Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-05-22
AE6RICAN AFFAIRS.
A TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE IN
CINCINNATI.
The Revised BibIe-American Turf
Stocks in New York-Dr. New
mans Successor.
ESPECIAL DISPATCHES TO THE REcoRD-uN1oN.l

mans Successor.
ESPECIAL DISPATCHES TO THE RECoRD-UNIoN.l
Frightful Catastrophe In Cincinnati
CINCINNATI, May 2lst.-At a fire this
afternoon in Sullivans printing establish
ment, No, 10 Sixth street, eight girls and
women jumped from the fifth story TO the
sidewalk Five of them are dead,
SECOND DISPATCHI
CINCINNATI, May 2lst-The fire on Sixth
street this afternoon caused TIE death OF
eighteen persons 1t was at first thought
that only the women who jumped from
the tifth-Story window were killed, but
when the fire was subdued SO that the fire
men could enter it was found that ten dead
bodies lay in heap on the fifth floor, and
one on the fourth. There were SIX who
| Jumped from the window. They were
killed, and one man, after saving the lives
of two women by letting them down rope
| from the roof, was 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 a
gasoline stove on the ground floor. The
|
near the stairway, and all chance of escape
was thus cut off The killed were mostly
employees of the dye works, which occupied
a portion of the building.
THIRD DIsPATCHl
CINCINNATI, May 21st-In addition TO the
lives of those who were killed by leaping
from the fifth story eleven more corpses
| were found inside the building, and the
| = Cd
story was completely burned out, but the
wall is still standing. The other floors
were not much damaged. 1t was not long
until the fire was under control. a mass
of telegraph and telephone wires prevented
the tiremen from putting up ladders
promptly for the relief of inmates.
DETAILS OF THE DISASTER.
CINCINNATI May 21st-This city has had
its share of shocking disasters, but never
has one happened where such pitiful loss
of life has occurred as that to-day with SC
little occasion Within fifteen minutes
after the fatal blunder begun, 16 or II per
sons persisted Looking over the scene
after the event, it is plain that every life
could have been easily saved short as thu
time was. There were displays of thought
full heroism that saved two lives, but ont
of the heroes lost his own life.
At 100 o'clock this afternoon, J. a
Green, city editor of the Times-Stdr, upol
: going up the stairway to his office, saw
: dense clouds of smoke issuin!
f from rear window of the build
ing Nos. 10 and p West Sixth street
and Immediately telephoned to the fire de
partment An alarm brought the engine
almost instantly and as the tiremen coulC
: reach the building from the front and rear
il was not fifteen minutes until the fire wa
so much under control that Chief Enginee
Wisbv was able to reach the top floor. Blu
he was too late TO rescue the girls employed
; there. and to his horror he found ten deaC
bodies, with hands to their faces and face
blackened and discolored in death.
THE CHIEF ENGINEERS STATEMENT.
The Chief said, in speaking of it: "Th
; house is not burned out In fact the fir
was chiefly in the fifth story. | counte,
ten girls lying upon the benches, tables anC
: other things, and some on the floor. Thei
clothing was not burned, but the skin OF
the back of their hands was scorched.
f was a terrible sight-the worst | ever saw
2 in my experience. The girls lay whcr
2 they had fallen in their wild and helpless
despair.
WHERE THE FIRE STARTED.
1t has now been fairly ascertained tina
| tle IRE started from Il can Vi DeIlZIle Ol
the second floor, near the elevator shaft
? 4 boy on that floor says he heard shouts
and instantly the fire leaped to the elevate
shaft and darted up it. The shaft reache
} to the top of the building, and from tn
, third story to the fifth it was encircled by
; wooden stairway which was the Onl,
means of access to those floors. The ele
: vator shaft, to add to its combustibility
: was encased with thin wooden lattice
work The second floor, where the fir
started, was a press-room, the third a com
> posing the fourth q storage ant
waste room, and the fifth was the folding
room.
e SAD FATE OF \ YOUNG HERO.
\ As soon as the fire started John Sullivan
! a Young man, cousin of the proprietor, raj
up the stairway to the fifth floor to Civ
warning to the girls Instantly, almost, h
found that he was too late to get then
down the stairway, and that his own re
s treat was cut OFT What he did for til
frightened girls could only be told b.
e glimpses that could be seen of hin
I through the smoking windows whence tn
girls had already leaped to their death
# J. II. Kinsleys son and his foreman ha
: gone to their roof adjoining this one Of
: the west, and, knowing that the girls wer
e imprisoned on the floor below, they pre-
V cured rope and lowered it to the windoy
where Sullivan was. He instantly graspe
it, and fastening one of the girls to it h
y helped her out of the window, and Kinsle
2 and Schroeder lowered her safely to tn
+ ! sidewalk. The rope was brought back
and Sullivan quickly fastened it to anothe
q girl and sent her down safely. The rop
came up a third time, and as the Othe
, girls by this time were all suffocateC
u or were afraid to venture, Suliva
; fastened the rope to his own body
and was being lowered, when, as he wa
: half way down, the flames shot out at
' window and he fell head foremost to tn
> sidewalk, in the presence of horrifie
crowd of people who had witnessed his he
t roiSm
Y When the girls were jumping from tn
n window a large colored man heroicall
e tried to catch them and break the force {
5 their fall, and nearly lost his own life i
Il the attempt. Within ten minutes after tn
: fire began patrol wagons were called int
use to carry away the wounded and deat
Il As well as can be ascertained
= present there were about 80 occupant
of the building, of whom 90 or 9
f were girls, on the fifth story. Boys wer
. on the second and third floors, and thi
i accounts for their escape. All agree tha
the spread of the flames was almost inStan
| Mr.. hlnSIeN, VINO ran 10 his upper IlOOl
in the rear, where the flames were in dan
u ger of coming through his window, foun
. the smoke so dense that he had to crawl o
the floor to reach his window and close i
; Ali this while there was an avenue of e:
u cape which the panic-Stricken girls di
d :. not think of. There was an opening in til
! roof, which they could have easily reache
= from a bench standing beside tn
n wall, and once on the roof the
\ could have reached the other building
c with perfect ease. \ lack OF read
= access to this place lost all these lives. tn
1t fire was almost insignificant. The woode
/ stairway around the elevator shaft is mt
l. burned so as to be useless or unsafe, "
y the flames seem to have pervaded all I'll
II floors, and to have ruined all the paper an
y other light combuStible matter. Mr.. Su
livan estimates his loss at $1,000 to $1,000
Y with ample insurance, The loss on ii
o building is slight.
! PAINFUL SCENES.