The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 7, 1897, Page 1

from 4ot IND. MORNING, JUNE 17, 1897. A BLAZING HORROR OF ] FACTORY Three Firemen Instantly Crushed toDeath Un- | der a Falling Wall AMIRACULOUS THEIR COMRADES General Alarm and Desperate Fight to Quench the Spreading Flames. ORIGIN OF THE SUDDEN FIRE EN- VELOPED IN MYSTERY. Building Valued at $68,000 and Stock and | Machinery of Standard Biscuit Company | Valued at $45,000 DestroyedIn- ‘ | ESCAPE OF | | | | surance on All $50,000. Three brave firemen, mangled and dead, and a poor woman lying on a bed of pain a broken thighbone are the tragic sesult of a noonday fire yesterday. DEAD. John Moholy, engineer No. 6, Chemi- cal, Eighth avenue, South San Fran- fimothy Hallinan, driver of truck No. 1, 483 Fol<om streat. Frank Keller, extraman No. 6, Chemical, 940 Howard street. INJURED. Mrs. Ellen McGrath of 127 Shipley street, rignt thigh broken. Three alarms, the first at sharp noon terday and two others in qui Fire D: on, summoned the and a vast multitude scene of a furion. large three- brick build Standard Bis- 39 1o 849 Foisom street, between Fourth and Fifth cuit Company, & south side, streets. thirty minutes afier the alarms building toppled out- ed and buried beneath the debris of an adjoinine wooden building Firemen Hailizen, Kelly and Moboly. The escape of emen working for the flames ward and twenly or more f position to fizht from the roof of the adjoining wooden structures al miraculous. The the wail was observed, and the motion of the swing told the firemen that mass of brick and mortar was t to crash upon them. Retreating s the roof east to the top of the Southern Police station, they saved th Ives. They bad hardly passed the danger line on their retreat, when the middle section of the eastern wall crashea »ugh the roof and floor of the wooden ure. Immeaiately under direction of S8econd rtion of the loity east | | Assistant Engineer Fernandez men wer | detail.d to remove the debris and reach | the men beneath, whose vosition it was known could be located at the end of the | chemical hose. The work was pursmed | until the crushed and, libeless bodies of | the brave men were found and brousht out. | Meanwhile the fire confined within the | four swinging walis of the three-story brick structure was raging fariously. Engines had rallied from all parts of the City and surrouning the building, poured in countless streams of water. | Obviously Chief Suliivan haa recog- | nized the peril of the situation and the menace of a vast conflagration at the first glance of the sceme. To the east and south of the fire a large area of the City, compactly built with modern buildings, was in imminent danger. The celerity of the department in responding to the alarms, and the vigor and skill with which tne flames were attackea prevented a spread of the fire. A brisk wind from the west carried the sparks high and far away to the east and southeast. A blazing | fracment swept along by a current of wind fell on a building over on Fourth street south of Folsom, and started a fresh blaze. Instantly a chemical engine was | rashed to the scene of new danger, bt | before it arrived there prompt and skilled nands had quenched the blaze. The origin of the fire is unknown. TItis surmised that the fire had been smolder- ing for hours in the rear center of the | building, and, catchizg a vent of air, burst | forth with fury. | All the eye-witnesses agree that the flames broke out almost simultaneously | trom the third-story windows in the rear | of the buiiding. Before the department | could throw a stream of water the flames | were springing out of the windows on the | | Folsom-street front of the building. The | first alarm from box 157, at Fourth lndi Wl L il e T I "a, 7, ) 7 /% I . / / /i il U / Building of the Standard Biscuit Company, Which Was Destroyed by Fire Yesterday Afternoon. During the Early Part of the Fir e a Portion of the East Wall Fell, Burying Three Firemen in the Ruins. Folsom streets, was turned in at twn]tnnce from the scene of the fighting, but | rear to get the door, when suddenly he minutes before 12 x. by Officer Thomas S. | Burke. { in spite of all the precsutions many citi- | z3ns menaged to get inside. They crowded | heard a terrific crash. ‘Twenty feet of the upper portion of the brick wall had top- The alarm of fire and the smoke coming | so close to the swaying Folsom-street front | pled over upon the paint shop, completely through the wooden building of the South- | ern police station caused terror among the prisoners. As the fire had communi- cated to the csrriage-paiating shop of Griswold & Berry, between the station and the big brick building, five prisoners confined in the branch station were hand- cuffed and transierred by patrol wagon to the Central prison. The records of the Southern station were taken to an office in a stabie on the north side of Folsom | street. The officers ut the station were Captain Spillane, Lieutenant Hanna, Sergeants Davis and Conboy and Prison- keeper T. L. Tobin. When the top of the east wall of the main brick building fell on the carriage- painting shop, crashing through the roof and floors to the ground, the police of- ficers were startled by the awful crash, and supposed that their own house was going down in the general wreck. The scene was one of intense confusion and | excitement. The intensity of the heat and the density of the smoke forced the firemen back. but they rallied quickly and went in regardless of danger. 1In face of all the confronting obstacles the de- partment had the fire under control by 12:30. The fire ropes were stretched across the streets and alleys at a considerable dis- of the biz brick building that they were warned repeatedly on the peril of their | lives to keep back. In crowding so closely they impeded the firemen in rescue work. | e HOW THEY MET DEATH.