The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-09

fear that his body will be found in the
 rains.
 While the fremen fought the stub
 born blaze which was continually fed
 by the leaking gas, Boy Scouts ap- peared on the scene about. 7:30 o'clock
 with coffee and sandwiches. The boys
 were under the command of G. E. Me
 Donald. commander of Troop E of the
 Woodlawn Boy Scouts. These boys se
 cured bucketfuls of coffee and sand
 wiches from the Beavers cafe and fear ling not the shaking walls went to the sides of the dripping wet firemen amidst
 the dense black smoke and the roar of
 the engines and served coffee and sand
 wiches. The firemen appreciated the at tention.
 All the ambulances in the city were
 also on the scene. Johns, the first to
 reach the fire. took away the bodies of Childers and Keyser tc their morgue and also removed A. S. Mill bratt to St. Vineents hospital Lise Loy's, Shaw's and Warner & Smiley's also appeared on the scene with their first aid corps ready to render assist ance.
 Coroner Charles l.. Spain was also on
 the scene seeking information as to
 the cause of the fire, it now comes
 under his Jurisdiction because of the
 known deaths of Childers and Keyser
 and the report that there are several
 more bodies in the ruins of the build
 ing The coroner would make no state ment last night but 1t Is presumed that
 he will conduct rigid investigation into the fire to ascertain it's origin and why it spread so quickly.
 Fire Chief A. V. Bennett, in reply to the reports spread about that there was no pressure in the water mains, stated that 1t was always the case where many streams were let loose all at once for the water to be weak and that the water company could not be cen sured for that He stated that as soon
 as the first engines got to work there
 were as many powerful streams of wa ter thrown on the nre as he could use to advantage.
 Girl Tells Story Miss Marie Pappot, who lives at 1925 Eleventh avenue. was bookkeeper and with 12 other girls was on the third floor of the building when the fire broke out. She states that she was the last of the girls from that floor to come out of the building and does not give any credit to the report that girl was seen later in a window of the third floor calling for help.
 .The entire credit for the safe rescue of all the girls on this floor. I think D said Miss Pappot." is due to the bravery and presence of mind of R. O. Laurney. head bookkeeper. and Harry Strong, his assistant The two men kept all the girls together and kept up their spirits, not al- lowing us to get panic stricken. They lined up every girl on the floor and marched us down the staircase without any disorder or crowding in spite of the flames and smoke everywhere about us. q was the last girl to come down the
 stairway and l am sure that there was no girl left behind.'
 Persistent reports were in circulation after the fire that a girl had been seen to come to a window on the third floor shortly after the three men who were
 killed had jumped. but that instead of jumping she went back and was never
 seen again.
 UnderwOOd's Narrow Escape Among the narrow escapes report ed was that of Fred V. Underwood, a brother of the Senate-elect Oscar w. Underwood. who is the superintendent of the electrical department of the power company. MT. Underwood was on the fourth floor and was cut off by the flames He managed to get into
 the Johnson Brothers building and sec ing no avenue of escape but the ele- vator shaft, leaped and caught the
 rope and slid down. MT. Underwood's s
 hands were terribly blistered by his experience, but his friends congratu- lated him that he got out alive. It was related also how Henry w.
 kyser was carrying on business con- versation over the telephone and J. B.
 Bell, fellow employe, called out:
 Come on, Kyser. or you're going to burn up. and Kyser waved his hand