The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-17
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Wants Investigation of Fire

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 It Is not my desire to appear in pub- He print regarding the disastrous fire Of Friday, the Sth, inst, when the building occupied by the Birmingham RAILWAY, Light and Power company was destroyed by fire and where the two men. Mir. Childress and MT. Kevser lost their lives, but there seems to be an awful difference of opinion as to the facts and cause. etc. It is not my purpose to undertake to say who ia to blame for the loss of these two men lives leave this for someone else to say.
 AL the time that l heard the arrival or the fire department l looked from window of my office just aoross Iwenty-first street from the buildiny that was burned and saw some smoke escaping from the top floor of tbe birmingham Railway. Light and Power company's building next to First alley. | At this time there was a lot of fire lighting equipment in the street and the firemen busy adjusting the lines of hose for service At this time I eau, two men appear at the windows of the
 
 Tor few moments then returned to the window and frantically motioned and waived their hands and crying for help, but no heed was given to these awful cries from the men as they were being roasted while they shifted from one hand to the other, holding to the side of the window waiting to be res- cued
 Al this moment the thought came to me that the firemen should have more consideration for the dog of a stran- ger than was apparently being given these unfortunate men that were being suffocated by the heat of the burning building in the open view of thou sands or people that witnessed this awful sight, with plenty of hose by which water could have been poured into these windows and with long ladder that could have apparently reached them in two minutes. Just be- 1 Tore the life saving net got to the side of the building with four men handling 1t. MT. Childress' hold on the side of the window burned loose and ne dropped to the cement sidewalk. a | distance of more than SO feet. Then these expert fire fighters dropped the net to bear the body of Childress away to the opposite side of the street | leaving the second man-Mr keyser-- | twisting and screaming for help. And about that time the life saving net was brought into service the second time With three or four men to support 1t. Then 1t was that MT. Keyser's hand hold burned loose and he dropped ap- parently with the hope that he would De caught by the net. The men that were attempting to support this net n 011f tafn kAl h -E that long distance fall. From the time that the smoke was seen coming from the windows of the top floor and these two men apeared at the windows for help was more than Is minutes until they dropped from the windows. As evidence of this private citizen ap- peared on the scene and seeing that the fire department was not making any effort to save the lives of these two men. he rushed to furniture store and secured load of cotton mattresses to be used for these men to drop on and the wagon load of mattresses ar rived in two minutes after MT. Keyser had dropped. I regret that 1t mas my misfortune to witness this awful scene and only wish 1t were possible for it to be plotted from my memory. The next day after the fire phoned to the coroner's office and rendered my services and the services of others when ne was ready to take up an in- vestigation. In his reply he thanked me for my kind offers and said that ne would be sure to notify me and 1 that full investigation would be taken up. So far I have not heard anything of any investi gation and pre- sume there will not be any. Permit me to say In this connection that believe an investigation should be carefully taken up that the cause of this fire could be ascertained and the public would probably learn as to why the lives of these two men were not saved. | Trusting that this communication is not out of place. I oes to remain, very truly yours. CLAUDE L. BATES l Birmingham. May 16 1914