The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1881-12-15
Holocaust Near Pittsburg.

PIrTsBURG, Pa, December 10.-News is
received of terrible and shocking holocaust
which occurred at Rock Cut, seven miles
from this city, this morning about 8 o'clock
by which sixteen men were burned to
death and large number fatally injured.
Last evening q terrible explosion
occurred at Keystone Rolling Mills,
Fourteenth Ward, but this morning comes
another which exceeds in horror anything
which has occurred in this vicinity since
the terrible destruction of life caused by
the collision at Twenty Eighth street. Be
tween and 3 O'Clock this morning frame
boarding house located 'On the line of the
Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad some seven
miles below the city, was set on fire by
the explosion Of lamp, and of fifty people
known to be sleeping only twenty-four es-
capped alive. All were more or less burned,
SO rapid was the progress OF the flames.
Some were roasted to death without the
possibility of rescuing them.
The building in which the fire occurred
was owned by Martin e. Joyce, contractors,
but was under the management of a Mr..
Kawn, as boarding house keeper. 1t was
about thirty feet wide and fifty long, and
constructed of sixteen foot boards placed on
end. 1t had a board roof with
very steep pitch and loft formed by a
died for the night. In the lower story was
a dining-room, and in one end oil the build
ing was the kitchen. The stairs
leading to the loft were located Just
by the side of the door leading from
dinins-room to the kitchen. In the loft
hunks were arranged, but the only light
which penetrated were from two openings
without glass. and which were closed at
nj hit with sliding doors so as to keep
out the chilly night air. In this
dark loft some torty-three men
were supposed to have slept last night. At
least that number were at supper last even.
ing and none were known to be away when
the hour for retiring came. The
origin of the fire was the upsetting.. and
explosion of o kerosene oil lamp. The
story, as told by an eye witness of the
Between and O'Clock this morning Mr..
kawn, boarding house keeper. arose and
kindled fire in the kitchen stove. He left
a lighted lamp on the table near the door
leading to the dining room and went to
arouse his wife and servant :girls. While
he was gone the explosion occurred
and In an instant the dining room was filed
with his wife and girls, but could not do
more than call upon those upstairs to es-
cape for their lives. In another moment
the flames had enveloped the stair
way thus cutting off all means
OF escape for the doomed men above except
through small opening at either end, and
from sliding doors, which had to be re-
moved. The loft was filled with straw and
combustible material used in bedding, and
it was only those who we're nearest to
the openings who could make their escape.
Forms in asemi-nudec condition could be seen
struggling in the sitting smoke. Twenty
three of the occupants of the loft succeeded
in squeezing through the openings, some
with their underclothes on fire. Others
rushed frantically about the room until the
smoke suffocated them and their voices,
were aifled in death. The survivors
groaned and writhed in pain and shivered
in the frosty air of early morning. They
were borne off as soon as possible, and word
was sent to other boarding-houses along the
line ofwork, and physicians were summoned
from their neighborhood and city. Special
engines were sent down on the Pittsburg &
Lake Erie Road, but meanwhile the shiv-
ering victims were provided with such
clothing as could be obtained. The seri-
ously injured were brought to the depot
on the South Side and thence removed
to the West Pennsylvania Hospital, while
those who were less seriously burnt were
removed TO the hotel of Martin Joyce,
on Pennsylvania avenue The scenes
this morning at the site or The Inflated
building were of sickening character. In
heap in one corner of the ruins were the
charred remains of six men who had evil
IDENTIFY succumbed to the fiery element
while endeayoring TO escape through the
opening in the roof.