The conditions were evident at a glance. Very little fire, due to the
thorough wetness of all combustible materials, but a very vigorous attempt
to start a good one on the part of the charged wire which lay twitching atop
the wire and wood of a chicken coop. Suspected, though not as yet evident,
was the fact that every material substance in the vicinity of the cages was
charged to the hilt with a tremendous jolt of voltage. The heaviest charge,
it was later found, ran along the exposed portion of wire mesh top into a
supporting clothes-line post cable and finally into the clothes-line itself.
So heavily laden were these lines with the stored energy of groundless
electricity that small arcs were noted jumping small gaps from wire to wet
wood. The ground below, being worn by the shuffling feet of many washdays,
formed a natural pool of rain water and presented the best conditions
possible for electrocution should a human body chance to complete the unholy
circuit. Lieutenant Snyder stooped to pass under.
Ross Sechrist advanced at the rear of the group and witnessed his superior clear
the wire with inches to spare. The second man to pass was Akes and finally Myers, all
without suspicion other than the natural caution of seasoned fire fighters. Having
observed the actions of his brothers Sechrist was anything but hesitant in following their
example. Perhaps "Highpockets" wore his fire helmet a trifle jauntily--perhaps
the natural spring in his walk raised his body a fraction of an inch too high--but more
probably it was due to the height of his frame which earned him his nickname, that the
golden eagle which rode so highly in his fifteen years of service chanced to foul the
voltage crammed wire.
The spitting crackle of suddenly released electrons spun the crew around in
alarm. Sechrist's body was arcing the circuit to a ground and an acrid swirl of smoke
appeared from beneath his helmet to disappear in the wind driven rain. His body stiffened
and fell forward, face down, as his buddies ran to his aid. They lifted his stiff form and
carried it to the shelter of a nearby porch where respiration was immediately begun. The
fire was now of secondary importance, being subsequently extinguished by means of a water
gun while ambulance and emergency repair crews were being called to the spot.
Within a half hour the vicinity was host to both the police and fire department
rescue squads, the Los Angeles Gas and Electric Corporation's safety car, the trouble crew
of the Bureau of Power and Light, an attending M.D., a receiving hospital ambulance, chief
officer's cars and company apparatus and a myriad of helpful rain soaked neighbors, all
doing their best to lend a hand for Ross Sechrist's welfare. All through that long wet
afternoon the men and doctors worked over the body of Sechrist and when the hands of the
watch on the rescue officer's sweating wrist pointed finally to 3 p.m., the victim was
pronounced dead by electrocution. Hope, throughout the entire respiration activities, had
been very slim due to the round deep hole in Schist's forehead which penetrated to his
brain. This was due to the tremendous jolt finding its only outlet through the worn spot
in the firemen's insulated helmet and which virtually burned its passage through his brain
tissue, killing him almost instantly. As the crews began their sorrowful reloading of
equipment in preparation for departure, the body of Ross Sechrist was solemnly covered to
await removal to the establishment of Alvarez and Moore at the suggestion of the grief
stricken Mrs. Sechrist.
Fireman Sechrist was dead. Only two short days before Christmas in the year of
'26, this man who had but a few years to go in completion of a fire fighter's span of duty
had met his death from one of the hundreds of perils that hourly face the firemen of
metropolitan areas. Many men have felt the numbing sting of fallen power lines and have
walked the gauntlet of charged water, but it was not in their power to judge the death
that might have awaited release through the medium of their bodies had the treacherous
conditions been right. Sechrist had met a tragic fate which three men before had narrowly
escaped. It wasn't a blunder, nor was it a situation rushed into by one who knew the cards
were stacked against him. It was a condition faced by every man at every scene of fire,
one which lies in wait with its deadly brothers from the moment the alarm panel sounds its
warning until the company officer once more reports his crew safe in quarters.