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Show I WOMAN WHO AIDS WILSON'S CAMPAIGN MRS. J. BORDEN HARRIMAN. FIRE BREAKS OUT III LOiONPOSTOFEICE Blaze Is Furious, but the Employees Em-ployees Make Their Escape in Good Order. LOSSES INSIDE HEAVY Great City Cut Off From Communication With Rest of England and Continent. LONDON, Aug. 24. London tonight is entirely cut off from telegraphic com muni cation with the rest of the country coun-try and with the continent and for a time connection with America was severed sev-ered as the result of a fierce lire this evening in the goncT.il postoffice, where the central telegraph office is located, aim. i. i wjjjcn an wiles oi iuq wiv-ice wiv-ice are concentrated. While the fire was crtremely fierce, no lives were lost and tho damage was confined to tho inj-ide of the building. A thousand employees, a majority of them women, got out of the structure promptly and without panic. Telegraph Tele-graph service will be crippled for sev eral days. Wires Start Blaze. The fire started at 7 o'clock this evening and was caused by tho fusing of a wire In a test box on the fourth floor. The gallery affected soon was filled with thick smoke. The building sustained no structural damage, but the losses to cables and instruments and furniture were heavy, the furniture suffering suf-fering from the tons of water poured in, which streamed through tho whole building. The entire bridge brigade of the east end of London soon was on the scene with a big salvage corps. By 8 o'clock the tire was over. The lighting apparatus appar-atus was out of commission, however, and a strange scene was presented as the salvage men groped about the huge structure with lanterns and candles. HanffrniTR fnr Fireman. Thousands of wires underneath the floors had fused and the firemen were forced to tear up part of tho floors to get at the flames, tho work being exceedingly ex-ceedingly dangerous. Getting the employees out without a panic was an achievement for which tho officials congratulate themselves. On Saturday night the forces are considerably con-siderably smaller than usual, owing to the small volume of business. As soon as the fire was discovered all the women were ordered to leave the building immediately. Thoy were thoroughly thor-oughly familiar with the fire drill, and marched into the street without the slightest disordor. Used Sand to Fight Flames. The men employees attacked the flames with sand, pending the arrival of the liro brigade. Temporary repairs were started immediately im-mediately after the tiro bad died out, to restore emergency communication with the principal English cities, America and the continent, but the damage to the Instruments and wires whs so great (Continued on Page Four ) FI BREAKS OUT IN LONDON POSTDFFICF (Continued from Page One ) that, some days will elapso before work-on work-on a normal cale can resume. Branch offices about, the town have thousands of messages for places in this country and od the continent and Others are accumulating. The only com- j munication with the outer world for three hours was bv telephone to Paris. Telephone lines are in great demand tonight, bv the newspapers. Ten minutes after the fire started.: Sir Alexander Kiug. the head of thei postoffice, ordered all employees out.: of the building. They left by the stair . ways in good order and remained in the j crowds about the building. The smoke made the firemen's work i difficult. The floor on which the fire stortcij was laid in six-foot section? i and it, was necessary to take these up! separately to gel at all the wires. The! firemen first tried to smother the flame with sand but found that meth od ineffective. After 9 o'clock all the emplerees mustered at the central hall for temporary tem-porary duties and for salvage work j during the rest of the night It wasi explained to them that all instruments; had been carefully covered up. The general postoffice is the center of the telegraph service of the entire! kingdom. All the main cables for pro- j vinciaJ towns and the wires connecting with forpign Babies concentrato there,, hence the complete paralysis of thej system. Besides the Paris telephone, intermittent telephonic communication with the cable offices at Liverpool ana Bristol was obtainable, but these wires were greatly overworked, Hngli&h telephone service is remarkably remark-ably primitive, compared with thai of most civilized countries and it, now is the subject of violent newspaper agitation. agi-tation. In the presence of tonight e emergency if went entirely to pieces. The greatest sufferer- an- the provin eial papers who depend upon special! wires for the London and continental Berviee, They found the telephone wirei impossible for kmg messages. The postoffice officials say it will lr al week before normal .eri''' is restored.) |