Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-22
MANY MEET DEATH.

Eight Lives Lost by the Burning of a New
| York Tenement Housc-Twu Fircmen
Killed at u Blaze In Chicago-Several
1 Persons Blown Into Eternity by a Boiler
Explosion at Galveston. Tex.
New YORK, May 4.-The double tene-
ment house at 672 First avenue was the
scene of a terribly fatal fire at about one
o'clock yesterday incoming. Eight people
are dead, three are dying, and fourteen are
lying at the hospital in various stages of in
jury. The house is of brick. five stories
high, and arranged for four families to a
floor. 1t is of the tenement variety known
as double DECKER" and the record of these
| buildings in New York has been dismal in
| the extreme when a fire Or other mishap has
bcfallen them. The fre-escape was in the
| rear, and the platforms were OF wood.
About ale-lalf of the platform opposite the
! second floor was completely burned away,
and all the way up the woodwork
of the Escapes was charred. Four
families lived on each floor, and
the doors between the various apart
mcn;s We're usually kept locked. SO that
when the tenants We're aroused it was i'm
possible for those in the front rooms to
make their way to the rear to get on the
fire-escapc. The Railways were full of
smoke, and flames were pouring up the
stairway. Had there been a tire-escape on
the front of the house all might have made
| their escape. The Inspector Of Buildings
said that the law did not require owners of
tenenents to place escapes both in front
and rear.
There were about forty persons in tho
tenement when the fire broke out. On the
pilrey, better known as "Beefsteak John,'
kept a restaurant, and it was in this
place that the flames started. At
one O'Clock Humphrey was seen to leave
the restaurant and go upstairs through
the common hallway. 1t is supposed lie
discovered the fire in the kitchen of his
restaurant and ran to awaken his family
and the other tenants. He was found sutfo-
Gated OF the stairs by the iiremen. His
wife and child were asleep on the fourth
floor. Six others besides Humphrey were
taken from the building dead from the
smoke.
The most thrilling incidents occurred be-
fore the arrival of the tiremen. Michael
Allen, a %strapping young fellow, was one of
the first on the ground. He saw a woman
SAOaSAAiiS Nv SIlIASA7 ptoly MlllNCN uIAllu d
dense volume of black smoke. She was
Mrs. LimbacheE. "Help, help" she
sllrieked. and then disappeared. The
spectators supposed that she had lost con-
sciousness and was slowly dying from suixo-
cation. In a few moments she appeared
with a child in her arms. s'Save my
baby!" She cried frantically, and then
flung the little one to the street, a distance
of fully forty feet. Michael Allen firmly
braced himself and held out his arms to re-
ceive the child that was making such a per.
i!ous aerial journey. lie grasped the infant
i'll its descent and carried it unframed to a
place of safety. A man next appeared at
the same window with another child in his
arms, and having shouted to the crowd
below threw ii out. The child was
caught by Officer Thomas Flah-
erty, and was y but Slightly, ill.,
jured. Mrs. Lambacher again presented
herself with a third child and let it drop
to the street. 1t was also caught in
Michael Aliens arms and was placed with
the others. The parents were rescued by
the 1ircmen.
When the hook and ladder trucks ar
rived such of the tenants as were perciled
on the window-sillS were rescued without
difficulty. 1t is known that eight persons
lost their lives, although it is thought two
or three more will die in a few hours. The
dead are:
Christina kocrner, Pauline Koerner. Mrs.
krctZsch,nar, Richard kretzschmar, William
Hurley, Mary, servant Of Mrs. Humphrey.
FATALITY AT A CHICAGO FIFE.
CHICAGO, May 4.-Twenty fremen were
caught by the falling roof at a fire at 161
and 1863 South Water street last night. Two
OF them We're taken cutdead. The others es-
capped more or less injured, but none are con-
sidered. to be very dangerously hurt. Among
the iicn who We're caught by the timbers
We're Chief SWcnie. ten members of Hook
and Ladder truck No. L, several of Chem
lcal Engine No. /, and several of Engine
No. II. The tiremen had been working
hard about thirty minutes to keep back the
flames which had crept from the real of the
third floor to the hay stored Oh the
fourth floor of building 161. Several
streams Of water had been directed
Oh the hay. Chief Swsnie, who was
personally directing the work, feared the
great weight Of the wet hay, and gave or
ders to the various Captains to call out
every man in the building. Scarcely had
the words been uttered when the roof and
top floor fell.
The two dead men were taken out about
1880 o'clock this morning. The. were
found under the heavy timbers, and were
slightly burned. Their names are Charles
Bird and Martin Mulvcy. Bird was mar
rietl. Chief Swenie was slightly bruised,
and several tiremen were badly injured.
TERRIBLY FATAL EXPLOSION.
GALVESTON, Tex, May About 7:3o
yesterday morning one Of the boilers at the
fremont House exploded, killing five or six
persons. wounding several Others and bad
ly damaging several buildings. The Ire
mont House is a tiye-story brick building,
the boilcr-hcuse, a one-story brick
structure, being located in the north
west corner of the hotel. There were
two horizontal tubular boilers, each
Of siXty-horse power, but only one
was being used. When the explosion took
place the boiler shot away from the main
building. Passing out of the engine-house
end first, it crossed a yard and passed
through a frame building, where the ser
wants slept, then crossed Twenty-fourth
street and over the roof of a small house,
struck the roof of a frame structure, and
finally crashed through the roof of a house
of ill-rcpute. The latter place was entirely
demolished. The killed are as follows:
Lawrence Carr, the fireman; Clara Miller, o
white woman who was in a disrcputable
house: Anderson Jones, Il colored scrubber;
SCV1CEl Children, tho exact number not nainu