midnight
The spectacle of a building soaked and saturated in water from the nozzles of a score of hose lines , with the flames driven back from it by the sustained heroisms of a hundred men -- and then the spectacle of that building leaping suddenly into light in not one but a dozen places -- this is a thing no man can endure , if many times repeated , and this is what these men had been enduring for ten hours . They had done all that men could do -- more than men could do -- and it was not enough . At that moment all they wanted in the world was the privilege of lying down , never to rise . Long hours before , shortly after midnight , when it had become certain that help would be needed , the wires had carried to the nearby cities Boston 's appeal for aid . As far as Portland and Worcester and Providence the call had then gone forth ; and later on the urgent word had been flashed to Springfield , Hartford , New Haven , Bridgeport , and New York . The New England cities had loyally responded ; their engines and their men were even now scattered along the battle line and doing brave service . But these weary men by the South Station had not seen them ; they found it almost impossible to believe that they were not alone and without aid in this titanic but hopeless task .