Evening journal., 1921-06-28
REAL SERVICE.

nIEBIO today appreciates gas service and the gas
mans traditional devotion 10 duty it never did
before. Every person the oity will tell you why Is
because the gas company. Of all the public utility COM
panes that noodstrcken city. the first TO resume
service.
The gas is on" the first joyful news shouted nE
the city Of 5000 people who suddenly thrown back
to the primitive days hundred years ago. How that
Herculean feat performed is one OF the unwr'en
chapters OF Puebos catastrophe until today It may De
told now, however, without fear Of exagseration.
TWO separate floods Of equal volume hurled themselves
upon the city; one on the evening Friday, June B. and
the other on the afternoon Of Sunday June D. Water
from ten to fifteen feet high swept over and ensufed
S25 city blocks putting every public utility out OF
busness-gas electric light and power street railway
steam railroads. telegraph and telephone. The entire
plant Of the Pueblo Gas and Fuel Company was sub
merged from eight TO nine feet Deep
SO sudden did the flood arrive that stokers pulling
red-hot from the flaming gas retorts were Obliged
10 drop their rakes and foe for their lives Almost i'm
medaiey the plant wa stimulated by vertabe Niagara
Not until O'Clock the next morning had the water sub
sided TO permit the men to enter the plant by
boat and inventory the damage. All day Saturday they
worked as they could but their efforts were stopped
and all preliminary work destroyed when the second flood
hit the city the following day
Undaunied they again waited with boats and early
Monday morning as soon It possible to get into
the plant they resumed work with vengeance 1t
tough Job Two feet OF ooy mud covered the plant Five
feet OF water in the furnace pits Boiler furnaces
blowers, engines-everything. was covered with mud
The barn at the plant had been washed away and with it,
horses wagons and motor trucks Mains were broken
twisted destroyed The flood had done its work we'll
But there could be delay in resuming service no
matter what the odds The deprivation OF ser
vice perhaps serious than any other public ne
cessty except water Coal ranges few and fuel
practically unobtanabe Community cooking largely
employed and cooked food at a premium. we mus
have gas service and have il quick" the command o
military and municipal authorities.
The gas mans response immediate, heroic. Equip
ped with hip boots they set their task like veterans
There resting. sleeping Monday morning th'
work began. Monday night the FIRST real progress haC
been made Tuesday morning efforts redoubled. B!
noon there began to be hopes and by 490 p the SAINT
day-Tuesday, June 7gas turned into the mains il
the principal portion Of the city the first essential public
utility service 10 be resumed. Only forty-eight hour
previous the plant had been under nine feet Of water
None but gas men appreciate the terrible physica
effort that made this feat possible And the citizens
Pueblo have truer sense Of the indispensable char
acier OF their public utility enterprises.
Today gas men in every part Of the country are con
graduating their fellow workers in Pueblo because the
bravely met the severest test that be imposed upo
men in the public utility business and goriousy lived
TO the ndustrys unbroken tradition OF putting
vice first above every other consideration.