FIRE ON A TRANSPORT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 60, 12 March 1906, Page 4

FIRE ON A TRANSPORT.

DEE.DS; OF BEAVERY.

0 THREE LIVES LOST.

■■*'; SAN FRANCISCO, February 8. A distressing accident occurred on tliu United States transport Meado at San Francisco on January 31. The vessel was' at the dock ready to sail for the Philippines, when a fire was discovered in the hold. An alarm was given shortly before midnight, and by desperate endeavour the fire was extinguished before reaching a vast quantity of ammunition stored on board the vessel. Deadly fumes poured up from the fire, which was not extensive. The city ambulances were in use carrying away men who hud been overcome by the deadly gases while attempting to put out the fire. Three men bravely gave up their lives, among these the third officer, George Wallace, a native of Sydney, New South Wales. Wallace was 25 years old and a resident of this country for several years. His bravery during the fire was conspicuous during a night crowded with deeds of heroism. When the firo was reported Wallace and the fourth officer, Dahl, went into the hold to investigate. The captain and several men responded to the alarm, and the captain fell to the floor unconscious. Wallace and Dahl earned him to his cabin. Then realising the danger of the vessel, they again went below, groping their way through the blinding smoke in an effort to find the seat of the flames. Wallace was overcome on the ladder halfway, and himself fell helpless to the foot. By this time the firemen were fighting their way through dense smoke, and the men were carried to the dock. The firemen were overcome, revived by the aid of surgeons, and again rushed into the smoke. The effort to put out the fire became more frantic, and was successful. Two members of the San Francisco Department were suffocated, in spite of efforts to save them by their gallant comrades. Dahl, when he recovered consciousness, raved pitifully about Wallace, insisting upon being allowed to go back into the inferno to rescue him. The firemen finally reached the source of the trouble, and extinguished the blaze, which was found to be in the coal blinkers underneath the compartments in which baggage and freight were stored. A curious feature of the disaster is the small damage to the vessel and its contents. It is said the loss could be repaired for ,£IOO. The San Francisco public donated generously to the bereaved families of the martyred firemen, a sum approaching twenty thousand dollars having been raised for them by a baseball game benefit and other means. The distress of the disaster it mitigated by the reflection of what is would have meant had it occurred a few hours later, when the vessel would have been at sea and beyond help.