Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-05-14

the men to the roof of the main build
ing, and then, followed by the other
girls, they were carried over the roofs
of the other buildings until they
reached the tenements in Hicks street.
through which they gained the street.
Sarah Morris did not go with the
others. She was frightened, and
Jumped from window into the arms
of some men. She was not injured.
By this time all the buildings had
caught fire, and
A SEA OF FLAME
was roaring skyward. Three men
climbed up from the coal hole of the
western extension, the floors of which
had fallen with the outer wall. The
others got out as best they could,
picking their way over the bricks and
mortar and broken beams, and gained
Atlantic street through the passage.
A great crowd of girls and men and
boys poured into State street through
the two front doors. None had a hat
or wrap, and all were terrified. Thick
smoke followed them. Some stood
still. as if dazed, and some hurried
away. Five minutes later tong -es of
red and yellow flame licked up the
woodwork Of the doorways through
which the girls and men and boys had
come, and then ran up the buildings
front TO join tie greater fire, which
had blazed through the roof.
More than five hundred persons
were in the building when the fire
broke out. Nobody knew how many
had escaped or how many were burned
or were held beneath the fallen wall
or floors. The building was old, and
burned like finder. The flames spread
to another four story building which
joined the old glass house on the east
and fronted State street. Then they
began to eat their way westward,
gained a foothold in, and quickly gut
ted an unused brick building in
Columbia place. A row Of ten tene-
ments IN Atlantic street, the rears Of
which were closed to the extensions Of
the old glass-house, were the next to
catch. The tenants were frightened
into the street.
It was not until fifteen minutes after
the girls in the button factory had
seen the machinery shake that the fire.
men got to work. It seemed useless
to attempt to save the old glass house.
Tons and tons of Water were thrown
on it, but
THE FLAMES CRACKED
on just the same. Lines OF hose were
run through the stores beneath the
Atlantic street tenements and through
the passage at No. So. The teuements
were drenched and saved from des-
truction by fire. The walls OF, the old
glass house were old and weak, and at
10 o'clock they began to give way
On State street the fremen who were
just beneath the front wall saw it
writhe and begin to totter. They
scampered from it, dragging their
hose along with them. With roar
like the discharge of a battery half of
the front fell forward, and covered
with bricks the sidewalk beneath and
the roadway and the gutter opposite.
The fremen narrowly escaped being
buried. Then came second and5third
rumble as two of the partition walls
fell. The most of the extension walls
had fallen before. A squad of fire
men from engine No. and struck No.
3 dragged several hose lines through
the passage leading from Atlantic
street, and began to play on the ruins
of the western extension, beneath
which it was known that many bodies
were buried.
A CRY OF DANGER
made the fremen jump back to es-
M m NO NJ IF fa 11i-o
tone felled Fireman M. T. Morgan,
of engine No. 4, and Michael Dough
erty, of the truck company, to the
ground. They were dragged out and
carried n an ambulance to the Long
Island City hospital. Charles Reddy
and James Fay, Of engine No. 5, and
William Dolan and Samuel Ailcorn,
fire telegraph linemen, were handling
a hose in State street, when there
came a loud report, and the street be-
meath them for an area of rs feet shot
upwards. Fay and Reddy sank out OF
sight, while the linemen chung to the
edge of a great pit. The inemen
were not injured, so they sprang down
to assist the tiremen, who were lying
helpless dozen feet below. Ladders
were brought. and the four were help
ed to the street Fay's right arm was
broken, his head was cut, aud he had
internal injuries. He had been struck
on the head. Reddy's hip was hurt
and his face was burned. He had
CROPPED around to find Fay. They
were taken to the New York hospital.
The explosion had been caused by the
igniting of naptha stored in a vault
under the street.
The excitement around the scene
Of the confagration was intense, and
there were hundred anxious people
looking for missing relatives and
friends employed in the building.
WHAT HUMAN LIVES ARE LOST
will not be known until the fremen
have thoroughly searched the ruins,
but there seems to be little doubt on
all sides that considerable number
have persisted. The Economically
one-half the entire force-are still
buslly engaged under the direction of
Chief Neving and his district engi-