St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-04

| slow burning building, in fact do not con-
| slder any a slow burning which has wooden
| stairway and floor. There are number OF
| other buildings constructed similarly, with
| stairwayS of stone and iron. with the ele-
vatOrs of iron. The Lumber Exchange is one
| of these. do not consider il fire. proof. lt
may be considered slow burning. A building
! with wooden stairway cannot be consid-
| cred slow-burning.
| VERY SENSATIONAL.
! Frank Hoover, one of the printers who was
| fire. testified as follows: 1.-THE frame where
| l worked was at the extreme end of the
room at the First avenue south side. have
| an unobStructed view Of the door. l saw
| large crowd of men run 10 the door and
some one said the building was on hre. L
| saw q number OF the men return to the
room. Very soon after this / heard The fore
man say TO the chairman of the chapel. cali
| time, Jerry, and have the boys get out
Shortly after that he called time, according
10 the rules of the chapel. when The chair
man calls time everybody must ce Use work.
Then l saw some smoke outside the
door al the other end of the room. When
| looked again a large mass of smoke and
flame came with a rush. | collected my FER
sonal effects together, put my head out of
the window and hallOed for a LADDER. There
was no possible chance of escape except
through the windows at the end of the room
and at the side OF the room. We made no ef-
fort to escape any other way for we knew il
was useless. HAD there been fire escape, or
an apology for a fire escape, we would have
had an abundance of time to get out. l
heard the fireman call to go over on Fourth
street, that there was a ladder there. / drew
away from the crowd at the window and
rushed through the fire and smoke TO the
Fourth street side. When l reached the
window one of our boys was tying a
ladder to one of the frames. l faced
around and called to the men | had left to
come over where was. as there was ladder
there. took hold of the rope, got out on
Ia 81, 4
have worked on the seventh floor ever
since the paper has been in the building.
There was one of the patent folding escapes
put in the corner of the room near the stereo-
type room some TWO years ago, but il was not
fastened to anything. 1t hasn't been there
for over year. / think 1t was put there
after our committee had waited on Mr.. Net
Teton / belong to the printers union and
knights of Labor, and have been member
for about twelve years: We have an organi-
cation in the Office called the chapel. We
had chapel meeting two and half years
ago, and committee was sent to
see Mr.. Nettleton. the building in
spector, chief of the fire department and
city attorney about more fire escapes. The
committee reported that they could not Sc
cure the escapes. Then q resolution was Of
fered by a. 5. Capehart that IN case of fire,
and any of our boys were lost we pleged
ourselves one to another that we would have
a life for every life lost by such a fire. We
appealed to the union and then to the trades
assembly. They all appealed to Mr.. Nettle-
ton. but were unatle to get any escapes
erected. If there hid been fire escape on
the First avenue e! d of the building had
plenty of time TO get out. A fire escape which
could only be reached from the windows in
the water closets would have been of no use
to US.
HOW THE FLAMES SPREAD.
Horace B. Hudson. City Editor of the Trbi-
une-I was in my Office on the seventh floor
of the building when 1 heard a noise in the
hall I o,,6 TF1r,t 1In Of
the disturbance. Some one said there was
fire down stairs ! looked over the railing of
the stairway. I could see nothing, but could
smell smoke. ] went down to make all in
vestigation about one minute after ] first
heard the alarm. On the third floor found
the fire in the League rooms. at that time
the fire was confined to pile of papers on
the floor near the window. the fire not cover
ing q space of over three feet in dlamater.
There were number OF men and boys
there, but Mr.. ManniX was leading the
crowd. The door of the room was
open when got there. Hand grenades were
thrown III, but apparently had no erect on
the fire. | remained there about q minute
and half. II was a conn aratively trifling
blaze. just before we left l heard the glass
in the window crack. As soon as that glass
broke the flames filled the whole Office. Mr..
ManniX was in he room at the time. He
jumped out and tried to close the door, but
the flames had made SO much Roadway that
they broke all the glass which separated the
hallway from the office and moment later
were rushing up the stairway. | have seen
water pals on the seventh floor, but they
were empty. There was nothing to carry
water in on the floor in which the fire oc-
Cured The opening of the door was not
what caused the spread of the fire; ii
was the breaking of the window. When l
went down the stairs | met firemen
with hose on the steps l directed them to
the third floor. but they went ont into the
street without going UP to where the fire
I ctr AnOrC
to allow the firemen to get in but when got
into the street the flames were coming out
the roof. 1t was only about three-q quarters of
a minute from the time the fire burst out of
the room. There was no water thrown on
the ire for at least ten or fifteen minutes.
COMPLIED WITH THE LAW.
Gen. A. d. Nettleton stated that he wished
to correct part Of the testimony he had
given the day previous. He said that in look
ing over his books and papers he found that
in reference to his conference with the COM
mittee of the trades assembly he would have
to go back farther than two years. The iron
folding ladder he had referred to was in
place Oct. +, 1885, and he offered the fol-
lowing letter of that date to Chief Engineer
Stetson in evidence:
MINNEAFoLrs, Oct. 6. 1ss5.-Dear Sir: Dur
ing the absence of the writer from the city
several communications from you came ad-
dressed to me personally, calling my atten-
ton TO certain provisions of the laws of Min
nesota respecting fire escapes. etc, on build
building is owned by corporation named
the Tribune Building company. hence no.
tees to me personally are not notices to the
owner OF the building. But aside from this
permit me. to say that we have the written
opinion of competent counsel TO the effect
that the Tribune building is not manufact-
ory within the meaning of the statute The
oficere of the Tribune building fully believe
they have complied with the law.
and that 1t is practically impossible
for human life tC be seriously jeop-
ardized by fire in the Tribune building. The
elevator shaft is composed of fireclay. tile,
plaster and iron, hence it cannot act as an
avenue for the communication of fire. You
are also aware that the building is fire.
proofed throughout in the most thorough
manner, all partitions and ceilings being of
Solid fiTeclay tile, all floors double and
grouted with two inches of mortar, the roof
metal above and tile below, with no attic.
We have substantial iron standpipe ladder
fre:escape extending from the roof to the
first story on west end, double iron folding
ladders permanently fastened and ready for
use, on seventh and fifth floors near north
east corner of building, Babcock eXtln-
guisher on each upper floor, abundant glass
extiuguishing gTenades on every floor and
in elevator, and constantly filed galvanized
iron water buckets on every floor in plain
sight and easy and instant reach. Besides
this, the building is occupied every hour of
the twenly-fOur, seven days Of each week, by
noless than forty or fifty able-bodied men,
various appliances. and a Waterman is on
duty all night Finally, if you are of the
opinion that the company has not complied
with the existing law. / suggest that the
question of fact be referred by you to the
law officer of the city for an opinion on the
law point Yours truly, A. B. NETTLEToN.
He also put in evidence the following tele-
gram from j. r. Clifford, the former super
intendent of the building. who left in June
last to accept a position at Hot Springs, Ark:
Folding ladder escape in composing room
on seventh floor and in Booths room on
fifth floor when left"
OTHER TESTIMONY.
J. NJ. Hart, Of 17l5 Sixth avenue north,
testified that he was member Of the plumb
ers' union. In the spring OF 1885, after
committee Of the printers union had COM
planned Of the lack Of means of escape in the
Tribune building, offered a resolution that
a committee of three be appointed to LOOK
after it. On that committee there was man
named Hughes and myself and John Swift
appointed to wait on Gen. Nettleton. did
not see Gen. Nettleton, but ] saw Chief Stet-
son with Mr. Swift. The chief said he could
6 q. rNrsl.V to