The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-25
THE DYNAMITE SQUAD.
sailors Saved What is Left of City of
 San Fr0nciDcO.

sailors Saved What is Left of City of
 San Francisco.
 San Francisco. April 24.-Three he- roes saved San Francisco. what is left of 1t. They were the dynamite squad that threw back the fire demon at Van Ness Avenue.
 When the burning city seemed doom ed and the flames lit the sky fur ther and further to the west, Ad- miraI McCalla sent trio of his most trusted men from Mare Island, with orders to check the conf1agration at any cost of life or property.
 With them were brought a ton and half of guncotton. The terrific pow CT 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 Gun ner set them on.
 The thunderous detonations to which the terrified city listened all tna' dreadful Friday night meant the sal vation of 30o.000 lives. A million dol lars worth of property, noble residences and worthless shacks alike. were blown to drifting dust. but that destruction broke the fire and sent the raging flames back over their own charred path.
 The whole east side of Van Ness avenue from Golden Gate tc Green wich were dynamited a. block deep though most of the structures stood untouched by spark of cinder. No one charge failed. Not one building stood on its foundations
 Unless some second malicious miracle of nature reversed the direcaion of the west wind the whole popuious district to the west blocked with fleeing refu- gees and unilluminated except by. the disastrous glare on the water iron: seemed safe by o'clock.
 Van Ness avenue Is flat as Is the earth on the east side. Every pound of guneotton did it's work and though the ruins burned, 1t was but feebly. From crassed the wide strsstSin but chas place. That waES the Claus Spfeckefl palace on the corner Sof California street.. There the flames were writh. | ing up the wall before the dynaniiteri could reach if. Yet they made theii way to the foundations. carrying theii explosives despite the furnace like heat The charge had to be placed so Swift. Fly and the fuse lit in such hurry that the explosion was not quite sue. cessful from the trained point of ths gunners. But though the walls. stood 1t was but an empty victory for tho fire as bare brick and smoking are poor food for flames.
 Captain McBride's dynamiting squad realized that a stand was hopeless ex- cept on Van Ness Avenue. They could have forced their explosives further. in the burning section, but not pound of guncotton could be or was wasted The ruined block that het the wide thorougfare formed trench through the clustered structure that the con fiagration. wild as 1t 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, fickerine ruins
 The desolate waste straight through the heart of the city Is mute witness to the most 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 departed as mod estly as they had come.