fire In the Skip
per'S Observation-Disclosures Iycr, Com.
posed Outsider, Extracts Mrs. Burke,
Hay Barge Cook. From the Deep.


posed Outsider, Extracts Mrs. Burke,
Hay Barge Cook. From the Deep.
The hay barge Sarah Smith lay along
side her dock at West Thirty sixth street
yesterday morning at o clock. Four persons
were sleeping aboard her-Capt. Perry
Finkle, Deckhands Dewitt and George
Burke and Mrs. George Burke, the cook
Tom Hickey, Waterman and special officer,
finishing his o'clock round, sat down on
abale Of the hay, which was piled up on the
Sarah Smiths bows, dangled his lantern,
and rested
A glare in the windows of the Italian
line passenger shed. at the next wharf,
made Hickey sit up and take notice. Then
he heard whirr and cracking behind
him. He turned and saw that the cabin
OF the Sarah Smith was a furnace. Hickey
knows how a fire on hay barge can travel.
He ran to the pilot house and woke Dewitt
who jumped to the pier; then he rushed
below, hauled out Capt. Finkle, whose
quarters were already thick with smoke.
and made for Mr.. and Mrs. Burke, who
were asleep in the hold. By that time
the flames were running down the COM
panionway. Hickey ran for it and jumped
for the pier, just as Capt. Finkle tumbled
into the water with his nightshirt afire.
and struck out for land with the fire in
his nightshirt out
Hickey looked for Mr.. and Mrs. Burke.
They had not followed him. It turned
out afterward that they had stopped to
pick UP their clothes. Between Hickey
and their quarters the fire was rising twenty
feet high. He knew that II they got away
at all they would have to jump into the
water from the port side, away from the
pier.
Hickey had small skif moored further
down the dock. He dropped ten feet into
1t, threw of the painter and started for
the port side of the Sarah Smith. just then
the wind changed, blowing the flames in
a solid wall between pier and pier. Hickey
brought his skiff about and pulled away
just in time to save his hair.
Meantime, Nick Hyer Waterman on
the next wharf. had got into action. From
his side of the burning vessel he saw man
and a woman, all ablaze, take a flying leap
into the river and struggle there like
drowning puppies. Mrs. Burke cannot
swim at all. Burke can just about keep
himself up. Yet he was fighting and strug-
Cling like demon to reach his wife. Hyer
dved on the instant, came alon gside Mrs.
Burke, stopped her struggles with good
punch on the neck and towed her toward
the wharf
Can you keep yourself up?' he yelled to
Burke.
-Yes, but for God sake ave the woman!'
yelled Burke.
She's az safe as a cat in a corner yelled
back Hyer. The police were there by that
time. They threw out line, to which Hyer
made her fast. Burke got himself alongside
somehow, and was rescued in turn. They
were q chilled, weary. scared and scorched
couple.
William Conroy of the dock force had sent
In the alarm. A New York Central tug
was first alongside. The Sarah Smith was
sending up column of fame which lighted
the whole water front. and the dock was
beginning to burn. The tug lassoed a
stanchion and hauled her out into mid
stream, where the fireboat George B.
Mcclellan put her out" The upper works
and hay were gone, but theMcClellan saved
the hull. The fire engines. responding to a
double alarm, got streams on the pier and
put out the fire there before the damage
became serious.
Capt. Finkle was scorched little about
the arms and body. He was patched up at
the Roosevelt Hospital and was about
yesterday looking after the hull. This is
the fourth barge fire he has been through.
Mr. and Mrs. Burke we're treated at the
hospital for chill and few small burns.