# D. J. Swenie (fire department)
# Testimony before the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners, session of Tuesday 28 Nov. 1871 (day 5), as reported in the Chicago Tribune of 1871-11-29, page 4
# Source: Library of Congress, Chronicling America (lccn sn82014064): https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-29/ed-1/?sp=4 ; OCR text https://tile.loc.gov/text-services/word-coordinates-service?segment=/service/ndnp/dlc/batch_dlc_clark_ver03/data/sn82014064/no_reel/1871112901/0004.xml&format=alto_xml&full_text=1
# Page-OCR lines 881-918; uncorrected OCR; written 2026-09-14T06:28:05Z.
# STATUS: NEWSPAPER REPORT (reported speech with some direct quotation) -- not the stenographic transcript. 

D. J. SWEENT,
foreman of tbo steamer Fred. Gund, made some
rather Interesting statements. Summed up
they were to thefollowlngeffect: Ho bad boon m
tbe department since 1849. Ho went to
at the third alarm
i?;i'- o tai 0 5fe- 6X i aotly an hour 1111,1 ,!ve minutes
after the first alarm was given. He drove down
Tyler street to Jefferson, and thence to Canal
street. Finding tbe churck on tiro on the inside
he ceased to play upon it, and turned bis stroanl
““h 3116 eluw* bmSed
down, but the mill was saved. Meanwhile a col
umn of fire came upon him from tbo south and
drove lum away. Then Bateham’s mill was
burned, and, as bo earnestly believed, tbe firo
spread to the South Side from that point. Tbe
firemen were not intoxicated, but some of the
companies were without officers, and were very
slow. The tire could not have been extinguished
when it reached the South Side, but its spread
could have been prevented. He would have
nSS a long tl ,‘s riTer an d saved Frank-
I h< i c<mW 111170 flone as there was
no fire in the gas house, nor Harwell's bulldin»
nor anywhere on Market street. The onlyen
gmes he saw on the South Side were the Economy
and mnehago. He admitted that there
was no plan of action adopted for lighting
the fire, and that when he reached tho scene of
the A\cst Side conflagration it was pretty well
dampened down, and not likely to spread. There
was no great amount of wind when he started to
the fire/hut afterward it blew a hurricane.
This was the most important evidence obtained
during the morning session.
The examination was continued at 2 o'clock,
tho first witness being