The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-04-23
BRAVE EMPLOYEES
SAVE THE MINT
Graphic Account of How the
Flames Were Fought
BUILDING is A LANDMARK
Nearly 5000, ,ooo, 900 in Coin and Bull
lion Were Stored in the Vaults.
Mint Will Resume Operations
at Once.

San Francisco, April PA land mark
OF San Francisco that escaped destruction
though every building surrounding it was
destroyed, is the United States mint, at
the corner of Fifth and Mission streets.
Harold French. an employe of the mint.
gave graphic account of how the flames
were successfully fought He said:
Nearly s2OO 100000 in coin and bullion
are stored in the vaults of the mint, and
for the preservation of this prize a de-
voted band of employees, reinforced by
regular soldiers, fought until the baffied
flames fed to the conquest of stately
blocks of so-called fireproof buildings.
For seven hours a sea of fire surged
around the building attacking on all sides.
Its little garrison was cut off from re-
treat for hours at a time
Built in 1874.
'The mint was constructed in 1874 of
granite and sandstone blocks. massive
monoliths, well calculated to resist fire
from without. Within, however. were
enough in1ammable material to feed a
lively confagration. Iron shutters shield
ed the lower floors but the windows of
the story on which are located the re-
finery and assay offices were exposed.
Also a tarred roof over the refinery con-
stituted a weak spot in the defense. Tanks
of wood and other infiammable material
scattered about the roofs, and upper
story We're serious menace.
After the fire had swept past the Mis-
sion side. and the certainty of its return
ing from the north became apparent, Cap
tain f. Walsh Laws ordered everything
on the roof that would burn thrown into
the yard. Soldiers and employees of the
mint worked with utmost haste throwing
great timbers and tanks in the court
Here are located some thirty tanks of
blue vitriol the surfaces of which were
soon covered with debris into which in
ereasing showers of einders fell. Fortu-
nately the mint possesses a good well
and Engineer Brady at his post pumped
water to the fire fighters assembled on the
roof. OF these forty were mint employees
and they We're aided by companpr-of
coast artillery. sr'l es W
Famed By North Wind.
las the fire swept up Fifth street, the
heat increased to a dangerous degree as
one by one the Metropolitan hall and the
historic Lincoln school burst into flames,
reinforced by the roaring furnace of the
Emporium. On the west the block bound
ed by Sixth and Market street on the
north, gave the gravest concern, for
from this quarter the fire was certain to
rage in its fury. Famed by a roaring
northerly wind the flames rioted through
the structures, stretching from the Wind
sor hotel to Emma Spreckes building,
sheets of fire 200 feet high licking up the
{,ata ,fY,rr
mented by these tinder boxes, the blast
of fire burst out on the northwest corner
of the mint like the breath of second
Pelee.
"A few desperate fighters under ex-
Chief Kennedy of Oakland were driven
from between the tottering chimneys un-
der whose terrors they had struggled TO
the last, throwing buckets of water upon
the blazing roof over the refinery. 1t is
largely due to the experience of former
Chief Kennedy that this tar-covered roof
was saturated with sufficient water to
stay the flames.
Fire in Mint Avenue.
when the fire leaped up Mint ave-
nue. in solid masses of flames the refn-
cry men stuck to their windows as long
as the glass remained. Seventeny-f1ve feet
OF fnch-hose played a slender stream up
on the blazing window sills while the
floor was washed with diluted sulphuric
acid. Ankle deep In this soldiers and
employees stuck to the floor until the win
dows were shattered. With a roar the
tongues of fire licked greedily the inner
walls. Binding smoke necessitated the
abandonment of the hose. and the fight
ers retreated to the floor below. Down in
the deeps where untold wealth is safe
guarded, artillerymen Hinged with blanket
rolls and leaning their rifles coughed
in the strangling smoke.
"Then came lull as the walls of the
brick buildings across the stEeet had
fallen.
There was yet fighting chance so
back to the upper story the firefighters
returned, led by Superintendent Leach.
who by example and words encouraged
his men to extinguish the blazing inner
wood work of the refinery.
Pronounced Out of Danger.
THE roof was next swept by hose,
cooling the copper sheathed surface un-
til ii became passable for wet acid soaked
feet. An army officer, axe in hand tore
up sections of blazing tar roof beneath
which a stream of water was directed.
About o'clock the mint was pro-
nounced out of danger, and a handful of
exhausted but exultant employees STUN
bled out on the cobbestones to learn the
fate of their homes.
''The mint presents scorched and
glassless front on the north and west.
and the towering smokestacks are to be
torn down, but the building is intact and
the plant is unharmed and ready for
resumption of work.
"There were sensational rumors of an
attack of thieves upon the mint in which
fourteen were killed in the attempt. but
1t is needless to say that the garrison
of the mint is equal to any emergency
that may arise"
Bodies En- Route Home