Evening star., 1924-11-30

window overlookii the Equitable
an awe-inspiring scene met my gaze
Beneath me lay q seeth1ng, boiling
cauldron. The very earth seemed te
somit forth flames and send up from
It's depths mammoth tongues OF hrs"
Parts Of chairs. desks and boards
were being hurled like pebbles SOC
feet into the air. Only the pen q
Dante could do II Justice.
But the question for me to decfds
was whether the Broadway irons
would hold. or whether 1t would coll
lapse burying the entombed men ano
the companies trying to eject their
rescue. After careful survey l de-
termined that the walls would stand.
but to insure this ! ordered that q
strong stream of water from the
Trinity Building be employed TO re-
duce the expansion by forcing the nre
back at this point
Now began tho battle for life ana
treasure. Hack SAWS were procured.
and for almost an hour Engineer
Larke, assisted by Rankin, Henry
and Others, sawed at the bars. while
great masses Of stone fell from the
upper stories around the workers.
One great fragment rebounded and
struck Larke IN the back, almost
paralyzing him. Rankin now took
the hack saw and cut through the
remaining bars. so that ropes cou!d
| be attached and the opening suf-
fciently enlarged to admit the
passage Of q body.
One Of the men was taken out
suffering from smoke, exposure and
shock But the other cried. For
Gods sake don't leave me, my arm is
fast" Upon examination, II was
found that his arm was pinned across
the back Of the dead man by two iron
beams, and for Is minutes Henry and
his comrades, using crowbars, pried
and pulled, assisted by the man him
self, before his release was enected.
pY this time the fire was well under
- control on the north and east. and
all danger OF it's crossing Cedar and
Nassau streets had passed. now
called q boat tender and stretched
3h inch hose from the hfgh-pressure
hydrants TO the Broadway front OF
the building. Three-inch lines were
also taken from the water tower into
the Cedar street buildings opposite
the vaults and company lines were
aamesed in order that heavier
streams could be forced against the
gale which still increased. This
method was in operation on the roof
OF the clearing house, where II was
most effective.
A peculiar phenomenon OF this fire
was that It worked steadily to wind
ward against the furious gale, and
1t seemed as though determined to
destroy the enormous wealth contain
ed in the vaults. All our forces were
now concentrated to prevent such
q catastrophe and also 10 prevent
the cremation of the iifeless com
panion of the two men we mao
rescued.
Owing to the force OF our attack
the securities were untouched and
unharmed. the walls, which were
badly cracked and out OF plumb, re-
mained standing, and the corpse was
not incinerated. Cautiously now We
closed in and the fight was over.
Some idea OF the magnitude OF the
operations can be CLEANED from the
following statistics: Eighty-fve Of
fcers and about Ave hundred men
operated 81 steam engines. TO nook
and ladder trucks, water towers,
and superintended the high pressure
service, while the water used IN the
attack amounted to appro1ln ate!y
IL, 100000 gallons.
During the progress of the fire, all
business in Wall Street was suspend
ed and anxiety reigned in two con-
tinents as to the fate of the billion
dollars worth of securities in the
strongrooms.
II speaks volumes for the skill of
the fire fighters that not one dollars
worth OF damage was done In that
direction and that when recovered
the papers were not even discolored-
The outstanding features of this re-
markable fire were the tremendous
value OF the property at stake, the
extraordinary climatic conditions, and
the possibility Of the spread OF the
flames, which would have caused
disaster because Of a financial loss
SO stupendous, unparalleled in the
annuls OF history.
Copyright, ise4.)