The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-25
MILLIONS SAVED
 BY THREE HEROES
Dynamite Squad Did Effective Work In the Face of Prodieous Obstacles
 at San Francisco.

San Francisco, April 24.-Three heroes saved San Francisco what is left of it. They were the dynamite squad that threw back the fire demon at Yanness avenue.
 When the burning city seemed doomed and the flames lighted up the sky further and further to the west, Admiral McGalla sent a trio of his most trusted men from Mare Island with orders to check the, eonflagration at any cost of life or prop erty
 With them were brought a ton and half of guneotton. The terrific power of the explosive was equal to the maniac determination of the fire.
 Captain Mcbride was in charge of the squad. Chief Gunner Adamson placed the charges and the third gunner set them off
 The thunderous detonations to which terrified city listened all that dreadful Fri day night meant the salvation of 300,000 lives. A million dollars worth of proper ty, noble residences and worthless shaeks. alike were blown to drifting dust but that destruction broke the fire and sent the raging flames back oyer their own charred path.
 The whole east side of Vanness avenue from Golden Gate to Greenwich were dynamited block deep, though most of the structures stood untouched by spark or cinder Not one charge failed. Not one building stood upon it's foundations.
 Unless some second malicious miracle of nature reversed the direction of the west wind the whole populous district to the west blocked with fleeing refugees and unilluminated except by the dlsas- trIn ba tap safe by o'clock.
 Guncotton Did It's Work.
 Vanness avenue is flat as the earth on the east side. Every pound of guncotton did it's work and though the ruins burned, it was but feebly. From Golden Gate avenue north the fire crossed the wide street in but one place, That was the Claus Spreckles palace on the corner of California street. There the flames were writhing up the walls before the dyna- miters could reach it. Yet they made their way to the foundations, carrying their explosives despite the furnace-like heat The charge had to be placed so swiftly and the fuse lit in such hurry, that the explosion was not quite successful from the trained point of the gunners But though the walls still stood, it was only an empty victory for the fire as bare brick and smoke ruins are poor food for flames.
 Could Not Be Wasted.
 Captain McBride's dynamiting squad realized that a stand was hopeless ex- cept on Vanness avenue. They could have forced their explosives further in the burning section, but not a pound of gun cotton could be or was wasted. The ruin ed block that met the wide thoroughfars. formed a trench through the clustered structures that the conhagration, wild as it was, could not leap. Engines pumping brine through Fort Madison from the bay completed the little work that the guncotton had left, but for three days the haggard-eyed firemen guarded the flicker ing ruins.
 The desolate waste straight through the | heart of the city is a mute witness to the heroic and effective work of the whole calamity
 Three men did this, and when their work was over and what stood of the city | rested quietly for the first time, they de- l parted as modestly as they had come.