Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1889-02-20

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an Iniammable Shell With Many OF
the Rooms without window or Sky
light.
"I'd like to know what the authorities oil
the city regard as a safe building" said a
citizen TO a reporter yesterday. o the
] representation that the lot on the south
east corner of Main and Galena would re.
main vacant indefinitely unless the fire
limits OF the city were reduced, the Council
| passed an ordinance some time ago exclud.
ing all the city south of the north side OF
| GaleDa street from the operation OF the fire.
limits ordinance. Since then a frame build
ing covered externally with corrugated iron
has been put up in which stable, gambling
house and other businesses are carried on
downstairs, with a lodging house with
about forty rooms upsta irs. a%pprehend
the supervision over buildings is reposed in
some r. cognized authority, and that some
provision exists looking to safety OF life
where human beings are to be lodged. If SO,
it does not seem as though any attention
had been paid to the mode OF construction
of the building in the upstairs part, as you
can see by going down there and looking at
it yourself"
A visit was paid to the house, and the
following state of facts found to exist. The
ground floor is, as stated, devoted to the
uses OF a livery stable with gambling house
on the corner and another store Oh Main
street. Entrance to the premises above is
gained by a narrow stairway from Main
street. There are two Railways running
east and west and one that connects these
and runs north and south. The rooms are
small and about forty in number. They
are divided by thin frame partitions, cloth
lined, on which the paper is laid. Between
and west are eighteen small rooms, hardly
larger thar good sized closets. These
rooms, if such they can be called, have
neither window nor skylight. Whena man
locks himself in one OF them he is in a dark
cell without air or the means of obtaining
it, except what may enter through the
chinks in the floor.
The rooms are in course of being fur
nished, and it is evident that the second
floor is to be used as a lodging house. As
a preliminary, most of the carpets have
been laid. AS though the fragile construc-
ton OF the building itself were not enough,
bales of straw were standing in the stair
way, intended, apparently, to lay the car
pets upon. The Railways and several Of
the rooms have already been SO laid, and,
when finished, there will be, all over the
second floor, O layer OF about three inches
of straw under the carpets.
Nothing more ~inaammable can be i'm
agined than til whole interior OF this in
tended lodging house, which is aggravated
by the existence OF a livery stable under
meath. Everyone knows that a livery
stable is regarded as one of the most dam
gerous risks that fire insurance. companies
will take, from the quantity of straw, hay
and other infianmahle substances necessa-
rily used in their business. This in
creases the already dangerous nature
of the construction Of the second
floor of this h-.;idins, especially where
the place is supposed to be used as a odging
house for human beings as this is. 1t
would be dangerous enough as a lodging
house if every room had a window facing
a porch from which the street could be
reached in safety. But instead of this,
there is only a narrow stairway, not three
feet wide, which itself is not a straight and
direct descent to the street. To reach this
from the north side OF the house narrow
passages with several turns nave to be
traversed.
II a fire were to occur in the livery stable
below, the occupants of the central tier Of
TOOLuS, WlUuOuO WluuO" Ut Sky iISQU, "OuIU
have only one chance 10 a hundred of es.
Gaping with their lives. They would more
than likely be smothe-ed to death without
awaking at all. A fire would 90 through
such a place like a whirlwind. The narrow
crossing Railways would serve as excellent
drafts for it to reach every part of the
house as soon as it broke out and the I'M
fortunate inmates would be lucky could
then reach a window and jump out, with the
risk OF fracturing a limb. Such a death
trap for human beings as the central tier
OF boxes or closets could not be improved
upon if the object of erecting lodging houses
were to make them as dangerous as posi-
BILE instead OF as safe as possible.
The charter makes it the duty OF the
chief OF the fire department., under the d.
rection of the City Council, to inspect all
buildings, etc., and, if dangerous, to re-
quire the same to be put in a safe condition.
The responsibility for the existence OF this
trap rests upon the fire committee as
that part OF the City Council to whom the
chief of the fire department is responsible,
whose chairman, if he were as industrious
in attending to his proper duties as he
would fain impress the public, ought to
have seen to it that such a building was
to the Council long ago as unfit
for the purpose for which it has been
rected.