The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1890-03-22
TEN FIREMEN KILLED.
Overwhelmed BY the Collapse Of an In
dianaPOlS Building.
The Whole Structure Falls I'm n Heap
on Unfortunate FIRE Fighters.

INDIANAPOLIS, March II. What al
first seemed al Insignificant fire In the
Bowen Merrill book store building, on
Washington street, this afternoon, re-
suited in catastrophe in which at least
ten men were killed and dozen wound
ed, some of whom will ole. The fire
started shortly before o'clock near the
furnace in the SUD- basement. and was q
stubborn one. About $50 there was
terrible crash, and the entire building,
except the front wall, fell inward. At
the time number of fremer, variously
estimated at eight to twenty, were on the
roof Of the building, and were buried in
the debris, which was piled forty feet
high.
Immediately the work of rescuing the
living and extricating the dead was be-
gun by at least 500 volunteers, In addi-
ton to uninjured firemen and the police
force. Up to 10 tonight ten dead were
taken out and ten wounded. Some of
the latter, it is thought, cannot live. The
Bowen. Morrill, Co. carried stock valued
ut $125, 900, on which there was an in
surance of $4,000. The building was
valued at $4,000. H. P. Wasson, dry
goods, suffered loss of $4,000. Several
smaller stocks were badly damaged.
Workmen digging in the mass of brick,
iron and mortar are trying to extricate q
man whose face, bloody and bruised, ap-
pears just above the debris. He is sup
posed to be Daniel Jones, a pipemau.
His feet are caught by huge iron girder
and be is being literally piled with slim
ulants to keep him alive. Underneath
him is another man, supposed to be dead.
The scenes at the fire headquarters
have been only exceeded in pathetic in
terest by those at the homes Of the dead
fremen. Old men, fathers of the young
men who lost their lives; wives, mothers
and Children of the dead and diving,
crowded into the room seeking informa-
ton Of their loved ones, aud getting
none, have rushed to the scene of the
fire and by their frantic appeals made
doubly arduous the work of those endeav-
oring to get at the men imprisoned be-
meath the ruin.
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 i'm
promptu procession of carriages, wagons
and pedestrians, and proceeded first to
an undertaking establishment and then to
the homes of the deceased, where in two
instances their coming gave the first In
timation of sorrow that had fallen on t he
homes.
The cause of the disaster Is as yet not
quite apparent. During the two hours
and half that the fire was burning there
had been scarcely flame visible to the
spectators in the streets, and the volume
of smoke was so dense a. to utterly OBJ
struct the vision.
About o'clock the first entrance to the
building was made by the fremeB, who
were previously held back by the smoke.
Suddenly came crash, aud the whole
building, except the Washington street
front, fell in. The fremen were on each
IF the three floors and the roof, and they
we're, of course, carried down in the col.
spse. 1t would seem that the building
was insufficiently tied to those on either
ude of 1t, and the flames ate hole In the
center, letting the whole cave.