Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-03-20
CRUSHED IN THE hot DEBRIS
A Burning Building at Indianapolis
COllapses Without Warming.
The Heroic Firemen Buried Beneath
Its Fiery Walls.
The Scene of the Catastrophe Pitiful
in the Extreme.

INDIANAPoLI, March 17.-Whet at first
seemed an insignificant fire In the Bowen
Merrill book store building on Washing
ton street, this afternoon, resulted in a
catastrophe in which at least ten men
were killed and several wounded, some of
who will die. The fire started shortly be-
fore three o'clock near the furnace in the
endorsement and was a stubborn one.
About 80 there was terrible crash and
the entire building fell in. At the time
number of firemen. variously estimated
from 8 to 20, were on the roof of the build
ing, and were buried in the debris. which
was piled 40 feet high. Immediately the
work of rescuing the living and extricat-
ing the dead was begun by at least 500
volunteers, in addition to the uninjured
fremen and the police force. Up to
10 o'clock tonight the fol-
lowing had been taken out dead:
George Faulkner, Ulysus Glzer, AL Hoff-
mann, E. Stormer, Richard Loire, Charles
Jenkins, George Glenn, Andrew Cherry,
Thos. A. Black. John Burkhart. The
wounded taken out are: Anthony Voltz,
Lew Rafert, Thomas Barrett, A. c. Mercer,
Webb Robinson, VIM. Partee, Henry
Woodruff, Ebenezer Leech, VIM. Long.
VIM. Heinsley. Some of these, it is
thought, cannot live.
Workmen digging in mass of brick,
iron and mortar, are trying to extricate
man whose face, bloody and bruised, ap-
pears just above the debris. He is sup
posed to be Daniel Jones, pipeman. His
feet are caught by huge iron girder and
he is being literally piled with stimulants
to keep him alive. Underneath him is an
other man supposed to be dead. Scenes at
the fire headquarters have been only
exceeded in pathetic interest by those at
the homes of the dead fremen. Old men,
the fathers of young men who 'lost their
liyes, and the wives, mothers and children
of the dead and living crowded into the
room, seeking Information of their loved
ones, and getting none, rushed to the
scene of the fire. and by their frantic APP
peals made doubly arduous the work of
those endeavoring to get at
the men imprisoned beneath the ruins.
The first ambulance to leave the scene of the
fire carried the remains of the first four
men taken from beneath the fallen floors
They were followed by an impromptu pro-
cession of carriages, wagons and pedes-
TRANS and proceeded first to an under
taking establishment and then to the
homes of the deceased, where, in two in
stances, their coming gave the first intima-
ton of the sorrow that had fallen on the
home. The cause of the loss of life is as yet
not quite apparent. During the two
hours and half that the fire had been
burning there had been scarcely flame
visible t. the spectators in the streets and
alleys, the volume of smoke was so dense
as to utterly obstruct the vision. About
five o'clock The first entrance to the build
ing was made by the fremen who were
previously held back by the smoke,
when suddenly there came a crash and
the whole building except the Washington
street front, fell in. The fremen, were on
each of the three floors and roof, and were,
of course, carried down in the collapse
It would seem that the building was in
sufficiently tied to those on either side of
it, and the flames ate a hole in the center
letting the whole cave in. 1t is feared
that there may be other bodies in the de-
bris.
The Bowen-Merrill company carried
stock valued at S125 900 on which was an
insurance of $4,000. The building was
valued at 100000 H. P WATSON, dry
goods, suffers loss of $4,000. Several
smaller firms were badly damaged.