The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-22

AtIdlta, May N.-(SpeciaL) )-More tnail 100 Birmingham men were among the 800 Alabamians who helped Atlanta cope with the fire this afternoon and tonight. Many of them at 3:90 o'clock were lying in their hunks suffering with swollen arms and fever caused by the injections of typhoid and typhus serums yesterday. By o'clock they were fighting the flames and assisting the authorities in handling the crowds Aching arms were forgot ten as they climbed to precarous posi- tons upon the roofs of houses and formed bucket brigades to wet the resnous shingles and put out the burning embers flying in all directions.
 Fifteens hundred members of the of. ficers' reserve training camp at Fort Mc- Emerson were called to the aid of the fire and police departments In coping with the situation. Tonight hundreds of them are doing police duty, protecting the prop erty of thousands of people near the scene of the fire and those living in the path of the flames, which is piled in the streets and vacant lots throughout the city Looting is being forestalled through the efforts rendered in assistance of the police and other officials.
 "ROOKIES" ALSO AID
 Had the call for aid from the officers training camp been made earlier and had there been better organization and sys- tenn in directing their work even better results could have been attained. Even the Rockies arrived on the scene in response to the urgent call of the city officials. There was no well defined plan of action. Various forces with conflict ing plans for utilizing the help possible to be rendered by 1500 trained and or ganized men came forward and the of f;cers in charge of the reserve companies were forced to act on their own initia tive. However, they quickly sized up the situation, divided their men into squads and groups of various sizes and with a few general instructions left it to the initiative of the individuals to render whatever help they thought best. That the men measured up fully to their re- responsibilities was attested by the help they rendered in every section of the city where the fire was raging when they arrived. This agility in sealing roofs, in reaching points where civilians hesitated to go and where firemen could not be spared to go did no small bit toward stopping the onward sweep Ot rushing flames. Several weeks of dry weather aided by shingle roofs made the frame houses easy marks for the flying sparks.
 DID POLICE WORK
 Another big service rendered by the men from Fort McPherson was in polic- ing streets blocks away from the fire where live wires were falling to the streets. Scattered throughout the terri tory contiguous to the fire area, the train ing camp men were able to warn pedestrians and motorists long before the power company or the police officials could arrive on the scene
 Probably no feature of the fire was more impressive than the sight of thou sands of trucks drays, wagons, buggies, automobiles and every other form of vehicle even including wheelbarrows, which were crowding through the streets blocks away from the fire loaded with household goods. It was suggestive of the scenes in the invaded territories in Europe just prior to the arrival of enemy forces. The sight of this, coupled with hundreds of men in uniform rushing from place to place, with the further wild re- ports that the flames started in various sections of the city simultaneously was the work of German agents, added to the impressiveness of the military aspect of the situation
 WILD REPORTS