ACROBAT FIREMEN

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1919, Page 3

ACROBAT FIREMEN

AMAZING RESCUES. Extraordinary feats of strength were performed by New York firemen in rescuing 16 families from a blazing tenement in the lower part of the city on September 3. The fire broke out in the basembnt, and quickly cut off all the occupants of the building from the stairs and fire escapes. When a woman appeared at a seventh-floor window it was found impossible to put up a ladder on account of the flames bursting through ' the windows below. Three firemen ascended to the seventh floor of the next building, and one climbed out of the window and hung head downwards, his comrades holding his feet. He stretched himself across the 6ft. of intervening space, seized the woman, W weighing 14 stone, and dragged her out of the window by her hands. The two men, hauling on to his feet then hauled the pair into safety. Another fireman, whose abdominal muscles must be those of a Hercules, also made a spectacular rescue. A woman was sben climbing out of a fourthfloor window with her clothes smouldering. She prepared to jump. There was no time to get a ladder, so a fireman ran up one laid against a window above thp one out of which the woman was climbing. Arriving at her level, he climbed round to the under-side of the ladder, wedged his feet in the rungs, and leaned backwards till he was able ''dh <eize the woman under the arms. Tlfien with a terrific heave, he lifted her out of the window and raised himself to a vertical position again, placing his charge safely on the ladder.