Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-05-22
A DETAILED ACCOUNT
OF the Most PitifuI Loss of Life Cincinnati
Ever Had.

OF the Most Pitiful Loss of Life Cincinnati
Ever Had.
CINCINNATI, O., May 2l.-This city has
had It's share of shocking disasters, but
never has one happened where such pitt
full loss of life has occurred as that Of to-day
with so little occasion. In less than fifteen
minutes after the fatal blunder began l6 or
Il persons perished. Looking over the
scene after the event it is plain that every
life could have been easily saved. Short as
the time was there were displays of thought
lul
Heroism
that saved two lives, but one of the heroes
lost his own life. At half past one o'clock
this afternoon Mr.. j. A. Green, city editor
of the Times-Star, upon going up stairs on
the way 10 his Office, saw dense clouds of
smoke issuing from the rear windows OF the
buildings, No. l9 and q West Sixth street
and Immediately telephoned to the fire de-
partment. An alarm brought engines
almost instantly and as the tiremen could
reach the building from the front and rear,
it was not fifteen minutes until the fire was
so much under control that the Chief Engi-
neer was able to reach the fifth or top floor.
But he was too late to rescue the girls en-
ployed there and to his,
Horror
he found ten dead bodies lying with hands
10 faces and faces blackened and destroyed
in death. The Chief said, in speaking OF
! il, The house is not burned out, in fact
the FIRE was chiefly in the fifth story. The
smoke begrimed girls were lying upon
| benches, tables and other things and some
on the floor. Their clothing was not
| buried but the skin on the backs of their
hands was scOrched. 1t was terrible sight,
| the worst | ever saw in my experience The
/ girls Law where they bad fallen in their
wild and lpless despair. 1t has now been
| fairly ascertained that the fire started from
a Can of Benzine
| on the second floor near the elevator shaft.
| A boy on that floor says he heard a report
and instantly the fire leaped to the elevator
shaft and darted up it. The shaft reaches
10 the top floor 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 combustibihty, was en-
| cased with thin wooden lattice work. The
| second floor was the press room, the third
the composing room, the fourth storage
and waste room and the fifth was the folding
rsom. As soon as the fire started
A Young Hero
| John Sullivan, cousin OF the pro-
prietor, ran up the stair way to the
| NTH floor to give warning. Instantly at
| most he found he was too late to put them
| down the stair way and that his own retreat
vas cut of. What he did for the frightened
girls could only be told by the ghmpses that
could be seen OF him at the smoking win
dow whence four of the girls had already
| esped TO their death. J. L. kins
lev son and his foreman had
v6re to the roof of their building
adjoining this and knowing that the girls
we're imprlsoped on the floor below, they
| procured rope and lowered to the windo@
| where Sullivan was. He instantly grasped
il and fostering one of the girls to it helped
her out and Kinsley and Shredder lowered
! her safely 10 the sidewalk. The rope was
brought ard Sullivan again quickly tasten-
| ID It 10 another girl and sent her down
| safely. The rope came out the third time,
and as the other girls by this time were
sufTocated or afraid to venture, Sullivan
fastened the rope to his body and was being
| lowered. when half way down the flames
shot out Of s window aud he tell,
Head Foremost to- the Sidewalk.
When the girls were jumping from the WIN
dow a large aolored man heroically tried TO
catch them and to break the force OF the
fall He nearly lost his own life in the at
tempt. Within ten minutes after the fire
begun the patrol wagons were called into
use 10 carry away the wounded aud killed
As well as can be ascertsiued there we're
6ty occupants of the building, of whom
twenty or twenty-five were girls IN the
fifth story. The boys were on the
second and third floors, and this accounts
for their escape. All agree that the spread
Of flames was almost instantaneous. Mr.
Kinsley, who ran TO bis upper floor IN the
rear, where the flames were In danger OF
coming through his window, found the
smoke so dense that be had TO crawl on the
floor to reach his wiXdow and close 1t. All
this While there was
An avenue of Escape
which the panic stricken girls did not think
oE II was an opening in the root which
they could easily have reached from a
bench and once on the roof they could
have reached other buildings with
perfect safety. The lack Of
ready access to this place lost all these
hves. The FIRE was almost insignificant.
That wooded stairway around the elevator
is not burned so as to be useless or even
unsafe. Yet flames seem to have pervsded
all floors and to have ruined all the paper
and other light combustible matter Sulli-
van estimates his loss at from $4,000 to
10000, with ample insurance The loss
TO the building is slight. The scenes at the
undertakers establishment where the dead
were taken and where friends aud relatives
come TO identify them. were Of the
Most Painful
character. In one case. policeman of
Covingion identified his sisters, Lizzie and
Dolie Handle, who were twins Mrs. Neci
found the body of her daughter, and had to
be led awsy from the awful sight. Mrs.
Leabon had the awful experience of finding
her three daughters among the dead.
The Fatal List
as now made up is:
Anna Bell, sged is, wife of David Bell,
26 Lock street.
Dolhe and Lizzie Handel, twins, aged 90.
7l3 Scott street. Covington.
Fannie Jones. aged -. Liberty and Free
nan.
! Della, Kate and Mary Leobon, sisters,