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MG 1 volume 2124 number 363

CHAPTER 10.

The Firemen

On the 6th of December some criticism might have been heard regarding the delay of the Fire department in getting the engines to Richmond, but this was before the creditable facts were known. When the alarm was given first, in Box 83, a little before nine o'clock, Edward Condon, the Chief of the fire Department, and W. P. Brunt, his Deputy, set off in the official motor at top speed, for the scene of the fire. They reached it only to meet their death. The car was flung up in the air and completely overturned. The two men must have been instantly killed.
It is a noteworthy fact that such a heavy object as the motor was completely reversed. Numerous reports bear out some theory of whirlwinds set up by the explosion. in the case of the tug "HILFORD", the engine was found almost exactly in the right position, but upside down with the fire-box in the air. A man driving a wagon northward in Water street reported that after the explosion he found himself under the horses which were facing the other way. An invalid lady in the North End was found by her daughter underneath her bed, which had been completely overturned. The head of the bedstead was resting on a trunk which had stood at the foot. All the heavy furniture was piled on top of the reversed bed and, on the very top, the window curtains. The inmate escaped being crushed, through the head of the bedstead resting on the trunk.





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