Daniel James Brown

"Everyone now appeared to be out of the train. But in fact not every one was. A young man named Albert Speyer, running through the mud toward the water, suddenly pulled up short and said to his badly burned companion, George Sjoqvist, “Did you hear a child crying?” Sjoqvist said no, but Speyer was already running back toward the train when everyone within earshot heard screams coming from one of the burning cars. Speyer paused several times, trying to ascertain which car the screams were coming from. Then, without any further hesitation, he approached a car, part of which had already collapsed in flames. He kicked at the flaming splinters on the ground, shielding his face with his arm, and disappeared into the flames. Sjoqvist and the others who were aware of this latest drama stood transfixed in the heat and the wind and the smoke.

A few moments later they saw something white moving through the flames, but it disappeared in a swirl of black smoke. Then it reappeared and Speyer staggered from the fire in his shirtsleeves, carrying a dark bundle. His hair was singed, his shirt and trousers were largely burned off, and his face, throat, and hands were badly blistered, but he had a young girl wrapped up in his coat. “I got her out alive! I got her out alive!” he exulted over and over again as he carried her down to the water."