Quick though they were, however, in reaching the scene of the fire, the
escape was there before them. It had a shorter way to travel, and was
already pitched, with its head resting against a window of the second
floor, and the fly ladder raised to the third.
The people who had crowded round the building at the first alarm of
fire, were looking on as if in suspense, and the firemen knew that
Conductor Forest, or one of his lion-hearted comrades, was inside, doing
his noble and dangerous work. But they had no time to pay attention to
what was going on.
While some of the firemen got the engine into play, the others ran in a
body to the front-door of the burning house, the lower part of which was
a coach-builder's warehouse. It was a heavy double door, locked and
barred, and the owner had not yet arrived with the key. It was evident
that the fire had originated in one of the upper floors, for there was
no light in the wareroom.
"Get the pole-axe," said Dale, as soon as he found the door was fast.
Frank Willders sprang off at the word, and returned with an axe of the
largest size attached to a handle nearly four feet long.
"Drive it in, Willders," said Dale.
Frank's powerful blows at once thundered on the massive door; but they
fell on it in vain, for it was unusually strong. Seeing this, Dale ran
back to the engine, and got out the pole.
"Come, lay hold some of you!" said he. Immediately eight firemen, Frank
and Dale being at the front, charged the door like a thunderbolt with
this extemporised battering-ram. It gave way with a prodigious crash,
and the whole party fell over each other into the warehouse.
There was a burst of laughter from themselves, as well as from the
crowd; but in another moment they were up and swarming through the
premises among the smoke, searching for a point of attack.
"Send the branch up here," cried Mason, coughing violently.
"Sure, my peepers is out entirely!" gasped Corney, rushing to the window
for air; while showers of water fell on his head, for the engine was
already in full play.
Just then there was a noise outside, as if men were disputing violently.
Dale guessed at once what it was, and ran down the staircase, calling
out as he passed: "Here, Willders, Corney, Baxmore, lend a hand, will
you?"
On reaching the engine, they found about a dozen roughs of the lowest
character, disputing fiercely as to which of them was to pump the
engine! As each man received one shilling an hour for this work, it
became a desirable means of earning a good night's wages to these
broad-shouldered rascals; who, in their anger, and in spite of the
police, and the solitary fireman who superintended the engine, had
actually caused the men already at work to cease pumping.
We may remark in passing, that this would not have been the case, but
for the police force, from some unknown cause, being not very strong at
that fire, and having an excited and somewhat turbulent crowd to keep in
order. As a general rule, the police of London are of the most
essential service at fires; and not a few of them have obtained the
medals of the Society for the protection of life from fire, and other
rewards for gallantry displayed in saving life at the risk of their own
lives.
On the present occasion, however, the few policemen present could barely
hold their ground against such a band of stalwart desperadoes, so the
firemen came to the rescue. In the front of the roughs stood a man who
was stronger made and better dressed than the others. He had not been
pugnacious at first; but having got involved in the riot, he struck out
with the rest. Dale sprang at this man, who was none other than the
half-nautical individual already introduced to the reader by the name of
Gorman, and launched a left-hander at his head; but Gorman stepped
aside, and one of his comrades was felled instead. At this, the others
made a rush in a body at Dale; but Frank, Corney, and Baxmore come up at
the moment, and each knocked down a man. Instantly Dale seized an
instrument from the engine, named a "preventer," like a large boat-hook,
and, raising it at the full stretch of his powerful arms, he brought it
swoop down on the heads of the roughs--six of whom, including Gorman,
measured their length on the ground.
Meanwhile, Bill Moxey and Jack Williams, who had charge of the branch--
which is considered the post of honour at a fire--had paid no attention
whatever to this little episode; but the instant the order was given,
had conveyed their branch into the building, and up to the first floor,
where they thought they could reach the fire more directly; for it is an
axiom in fire brigades to get into a burning building _without delay_,
and attack the fire at its heart.
They got the hose up a staircase, and began to play through a doorway at
the head of it; but, to their surprise, did not make any impression
whatever. Two other engines, however, were at work by this time--so the
fire was kept in check.
"Something wrong here," said Moxey, speaking with difficulty, owing to
the dense smoke.
Owing to the same cause, it was impossible to see what was wrong.
