Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1906-05-03
HOW MINT WAS SAVED
Devoted Band Fought Flames
For Seven Hours.
STRUGGLED IN FLOODS OF ACID

Wen Were Driven Below, but when
the FLAMES subsidized They Return
ed to the Roof-Employees and Sol
diers Near Death while saving
over 800 100000
Saving of the United States mint at
San Francisco. which is the marvel Of
all who know how the fire ragged about
Fit, goes to the credit of forty brave
mint employees and company of
coast artillerynaen, says special dis
patch to the New York Press The
mint, alone of all the buildings in its
district, was spared destruction, and
it now stands alone in a district of
black ruin. 1t is damaged, but in its
treasure vaults its one hundred mil
lions of specie lie safe.
The mint did not merely escape burn
ing. 1t was saved at the risk of life
itself by the corps Of defenders, for
they were for hours surrounded on all
sides by fire so widespreading that not
man could have escaped alive If the
mint. too, had burned With flames
that often shot 200 feet pressing on
all four sides and frequently sweep
ing clear over the building, the men
fought In floods of sulphuric acid to,
as one put it, snatch the building safe
from the jaws of hell.
More than $780, 100000 in coin and
specie are stored in the vaults of the
mint. and for the preservation of this
prize the guards fought for seven
hours continuously sea of fire surg
ing around the mint all the time and
the garrison cut off from retreat for
hours at time.
Harold French, an employee OF the
mint, recently gave a graphic account
of how the flames were successfully
fought off from the old granite build
ing at Fifth and Mission streets.
after the fire had swept past the
Mission street side. and the certainty
of its returning from the north became
apparent, Captain ofsthe Watch Laws
ordered everything on the roof that
would burn thrown into the yard. Sol
dieIs and mint employees worked with
utmost haste, throwing great timbers
and tank slaves into the court. Here
were thirty tanks of blue vitriol, the
surfaces of which were soon covered
with debris, into which increasing
showers of cinders fell. Fortunately
the mint possesses a. good well, and
Brady, the engineer, pumped water to
the fire fighters assembled on the roof.
AS the fire swept up Fifth street
the heat increased to dangerous de-
gree 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 bounded by Sixth
and Market streets on the north gave
the gravest concern, for from this quar-
ter the fire was certain to rage in its
fury Famed by roaring northerly
wind the flames rioted through the
Structures stretching from the Windsor
hotel to the Emma Spreckels building.
Sheets of fire 200 feet high licked
up the intervening houses in Mint ave
nue. Augmented by these finder boxes
the blast Of the fire burst fercely on
the northwest corner of the mint.
"a few desperate fighters under for
mer Fire Chief Kennedy Of Oakland
were driven from between the totter-
ing. chimneys, where the determined
men had been throwing buckets of wa
ter upon the blazing roof over the gold
refinery, which was on top of the cop
per roof of the mint 1t is largely due
to the experience of former Chief Ken
nedy that the tar covered roof, the
weakest spot of all, was saturated with
sufficient water to stay the flames.
'sWhen the fire leaped Mint avenue
in solid masses of fame the refinery
men stuck to their windows as long as
the glass remained in the frames. Sew
a slender stream on the blazing win
dow sills, while the floor was awash
with diluted sulphuric acid
"Ankle deep in this soldiers and en-
ployees stuck to the floor until the win
dows shattered and the inner walls
began to burn Binding and suffocat-
ing smoke forced them to abandon the
hose and retreat to the floor below
Down in the treasure vaults artillery
men, ringed with blanket rolls and
leaning on their rifles, coughed in the
strangling smoke. Then came a lull;
the walls of a dozen brick buildings
across the street had fallen In. There
was yet a fighting chance, SO back to
the upper story the frefghters return
ed led by Superintendent Leach, who,
by example and words, encouraged his
men to extinguish the blazing inner
woodwork Of the refinery.
1.-The roof was next swept by hose,
cooling the copper sheathed surface I'M
til it became passable for wet, acid
soaked feet. An army officer, ak in
hand. tore up sections of blazing tar
roof, beneath which a. stream Of wa
ter was directed At length, as dawn
drew near, the mint was pronounced