The Wilson times. [volume] (Wilson, N.C.) 1896-19??, 1911-10-03
the real extent of the calamity win

be known.
Dangeroug situation developed
Immediately after the great wall of
water had passed. Austin is piped
for natural gas and the great force
of the flood tore the mains from the
streets. One of them, the largest
pipe in the town, burst in the busi-
ness section A moment afterward
the gas gushed cat and in a twinkling
it had taken fire. There was no ex-
plosion but the flames .leaped to a
height of twenty feet or more and
blown by a strong wind was COM
municated to the nearest house. In
ten minutes a dozen other gas pipes
had burst and were poring their
deadly infammable fluid into the air.
Men who had rushed forward in the
hope of doing some good were over,
come and fell, while others were
caught in the flames and incinerated
The street became glowing hell
and there was no salvation for those
who chanced to be near. How many
perished at this point is not known
but one estimate places it at score.
Austin has little fire protection at
best and with this swept away by
the food and no one left to manage
the little apparatus the town pos
sessed, the progress of the flames
was uninterrupted. Rapidly they
swept from house to house, 1eaping
streets, alleys and fed by the contin
ual supply of gas from bursting
mains there was no staying their
progress. They licked up what the
water had left.
Many persons, crushed and help
less in the wrecks of buildings only
partly destroyed by the water were
consumed in the fameE. Their
shrieks could be heard by the help
less ones who, awakened from thei,
sleep and paralyzed by the scenes
about them, endeavored to save. i
life here and there where it seemed
by the deadly fumes of the gas OF
the heat OF the flames and half ar
hour after the food had passed the,
stood from the hillside, pitiful II
their inability to do anything but be
| moan the fate of their friends. Wo
men and children there were amons
the wounded and dying but among
the scores OF men who might ai
| other times have braved death tt
save the lives of the undertunats
there was none to dare.
Down at the shops of the Buffalo
| & Susquehanna Railroad hightory wa:
| in the making. The buildings were
| located below the business section
on the banks of Freeman run ane
| were more substantial than most
the houses which had been swep
away by the flood. When the grea
mass of crushed and broken timbers
| representing the homes of few
minutes before, came crashing dow
| they lodged against the shops. TIL
| impact was so great that the r
| ings shivered and the walls wer
crushed in. But the framework stoo
and formed barrier against whic
| f1otsam and jetsam of the flood foun
Elodgment.
Here as elsewhere the natural ga
pipes burst and as the shops were i
operation fire was quickly commun
4 Gated to the heterogeneous mass M"
j were caught before they could leav
their machines Some Of them wer
crushed to death without a warnin
u but others less favored of fortun
were pinned down and met horribl
deaths in the rapidly kindlin
: flames.
j 1t was a wonderful sight, said Ha
ry Davis "a Buffalo & Susquehan
5 locomotive engineer. who was in tn
| little knot of persons gathered nes
81 the dam watching the overflow whe
! the first break occurred.
II AThere was nothing to indica1
that the dam was about to give wa
Il and some one had just remarke
: about its strength when with shall
S report hole appeared in the We
IL end. In a moment water poure
t through and it was Immediately see
4 that the hole was getting lager