HEROIC ACT OF AN ENGINEDRIVER.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 52, 16 December 1882, Page 3

HEROIC ACT OF AN ENGINEDRIVER.

♦ An engine-driver on the Pennsvlrailway, recently saved the Hives of 600 passengers. The furnace • door was opened by the fireman to » replenish; the fire>while the train was igoing-5 miles an hour. The back < draught forced the flames out so that Hhe car of the locomotive cau_ht fire, -and' the «ngine-driver and the fireman *were driven back over thetender into the passenger car, leaving -the engine without control. The speed increased,. ;and the volume of rlame with it. There was imminent danger that all t the", carriages would take fire, and ?the .whole train be consumed. The t passengers were panic - stricken. 'J'oijurop off was certain death ; to reixnain 'to be burned alive. 'Ithe •engine-driver saw that the only way »to -save the passengers was to rrecurn xo the engine and stoprthe train. ;He, plunged into the flames, climbed 'babk over the tender, and reversed ithe engine. 'When the train came to !astandstill,'he was found in.thev.atervtank, whither be had. climed, with. his ' clothes entirely burnt off, his: face disfigured, his hands shockingly burned, und his body blistered so badly that the Jlehh was stripped off in manj ! places. Weak and half-conscious, ht was taken to the hospital, where hit iiojuries were pronouueed serious, witl g.ight ttance of recovery. As soon a ithe train stopped the flames wer extinguished. The unanimou !testimony -of the passeugers ds iha ttke engine-driver saved their lives His name isjposeijh A. Sieg. — Homt IPapu. IT