St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-16
IN A SHROUD OF FIRE.
Twenty-Five Persons Perish
by the Burning Of a
Hotel.
Many Others Seriously Burned
or Injured by the Falling
Walls.
Unconscious Of Their Impend-
ing Fate Until Too Late
to Escape.
Horrible Death OF an Alright
ed Guest Struggling for
Life.

SYRACUSE, N. Y, Oct. 16.-What
proved to be the most disastrous fire
that has visited Syracuse for many
years was discovered in the
Leland hotel at 1880 o'clock
this morning. 1t is now 2
o'clock and the fire is still
burning fiercely although the entire fire
department, consisting of nine engines,
are working hard to save.further loss of
life and limb. An eye witness of
the fire says he is positive that
at least twenty-five persons have
lost their lives and many
more have been more Or less injured.
One woman was being lowered from
window by the aid of rope. She had
reached point opposite the third
story, when the rope became ignited
from burning sill; the rope parted
and the woman fell to the pavement
her brains dashed out and her body
fiattened into shapeless mass. So
great is the confusion and excitement
that the identity of those killed
and injured is wholly unknown.
UndertakerS and ambulances are flying
in all directions, and the streets in
the neighborhood of the Inflated hotel
are thronged with excited crowds of
people. Frank Carey, of Glen's Falls.
n. Y, has been identified as one of
those that
Were Burned to Death.
Many people crazed with fright lost
their lives by Jumping from windows.
One man says he saw six people jump
from different windows on the Fayette
street side of the building within
the course of four minutes, and the
sight sickened him with its horror
and lie was compelled to leave the spot.
The building was provided with both
iron fire escapes on the outside and
ropes on the inside. which were
the means of saving many
lives. Burnet Forbes, stock
broker of this city, escaped
into the street almost entirely naked.
He was slightly injured about the
hands. One woman was found with
nursing babe in her arms crouched in
stairway, where she had been over
come by smoke. She was removed by the
iremen, but has not yet regained con-
sciousnesS, and it is impossible to say
what her name or experience was. The
fire is said to have started in the
kitchen. The building will be
total loss 1t was built two years
ago at a cost of S150,0C0. 1t is six
stories high and contained 400 rooms.
1t is impossible to learn how many
guests were in the hotel at the time the
fire broke out. The total loss will
not fall short of half a million of
dollars and the buildings partially COW
cred by insurance, but it is impossible
to learn how much insurance was car
ried on the hotel furniture or what the
private and individual losses will be.
Among those injured is
Cora Tanner, the Actress,
who was severely burned about the
head and feet. She was playing an en-
gagement at the Grand opera house and
had room in the hotel. Every physi-
clan in Syracuse is on the
ground. Most of those killed were
on the fourth and fifth floors.
At 8 a. NJ. the hotel is still burning.
Vague rumors are afloat that the list of
killed will number fifty persons. but
this fact cannot be substantiated. and
it is believed the number will be
less than twenty-five, the first
estimate. Guard lines stretched across
the streets are inadequate to keep back
the surging crowds of people that are
packed in the streets leading to
the hotel, and the police are sta
toned all around the building. The
scenes and incidents connected with
the rescue of inmates are heartrending
in the extreme. The cries of women
standing in upper windows and of
the excited crowd below were deafen-
ing; and added to this the constant
roar of many FIRE engines, created a
babel of confusion and panicky excite
ment in and around the hotel. News
paper representatives are endeavoring
with all the energy at their command
to obtain substantiated lists of those
who have lost their lives, but have met
with little success. At 1:12 a. m. man
and woman were seen locked in each
others arms in window on the fifth
floor at the northeast corner of the
building. Below them was
Perfect Sea of Flame.
No possibility of escape except by the
window was open to them, and that
seemed inevitable death. No assistance
could reach them. The woman seemed
to be anxious to jump. but her husband
was earnestly entreating her to de-
sist. The crowd below waited
with bated breath. The woman made
one last effort to jump, was restrained
by her husband,an the cry of the crowd
slgnaIled the awful end that must have
befallen them as they tell backward into
the room into mass of flames. At win
dow on the fourth floor, almost directly
under this. woman appeared at the
window. She was surrounded on all
sides from the interior of the room by