Mr. Hubert. Were you advised of the arrival of the trucks?
Chief Batchelor. I was in the basement when they came, and somebody came down the ramp and told me they were out there, and I went out there and looked at them.
Mr. Hubert. And you directed that they be backed in?
Chief Batchelor. That the big truck. And he backed it in and got the back wheels over the sidewalk and down the ramp, and it is a fairly steep ramp. The driver suggested that he not take it clear to the bottom.
Mr. Hubert. Did he say why?
Chief Batchelor. Yes; he was afraid that he would stall the truck in coming out. It was a heavy truck and they had just taken it off of their lot. It had been sitting there all night and the motor was cold and he was afraid if he got it down the ramp and started out that he might stall, and he didn’t want to do that.
I looked the truck over. That is, I looked at the truck in relation to the walls of the ramp and found that it was so wide that there was only about a foot of space left on one side, and about 2 feet on the other.
Mr. Hubert. Do you remember which had 1 foot and which had 2 feet?
Chief Batchelor. Yes, sir; the side of the truck next to the west wall—— Mr. Hubert. That is to say, the Harwood Street side?
Chief Batchelor. That’s right. Next to the Harwood Street side it had about a foot of space, and next to the east wall, the other side, it had about 2 feet of space, and we put one man in the space between the west wall and the truck, and two men between the east wall and the truck and completely blocked the area.