Iron County register., 1885-04-23
DISSOLVED IN SMOKE.

The Omce of the Buffalo, (N. Y.) Express,
With Other Valuable Business Interests
Destroyed Through the CarIessness OF a
Porter-Loss $3.50, 900.
BUFFALO, N. Y, April 17.-About six
o'clock last evening, fire was discovered
In the composing room of the Express
building, on Exchange street, and in an
incredibly short space of time the entire
room was filled with smoke and flames,
which speedily shot through the en-
trance connecting what is known as the
old Express building and the new, and
which leads into the editorial rooms.
By the time the fire department ar
rived, the second floors of the old
and new buildings were q
mass of flames, which belched
out Of the windows and ate their way up
ward and downward with frightful quick
ness. The acids and chemicals used in
the engraving and etching processes on
the floor above, on which the fire origi-
mated, and also on the floor below, in
which were the engraving and lithograph-
ing establishment of Demston & Co.,
helped the spread of the fire, and the fire.
men, while they worked with superhu-
man effort, realized that they had all they
could do to prevent the spread of the fire
and keep it in the locality from which it
started. Scarcely twenty minutes after
the fire started the immense fve-story
building was completely gutted.
At about quarter past six several of the
floors, and with them the large engrav-
ing presses, type metal and lithographing
cto faI fol-
lowed by noise that sounded like the
reports of thousand muskets. The front
wall was seen to bulge, and orders were
issued to extend the fire lines. Only q
few minutes after this was done several
immense volumes of flames of peculiar
yellowish-red color puffed up from the
seething pit, and Immediately after the
wall was seen to topple, and the top story
fell outward with loud crash. Fortu-
nately no one was hurt, although several
fremen were within deadly proximity,
and there was not an instant's warning.
The building was occupied on the
ground floor by the O'Neill Carriage
Repository; the second floor by G. H.
Demstou & Co., photographers and en-
gravers, and the three floors above by
the editorial rooms of the Erpress, the
bindery and engraving departments, and
the job printing rooms OF Mathews,
Northrop & Co., respectively.
The fire was due to the carelessness of
the porter, who was lighting one of the
lamps in the news room. Jas. Ross, a
printer, in endeavoring to put out the
flames, was badly burned, and also near
ly suffocated. He was rescued with diff
Guilty. Mr.. j. w. Mathews was seated in
his editorial room, which is on the Sec
ond floor, when the fire broke out. He
was utterly unconscious of his danger
until his son, who had heard of the fire
from the business Office and ran up the
stairs through the flame and
smoke, rushed into the room and
hastily apprised him. Mr.. Mathews
came out unscathed, but his
son was badly burned about the face and
neck. So quick was the spread of the
flames that the reporters barely had time
to Chamber out of the windows and drop
onto the roof of an adjoining building.
Fifteen or twenty girls and men had to
descend the fire escape, the flames having
swept up both flights of stairs. The loss
is estimated at S250,O00; insurance,
S19S,00