He said,
"Never mind me, Mr. Bates, save yourself. I'll crawl out."
Leave him to roast alive? Never! I grabbed him again and after a
desperate effort succeeded in getting him out. All our supply of
clothing had been lost in our mad efforts to escape, and as a bitter
norther was blowing at the time, our position was anything but pleasant.
I found a few clothes dropped by some one else and we made ourselves as
warm as possible. Then I grabbed Jimmie up again and fled before the
fiery blast. The awful catastrophe had started in a fisherman's shack
over on the bay, twenty-seven squares from where we lived, and being
borne by a high wind, had swept everything in its path. The houses were
mostly of timber and were easy prey to the relentless flames. Although
Galveston is entirely surrounded by water, the pipe-lines for fighting
fire at this time extended only to Avenue H, ten blocks from the Strand.
Beyond that, the fire department depended on the cisterns of private
houses for the water to subdue the flames.
With lightning-like rapidity the flames had spread and almost before
they knew it the town seemed doomed.
Pages:
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303