New-York tribune., 1912-08-25
FIRE CUTS OFF LONDON
FROM OUTSIDE WORLD
For Three Hours Flames Rage
in Telegraph Section OF
General Post Office.
CABLE LINES INTERRUPTED
Emergency Communication Is
Established, but Conditions
Will Not Be Normal for
Some Days.

entirely cut on from leleSIdPillC NOA4
rnunication with the rest OF the coun-
try and with the Continent, ana for
time connection with America was sew
cred. as the result Of fierce fire which
broke -out in the General Post Office. III
which building the central telegraph
Office IS situated and where all the
wires of the service are concentrates
While the fire was extremely fierce
no lives were lost, and the damage was
confined 10 the inside of the offices.
A thousand employees, a majority oil
them being women, got out OF the
building promptly and without panic
The. telegraph service to and from the
capital will be crippled for several
days
The fire started at o'clock this
evening and was caused by the tusing
OF -wire-in test box on the fourth
floor. Soon the gallery affected was
filed with volumes g thick smoke.
Ten minutes after the fire started Sir
Alexander King, the head of the post
Office, ordered all the employees out OF
the building. They left by the stair
ways In good order. taking their hats,
coats and umbrellas and remained In
the crowds about the building.
Floors Torn Up.
The thick smoke made the iremen's
work difficult. The floor on which the
outbreak occurred was laid IN six-foot
sections, and II was necessary to tear
these up separately to get at the wires.
The firemen first tried to smother the
flames with sand, but found that
method Intellectual.
After 9 O'Clock all the employees mus
tered at the central hall for temporary
duties and for salvage work during the
rest Of the night.
The building sustained no structural
damage but the losses to cables, in
struments and furniture were very
heavy, the furniture suffering from the
tons OF water which the fire engines
poured In and which streamed through
the whole building.
The entire fire brigade of the City of
London and the East End, covering
radius Of several miles. soon was on
he scene with a big salvage corps. BY
: o'clock tonight the fire was under
control and the engines had ceased u
pump water into the building. The
lighting apparatus was out of commits
presented as the salvage men grCped
about the huge structure with lanterns
and with candles fiickering dimly.
Thousands Of Wires Fused.
Thousands Of wires underneath the
floors had fused and the firemen were
forced TO tear up part Of the floors to
get at the flames. the work being ex-
ceedingly dangerous.
Getting the employees out without
panic was an achievement for which
The Post Office officials are 10 be con-
s.ratuiated On Saturday night the tel
egraph staff is considerably smaller
than that on other weekdays. as the
volume Of business handled Is less. AS
soon as the fire was discovered ali the
women were ordered to quit the build
ing Immediately. They were thorough
ly familiar with the fire drill and they
marched out into the street without the
slightest disorder
The male employees attacked the
DANES with sand, pending the arrival
o.. the fire brigade.
Temporary repairs were started i'm
lnediateIy after the fire had died out,
to restore emergency communication
with the principal English cities, Amer
ica and the Continent.
The branch offices about the town
nave thousands of messages for places
In the, provinces and on the Continent
and others are still accommodating. The
only communication with the outer
world for three hours was by telephone
10 Paris. Telephone lines are in great
demand tonight by the newspapers.
Messages Reiaysd by Train.
While communication was interrupt
ed. cable messages from America ar
riving at Weston super Mare, in the
Bristol Channel, were forwarded TO
points as near as possible to London by
the land lines. and then sent on by
train to London itself.
The General Postofice is the centre
for the telegraph service Of the entire
kingdom. All the main cables for pro-
vincial towns and the wires connecting
with foreign cables concentrate there,
hence tie complete paralysis Of the
system. Besides the Paris telephone.
intermittent telephonlc communication
with the cable Offices at Liverpool and
Bristol was obtainable. but these were
greatly overworked.
The English telephone service is re-
markably primitive compared to that
Of most civilized countries, and 1t now
is the subject OF violent newspaper agi-
tation. In, dealing with to-nights
emergency. 1t went entirely to pieces
Fewer operators were on duty than
usual, and no arrangements were made
for dealing with exceptional conditions
The greatest sufferers are the pro-
vinciai papers. which depend upon their
special wires for their London and
Continental service. They found the