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OLD M.A.C. SWEPT BY FLAMES
The Old Barracks and the “New Building”
a Smoldering Heap of Ruins – Cadets Fight Fire
Gallantly, But to No Avail
While the moon soared to its zenith calmly and amid
a cloudless sky on the night of November 29, the landscape
for miles around College Park was illuminated by the
glare of a conflagration that was, before its extinction,
to level two of M.A.C.’s proudest structures to
the earth. To the loyal friends of the College who battled
with the fire it seemed for awhile that nothing could
save the remaining buildings; but in the end the loss
was limited to the “Old Barracks” which
has served its purpose since 1856, and the “New”
Administration Building which was completed in 1904.
The exact origin of the fire will probably never be
known. A dance was in progress on the first floor of
the “New Building.” The guests were seated
in the dining room in the Old Barracks about 10:15 o’clock,
when fire was discovered, by a cadet, between the third
and fourth floors in the northwest corner of the “New
Building.” He promptly notified some of the cadet
officers in the dining room, who in turn quietly announced
that the College was on fire and requested the guests
to go outside the building. The whole [illegible] was
orderly and without [illegible]. The cadets then returned
to the “New Building” to fight the fire.
As the Thanksgiving holiday had not expired only about
thirty-five cadets were in the College. This small band
at once attacked the fire, but owing to the difficulty
in getting [illegible] the flames and the dense smoke
[illegible] quickly filled the building, they were soon
compelled to desist fighting the fire and began removing
the records from the offices of the President and Treasurer.
Meanwhile, the flames had burst through the roof and
the upper part of the building became a roaring furnace.
Undaunted the cadets struggled frantically to remove
from the various rooms of the doomed building their
absent College mates’ clothing and personal equipment.
In this work they were aided by some of the young ladies,
guests at the dance, who braved the dangers of the fire
in order to aid the work of salvage.
The falling of a portion of the roof drove every one
from the New Building, and, untiring, the cadets turned
their attention to the Old Barracks in order to save
the building if possible; if not, to empty it of whatever
was valuable. While a party of students, now aided by
some of the professors who had arrived on the scene,
mounted to the roof of the Old Barracks and played streams
of water upon portions of the cornice which were ablaze,
others were busy carrying trunks and clothing out of
the zone of danger.
But the heat was too great and [illegible] long the
volume of smoke that poured through the hallways of
the Old Barracks from the roaring furnace of the New
Building, drove the cadets from the halls and made it
urgent that the party on the roof should give up their
brave fight. Several narrow escapes from suffocation
were experienced as the party slowly beat its way down
four flights of stairs through the [illegible] of thick
smoke that billowed the halls. One boy became unconscious
and was dragged by his companions down to the clear
air outside where he quickly revived. By this time the
Fire Department from Hyattsville had arrived and joined
in the fight to save the other College buildings. The
two dormitory buildings were given over as lost and
all efforts were concentrated upon the prevention of
the spread of the fire from the northwest corner of
the New Building to the Science Hall, only about fifty
feet distant. It was a long, hot fight, but at last
the tide turned in favor of the heroic fighters, most
conspicuous and effective among whom was Melton, the
janitor of Science Hall.
By this time two companies of firemen from
Washington had arrived on the scene, and although they
were too late to save the dormitories, they remained until
all danger of further spread of the fire was past. From
this stage the conflagration was chiefly spectacular;
and for those who find the soul thrilled by the awe-inspiring
rush of roaring, leaping, gleaming flames crowned by billowing,
eddying clouds of smoke, the spectacle was grand, indeed.
By four o'clock in the morning the flames had lowered
so that the anxious friends of old M.A.C. could seek some
rest for tired bodies.
Members of the Faculty and friends in the neighboring towns took the homeless
cadets under their care for the short remainder of the night. In the morning
the cold glare of daylight showed the blackened walls of the Old Barracks still
standing though badly cracked, while the New Building was a smoldering heap
of ruins.
The loss, including the loss to the students whose effects could not be removed
from the buildings, will probably total $150,000. The College risk was nearly
covered by insurance. The fire probably started by the crossing of electric
light wires between the floors of the third and fourth stories of the New Building.
As soon as the Faculty could be assembled resolutions were passed
expressing the determination to keep up the work of the
College without break in spite of the loss. The boys will
reassemble at noon on Wednesday, December 4, and they
will be assigned to temporary quarters in the neighboring
villages until new dormitories can be provided. This action
was endorsed by the Executive Committee of the Board of
Trustees and it is expected that all of the boys will
be back to College during the week.
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