The Hawaiian gazette., 1913-02-04

building. The entire mill structure was
ideal for the work of the flames. The
wood was dry as finder and the ram
bling structures, great sheds connected
by passages and bridges, offered fine
holds for them.
The confagration. burst forth with
such rapidity that it made useless the
ordinary fire.fghting precautions. Man
ager johnson made heroic attempt to
get to the fire alarm, but the fire pre-
vented him from doing SO. He stun
bled into the darkness of the tie mill
and fought his way through the suffo-
eating smoke towards the alarm bell
or the whistle: it mattered nothing to
him which as long rs he got to one of
them. But the darkness made progress
amongst the litter of engines and lum-
Der, which is not easy in the day time,
almost impossible at night. The smoke
billowed through the under structure
creating its own draft and ahead of
him the flames could be heard crack
ling. Soon Johnson realized that he
was likely to lose his way in the smoke
and darkness and the smoke became so
thick that he could not breathe. He
abandoned the attempt to raise the
alarm and, as a matter of fact, the fire
had accomplished that by itself, for the
glare of the vast bonfire could be seen
even in Hilo, twenty-five miles away,
and further away even.
Plenty of Useless Water.
In the meantime the engineer had
fought his way to the pumphouse and
had started the pumps. Pahoa draws
its water supply through miles of pipe
and conserves it in. great tanks which
are scattered about the place. 1t had
great supply on hand, and the pumps
worked well for about fifteen minutes.
Then the wind changed and the pump
room had to be abandoned
When the fire started the wind blew
from the north, and drove the flames
right from the tie mill into the planning
mill. AT the same time 1T drove the
fire away from the railroad station and
the village. That was what saved these.
Tried to Save Lumber.
All attempts to save the blazing
buildings were absolutely useless. Ev-
cry effort was concentrated on remov-
ing the lumber so as to limit the range
of the confagration. All the workers
in the village turned out and from the
neighboring camps came gangs to take
n hand. The telephone line went down
before an attempt was made TO use it,
and messener had TO be sent 10 Olaa
to summon aid. Manager Watt re-
sponded instantly and came TO the
scene with a large gang of men, which
he generated himself.
The lre-hghteTs were baffled in their
attempt 10 cheat the fire Of some OF its
food, owing TO the fact that the wind
changed several times Each time IL
changed carefully laid plans were
brought 20 nought, lumber which had
been considered safe, was threatened,
aud new tactics had 10 be adopted
First went the buildings. As they
burned several explosions were heard,
presumably from the boilers, This had
a bad effort on the men, who feared
yentufing near the FIRE, Rs the report
went about that lot Of dynamite was
STORED Ia the mill Asa matter Of fact,
f0me explosives WsTr stored there but
these aero removed az the very begin.
mag,
Crash Of Machinery.
A. ibe miil burned, he4eely and fsift.
d. ibe rlash ~ great pieces " ma.
fhiney falllng ilfoagh faillng haofi
io the ground fnui1 hr heHTd ahaYe ihe
roar III fbo biafi ~ aam ihp hfai
hHH fp felrnf ihHf n wee imlufni hlf
h. Rfi YsY figff thf mhfhlufY aaf
nafnai aaf iHiHfd luia fiange fbspH
$40 lhe AHg pmHa lHiifoad faih efal
a. hmialrg nne iaisiti ihf H'ff