Los Angeles herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1890-1893, 1890-10-16
AN AWFUL HORROR.
Hotel Guests Imprisoned by
Flames.
Escape Cut Off by the Fire and
Smoke.
Many Leap From Dizzy Heights Into
the Yawning Chasm of Death.
The Hotel Leland, at Syracuse, N. T.,
the Scene of Appalling Disaster.
Many Lives Lost.
Associated Press Dispatches.

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
1890 O'Clock this morning. 1t is now 2
O'Clock and the fire is still burning
fiercely, although the entire fire depart
ment, consisting of nine engines, are
working hard to save further loss of life
and limb. An eyewitness is positive
that at least twenty-five persons have
lost their lives, and that many more are
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 were dashed out and her body
fattened into shapeless mass.
So great is the confusion and excite
ment that the identity of those killed
and injured is wholly unknown. Under
takers and ambulances are flying in all
directions. and the streets in the neigh
borhood of the ill-fated hotel are
thronged with crowds of people.
Frank Carey, of Glen Falls, N. ",
has been identified as one of those
burned to death. Many people, crazed
with fright, lost their lives by jumping
from the windows. One man says he
saw six people jump from different
windows on the Fayette street side of
the building, within the space of four
minutes, and the sight sickened him
with its horrors sos that he was COM
PEELED 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.
Barnet Forbes, stock broker of this
city, escaped into the street almost en-
tirely naked. He was slightly injured
about the hands. One woman was
found with a babe in her arms crouched
in a stairway, where she had been
overcome by smoke. She. was removed
by the firemen, but has mot yet regained
consciousness, 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 $150,000. 1t is six stories high
and contained 400 rooms. 1t is impossi-
BILE to learn how many guests were in
the hotel at the time the fire broke out.
The total loss will not fall far short of
half million dollars.
1:12 a. ma man and woman were
seen locked in each others arms in a
window OF the fifth floor at the north
east corner of the building. Below them
was perfect sea of flames. There was
no possibility of escape except by the
window, and that seemed inevitable
death. No assistance could reach them.
The woman seemed anxious to lump,
but her husband was earnestly entreat-
ing her to desist. The crowd below
Waited with bated breath. The woman
made one last effort to Jump and was
restrained by her husband. and the cry
of the crowd signalled the awful end
that must have befalen them, as they
fell back into the room into the mass of
flames.
=. At a window on the fourth floor. al
most directly under this, woman was
sHryounded on all sides from the interior
OF Che room by fierce flames. She
seemed irresolute as to whether to Jump
to the pavement or face the frey foe
that was fast encroaching on her liber-
ties and life. She stepped upon the sill
of the window and placed her hands
above her head. The people in the
streets shuddered and turned their faces
to shut out the horrible sight that must
meet their gaze, should the woman
Jump to the ground. She seemed to be
withheld by either fear or feeling that
escape would come from some other
source. She stepped down from the sill
into the room, but remained at the win
dow but an instant, when the whole
room became enveloped in flames, and
she sank back from view.
The frightful shrieks of the guests
and the crackle of the flames could be
heard for blocks away. The building
burned so rapidly that most of the peo-
pie in the upper floors were obliged to
use the fire escapes or jump for their
lives.
One woman appeared at window on
the north side Of the building with a
baby in her arms. Her pitiful cries for
help were heartrend1g as the flames
gathered around her. The firemen tried
in vain to raise ladder on this side OF
the building. The woman was told to
throw out rope or jump from the win
dow. She threw out rope, and as she
was cllmDlng OUT OF the window the
flames enveloped her and she fell back
into the building and perished.
Seven or eight men and children
< jumped from the upper stories on to a
shed in the rear of the hotel.
At one time seven persons were strug-
Cling together on the shed, which had
already caught fire from flying sparks.
The victims were half naked. Several
of them were seen to tear off their
undergarments that had caught fire.
One woman lay on the ground where
she had fallen, tearing her hair from her
head. Her hair had caught fire, and it
was with difficulty the flames were ex-
tnguished.
She, together with others who had
jumped from the rear windows, was
picked up and carried in stretcher to a
saloon in the neighborhood. In this
saloon several persons lay on pool tables
in all positions.
One of the women was Annie
Schwartz, q laundry girl, employed in
the hotel. She was rescued from the
rear of the fourth floor by colored man