Sewickley Herald

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The Sewickley Valley’s Home Weekly Newspaper
VOL, 52 NO. 1
SEWICKLEY, PENNSYLVANIA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1955
Price Ten Cent*
Oxygen Used To Revive Six Firemen
Towboat Stopped From Going Over Dashields Dam After Using Propeller
Crew of Three Saved Fiom Death By Fast Dash > Of Dravo Diesel “Victory”
The three-man crew of the towboat^ “Gateway”, the towboat itself and a loaded gasoline barge were saved from disaster shortly after noon on Friday, when the towboat lost its propellor just above the Sewickley-Coraopolis bridge.. Had the towboat. gone over the crest of the dam, it is quite possible that the crew would have lost their lives in the flood-sw.ollen turbulent water churning below the dam. As it was, the diesel “Victory”, raced from the Dravo shipyard to the dam, five miles in ten minutes and snatched the ‘ ‘ Gateway” from certain disaster, just seconds before the helpless boat, crew and barge would have plunged over the dam. Lock Tenders on the dam couldn’t reach the towboat with lines thrown from the .lock
It was a modern invention, the sliip-to-shore ’phone communication which saved the lives of the tow-boat crew for the first time in history. When the tow* boat, owned by J. E. Crivella of PittSr burgh and captained by John Hanson; lost its propeller, Captain Hanson blew the distress signal. But no one who heard it knew it was a distress signal, so far has modern civilization left behind the old river days. Captain- Hanson, known on the rivers as “Jitterbug Johnny” used his ship-to-shoite phone to call the Coast Guard. However, there was no pilot available at the moment to take the wheel of the “Forsythia.”, the Coast Guard patrol boat stationed at the former Glen Osborne locks. As a mat-
Local Contractor To Build Church' Addition
ter of fact, the Coast Guard is not required to be on stand-by duty for rescue work.
With time running out and tire towboat and its barge, loaded with 950 gallons of gasoline, drifting swiftly towards the dam, Captain Johnny phoned the Dashields Lock. From there, a call was placed at about 12:15 p. nr. to the Keystone Division of DraVo Corporation at Neville Island. Fortunately, the Keystone’s diesel, “Victory”, had pulled into Neville island about fifteen minutes earlier and Richard Carnhan, traffic manager, had told pilot Stanley Lysick not to turn down the engines.
“That’s what saved us," Pilot Lysick (Continued on Page 20)
New Eagle Scout
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Photo by Ambridge Citizen Fred Ague, of Sewickley/ center, is the general contractor for a new sanctuary unit of the Fiist United Presbyterian Church of Ambridge. Shown looking at tin blueprints excavation started last waek are: left to right, the AeverenddBUMll B. Lester, pastor; Mr. Ague and Joseph Gilarno who is wo flg on the1 project.	/

Herbert Myers
EDGEWORTH BOY ACHIEVES COVETED EAGLE AWARD
On the night of December 22, Troop 243 held a Court of Honor in the Edge-worth School Auditorium, There was advancement in every rank of Scouting, from Tenderfoot to Eagle, Scouting’s highest award.
Herbert Myers of 212 Orchard Place, Edgeworth, was the boy honored at this time. He had a total of 27 merit badges and has been a source of help and assistance to his troop at all times. Mrs. Myers, who presented the Eagle Badge to Herbert, was in turn, presented a lapel Eagle pin by her boy.
The Court was opened and closed by the Reverend Robert Vogelsang, who pronounced the Invocation and Benediction. Guests included Andrew Sabo! from Beaver Council , and the Explorer Post 108 and their Advisor, Ed. Wright, from Leetsdale.
Refreshments were served and the meeting closed with a, fine holiday spirit.
LOCAL SOLDIER IN TEXAS
Pvt. James P. Tyler, Jr., 21, son of Mrs. Janies Tyler, 313 Sprott Way, Sewickley, recently arrived at Fort Hood, Texas, for duty with the 1st Armored Division.,
'Old Ironsides”, the first armored division organized in the U. S„ won fame for its World1 War II fighting in Africa and Italy. Combat 'readiness is now maintained by intensive training.
Private Tyler, assigned to the division’s 123rd Armored Maintenance Battalion, entered the Army last July and completed basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky. A 1952 graduate of Sewickley High School, he attended Capital University and is a member of Phi Mu Alpha fraternity.
Addition To U. P. Church
The construction of a new sanctuary unit, which will double the present capacity of the sanctuary of the First United Presbytrian Church of Ambridge, began on Monday of last week. The William Schmidt Contractors, with Fred Ague of Sewickley, general contractor for the project, began excavation for the 'extension of the present building. Hie church school facilities will also be enlarged when thè new portion of the building is completed in July of 1955.
The addition was authorized by the congregation about a year ago and in MayriÌ building fund canvass was begun. ,Glenn Bickerstaff of Coraopolis is tho architect who prepared tho plans.
