Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-03-17
LEAPING FOR LIFE.
One Mau Burned to DentI-TwO Women
Fall from n Window in the Sixth Story
and are Killed and FearfuIIy Man
gled-One Man Jumps and is Kill
ed, and Another falls md Meets
the kau EafR.

the same rare
The new office of the Evening Union
of Springfield, Mass, was destroyed by
fire, and the blaze was attended with the
most sickening horror ever in that city,
six of the employees of the paper meet
ing terrible death, most of them jump
ing from the fifth story and being crush
ed into a shapeless mass below. Six
others were badly injured.
The fire was first discovered in the
mailing-room, and clouds of smoke were
pouring out of the lower story windows
before fifty souls on the upper floor were
aware of their danger. Flames shot up
an old elevator in the rear, cutting off es-
cape by the stairway, and most of the
employees who escaped found their way
to the ground by way of a roof in the
| rear. Some were cut off in the compos-
ing room, and there is still terrible sus-
pense, as several fell back into the flames.
The employees who rushed into the cdi-
ttrlal room were cut off from escape in
the rear, and had to face the horrible al
tentative of burning to death or jumping
to the sidewalk below.
The fire department responded prompt
| ly. A ladder was put to the fourth story
and the sight of rescue so near seemed to
madden the suffering group at two win
dows, who dropped IN succession to the
sidewalk below. Six fell in this way,
some of them forced off and some madly
leaping, and the crowd groaned and
turned their heads away as they whirled
through the air.
Four compositors suffered bad frac-
lures of bones and serious burns. Two
named Donohue and Ellsworth are prob
ably fatally hurt. 1t is thought that the
fire started among lumber in the closet
OH the ground floor. The flames were
drawn up the elevator and spread through
the composing room. There were more
than thirty compositors, men and women
on the floor. There was no fire escape
Dense black smoke issued from the
} windows in clouds and by the time the
! fire department arrived the win
dows were filled with poor despairing hu
man beings, who did not seem at first to
realize their dreadful position The
crowd underneath called to them to have
courage and on no account to try tC
| VI dONB. oo A'''
seemed disposed to obey, but so SLOW
were the ladders in being erected that
panic seized the victims.
The scenes as the people began to droI
or fall from the blazing windows wa'
horrible. A shrek broke from the crowd
as each one of the victims fell into thu
street below. There was great clappinG
| of hands when woman was seen slowly
descending a ladder. The noise of thu
crowd was hushed as the wounded wert
carried through to the ambulances. The
only available article for quenching thu
| flames in the office was an old watering
can. There were no force pumps or fir'
buckets of any sort. A large canvas
sheet was stretched over the sidewalk
Three men jumped on this, but brok,
through and fell to the pavement. A
woman also fell through the canvass anc
landed on the sidewalk insensible.
Joseph II. Lanford was standing OF
the sidewalk at the end of the building
furtherest from the corner of the build
ing when Mrs. Farely fell. He stood hi
ground and reached out his arms t.
catch her. She fell on his neck, bear
ing him to the ground and knocking hin
senseless. Mrs Fairly was killed Instant!
Lanford was not seriously hurt.