The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-10
CLAIMS LIVES OF BOTH MEN COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED Charles M. Allen Indignant Over Conduct of Fire men at Fridays
 Blaze SAYS NO EFFORT
 WAS MADE TO SAVE Prominent Contractor Describes the Scene As He Witnessed It From Window of His Office Across
 the Street

Charles M. Allen, the prominent. con- tractor, yesterday expressed the greatest indignation over the failure of the fire department to rescue the two young men who lost their lives in the Birmingham Friday afternoon. MT. Allen, during the fire, was seated in the windows of his office across the street from the fire, and he makes the following statement of the affair as he saw ft:
 T am sorry to say that I witnessed the burning of the building of the Birming- ham Railway Light and Power company on Friday afternoon. also the falling of the two men to their death on the cement walk below.
 q sat in my office window almost di- rectly opposite the fire, and am free to say that in my 32 years of residence in Birmingham I have never witnessed such a disgraceful and brutal performance.
 q could and would have rescued both men with some assistance, had I thought for one second that practically no effort would be made to get them down. The men themselves evidently thought that H6lp was dl Hdiius liietsihdth dS Juol bC low them in the street stood Chief Ben nett with his splendid corps of trained men and modern equipment of ladders, nets, etc. But absolutely no relief came and the consequence was that two lives were lost that could easily have been saved had Chief Bennett given but one minute of his time to the saving of each of these two men. Absolutely no more was needed.
 ''At almost the same instant that looked out of my window Chief Bennett arrived on the scene, and almost at that instant the two men appeared at the windows above, and if the chief did not see these men, then l am sure that he is the only man out of many hundreds who did not see them, and hundreds who were imploring the firemen to see these un- fortunate men.
 T have always been great admirer of Chief Bennett and many times have defended him in his absence, but l really am now at loss to understand why Chief Bennett the only man present at the fire with the authority and equip ment to rescue these men, should abso- lutely ignore them and busy himself with arranging some water hose on the street while hundreds of men were appealing to nm dHu HIS SldLI 10 save the men that were burning and must certainly fall to the street.
 "lf at coroner's inquest it should de- velop that the fire department is only expected to put water on the side of a burning building regardles of the occu- pants who are in danger then feel sure that the general public who are taxed Tn order to get this protection, are not getting a fair deal
 And if it would take more taxes to extend the necessary protection to human lives by the employment of real compe- tent men and more of them, I say raise the tax rate, thereby avoiding another disaster.
 It Is true that any wood constructed building can and will burn when once un- der headway, but it is not true that a burning building is of more irporta noe than the human lives that may be trapped therein, and who appear at the windows and pray for help"