"I'll go in an' see," said Mason, dropping on his hands and knees, and
creeping into the room with his mouth as close to the ground as
possible. This he did, because in a room on fire there is always a
current of comparatively fresh air at the floor.
Presently the sound of Mason's small hatchet was heard cutting up
woodwork, and in a few seconds he rushed out almost choking.
"There," said he, "stick the branch through that hole. You've bin
playin' all this time up agin' a board partition!"
Moxey and Williams advanced, put the branch through the partition, and
the result was at once obvious in the diminution of smoke and increase
of steam.
While these incidents were occurring outside and inside the building,
the crowd was still waiting in breathless expectation for the
re-appearance of Conductor Forest of the fire-escape; for the events
just narrated, although taking a long time to tell, were enacted in a
few minutes.
Presently Forest appeared at the window of the second floor with two
infants in his arms. Instead of sending these down the canvas trough of
the escape in the usual way--at the risk of their necks, for they were
very young--he clasped them to his breast, and plunging into it himself
head-foremost, descended in that position, checking his speed by
spreading out his knees against the sides of the canvas. Once again he
sprang up the escape amid the cheers of the people, and re-entered the
window.
At that moment the attention of the crowd was diverted by the sudden
appearance of a man at one of the windows of the first floor.
He was all on fire, and had evidently been aroused to his awful position
unexpectedly, for he was in such confusion that he did not observe the
fire-escape at the other window. After shouting wildly for a few
seconds, and tossing his arms in the air, he leaped out and came to the
ground with stunning violence. Two policemen extinguished the fire that
was about him, and then, procuring a horse-cloth lifted him up tenderly
and carried him away.
It may perhaps surprise the reader that this man was not roused sooner
by the turmoil and noise that was going on around him, but it is a fact
that heavy sleepers are sometimes found by the firemen sound asleep, and
in utter ignorance of what has been going on, long after a large portion
of the houses in which they dwell have been in flames.
When Forest entered the window the second time he found the smoke
thicker than before, and had some difficulty in groping his way--for
smoke that may be breathed with comparative ease is found to be very
severe on the eyes. He succeeded, however, in finding a woman lying
insensible on the floor of the room above. In carrying her to the
window he fell over a small child, which was lying on the floor in a
state of insensibility. Grasping the latter with his left hand, he
seized its night-dress with his teeth, and, with the woman on his
shoulder, appeared on the top of the fly-ladder, which he descended in
safety.
The cheers and shouts of the crowd were deafening as Forest came down;
but the woman, who had begun to recover, said that her brother was in a
loft above the room in which she had been found.
The Conductor, therefore, went up again, got on the roof of the house,
broke through the tiles, and with much difficulty pulled the man through
the aperture and conveyed him safely to the ground. [See note 1].
The firemen were already at Forest's heels, and as soon as he dragged
the man through the hole in the roof, Frank and Baxmore jumped into it
with the branch, and immediately attacked the fire.
By this time all the engines of the district in which the fire had
occurred, and one from each of the two adjoining districts, had arrived,
and were in full play, and one by one the individual men from the
distant stations came dropping in and reported themselves to Dale, Mr
Braidwood not being present on that occasion. There was thus a strong
force of fresh firemen on the ground, and these, as they came up, were
sent--in military parlance--to relieve skirmishers. The others were
congregated in front of the door, moving quietly about, looking on and
chatting in undertones.
Such of the public as arrived late at the fire no doubt formed a very
erroneous impression in regard to these men, for not only did they
appear to be lounging about doing nothing, but they were helped by one
of their number to a glass of brandy--such of them at least as chose to
take it. But those who had witnessed the fire from the beginning knew
that these men had toiled, with every nerve and muscle strained, for
upwards of an hour in the face of almost unbearable heat,
half-suffocated by smoke, and drenched by hot water. They were resting
now, and they had much need of rest, for some of them had come out of
the burning house almost fainting from exposure to heat and smoke.
Indeed, Mason _had_ fainted; but the fresh air soon revived him, and
after a glass of brandy he recovered sufficiently to be fit for duty
again in half an hour.
Frank and Baxmore were the last to be relieved. When two fresh men came
up and took the branch they descended the stairs, and a strange descent
it was. The wooden stair, or flight of open steps, which they had to
descend first, was burnt to charcoal, and looked as if it would fall to
pieces with a touch.
