Fires of the Past (silent, 1917)

[Music] T news takes you back into the past for a scene enacted the afternoon of October 5th 1917 23 years ago at the corner of third and branon streets in downtown San Francisco this was the scene of one of the city's most tragic fires a three alarm blaze in which several firemen lost their lives and scores of other firemen and citizens were injured while attempting to extinguish this uncontrolled demon that destroyed not only life but property valued at thousands of dollars under the walls of this building lie a number of dead and injured with rescue workers frantically trying to reach them this wall unexpectedly collapsed as firemen were attempting to get their equipment to the side of the building for a better vantage point from which to fight The Blaze as you can readily see the trapped firefighters did not have a chance to escape the burning Inferno when it fell killed or injured trying to protect others a hero's death to be sure but proper precaution could have prevented this and spared useful lives for the service of their Community the first of the injured are rescued and brought out of the Blazing furnace by Rescuers While others not so fortunate still lie buried somewhere beneath that flaming torch under this section of the collapsed wall which you see firemen struggling to lift are buried still more dead and injured their buddies and fellow workers just ordinary people like you and like me still another victim trapped under flaming debris is extricated and placed gently in an awaiting ambulance as other Crews join in the almost hopeless search through the burning wreckage of what was once a beautiful building now turned into a funeral P for Heroic firemen who gave their lives all because of uncontrolled fire a fire that should never have been it's tragedies like this one that causes us to wonder and ask ourselves the question how can anyone be so careless now let's look even farther back into the past here are shown some of the remains of San Francisco's finest homes and Civic and business houses in this group you will see the Old City Hall and Marshall square one of the city's most proud achievements now reduced to wreckage by destructive flames on April 18th 196 man's greatest enemy uncontrolled fire in all its Fury was the cause of this these same scenes might well be captioned London Berlin or or any one of the many beautiful cities in war torn Europe now being laid waste by man-made destruction loosed from the skies by Mighty airplanes to satisfy the lust for power of one man here in America fortunate we are indeed to have Civic bodies like the San Francisco Junior Chamber of Commerce who instead of devising ways and means of causing utter destruction spend their time trying to devise ways of protecting us and our property from just such scenes as would have been shown here may we respectfully urge you to help avoid such tragedies and heartaches by an honest Endeavor to make every week Fire Prevention Week by helping to keep fire in its place