| Loyally and Heroically the Three Firemen Diled Together. Chemical Engine 6 was one of the first to arrive at the fire. A piece of burning wood had fallen from the burning build- ing into the aliey between it and the frame structure adjoining, used as a paint | shop, and a small blaze had been started. | | Engineer John Moholy of the chemical | engine and Frank Keller, who is a regular | fireman of Engine 6, but wiio was reliev- ing Fireman Black on the chemical en- | | gine yesterday, started through the alley with their hose. With them were Driver | | Tim - Hallinan of Truck 1, and Chris Lee | of the patrol. As they were working to | extinguish the blaze a portion of the fire- wall fell, breaking Moholy’s leg and blocking the passageway from Howard to | Folsom street, through which they had come. Moholy’s comrades started to carry him out, but he stopped them. “Goand geta [ board or a door to cary me out on. boys,” he said. Lee hastened out toward the crushing itin and burying beneath tne debris the three brave firemen—Moholy, the wounded, and Keller and Hallinan, who had remained by their comrade’s side until death overwhelimed them all. In the face of certain destruction, when the towering wall bad commenced to sway, the two brave men had not moved from Moholy’s side, for the bodies, when finally recovered, were found together. Terror followed the crashing ot the walls. The police officers in the Southern police station, a few doors away, thought that the station-house wasfalling. Smoke had commenced to pour into the cells, where five prisoners were confined, and | Prison Keeper T. L. Tobin had hastily prepared 10 have them removed to the Central station. The five prisoners were put into the Central station wagon, and the valuables in the station-house were removed to a place of safety across the sireel. The station is no longer fit for oc- cupancy, for the crash of a portion of t. e brick wall against the building has sprung the floors and cracked the ceiling so as to make the building positively dangerous. For two and a halt hours the bodies of the three firemen remained beneath the ruins, Their comrades dared; not go near under the tottering remnant of the wall which threatened every moment to col- lapse. The frame bu'lding adjoining had to be first torn down and the debris re- moved before they dared to approach the spot where their companions had been overwhelmed. When this had been done, and long after the fire was under control, | several scores of wiliing nands worked to | recover the bodies of the cead. It was not with the hoves of re:cuing them alive that the firemen toiled, forthey knew only 100 well that bteneath the ponderous mass of aebris life had been crushed out almost instantaneously. After the work of removing the debris had been in progress for perhaps an Lour, a bloody hand wa: en sticking out from under the fallen wall. With redoubled energy the firemen continued the work of clearing away the ruins, and soon the body of Frank Keller was taken out. The heavy timbers which pinned him down had first to be hewn and sawed away. The bodies of the other two firemen were visible, but it took some time to re- move the debri- from above them. neer minutes later. A long, bloody wound of the scalp, which had been torn open, éx- po-ing the skull, gave the corpse a ghastly sppearance. A quarter of an hour later tue body of Driver Hallinan was released from the bricks and timbers which had baried it. As the bodies were recovered they were carried to the Southern police station and laid side by side upoa the floor of the JOHN MOHOLY, the Dead Engineer, to Save Whom Two Fire- men Sacrificed Their Lives in Vais et Ml FRANK KELLER, Who Was Killed While Atiempting to Save TIMOTHY HALLINAN of Truck f, Who Lost His Life: While His Comraie : Iy . Trying to Save an Irjuied Fellow-Figeman, Engi- | Moholy’s body was taken out five | of enzine 11, [ any of these. station-house. A kind and thoughtful act of respect to the dead men was shown by the police. Instead of having the bodies taken to the Morzue three police patrol wagons were summoned to re- move the bodies to the undertaker’s. Chief of Police Lees personally directed the re- moval of the bodies. A funeral cortege was formed, headed by the Central sta- tion wagon bearing the body of Keller. ‘The California-street wagon followed with the remains of Hallinan. The wagon of the Southern station, carrying the body of Engineer Moholy, brought up the rear of the sad procession. The bodies were taken to the undertaking parlors of Craig, Cochran & Co., 22 Mint avenue. John Moholy, to save whom Keller ana Hallinan risked and lost their lives, was one of the most reliable and best liked men in the whole department. His stead- iness and attention to duty made him one of the most trusted of Chief Sullivan’s subordinates, and his genial disposition made him a favorite amoag bis comrades, For a good many years he was foreman at South San Francisco, where Moholy lived at the time of his death with his wife and children. He wastrans‘erred to chemical engine 7 when e Centuries ago, peo- ple used to fear what they called the pes- tilence. * Black QThey feared it as people now fear the Cholera and Yellow * ble thing than any of these. There is a_thing that causes more misery and more deaths than 1t is the commonest trouble that, human beings suffer from. It is so common that nine-tenths of all the sickness in the world is traceable to it. It is merely that simple, common thing—constipation. There istio telling what it may lead to, but it is sure to lead to something bad. Its im- mediate effects are unpleasant in the e treme. It makes people listless, gives them headaches, makes the digestion poor, causes dizziness, loss of appetite, loss of sleep, foul breath and distress after eating. All this merely because Nature has been imposed upon, andd dhas been refused the Tittle help she needed. This 1§ue help is furnished by Doctor. Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets. One pill is a gentle laxative and two a mild cathartic. Fhere are two remarkable things about the “Pellets.” One is that they never gripe; the other that they cure permanently. There is no other medicine that does cure permanently. _You can take any other medicine you like, as long as you like, and if you stop, your trouble will come back quickly, and the chances are the trouble will be worse than it was before. This isn’t true of Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets. You take them until you gel yourself into perfect working order, and then you stop. You don’t have to take any more “* Pellets "’ unless after a while you do something that deranges your digestive system again. We are not guessing about these facts, and we don’t ask you to take our unsupported word for it. Thousands of geople have found | that they are true, and have testified to them. Let the druggist who says that some- thing else is ““just as good ” sell that some- thing else to somebody else. Don't let him trifle with your health for the sake of a little more profit to himself. World’s Dispensary Medical Association, | No. 663 Main Street, Buffalo, N. ¥, S i il