The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-15

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 Engineers of the Southern Bell Tel ephone company who reached Birming ham early yesterday morning, estimate that the damage sustained in the Sun day morning fire will not exceed s150,- OOO There was no fire damage below the fourth floor, but the first three floors were subjected to flood of water for several hours.
 It was announced that local service will be restored in the course of the next two weeks, if nothing unforeseen arises. Long distance service was re- stored yesterday and patrons used tel ephones temporarily located at the of flee of the West Union Telegraph com pany.
 The building at 172O Second avenue has been leased by the telephone com- pany and will be used for long distance purposes anu dS d puSliitSS Olitt hh NAi the damaged building is made habita- ble A number of booths will be in- stalled this morning and the long dis tance lines can be used to all points as usual. A special messenger service will be established and persons who receive long distance calls will be sent iaP in, nection with the long distance service will be the necessity of going to the booths in order to make use of it. Cleaning Out the Building Early yesterday morning a gang oi about 100 men was put to work clean ing out the telephone building, and all day long two pumps were busy draw ing water from the basement Last night the building was clear of water and debris. Electric and gas heaters were installed in the three first floors and the switchboard and other appa- . ratus will be dried out. The local switchboard and apparatus is not dam aged except by water, the flames not having descended below the third floor. Officials of the company announced that the local switchboard will be prac- tically as good as new when it is dried out The long distance switchboard on the fourth floor was completely de- stroyed A temporary board will reach here this morning from Atlanta and will be installed at the temporary of flee on Second avenue. A new long dis tance switchboard was ordered from the Western Electric company in Chi cago yesterday and will be shipped by express It will be installed on the fourth floor of the burned building aft CT the building is repaired.
 Contractors began preparations yes terday to place new roof on the building and this work will be com pleted by Tuesday night. Other repairs will begin today and a large force of men will be at work day and night until the building is completely repair ed and every subscribers service re- stored.
 Service in Suburbs
 Bell telephone service in West End, l Ensley. East Lake. Woodlawn and Bes StIlti W dS HUI Dfl DN Nllt IiIbt PN- cept that these points could not reach sub bscribers in Birmingham. There was service between Bessemer and Ensley and East Lake and Woodlawn. Today trunk lines will be arranged so that each of these exchanges may be reach ed from any one of the others. Manager Turnbull announced yester. ]. ,i,. ,,,-.x- fr- 4 be paid their usual salaries while ab. sent from work on account of the sus pension of service.
 All the private branch exchanges connected with the Bell system wer' yesterday equipped with batteries s, that these subscribers still have serv ice to various parts of their buildings
 As early as 2:so o'clock Sunday morn ing. before it was apparent that tn, Bell building would be seriously dam aged. the machinery was put into mo ton to bring men, material and equip ment here. telephone set was con
 nected with long distance circuit |, Atlanta on the pole at Avenue A an, Twenty-first street, and orders wer, given direct to officials in Atlanta A. result, q quantity of apparatus ant material reached Birmingham by ex. press yesterday. The order for a new long distance switchboard was givef an hour or two later.
 The early trains from Atlanta brought the companys chief engineer the traffic engineer. representatives ol the general plant superintendent of fee and other officials who will be here until the Bell telephones begin tc ring again.
 President W. T. Gentry, who wit messed the fire, returned to )Atlanta yesterday afternoon. He was distress ed beyond measure over the llisaster but took the situation philosdbhically