KinSource - Tale of the Week - Two Firemen Fell

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, February 20, 1885, p. 2

TWO FIREMEN FELL.

An Untrustworthy Fire Escape Dropped Them Thirty Feet With Probably Fatal Results.

A FATAL FIRE ESCAPE.

Two Firemen Sustain Probably Fatal Injuries While Testing It.

A terrible accident and one which will, without doubt, cause the death of two members of the city fire department, took place at central fire hall at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon.W. R. Fusselmon of River Falls, Wis., is the agent for Johnson's portable automatic fire escape, manufactured at Warren, O., and patented in 1883. He has given one or two public exhibitions in the city within a few weeks, and showed it to Chief Black a week ago at his office, where it worked well, and seemed to be, as the chief says, a very valuable invention. At the hour above named he made a second call at the central fire hall, and finding the chief closeted on business in his private office was persuaded by the boys to make a trial of his apparatus from a third story window in front of the hall.

The apparatus consists of a wire cable eighty feet long, which is fastened to a brake on the inside of the window. The cable terminates in a seat, on which the operator descends to the ground, the brake at the window preventing it from paying out too rapidly. Some five or six of the firemen had descended safely to the plank walk beneath, a distance of thirty-five or forty feet. As the cable had a warranted breaking strain at 672 pounds, and the weight of the load making no difference in the speed of descent, that matter being perfectly regulated by the brake, the boys decided to give it a double test. The agent saw no danger in it, and Chief Black was not aware if what was going on.

Accordingly, Lieut. L. H. Maloney of Hook & Ladder No. 2, and J. H. Britze, a truckman, undertook the descent together, and when just at the top of the second story window, the wire snapped asunder above their heads and they fell head foremost, a distance of twenty-five feet, to the walk below. Both men were picked up and carried into the hall and Dr. Quinn summoned. Maloney has remained unconscious from the first and from all appearances his head is crushed in at the base of the brain, but no other injuries have as yet been discovered. Britze received a fearful concussion over his left eye, cracking open his scull so that a finger could be inserted in the fracture and his nose was broken.

At a late hour last night both men seemed to be more comfortable, but it was considered that the death of both was only a question of a few hours or possibly days. Maloney was made as comfotable as possible at the hall, it not being considered safe to remove him, while Britze was taken to St. Luke's hospital. Maloney has been in the department for three years, is about 27 years old and is unmarried. Britze is 30 years of age, is a married man and has been in the department but a short time. Both were valuable men in the department, and are well liked by their fellows.

An examination of the cable revealed the fact that in passing out of the window the steel wire rested upon the stone sill, and that the friction caused by the previous descents had weakened it at this point to such an extent that when the two men's weight was placed upon it it parted.

In an interview with Chief Black last night he said that he had always been opposed to putting a human life in danger in a test of anybody's patent fire escape, for he had heard of too many accidents occuring when even the inventors themselves were trying thier own inventions. He was in conference with one of his officers in his inner office at the time of the accident and knew nothing of it until after it happened. He should not have allowed any such proceedings had he known of them. The firemen had been perfectly convinced of the safety of the apparatus from what they had previously seen of it, while the agent, who was nearly wild with grief at the accident, and had telegraphed the manufacturers at once, was no more culpable than the poor men who were so hopelessly injured. There had been a fearful oversight on the part of both, and that was all he could say.

The St. Paul Daily Globe, February 27, 1885, p. 2

MALLONEY'S DEATH.

The Injured Fireman Expires Without Recovering Consciousness -- Britz Getting Better.

Liet. Michael H. Malloney of Hook and Ladder company No. 2, and acting captain of the same since the assignment of Capt. Kelliher to the duties of assistant chief, has died at St. Joseph's hospital from injuries received on his head by a fall while descending a patent fire escape at central fire hall last week. The death occurred at 8:40 last evening, he not having been conscious since his fall. No inquest will be held, both the father and Coroner Quinn being satisfied that the casualty was purely the result of an accident. The remains will be taken to the residence of a brother of the deceased at 250 Pleasant avenue. It will be removed thence to the Union depot under escort of a detail from the fire department at 3:30 this afternoon, for conveyance on the Omaha road to Tyrone, Le Sueuer county, where he was born and where his parents reside, his father being a well-to-do pioneer farmer of that town.

The particulars of the sad accident by which Lieut. Malloney lost his life have been published in full in th GLOBE, and his father in a conversation with one of its [representatives] last night said that he considered that it was a casualty in which no blame could be fixed upon any particular party. His parents have remained with the injured man ever since the accident, and could not give up but that he would live until a few hours before his death.

Capt. Malloney was 26 years of age, had been connected with the department for three years, in every capacity proving an active, faithful and valuable man and officer, was thoroughly appreciated by those over him and beloved and respected by his subordinates. He was a member of the Fireman's Relief association. His funeral will take place at Tyrone next Sunday.

Truckman Britz of No. 2. who fell at the same time, is on a fair way towards recovery at St. Luke's hospital, his wife, who was absent at the East at the time of the accident, having returned. The physicians say his outer skull was cracked across the forehead in the fall and his face and body tattooed black and blue from its effects.