The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-06

announced tk}at the buildfne "a. or fire before the danes event througb the entire lehgth of the building, driv- ing all who were in the oflce outside.
 It appears that As fast as Wing had run down the platform so fast had the flames travelled, for, according Id the statements of the clerks who were there. not minute elapsed from the time Wing entered the office until the hot blast from the cn-rushing fire compelled them to beat . nasty re- treat.
 This explains why the company,s employees were unable to bring their own hre-fghting apparatus inside tine building to play on the flames, and why the building was doomed before there was time to turn In an alarm.
 Just as soon as the left wing of the freight depot was pronounced under control. after the side walls had fallen In, the freight clerks In the right wing of the shed began checking out freight into the cars, as If nothink was going on around them.
 Firemen Save once.
 Hard work and remarkable dis play of bravery on the part of the men attached to the Hook and Ladder and the chemical engine of the Madison Avenue company was responsible for the fact that the general ofice build ing was saved.
 There is a small door leading from the of1ices into the freight shed. This door these men broke open only to find that the flames had already eaten their way right down to the very easement of the door itself. They were sur rounded by these flames a second and for another second 1t looked as though . fatal mistake had been made in breaking the door open. Those who thought so had not reckoned on the character of the men who were to do the fighting.
 Int that seething mass of flame and nozzle of the hose ever pointed to where the fire was hottest. Foot by foot they drove it back until they were to gain a point from which they could fight the fire on all sides. Time and again it looked as though they must fail of their purpose. One by one the men were obliged to drop out for breath of air or for a short respite from the scorching heat. but there was always another to take his place. Thus working in relays they held their own and the battle was won.
 Fought Fire nm Hour.
 For solid hour these men were fighting in a space of about fifty feet by twenty feet. All around them was infiamabie material which had already been on fire and among which lurked little tongues of flames or smouldering embers that would ever and again burst out into a volume of flame.
 Overhead the roof was burning ferceiy but they paid not the slightest attention to this, trusting to their comrades on the outside to drown that out. There was danger that at any minute the roof would fall as 1t had already fallen in other parts of the building. There was danger that among the burning freight there might be some explosive substance that would send them all into eternity, but at their post they stuck. fighting against fear ful odds but always fighting. If they were driven back 1t was only tempo rarily so, for in a moment they had st- tackled a spot from which most danger threatened and again the offices were saved from destruction.
 Not until the fire. was practically out did they cease their efforts. Then one by one they sought the street for that rest they had so well earned.