SKYSCRAPER FIRE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 13, 31 August 1911, Page 6

SKYSCRAPER FIRE.

NEW VOUK BRIGADE ESTABLISH A JaKCOUD. New York’s firemen gave a thrilling exhibition of acrobatic skill on July tiStli in lighting a lira 560 feet in tiie air, on the top story of a municipal building twenty-five stories high, opposite the City Hall Park. The building, which was-in process of construction, was little more than a skeleton of steel pillars and girders. Fire broke out amid a large pile ol rhbb'ish and temporary - wooden flooring on the top storey. ‘V Flames leaped high in the air,'rivalling the-'torch of the Statue of Liberty The fireman could not roach the seat of the tire with a hose from the street, so they chunbored tip improvised ladders', dragging the heavy hose to the twenty-third floor, where a standpipe was installed in the building. The hose was .attached to the standpipe and - carried two floors higher to the lire, while the engines in the street, 560 feet below, pumped water through the standpipe. The firemen balanced themselves like circus performers on narrow steel beams and fought the Jive half air hour before they could get it under. It is. believed that this constitutes'a world’s height record for a fire.