NORTHWEST BURNS AT ITS DOCK
Chief Murphy Has Narrow Escape
Palatial Boat Destroyed; Loss Fixed at $600,000
Famous Firefighter Caught in Backdraft and Clings to a Stanchion
"North Land" is Rescued
Heat Started Oils Burning - Loss is Covered by Insurance -
Both Ships Stocked for Summer Opening
The Buffalo Evening News
June 3, 1911
An explosion of oils in the paint room of the Northern Steamship liner, "North West," lying in her winter quarters in the Blackwell Canal, north of Tifft Street, early this morning started a fire that completely destroyed the upper works and interior of the big steel steamer.
Her sister ship, the "North Land," moored alongside the "North West," received a bad scorching but was dragged out of the path of the flames by the Fireboats Potter and Grattan.
Officials of the company who were early summoned to the fire estimated the total loss approximately at about $600,000. Ample insurance, they say, covers it.
Both the 'North West" and the "North Land" were scheduled to be placed in commission on June 21st, and outside the commissary departments both ships were fully stocked and ready for the coming season's business.
The fire started shortly before 4 o'clock. Four watchmen were employed on the ships and each of them made hourly rounds. One of the watchmen passing along the upper decks heard a muffled report below and peering over the rail he saw a pointed jet of flame dart from one of the port holes of the paint room. He called to the other watchmen and then jumped down to the runway alongside the ship and made all haste to the big flour house of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, a full 100 feet to the north. There he said an alarm was sent to Fire Headquarters through the railroad company's private box.
Steam was not up in the boilers of the big ship and no streams could be set in action until the arrival of the first fire company. Assistant Chief Murphy, who had made the long run from Fire Headquarters in eight minutes in his powerful motor car was the first of the firemen to arrive.
A Flaming Torch
By that time the big liner was a flaming torch, and the "North Land" alongside was beginning to blister and smoulder in the terrific heat. Already jets of flame were popping up in the woodwork of the deck cabins and that the fire would secure a good foothold on the big ship seemed likely.
Then the fireboat Potter arrived from her station at the foot of Louisiana Street. Assistant Chief Murphy had scaled the sides of the burning "North West" by that time and had made his way across the blistering hot decks to the "North Land." He says that immediate action was necessary to save the second ship. At his direction heavy hawsers were passed out from the fire boat, and the lines making the 'North Land" fast to the blazing "North West" were cast off. Then the powerful Potter dragged the big steel liner out into the midstream and brought her within easy range of the giant standpipes of the fireboat Grattan steaming up the canal.
Heavy Streams Suffice
Two minutes' work with the heavy streams sufficed to drown out the flames on the "North Land" and the entire force of firemen then turned to the "North West." In the meantime Chief Murphy, whose attention had been entirely absorbed in the work of rescuing the "North Land" had failed to notice the spread of the fires on the "North West." He was quickly reminded of it, however, by a great sheet of flame driven by a backdraft that rolled from the forward part of the big cabin and reached out for him. Chief Murphy promptly went over the side. He did not go in to the water, however, because he clung to a stanchion far down the side of the ship. Men of the fireboat companies helped him from his perch, and he went on with the work of battling the flames that were rapidly eating up the towering "North West."
The fire started well toward the stern of the ship. There were stored in the room in which it originated between 250 and 300 gallons of paints and oils, which generated a terrific heat and drove the flames rapidly up through the decks and into the main salon. Before a stream was turned upon the flames the fire shot through the roof of the deck cabins and was mounted hundreds of feet in the air. Far out in the lake, and all along the Canadian shore the fire was plainly visible.
A Tough Fight
It was a tough job for the firemen. A blaze on a big steamer is something they haven't tackled in years and some of them didn't know just how to go at it. Chief Murphy drove them through the mountains of smoke and deep into the hold of the big vessel. They made a gallant fight but the fire was too much for them. Company by company they were driven over the sides and back onto the docks and fireboats. From points of vantage, however, they kept their big streams directed into the heart of the flames that by that time were romping freely over the big ship from stem to stern.
Ship Sinks
Just after 5 o'clock and more than an hour after the first stream had been set in action the ship began to show the effects of the great quantities of water that had been poured into her. She listed heavily to port and finally straightened up, dropped slowly into the mud on the bottom of the canal, everything above her big freight doors remaining out of water.
It was 6 o'clock before the firemen had the flames under control and had driven them back into the main salon and below into the berth decks. After that it was simply a matter of drowning out the fire and this work was still going on at noon.
...Frederick Kruger, general passenger agent in Buffalo of the Northern Steamship Company said he had no idea what arrangements his company might make as to installing another ship this season to take the place of the "North West." The "North Land," however, he said, would probably be placed in commission on her scheduled date, June 21.