West Feliciana sentinel. (St. Francisville, La.) 1876-1877, 1877-04-28
INCIDENTS OF THE ST. LOUIS FIRE.

experience on the night Of the fire,
which throws some light on the
origin Of the fire. He says that he
lett the engine room at about half
past eleven o'clock, leaving an assis.
tant in charge. and went to his room
on the fifth floor. near the baggage
elevator; he was aroused abou:
Eve minutes past one o'clock by
the shrieks of woman. He hur-
ricd out and found the hall filled
with smoke, which came from the
freight elevator, but saw no FIRE;
started for the sonth part of the
house, with view to descending by
the servants stairway; was obliged
to crawl on hands and knees to pre-.
vent suffocating, the smoke was SO
dense; there were number of wo-
men on the fifth floor, crying pite-
ously for help, whom he told to
follow him to the lower floor. Some
did and others were too distracted
apparently, to do as he dirccs ed;
finally he reached the dining-room
floor, passed into the kitchen. and
descended to the basement; here he
found the smoke very dense, and
that the pumps connected with the
engine had been in operation, and
that some of the employees had
been throwing water on the fire,
which, at that time. was raging
furiously in the store-room. fl
nozzle had. been blown off before
he reached the basement. Another
was put on. He then put the
pumps to work again, and turned
the stream on tho fire. This was
continued until the fire become so
hot, and had spread so far, that all
were obliged to flee for their lives.
They made their exit through the
basement under the rear part of
the building, and emerged on Elm
street.
This account does not state how
long the fire had been burning to
the knowledge of at least several
of the employees of the house before
tie 6re-alarm was turned on, but
it does show. and conclusively, that
efforts were made to subdue it be-
fore the guests in the house were
aroused or any attempt made to
notify them that the building was
burning. 1t seems to be pretty
certain, and it is even believed, that
the hotel was known to be on fire
by the employees from twenty min
utes to half an hour before the fire
department vas notified. Russell.
also stated that there was a pile
of mattresses in one corner of the
store-room and a lot of loose hair,
and about five feet from them, on
the floor, was box in which the
stock OF matches were kept. He
thinks the mattresses and the
matches had good deal to do with
the origin of the fire, but does not
know anything definite about it.
st. Louis correspondent Chicago
ZINES: The fire had its origin in
the store-room under the office.
There seems to be no reason to
doubt that further. The flames had
communicated well among the COM
bustibie material in that place and
had almost reached the elevator be.
fore any body had observed them.
The discovery seems to have been
made almost simultaneously by
George w. Ford, the night clerk
at that time on duty in the Office,
and two or three of the other en-
ployes. Mr.. Ford makes the fol-
lowing statement: I was standing
behind the counter transferring tie
names to the ledger when I smell
ed something like wool burning. l
said to a one-legged fellow that
was on the outside of the counter,
81 smell something like WOOL" and
then he said that he did, too. [
turned right around to a back win
dow, only step off, and opened it.
The whole back part of the hotel
was ablaze, and I saw at once
there was no hope to save the
place. I turned right around again
and turned on the district fire.
alarm, and then sent one Of the
bell boys out with a fire-alarm key
to turn on genera! alarm. I
then sent five men up through the
hotel to wake up everybody, and l
myself stood in the rotunda and
roll,l &C. a., 1o,l -. oo..ll