An engine-driver on the Pennsylvania Railway yesterday saved the lives of
600 passengers by an extraordinary act of heroism. The furnace door was
opened by the fireman to replenish the fire while the train was going at
thirty-five miles an hour. The back draught forced the flames out so
that the car of the locomotive caught fire, and the engine-driver and the
fireman were driven back over the tender into the passenger car, leaving
the engine without control. The speed increased, and the volume of flame
with it. There was imminent danger that all the carriages would take
fire, and the whole be consumed. The passengers were panic-stricken. To
jump off was certain death; to remain was to be burned alive. The
engine-driver saw that the only way to save the passengers was to return
to the engine and stop the train. He plunged into the flames, climbed
back over the tender, and reversed the engine. When the train came to a
standstill, he was found in the water-tank, whither he had climbed, with
his clothes entirely burnt off, his face disfigured, his hands shockingly
burned, and his body blistered so badly that the flesh was stripped off
in many places. Weak and half-conscious he was taken to the hospital,
where his injuries were pronounced serious, with slight chance of
recovery. As soon as the train stopped the flames were easily
extinguished. The unanimous testimony of the passengers is that the
engine-driver saved their lives. His name is Joseph A. Sieg.
—_Daily News_, Oct. 24th, 1882.