CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
WILD DOINGS AND DARING DEEDS.
Quick though they were, however, in reaching the scene of the fire, theescape was there before them. It had a shorter way to travel, and wasalready pitched, with its head resting against a window of the secondfloor, and the fly ladder raised to the third.
The people who had crowded round the building at the first alarm offire, were looking on as if in suspense, and the firemen knew thatConductor Forest, or one of his lion-hearted comrades, was inside, doinghis noble and dangerous work. But they had no time to pay attention towhat was going on.
While some of the firemen got the engine into play, the others ran in abody to the front-door of the burning house, the lower part of which wasa coach-builder's warehouse. It was a heavy double door, locked andbarred, and the owner had not yet arrived with the key. It was evidentthat the fire had originated in one of the upper floors, for there wasno 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 thelargest 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 theyfell on it in vain, for it was unusually strong. Seeing this, Dale ranback to the engine, and got out the pole.
"Come, lay hold some of you!" said he. Immediately eight firemen, Frankand Dale being at the front, charged the door like a thunderbolt withthis 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 thecrowd; but in another moment they were up and swarming through thepremises 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 windowfor air; while showers of water fell on his head, for the engine wasalready 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, callingout as he passed: "Here, Willders, Corney, Baxmore, lend a hand, willyou?"
On reaching the engine, they found about a dozen roughs of the lowestcharacter, disputing fiercely as to which of them was to pump theengine! As each man received one shilling an hour for this work, itbecame a desirable means of earning a good night's wages to thesebroad-shouldered rascals; who, in their anger, and in spite of thepolice, and the solitary fireman who superintended the engine, hadactually caused the men already at work to cease pumping.
We may remark in passing, that this would not have been the case, butfor the police force, from some unknown cause, being not very strong atthat fire, and having an excited and somewhat turbulent crowd to keep inorder. As a general rule, the police of London are of the mostessential service at fires; and not a few of them have obtained themedals of the Society for the protection of life from fire, and otherrewards for gallantry displayed in saving life at the risk of their ownlives.
On the present occasion, however, the few policemen present could barelyhold their ground against such a band of stalwart desperadoes, so thefiremen came to the rescue. In the front of the roughs stood a man whowas stronger made and better dressed than the others. He had not beenpugnacious at first; but having got involved in the riot, he struck outwith the rest. Dale sprang at this man, who was none other than thehalf-nautical individual already introduced to the reader by the name ofGorman, and launched a left-hander at his head; but Gorman steppedaside, and one of his comrades was felled instead. At this, the othersmade a rush in a body at Dale; but Frank, Corney, and Baxmore come up atthe moment, and each knocked down a man. Instantly Dale seized aninstrument from the engine, named a "preventer," like a large boat-hook,and, raising it at the full stretch of his powerful arms, he brought itswoop 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 attentionwhatever 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 anaxiom 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 atthe head of it; but, to their surprise, did not make any impressionwhatever. Two other engines, however, were at work by this time--so thefire was kept in check.
"Something wrong here," said Moxey, speaking with difficulty, owing tothe 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, andcreeping into the room with his mouth as close to the ground aspossible. This he did, because in a room on fire there is always acurrent of comparatively fresh air at the floor.
Presently the sound of Mason's small hatchet was heard cutting upwoodwork, and in a few seconds he rushed out almost choking.
"There," said he, "stick the branch through that hole. You've binplayin' all this time up agin' a board partition!"
Moxey and Williams advanced, put the branch through the partition, andthe result was at once obvious in the diminution of smoke and increaseof steam.
While these incidents were occurring outside and inside the building,the crowd was still waiting in breathless expectation for there-appearance of Conductor Forest of the fire-escape; for the eventsjust narrated, although taking a long time to tell, were enacted in afew minutes.
Presently Forest appeared at the window of the second floor with twoinfants in his arms. Instead of sending these down the canvas trough ofthe escape in the usual way--at the risk of their necks, for they werevery young--he clasped them to his breast, and plunging into it himselfhead-foremost, descended in that position, checking his speed byspreading out his knees against the sides of the canvas. Once again hesprang up the escape amid the cheers of the people, and re-entered thewindow.
At that moment the attention of the crowd was diverted by the suddenappearance 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 positionunexpectedly, for he was in such confusion that he did not observe thefire-escape at the other window. After shouting wildly for a fewseconds, and tossing his arms in the air, he leaped out and came to theground with stunning violence. Two policemen extinguished the fire thatwas about him, and then, procuring a horse-cloth lifted him up tenderlyand carried him away.
It may perhaps surprise the reader that this man was not roused soonerby the turmoil and noise that was going on around him, but it is a factthat heavy sleepers are sometimes found by the firemen sound asleep, andin utter ignorance of what has been going on, long after a large portionof the houses in which they dwell have been in flames.