George Preninger Taken To Hospital As Blaze Ruins Huckabee, Inc. Offices
Early Morning Blaze Causes Damages Estimated From $9000 to $15000
A stubborn, smoky blaze during- which six firemen were given oxygen and one was sent to the hospital for further treatment gutted the interior of the offices of Huckabee Indicator Company, Inc., 10 Chadwick Street early Tuesday morning. The concrete block and brick building with a steel deck and concrete roof, contained the roaring flames within itself. In fact, anyone driving past the building Tuesday afternon would see only broken windows and a discoloration over the door to indicate that there had been a fire there early that morning. The fact that the building was so sturdy made the fire that much harder to fight, since it was difficult to ventilate and hard to get at the blaze. The office windows are small, in the middle of squares of glass brick and the doors and windows were not sufficient to allow the smoke and gases to blow away.
The blaze was discovered at 2:39 a.m.
by Edward L. Kost, Ohio River Boulevard. He phoned an alarm and within three minutes tire first fire truck was rolling towards tire building, despite the fact that all the fire fighters were in bed when the siren sounded. Arriving, they laid three lines of 1% inch hose, donned oxygen or smoke masks, pried open the doors and entered the building to find the whole front of the building, where the offices are located, ablaze. Heavy smoke was rolling about inside the building and the flames were roaring, being particularly heavy around two gas space heaters in the space above the office ceiling.
The offices are portioned off from the shop by a block wall and there is a sort of balcony above the offices in which were stored wire, supplies and a work-bench. Tire two space heaters were also mounted on the balcony supported on a steel beam, with metal ducts running to different parts of the offices and shop. The knotty pine paneling of the offices, as well as the joists above the offices, were blazing furiously, fed by gas from broken gas lines on the space heaters, one of which fell through the charred joists to the floor of the main office, Carrying duct work, flourescent light fixture? and wiring with it. The second space1“ heater remained in place, but evidence around it showed that there was the center of the hottest flames.
•With pieces of heavy machinery and equipment all over the shop and both 220 and 440 volt electric lines in the building, firemen were forced to exercise extreme care in groping their way through die heavy smoke. Four oxygen and six smoke masks were used by the three hose crews, as they fought die flames from different angles. Six of die firemen were given oxygen through die Pneolator arid one of diem, George Preninger, was sent to Sewickley Valley Hospital in the police car for further treatment. Fire Chief Wade Baltz was one of those who needed the oxygen treatment. He shut off the gas at the meter, inside the shop and then, to make doubly sure, at the curb box, where a diin skim of concrete had to be removed before the cap could be moved from die curb box. Chief Baltz didn’t call out the gas company, as he could take care of that task himself.
However, he didn’t want to take a chance on the 440 volt current and radioed on the fire truck radio to police headquarters for a lineman of the Du-quesne Light Company to come to the scene and cut the wires leading to the building. That call was made at 4:16 a.m. and by 5:15 a.m. the fire was under control. There were few spectators
present and those who did come to watch didn't stay long for there was little to see through the windows except smoke. Firemen were grateful for the lack of traffic and crowds, who have been following the trucks so closely in automobiles and on bicycles diat they are endangering themselves as well as the firemen. At the two most recent fires, which happened earlier in the evening, cars and bicycles were so thick that Fire Chief Baltz is thinking seriously of requesting police to tag the cars and confiscate the bicycles. He remembers when he chased the fire horses, himself, but in those days there were so many fewer vehicles on the streets that it was much safer.
Once the fire was out, Chief Baltz left a line connected with a fire plug and two men to make sure that no smouldering ember would start up again and also to make sure that no one would make off with any of the valuable tools and other materials left in the open building. They remained on duty until 8 a.m. Chief Baltz went to the City to get more canisters for die oxygen masks and oxygen for the Pneolator, He still had oxygen in reserve in the tanks from the old inhalator which he could use in the Pneolator, but preferred to be ready for any .emergency with a fresh supply. All four of the oxygen masks and all six of die smoke masks Were used by the firemen before the fire was out.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but Chief Baltz said it must have started around the two space heaters. Whether one of the pilot lights went off and the other didn’t and the gas came back on in the pilot, causing it to explode and start the fire may never be known. Chief Baltz was fairly sure die heater, itself, didn’t explode, for there was no evidence of an extensive explosion. Odier businesses in die area complained that when they opened that morning, their space heaters and Water heaters were off and the pilots still allowing gas to escape. The heaters are equipped with safety valves which prevent, the gas from coming on when the • pilots go out, but gas is \still. fed to the pilots.
The damage was estimated by Fire Chief Baltz at about $9,000, but Walter ITuckabcc, owner, placed it close to $15,000. The damage was covered by insurance, but die records of the business are mosdy gone, charred inside filing cabinets. Papers inside the drawers of the steel desks weren’t charred, despite the intense heat in one office, but they were soaking wet. In the private office on one side of the badly damaged main office, keys were burned off die adding machine and the inserts in the (Continued on Page 12)
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