HEROIC ACT OF AN ENGINE DRIVES.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4427, 13 March 1883, Page 2

HEROIC ACT OF AN ENGINE DRIVES.

An engine-driver on the Pennsylvania railway has saved the lives of 600 pas* sengers by an extraordinary act of heroism. The furnace door was opened by the firepan to replenish the fire while the train was going 35 miles an hour. The back draught forced the flames out so that the car of the locomotive caught fire, and the engine-driver and the firemau were driven back over the tender into the passenger car, leaving the engine without control. The speed increased and the volume of flame with it. There was imminent danger that all the carriages would take fire, and the whole train be consumed. The. passengers were panicstricken. To jump off was certain death; to remain was to be burned alive. The engine-driver saw that the only way to save the passengers was to return to the engine and Btop the train. He plunged into the flames, climbed back over-the tender, and reversed the engine. When the train came to a standstill, he was found in the water tank, whither he had climbed, with his clothes entirely burnt off, bis face disfigured, his hands shock* I

ingly burned, and his body blistered so badly that the flesh was stripped off in many places. Weak and half conscious, he was taken to the hospital, where his injuries were pronounced serious, with slight chance of recovery. As soon as the train stopped the flames were easily extinguished. The unanimous testimony of the passengers is that the enginedriver saved their lives. His name is Joseph A. Sieg. The brave fellow lingered from Sunday until Thursday, when death released him from the intense sufferinghe had undergone.