When Forest entered the window the second time he found the smokethicker than before, and had some difficulty in groping his way--forsmoke that may be breathed with comparative ease is found to be verysevere on the eyes. He succeeded, however, in finding a woman lyinginsensible on the floor of the room above. In carrying her to thewindow he fell over a small child, which was lying on the floor in astate of insensibility. Grasping the latter with his left hand, heseized its night-dress with his teeth, and, with the woman on hisshoulder, appeared on the top of the fly-ladder, which he descended insafety.
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 aloft 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 t
hroughthe aperture and conveyed him safely to the ground. [See note 1].
The firemen were already at Forest's heels, and as soon as he draggedthe man through the hole in the roof, Frank and Baxmore jumped into itwith the branch, and immediately attacked the fire.
By this time all the engines of the district in which the fire hadoccurred, and one from each of the two adjoining districts, had arrived,and were in full play, and one by one the individual men from thedistant stations came dropping in and reported themselves to Dale, MrBraidwood not being present on that occasion. There was thus a strongforce of fresh firemen on the ground, and these, as they came up, weresent--in military parlance--to relieve skirmishers. The others werecongregated in front of the door, moving quietly about, looking on andchatting in undertones.
Such of the public as arrived late at the fire no doubt formed a veryerroneous impression in regard to these men, for not only did theyappear to be lounging about doing nothing, but they were helped by oneof their number to a glass of brandy--such of them at least as chose totake it. But those who had witnessed the fire from the beginning knewthat these men had toiled, with every nerve and muscle strained, forupwards of an hour in the face of almost unbearable heat,half-suffocated by smoke, and drenched by hot water. They were restingnow, and they had much need of rest, for some of them had come out ofthe burning house almost fainting from exposure to heat and smoke.Indeed, Mason _had_ fainted; but the fresh air soon revived him, andafter a glass of brandy he recovered sufficiently to be fit for dutyagain in half an hour.
Frank and Baxmore were the last to be relieved. When two fresh men cameup and took the branch they descended the stairs, and a strange descentit was. The wooden stair, or flight of open steps, which they had todescend first, was burnt to charcoal, and looked as if it would fall topieces 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; butso great was the quantity of water poured continuously into the house,that it formed a regular water-course of the staircase, down which heapsof plaster and bricks and burnt rubbish had been washed, and had stuckhere and there, forming obstructions on which the water broke and roundwhich it roared in the form of what might have been a very respectablemountain-torrent, with this striking difference, that the water whichrushed down it was _hot_, in consequence of its having passed throughsuch 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, fromthe combined influence of heat and cold water. Just as the two menreached 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 tofollow, when he observed a shut door. Without having any definiteintention, he laid hold of the handle, and found that it was locked onthe inside--he knew that, for he saw the end of the key sticking throughthe key-hole. At once he threw his weight on it, and burst it open. Tohis amazement, he found a little old lady sitting quietly, but in greattrepidation, in an easy-chair, partially clothed in very scantygarments, 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--meout _thus_! I know it's on fire. Leave me, sir, I command you--Ientreat you; I will die rather than appear as I am--in public."
The poor lady finished off with a loud shriek; for Frank, seeing howmatters stood, and knowing there was not a moment to lose, plucked ablanket from the bed, overwhelmed her in it, and exclaiming, "Forgiveme, 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 onone of the beds, where he left her, with strict injunctions to thepeople of the house to take care of her! Frank then went out to rejoinhis 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 someparts smouldering about the roof and upper floor, that rendered itnecessary to keep the engines going, while the firemen hunted their foefrom room to room, and corner to corner--extinguishing him everywhere;not, however, before he had completely gutted the whole house, with theexception of part of the ground floor.
"Keep away from the walls, men," said Dale, coming up to the group, whowere 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 downin a thick, warm shower, which drenched him in a few minutes. He ranthrough the whole place, but found no one, until he opened the door of acloset, when he discovered two old women who had taken refuge there; onebeing deaf and the other lame, as her crutches testified. They were upto the knees in water, and the same element was pouring in continuousstreams on their heads--yet, like the old lady up-stairs, they refusedto 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 hebore, kicking violently, into the street. The other was carried out inthe same fashion--only that she screamed violently, being unable tokick.
Soon after that, the fire was completely extinguished, and the enginesand men returned to their several stations, leaving London once again incomparative repose.
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Note 1. It is perhaps right to state here, that a deed similar to thisin nearly every point was performed by Conductor Samuel Wood, a memberof the London Fire-Escape Brigade, for which he received a testimonialsigned by the then Lord Mayor, and a silver watch with 20 pounds fromthe inhabitants of Whitechapel. Wood saved nearly 200 lives by his ownpersonal exertions. Many of his brave comrades have also done deedsthat are well worthy of record, but we have not space to do more thanallude to them here.
Fighting the Flames Page 13
