The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-27
MEN. WOMEN
 AND THINGS

by the crowds which congested Second avenue and T Twenty-first street on.Thurs-
 day afternoon to witness the half-million-
 dollar blaze.
 heard the fire engines. but paid no
 attention to them. On reaching The Age
 Herald, the elevator man said. Boss. is
 dey put her out yet?" I replied, Put
 what out?'. He answered, The big fire
 what's burning up the Rhodes-carroll Furniture Company
 I wheeled and made for the scene. and, although I got, in view after the building had been burning for some time, yet the flames were raging fiereely. Wishing to get peep into the seething volcano. l mounted to the top of the Jefferson
 County Bank building, and the large structure below had diminished to such pigmy proportions as to seem almost unreal.
 I watched it for awhile from the high elevation and then went down to Frank Deedmyer's offices on the sixth floor, in order to get closeup view, and found a lot of men watching the conflagration. Jim westherly called my attention to curious fact, saying that when the lire was at it's hottest, that although the win- dow glass was. cola to the touch. the ex-l
 treme heat was painly felt back at the desks
 From the sRich & Biederman baildina which was burning, there was a mist as of continuous downpour from the stream of water which was being poured into the fifth floor from the ladder stand pipe as the wind was from the west. The pavement in front of the Jefferson Coun- | ty Bank building was drenched as though heavy rain was filling, and l got pretty well drenched in making my way down opposite the fire.
 From the promenade of the Civic Asso- ciation which was filled with eager sightseers, I had been able to look down I on the two stores on the east side of the Rich & Biederman building. and they | had been crushed in by the falling wall, which had first given. way toward the faIev side and stuffed off down to as far as the third story for more than half way of the building.
 l The first thing to strike every one who l saw the wreckage was the remembrance | that the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Com pany had been caved in when the wall 1 of the steele-Smith Dry Goods Company gave way few years back. It certainly | is a curious thing that the company, hav- ing moved just block above it's old site, should lave happened to similar acci- ldent, but luckily this time without loss l of life. S
 l IT, knew it took lot of hose for the fire
 department. but when saw the amount laid on Thursday afternoon I could read I ily account for the cost the city is put to | in keeping a supply of it on hand. It | looked like tangled mess when walking on the streets below, but from the top of the bank building they looked like great sefpents which had wound them eser-es sup and down the avenues and crawIed up into the sutrouhdlng build 1 irg, for many of. them led up stairways 1 ir order to give the firemen chance | to throw water from the roofs |
 l I. went up Twenty first street to First avenue, and, to my surprise, the smoke ! was so dense as to be unpleasant, while there was no smell of it on Second ave-
 rue. walked on down to Twentieth
 street and looked up the alley and 1t was l a sight to see the number of steady
 streams which were being shot into the i Rich & Biederman building, but in spite I of the fact that a ccnstand downpour
 was deluging it, the red flames burned steadily and every now and then would ileap up with renewed 'fierceness. | Twentieth street was in the worst jam I had ever seen it. Heretofore, on our big days. provision was made to handle the crowd. and the street cars, automo- ] biles. jitneys trucks and drays. by rop- ing off the sidewalks and diverting traf- l fic. But Thursday afternoon it was a free-for-all, and, believe me, there was Iscme rnixup, and it's thousand wonders that there were no smashes or accidents. 1 I saw only one case where any one had tried to save anything, and that was on First avenue, where l saw a couple hud- dled up on their effects, which they had brought down from an upstairs room. Hundreds of thousands of dollars was go- ing up in smoke, and the only salvage lvisible was just the furnishings of a bed l room. It gave just bit of human in- terest to the scene--for somehow no one | weeps over the loss of stores or factories save the owners and the insurance com lpanies
 The police had time trying to handle Ithe crowds. After some time ropes were
 stretched and they were kept busy. IL wasn't long. however, before the Boy
 Scouts got to work. and, as usual, did their full part. There seems to be a
 fascination about fire which draws
 lpeople as close to it as possible. heard
 one young fellow say, T was in the store seeing what l could see, and all of a sudden the elevator crashed down, and that's when I made dash for the tstreet.'
 I was bit amused at a notice on the
 front door of one of First avenues pro-
 gressve merchants, for it read: Closed,
 as fire is at our back door and it
 surely was. I congratulate Chief Mic.
 l,S1A for fhair