The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-06-17
Motor Hose Truck UpSets at
14th and Kan. Ave.
THEY WERE RACING To A FIRE
Huge Car Skidded on Street
Car Rail.
Tire Blew Out and Machine Hit
the Curbing.

John AnweiIer, left leg broken and
bruised on body.
Frank Brozicheck, shoulder dislo-
Gated and bruised on body.
Earl Chandler, severe bruises on
body and slight bruises on limbs.
Edward Beard, bad blow on head
and spraincd elbow.
Tell Mabel I'm all right Char-
acteristic of a fireman's work the
short sentence was uttered today by
John Anweiler, when he regained con-
seriousness for a short moment and
lapsed gain into inconsistencies
while he was being taken from under
a motor hose truck from station NO 2,
a few minutes after the truck had
skidded and turned on its side inJur-
ing four firemen. The accident occur
red about 1 o'clock a. Fourteenth and
Kansas avenue.
The motor was racing to answer a
fire alarm at Seventeenth and Polk
streets. The huge car skidded on a
street car rail, a rear tire blew out
and the machine hit the curbing. The
front end of the machine seemed to
hang suspended in midair a second
and then pitched forward on it's side
into the parking. John Anweiler,
driver, was pinned partly beneath the
machine and partly between the ma
chine and tree. Earl Chandler, who
was riding on the rear end of the
motor. was also partly under the car
when persons living near Fourteenth
and Kansas avenue arrived on the
scene. Frank Brozicheck and Ed
ward Beard were thrown from the
steps of the machine when it hit the
curbing.
George Harmon, a policeman who
lives near he scene of the accident,
was one of the first to reach the mo-
tor truck. With the aid of a handful
of bystanders he raised the truck suf-
ficiently to pull Anweiler from the
oh 10 Ar1rz rni q
opened his eyes for an instant and
entreated the men to tell his wife.
Mrs. Mabel Anweiler, that he was not
badly injured.
Anweiler and Chandler were taken
to st. Francis hospital. Brozicheck
and Beard were taken to their homes
by passing taxicab.
Seen by Hundreds.
The accident was seen by several
hundred people, as it occurred at the
noon hour. When the front wheels
CT the truck struck the curb of the
street they blew out with a loud re-
port AS an evidence of the force of
the impact of the machine against
the tree, there is a bare spot four
feet long and more than a foot wide
where the bark was knocked from the
tree.
The point where the truck left the
street and took to the parking is prob
ably two hundred feet from where it
first skidded. The front end was past
a.
was knocked off from over the motor
and the steering wheel was wrenched
completely off.
Apparently Anweiler stuck TO his
wheel to the very last. From the posi-
ton of the truck, which is between
two cottonwoods crosse together, he
tried to avoid the first tree and steer
a course between them, but in doing
so, on account of the high rate of
speed, the machine toppled over in
curving
The front part of the truck was
smashed by contact with the tree, but
the motor was still running until
stopped by someone who rushed to
the assistance of the men. The car
had to be rjghted before the tnen
could be released.
The Topeka fire department, in its
history of more than forty years has
been remarkably free of serious acci-
dents. Only three firemen have met
violent deaths. Benjamin McCarter
and Gus Anderson were killed in 1892.
when a truck overturned and Fireman
Jones was killed at fire at the Otto
Kuehne picking plant.
The fire to which the department
was going was caused by a spark fall
ing the roof of a house at Seven
teenth and Polk streets. In the ex-
citemert of the accident, no report of
the fire was made other than that it
was out and that the damage was less
than So.
None of the injuries to the men will
prove fatal according to DR.. F. A.
Scholle, who is caring for Beard, An
weller and Brozicheck. So far as was
known at a late hour this afternoon
Anweiler was the most badly injured
of the four His left leg was broken
by being caught between the tree and
the machine.
Providing Chandler is not hurt in
ternally he will recover from the ef-
fects of the accident rapidly. Brozi-
check and Beard were reported to be
resting easy this afternoon. Anweiler
and Chandler were also resting easv
An~eiler recovered consciousness a
few minutes after he was taken from
under the car
Weather Forecast for Kansas
Generally fair tonight and Friday.