Print
Word
PDF3. There is always from eight to twelve inches
of pure air close to
the ground: if you can not
therefore walk upright through the
smoke, drop on your hands and knees,
and thus progress. A wetted
silk handkerchief, a piece of flannel,
or a worsted stocking drawn
over the face, permits breathing,
and, to a great extent, excludes
the smoke.
4. If you can neither make your way upwards nor
downwards, get into a
front room: if there is a family,
see that they are all collected
here, and keep the door closed as
much as possible, for remember
that smoke always follows a draught,
and fire always rushes after
smoke.
5. On no account throw yourself, or allow others
to throw themselves,
from the window. If no assistance
is at hand, and you are in
extremity, tie the sheets together,
and, having fastened one end to
some heavy piece of furniture, let
down the women and children one
by one, by tying the end of the
line of sheets round the waist and
lowering them through the window
that is over the door, rather than
through one that is over the area.
You can easily let yourself
down when the helpless are saved.
6. If a woman’s clothes should catch fire,
let her instantly roll
herself over and over on the ground;
if a man be present, let him
throw her down and do the like,
and then wrap her in a rug, coat,
or the first woollen thing
that is at hand.
7. Bystanders, the instant they see a fire, should
run for the
fire-escape, or to the police station
if that is nearer, where a
“jumping-sheet” is always
to be found.
Dancers, and those that are accustomed to wear light muslins and other inflammable articles of clothing, when they are likely to come in contact with the gas, would do well to remember, that by steeping them in a solution of alum they would not be liable to catch fire. If the rule were enforced at theatres, we might avoid any possible recurrence of such a catastrophe as happened at Drury Lane in 1844, when poor Clara Webster was so burnt before the eyes of the audience, that she died in a few days.
