St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-02-06
A WEEK OF FIRES.
The Tracy Horror at Washington.

The Tracy Horror at Washington.
Secretary Tracy's house at Wash
ington was burned Monday and
his wife and daughter, Mary, and a
French maid named Josephine lost
their lives. The secretary himself,
his married daughter, Mrs Wilmerd
row escapes and were quite seriously
injured. The fire was discovered at
a. m. and had evidently been burn
ing all night. Mrs. Tracy endeavor-
ed to escape the raging element by
dropping herself from her bedroom
window, and in her effort to decrease
the distance to the ground she grasp
ed the narrow window sill and low
cred herself as far as she was able.
She fell forty feet into an area Iway
before anything could be done to-
wards reScuing her or receiving her
fall. She was immediately taken to
the house of neighbor. The i'm
mediate cause of her death was sup
posed to be from injuries to her
heart, sustained in her fall from the
window, which flooded her lungs
with blood.
Secretary Tracy was taken out I'M
conscious from the room from which
Mrs. Tracy had fallen. The doctors
applied artificial means to induce
respiration and succeeded after an
hours work in restoring him to semi
consciousness. He improved slowly
and is gradually gaining strength.
Among the first who called to inquire
in regard to his condition were the
president, vice-president and several
members of the cabinet. President
Harrison was the first to inform him
of the death of his wife and daugh-
ter.
Miss Mary Tracy was seen at a
window once and q little later her
body was found lying on the floor iii
the second floor hall 1T the head of the
stairs. The body was not greatly
disfgured by the fire. She had evil
IDENTIFY died of suffocation. The body
Ofthe French maid was found burned
beyond recognition in her room on
the top floor of the house. Mrs.
WilmerCling and her daughter, Alice,
occupied the third-story front room
on the same floor with Secretary and
Mrs Tracy. Both she and her
daughter jumped from the window
to the grass terrace below and, while
the shock to both was severe, neither
received any serious injury. Mrs.
Wilmerding had her right arm badly
sprained.
Twelve Burned to Death.
Twelve people lost their lives by
the burning of an Italian tenement
house on North street, Boston, just
after midnight Sunday morning.
Fifty-two people were crowded into
13 rooms, in the three and a half
story brick tenement, and they
awoke to find all escape cut off by
the flames. The firemen worked
hard to save lives, but after the fire
found the remains of seven people in
one room. The ages of the dead
range from five to fifty-one years and
includes members of seven families
Ten were burned to death and two
died at the hospital. 1t is claimed
no lives would have been lost if the
locality had been sufficiently supplied
with facilities for eXtinguishing fires
and it is understood that prominent
citizens interested in that section will
make an appeal for better protection.
AS to the cause of the fire the most
probable theory is that it resulted
from a kerosene lamp thrown in a
! drunken row. This is the greatest
fatality in Boston since 1914, when
nine persons were burned to death in
| a fire on the same street
Big Block Burned in Boston.
The Sears building, corner of Court
and Washington streets, Boston,
was completely Quilted by fire Sun
day morning The fire probably
originated in the basement of the
boiler room and spread to the upper
stories through the elevator shaft.
| The tenants were banks, railroad of
fees and lawyers. Important paper
and documents of all kinds were keeps
in the building, which will probably
| be found secure in safes and vaults
| A few rooms were untouched bv the
flames, but the contents of the rest
were destroyed, including valuable
law libraries. The building was
valued at 100000 and insured for
SITS, 600 Mr. Sears will tear down
the old walls and build a history