Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1906-06-20

was neither time nor opportunity TO
tell OF many of the cases of individual
pluck and devotion to duty which are
now finding their way into print Nat
uraIly the heroic struggles which were
made to save the United States mint
and postoffice attracted attention at
the time, but cases in which employees
OF business concerns carried on similar
battles with the flames were over
looked. Yet there is a striking SINH
larity in the battle waged for the
preservation of the mint and the eff
forts made by the employees of the Cal
ifornia Electrical Works to save the
plant of that concern. The electrical
works, a branch of the Western Elec-
trio company, which manufactures
much of the apparatus used by the
Bell telephone system, is situated in
Folsom street, in the heart of the bus
mess district of San Francisco.
Fire reached the building the morn
ing after the earthquake. When the
flames began breaking out in surround
ing structures the company's en-
ployes were already in the building
prepared to do their days work re
CARELESS of the chaos and confusion
about them. In this case the days
work was that of the fireman instead
of the electrician. The city firemen,
after "a hours of a losing fight were
nearly exhausted, but some of them
were induced to drag an abandoned en-
CINE into the yard of the works where
there was a tank containing about
10000 gallons of water. With this
limited supply the tired firemen did
what they could to stay the advancing
wall of flame, but it would not have
made any difference had the tank con
tanned ten times 10000 gallons. One
engine was a little better than a toy,
with an ocean of flame beating up
against building after bnilding. FL
nally the fire surged into the yard and
the firemen retreated to take a stand
elsewhere.
The workmen who had been helping
in the fight also retreated, but only
into the building They had deter
mined to fight the fire for all they
were worth Some of them hurried
from floor to floor removing combusti-
BILE material; others formed a bucket
brigade or got the chemical extin-
guishers and went to the roof to COM
bat the showers of sparks. Fortu-
nately the water tank remained &C
cessible. From two sides the fire beat
against the building. The walls and
the wired glass in the windows proved
impenetrable barriers, but there were
weak spots which were soon reached
by the flames. Tongues of fire crept
around the warped edges of iron
sheathed doors and ignited the wooden
framework. The earthquake shock
had torn away the cornice leaving ex-
posed the woodwork behind it, and
this, too, soon began to blaze ffercely.
But the volunteers inside the build
ing stuck to their posts. AS the burn
ing wood from the doorways fell in
side 1t was promptly thrown out Up
and the fire extinguishers rushed from
point to point heading off each new
outbu1st of the devouring element In
the yard four carloads of crossarms
We're piled against one side of the
building, and catching fire they burned
fiercely, the flames leaping high
against the brick walls. Yet this as
sault was beaten back as had been the
others. The men inside the building
worked in heat so intense that desks
fight went on from seven o'clock in the
morning until $50 in the afternoon
Then, when the flames had been f.
naily beaten back, the little band Of
men, covered with smoke and SCOT
looked with smarting eyes over a
waste of ruins, extending block after
block in every direction, with The cleo
trical works the only building remain
ing intact
Newspaper and magazine writer's
who were In San Francisco at the time
of the fire or who reached there in
the days Immediately after had much
to say about the GOODNESS of the refu-
gees who. living in parks and streets,
readily and cheerfully adapted them
selves to new conditions. Down here
in this oasis in the midst of a flame
swept desert the same spirit found ex-
preston in different way. With the
saving Of the building the devoted
band of employees realized that there
was unique opportunity to be of gen
eral public service merely by carrying
on the ordinary vocation as well as
possible in the circumstances. As
they say in their magazine, which was
prophetically named Energy" "They
quickly realized that the building had
been saved for a purpose, and without
loss of time set to work to overcome
the obstacles which had been placed
in the way of progress"
On account of the destruction of
neighboring plant the electrical works
were without power and light. How
ever, as soon as possible a 40 horse
power gasoline engine was shipped by
express from Los Angeles and this, to-
gether with generators taken from the
stock that was saved served as a
make-shift lighting plant The diff
culties overcome in locating and OBJ
tanning this engine, which was drop