TWIXT FIRE AND WATER.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9394, 15 March 1909, Page 7

TWIXT FIRE AND WATER.

', * / -FROM BLAZING “.CRIB” TO lOY LAKE. Over 100 men were faced with the fearful alternative of death by drowning or burning. Forty of them managed to escape, but the rest lost their lives. The disaster occurred at the new “crib” which is being constructed in Lake Michigan in connection with bhe_ additional waterworks system of Chicago. The superstructure of the ‘crib” over the intake tunnel caught fire while one shift of men was working and the relief shift asleep. The new “crib” under construction is about a ■ mile from the shore, almost opposite Jackson Park on the lake front, and something like 100 men were employed on the works. These men worked* in two. shifts, the labourers living in the superstructure, and going home only at week end or intervals. By some means the structure, which was made of wood, caught Are, it is thought from the kitchen for the workshop, and rapidly burst into flames, which enveloped the whole building. In the shortest space of time the flames surrounaed the sleeping-room, where 4.0 men off duty were in their bunks. The day shift was in the tunnel, and consequently the life of every man on the premises was manaoed. The harriers holding the water back from the tunnel were quickly destroyed by the fire, and tunnel,which has a diameter of nine feet, was flooded. Only those who were working near the surface of intake escaped, and 20 were drowned. Their bodies were £*ll recovered afterwards. The men, hastily aroused from their sleep, were in a fearful condition, death staring them in-the face from the fire, while it seemed almost certain dath to jump into the icy waters 2of the lake. They rushed from their beds, some in their nightclothes, and others with hastilydonned articles of clothing. Several jumped from the crib towards the tunnel, hoping to escape in this way, while others boldy leaped into the lake, and still others clung to the burning structure. Meanwhile, the blaze had been seen in Chicago, tugs were sent to the assistance of the men. They werd too late, however, to rescue anyone from the tunnel, but picked, up a number of half-clothed, halffrozen men from the water and from masses of ice. The crib was burned to the water’s edge, and the construction works for the present quite mined. The rescued were taken to Chicago, and given every comfort, but some of them have suffered very severely from the cold, which is intense, and may not recover from their icy bath. One of the men declares that the crib caught fire fronrthe forge in the workshop, which was on a lower storey of the erection. This explains the rapidity with which the whole structure was enveloped in flames. Another theory is that the - fire was caused by the explosion of a dynamite cartridge.