MountainWings A MountainWings Moment
#5245 Wings Over The Mountains of Life



Heroes and Hoodlums
==============

Throughout this whole day constant trouble had been experienced
owing to the large number of drunken people along the waterfront.

My force was unarmed with the exception of the officers, who
carried revolvers; and the police, of whom I only saw two, were
absolutely helpless.

The crowds rushed saloon after saloon and looted the stocks
becoming intoxicated early in the day. In my opinion great loss
of life resulted from men and women becoming stupefied by liquor
and being too tired and exhausted to get out of the way of the fire.

During this whole day we needed unarmed men to rescue women and
children in the neighborhood of Rincon Hill, the fire having
made a clean sweep of this poor residence district in about an
hour's time. The most heartrending sights were witnessed in
this neighborhood, but with my handful of men we could not do as
much for the helpless as we wished.

Able-bodied men refused to work with the fire department,
stating that they would not work for less than forty cents an
hour, etc. Men refused to aid old and crippled men and women
out of the way of the fire and only thought of themselves.

~excerpted verbatim from the account of Frederick N. Freeman
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy, Commanding U.S.T.B.D. Perry~

This was an excerpt from the report of a naval officer involved
in the rescue and fire fighting operations of one of the
greatest U.S. natural disasters ever, the San Francisco
earthquake and resulting fire in April, 1906.

That was 99 years ago.

People are the same, yesterday, today, and most likely tomorrow.
There will always be heroes and hoodlums.


Be a hero.


~A MountainWings Original with the help of Lt. Freeman~

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