Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-01-16
TERRIBLE SCENES.
Four Persons Burned to Death and Four
Others seriously Injured.

A fire broke out this morning in the base
ment of Turner Hall, on East Fourth street,
occupied by William Winkef as a ball room,
and when the flames were extinguished four
persons were found on the top floor dead.
The progress of the fire was so great that 1t
was hardly five minutes after the first engine
company arrived before the entire inside of
the premises seemed to be alive with the
flames, the tongues of which ran up the wood
work with a speed which put to nought the
first efforts OF the iremen. The premises
Nos. 66 and 6S were occupied by Turn Hall
proper, and in the upper stories of "a William
Winkel proprietor, resided with his family
and several employees. As soon as the fire.
men could reach the roof they cut holes in it
and broke in the skylight, but the fire had al
ready done its fearful work on several vic
Tins. There were no fire escapes attached to
the building. 1t was not until the humping
of the tremen's axes on the boards and tin
over their heads echoed throughout the
building that the men and women underneath
were reused to learn their danger. Thick
smoke filled their rooms and fire shone
through the chinks of doors and walls. With
a cry of alarm, Mrs. Winkel, rousing her hus-
band, ran to the door of the bedroom where
slept her sister and the child. A cry from
within answered her, and told her that they,
too, were awake. Groping through the smoke
the blinded women and husband sought the
stairway, but were met by a rush of fire, against
which they Intellectually sought to shut the
door. Their clothes caught fire, and death
seemed certain as they turned toward the door
leading to the roof. AS they reached 1t the fire.
mems axes broke through the ceiling over
head, and willing hands helped them out, more
or less terribly burned. The women and men
were partly carried and partly crept on the
roof. Streams of water were now directed
into the BUILDING, and the fremen's work
began to tell, but their attention was de-
manded in another quarter. From an eleva-
ted portion of the central part of the building
cries of agony and shouts for help we're heard,
and the firemen cut through the roof and
sides until they obtained an entrance to the
garret filled with smoke and charred by the
flames that leaped from ratter to rafter.
Here in rooms on each side had slept George
Mueller, Ernst and Herman Ruhl, Louis
Meyer, Henry Gehrweler and Louis
Schmidt, walters In the west side bed
rooms were Teresa Erhardt, Annie Bauer
and Rose, servant girls. The floor was
II sea of flames in which terrified men
and women ran wildly about gasping for air
and shouting for help. George Mueller and
Ernest and Herman Ruhl made their way to-
ward the front and reached the roof more
than half suffocated and burned here and
there. Louis Meyer sprang from a window
into the yard below No. 10 Third street, a dis
tance of sixty feet or more, and Sas picked up
nearly dead. Louis Schmidt was found after
the iremen ventured in crouching in a corner,
from whence he had been unable to escape,
uehu anu 10 CTlbp. heDTN UtlT-
weller, unable to follow his more fortunate
comrades to the front, jumped from window
into the yard of Third street house. He was
found there and taken to the Fifth street
station house, where he died. Every bone in
his body was broken. Teresa Erhardt never
left her room. She was found burned to
death, her features blackened almost beyond
recognition. Annie Bauer sprang from a
window rather than die in the fire, and was
found in the yard on the west side of the
building. She was horribly burned, and, with
the injuries caused by her fall, cannot live.
Rose, the last of the servants, sprang out
also, and striking an arbor in the yard OF No
"a East Fourth street in her descent broke
both legs, both arms, and received internal
injuries. George Mueller, one of the walters,
who escaped, stood in the ruins of his old
room this morning with moist eyes, sur
rounded by friends congratulating him on
his lucky escape. 81 don't know about It,"
he said, in German: 81 was aroused by noise
and heat. found the room, the whole floor,
full of.smoke, and could not see my way. On
every side heard cries. l gained the roof,
how | don't know, but | fervently thank God
for it.n The dead are Louis Schmitt, thirty
years old, waiter, burned to n crisp in a sleep
ing room; Henry Gerhweiler, twenty-five
years, waiter, jumped from a fourth-story
rear window, and died in the Fifth Street
Police Station; William Geib, ten years,
| taken out on the roof of the adjoining
building, died before be could be placed in
an ambulance; Teresa Erhardt, twenty five
years, servant, burned to death in her room.
The injured are: William Winkel, forty
years, lessee of the hall, severely burned
about the hands, face, and arms; Josephine
| Winkel, forty Years, wife of the lessee, ter
ribly disfgured by burns and body blistered,
but little chance of her recovery; Annie
Bauer, thirty years, servant, jumped from 3
window and internally injured, will probably
die, also badly burned; Rose, servant, about
4afzy old nd xufu AAu
both legs and arms broken; Louis Meyer
waiter, sprang from a window, limbs broken
and internally injured Margaret Gieb, aged
! thirty, sister of Mrs. Winkel, face and fee
severely burned.
NEW York, Jan. 6.
| Mrs. Margaret Geib and Rose Lang, terribly
| injured during the fire in Turn Hall yester
day morning, have died. These deaths brinl
the list up to six. The list, it is feared, Il
| not cOmJ leteds