Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-15
A Large Number Of Fires Involving
Loss Of Life and Property.

Loss Of Life and Property.
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 14.-It was just 4:10
O'Clock this morning when the fireman in
the engine room of the Planters house dis
covered live Goals dropping in the paved
alley just outside the window. Getting
out he found the alley so densely filed
with smoke that it was impossible to dis
tinguish the locality of the fire which
caused it. The Goals, however, evidently
came from the store room of the hotel,
which is part of frame structure extend
ing out across the alley at the second floor
and abutting on the large furniture rooms
of the auction house of Block,
Tyler Co. The fireman ran to the end
of the alley, where high gates enclosed it,
making with the frame structure long,
narrow loom in which the smoke accumu-
lated. He succeeded in getting the gates
open, thus creating a current which carried
off some of the smoke. He returned to
try to eztinguish The fire. He
found, however, that it had a strong hold
in the store room in the kitchen, which is
Immediately over the boiler room, where
he was at work. He gave an alarm, and
in three minutes the hotel was a bedlam.
Nearly 500 people, filled with the horrible
recoIlecions of the Milwaukee holocaust
were
DAsHING HITHER AND THITHER
through the main corridors and down the
several stairways into the Office and street.
The hotel employees acted with good sense
and promptness, rapping long and loud on
every door in the house, and five minutes
later making a second trip to insure that
everybody was up and advised of the dan
ger. Very few waited to dress, as the
smoke from the rear building, where the
fire was located, had already invaded the
corridors and was making its way slowly
into the rooms. Stopping only to grab
few articles of clothing, men, women and
children
FLED IN DISMAY
and would not halt even in the commo-
diou5 main Office, where there was light,
comfort and little smoke. AS the engines,
the first of which arrived within fifty Sec
onds of sounding the alarm, dashed up to
the hotel the stream of fugitIves began to
pour from its doors. There we're men in
naught but their underclothes, and women.
with but night dress and possibly a shawl
or cloak over their shoulders, and little chill
dren hastily bundled in blankets or other
wrappers. Few wore shoes, and great
many were in their bare feet. The lights
of the Republican and GIo0e- Democrat
offices and of a gambling house, all of
which we're at a distance of a block. led
the half-crazed people to temporary refuge
of warmth, whence carriages in a few mo-
ments removed them to other hotels. Some
Of the scenes incident to this hegira were
quite thrilling, their effect being intensified
by the rattle, clang and shrek of the
engines and the. shouts Of the fremen.
Soon the main body of the hotel was
cleared of guests and the building was in
possession Of the fremen, who within
twenty minutes as 4 result of a second
alarm had thirteen engines at work.
Meantime events in the rear of the
building were of a far more ugly charac-
ter. The hotel, which is six stories in
height, fronts on the west side of Fourth
street from Chestnut to Pine, while the
wing runs back on both Chestnut and Pine
streets, to the depth of half block. Thus
the main building forms three
sides of a rectangle. The fourth
side is formed by four story
building, forty years old, midway of which
on the ground floor is the boiler room
above referred to, and the kitchen on the
floor above it. The two upper floors were
occupied by the help of the house, some
seventy-fve in number. Along the side of
the boiler room narrow stairway rises
and winds to the roof. The fire, which
started very close to this stairway, was
carried up to the roof by the draft in the
stairway, and thus not only
CUT OFF ESCAPE
by that means, but also formed barrier
which prevented men sleeping in the south
half of the building from reaching another
stairway at the north end. Hence these
Unfortunates, almost smothered by emeks,
were compelled to climb out of the room
NOaA ehS AAOAAV Mu1CH 6DubbcQ OVcI
th Q alley, and thence either to jump or
lower themselves by means of pulley
rigged there for hoisting supplies. One
poor fellow was seen to start down the
stairway before the fire reached
the third floor, and an hour later his
crisped corpse was found in the kitchen
near the foot of the stairs. Another en-
Ploye, who, although answering to call,
seems to have been too much stupefed by
the smoke to get up, was found two hours
afterWard. His dead body was found on
the smoking mattress of his bed. The fe-
male help all escaped by the stairway at
the north end save one, who broke her an
kle IN jumping to the roof of shed. The
tremen made grand fight and
were carried through the walls of smoke