The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-22
A HORRIBLE CASUALTY,
Causing the Death of Large Number of
HELPLESS Women.

C1NCINNATl, may Ll.--A ure at mo- 10 WeSb
Sixth street. this aftern DON, caused the death Of
seventeen persons. 1t was first thought that
story window were killed, but when the fire was
subdued so that the fremen could enter. it was
found that ten dead bodies lay in heaps on the
fifth floor, and one on the fourth There were
six who jumped from the window and were
killed, and one man, after saving the lives of
two women by letting down rope from the
roof, was himself killed by the burning of the
same rope before he reached the ground. This
was Mr. Sullivan, brother Of the proprietor of
the printing works. The fire originated by the
explosion Of gasoline stove on the second floor.
The flames entered the elevator chute, which is
thus cut of. The killed are mostly en-
ployes of a dye-works which occupied
portion of the building The fifth story was
completely burned out, but the walls still stand
and the other floors are not much damaged.
The building was occupied by Sullivan e Co.
printing works; Orth, Wissel Il Co., dye house,
the Ledger PostalNews Company; Panson Dye
ing and Securing Company, and j. r. 'Kinsly,
gold, silver and nickel plating works 1t was
not long until the fire was under control The
mass Of telegraph and telephone wires prevented
the fremen from putting up ladders pro omptly
for the relief of the inmates.
[Second Dispatch]
CINCINNATI, May 2l.--This city has had its
share of shocking disasters, but never has one
happened where such pitiful loss of life has
occurred. In less than fifteen minutes after the
fatal blunder began sixteen or seventeen persons
perished. Looking over the scene after the
event, it is plain thatevery life could have been
easily saved. Short as the time was, there were
displays of thoughtful herosm that saved two
lives, but one Of the heroes lost his own life.
At 1:3O this afternoon Mr.. j. A. Green, city
editor of the Times-Star, upon going up the
stairway to his Office, saw dense clouds of smoke
issuing from the rear windows of the building,
Nos. 10 and q West Sixth street. and immedi-
ately telephoned to the fire department An
alarm brought the engines almost instantly and
as the fremen could reach the building from
front and rear it was not five minutes before the
fire was so much under control that Chief Engi
neer Wisby was able to reach the fifth or top
floor.
A CHASTITY DISCOVERY.
But he was too late to rescue the girls employed
there, and, to his horror, he found ten dead
bodies, with hands to their faces and faces black
ened and distorted in DEATH The chief said, in
speaking of it: ''The house is not burned out;
In fact the fire was chiefly in the fifth story.
In the smoke / counted ten girls, lying upon
benches, tables and other things-some on the
floor. Their clothing was not burned, but the
skin on the backs of their hands was scorched.
1t was a terrible sight, the worst ever saw in
my experience" 1t has been ascertained that
the fire started from can of benzine on the
third floor, near the elevator shaft. The shaft
reaches to the top of the building, and from the
third story to the fifth it was encircled By
wooden stairway, which was the only means of
access to these floors. The elevator shaft, to
add to its combustibility, was surrounded with
q thin wooden lattce-work. The fourth floor
the foldingroom
JOHN SULLIVANS HEROISM.
AS soon as the fire started, John Sullivan,
cousin of the proprietor, ran up the stairway to
the fifth floor to give warning to the girls. In
stantly, almost, he found he was too late to get
them down the stairway and that his own re-
treat was cut off. What he did for the fright
ened girls could only be told by the glimpses
that could be seen Of him at the smoking
window, whence four of the girls had already
leaped to their DEATH j. R. Kinsleys son and
his foreman had gone to the roof of their
building, adjoining this on the west and know
ing the girls were imprisoned on the floor below
they procured rope, and lowered it
to the window where Sullivan was. He
instantly grasped it, and fastening one of the
girls to it, helped her out Of the window, and
Kinsley and Shrader lowered her to the side
walk. The rope was brought up, and Sullivan
again quickly fastened it to another girl and
sent her down safely. The rope came a third
time, and as the other girls by this time were all
suffocated, or were afraid to venture, Sullivan
fasterad the rope to his own body and was being
lowered, when, as he was hall way down, the
flames shot out of window. cnd he fell head
foremost to the walk, in the presence of horri-
fed crowd of people, who had witnessed his
heroism. When the girls were jumping from the
window, large colored man haroically tried
to catch them, and SO break their fall. He
nearly lost his own life in the attempt Within
ten minutes after the fire began, the patrol
wagons were called into use to carry away the
wounded and killed. As we'll as can be ascer-,
tanned, there were about hfty occupants of the
building of whom twenty or twenty-five were
girls in the fifth story. The boys were on the