"I hope it'll bear," said Frank to Baxmore, who went first.
"Bear or not bear, we _must_ go down," said Baxmore.
He went unhesitatingly upon it, and although the steps bent ominously,
there was enough of sound wood to sustain him.
The second stair, also of wood, had not been quite so much charred; but
so great was the quantity of water poured continuously into the house,
that it formed a regular water-course of the staircase, down which heaps
of plaster and bricks and burnt rubbish had been washed, and had stuck
here and there, forming obstructions on which the water broke and round
which it roared in the form of what might have been a very respectable
mountain-torrent, with this striking difference, that the water which
rushed down it was _hot_, in consequence of its having passed through
such glowing materials.
The lower staircase was a stone one--the worst of all stairs in a fire,
owing to its liability to crack at its connection with the wall, from
the combined influence of heat and cold water. Just as the two men
reached the head of it, it fell, without warning, in a mass of ruins.
"Never mind," said Baxmore, "the fire-escape is still at the window."
So saying, he ran through the smoke and reached it. Frank was about to
follow, when he observed a shut door. Without having any definite
intention, he laid hold of the handle, and found that it was locked on
the inside--he knew that, for he saw the end of the key sticking through
the key-hole. At once he threw his weight on it, and burst it open. To
his amazement, he found a little old lady sitting quietly, but in great
trepidation, in an easy-chair, partially clothed in very scanty
garments, which she had evidently thrown on in great haste.
"Go away, young man!" she screamed, drawing a shawl tightly round her.
"Go away, I say! how _dare_ you, sir?"
"Why, ma'am," cried Frank, striding up to her; "the house is on fire!
Come, I'll carry you out."
"No--No!" she cried, pushing him resolutely away. "What! carry me--me
out _thus_! I know it's on fire. Leave me, sir, I command you--I
entreat you; I will die rather than appear as I am--in public."
The poor lady finished off with a loud shriek; for Frank, seeing how
matters stood, and knowing there was not a moment to lose, plucked a
blanket from the bed, overwhelmed her in it, and exclaiming, "Forgive
me, ma'am," lifted her gently in his arms, bore her through the smoke,
down the escape, to the street; carried her into a neighbouring house
(the door of which was opportunely open), and laid her like a bundle on
one of the beds, where he left her, with strict injunctions to the
people of the house to take care of her! Frank then went out to rejoin
his comrades, and refreshed himself with a glass of beer; while Baxmore,
being a teetotaller, recruited his energies with a glass of water.
By this time the fire had been pretty well subdued; but there were some
parts smouldering about the roof and upper floor, that rendered it
necessary to keep the engines going, while the firemen hunted their foe
from room to room, and corner to corner--extinguishing him everywhere;
not, however, before he had completely gutted the whole house, with the
exception of part of the ground floor.
"Keep away from the walls, men," said Dale, coming up to the group, who
were resting.
At that moment there was a cry raised that some one was in the cellars.
At the word, Baxmore ran into the house, and descended to the basement.
There was little smoke here; but from the roof, water was running down
in a thick, warm shower, which drenched him in a few minutes. He ran
through the whole place, but found no one, until he opened the door of a
closet, when he discovered two old women who had taken refuge there; one
being deaf and the other lame, as her crutches testified. They were up
to the knees in water, and the same element was pouring in continuous
streams on their heads--yet, like the old lady up-stairs, they refused
to move or be moved.
Finding that persuasion was useless, Baxmore ran up for a horse-cloth,
and, returning, threw it over the head of the deaf old woman, whom he
bore, kicking violently, into the street. The other was carried out in
the same fashion--only that she screamed violently, being unable to
kick.
Soon after that, the fire was completely extinguished, and the engines
and men returned to their several stations, leaving London once again in
comparative repose.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. It is perhaps right to state here, that a deed similar to this
in nearly every point was performed by Conductor Samuel Wood, a member
of the London Fire-Escape Brigade, for which he received a testimonial
signed by the then Lord Mayor, and a silver watch with 20 pounds from
the inhabitants of Whitechapel. Wood saved nearly 200 lives by his own
personal exertions. Many of his brave comrades have also done deeds
that are well worthy of record, but we have not space to do more than
allude to them here.