The morning call., 1890-10-16
FROM SLEEP
TO DEATH.
Burning Of the Leland Hotel at
Syracuse.
TYenty-fYe People Supposed 10 Have Per-
iShed in The Flames.
Eppsililg Scenes Witnessed By the ThrOlgS
on the StFaetS-Men and Women
Sink TO Death.
Special to THE MORNING CALL

It tilt ilUSl OlSaSlIOuS uit lldL ildo NISltCu
Syracuse for many years was discovered in
t3Ie Leland Hotel at 70 80 o'clock this morn
ing. 1t is now O'clock ard the ire is still
burning fercely, although the entire Fire
Department consisting of nine engines, are
working hard to save further loss of life and
limb. An eyewitness is positive that at
least 25 persons lost their lives and many
more are injured.
One woman was being lowered from a
window by the aid of ropes. She had
reached a point opposite the third story
when The rope became ignited from burn-
ing sill. The rope parted and the woman
fell to the pavement Her brains were
da-hed out and her body lattened into a
shapeless mass.
So great is the confusion and excitement
: that the identity of those who are killed and
injured is wholly unknown. Undertakers
and amjuiances are flying in all directions,
and the streets in tile neighborhood of the
Inflated hotel are thronged with crowds of
people.
Frank Carey of Glen Falls, \. Y, has
be n identified as one of those who were
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 space Of four minutes, and the
si=ht sickened him with its horrors so he
was compelled to leave the spot. The
building was provided with both iron fire
escapes on the outside and ropes on the in
side, 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 babe
in her arms, croucbed in the stairway, where
she had been overcome by the smoke. She
was removed by the iremen, but has not
yet regained consciousness, and il is impossi-
BILE to say what her name or experience
was.
= The fire is said to have started in the
kitchen. The building will be a total loss.
1t was built two years ago at a cost of $780,
600. 1t was six stories high aud contained
4G) :oJms. 1t is impossible 70. learn how
many guests were in the hotel at the time
the fire broke out The total loss will not
fall Tar short of S500,0l0.
Among those injured is Cora Tanner. the
acreSs, who was severely burned about the
b ,ad aud feet. She has been playing an en-
-gagement at the Grand Opera House and
had room in the hotel. Every physician
in Syracuse IS on the ground. Most of those
killed were on the fourth and fifth floors.
AT o'clock the hotel is still burning.
Vague rumors are afioat that the list of
XII! will number fifty persons; but this
faci cannot be substantiated, and it is be-
Ievld the number will be less than twenty
FIVE the first estimate.
The guard lines stretched across the
streets are ina iequate to keep back the
surging crowds of people that are packed in
the streets Leading to the hotel, and police
are Stationed all around the building
The scenes and incidents connected with
the rescue OF the inmates are heart-rending
in the extreme. The cries of women stand
ing in the upper windows and of the ex-
cited crowd below were deafening, and
added 10 this the constant roar of many fire
engines created a Babel of confusion and
panicky excitement in and around the hotel.
The newspaper representatives are en-
deavoring with all the energy at their COM
mand to ohs,in sub7tantiated lists of those
who have D'if of their lives, but have met with
lite success.
a man and woman were seen locked in
.. IL 81,
floor at the northeast corner Of the building
Below them was perfect sea of flames. No
possibility Of escape, except by the window,
was open TO them, and that seemed to be inev-
table death. No assistance could reach them
and the woman seemed to be anxious to
jump, but her husband was earnestly en-
treating her to desist The crowd below
waited with bated breath. The woman
made one last effort TO jump, but was re-
strained by her husband, and the cry Of the
crowd signaled the awful end that must
have befallen them as they fell backward
into the room into mass of flames.
AT wind on the fourth floor. almost
directly under this, woman was sur
rounded on all sides from the interior of the
room by the fierce flames. She seemed iIreso-
Lutte as to whether to jump to the pavement
or face the fiery foe that was fast encroach-
ing on her liberties and life. She stepped
upon the sill Of the window and placed her
' hands above her head. The people in the
street 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
either by fear or feeling that
escape would come from some other
source She stepped down from the sill into
the room. but remained at the window 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 people on the
upper floors were obliged to use fire-escapes
CT jump for their lives.
One woman appeared at window in
room on the north side of the building with
baby in her arms. Her pitlful cries for
help were heard until 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 window. She threw out
rope, and as she was in the act of
climbing out of the window, flames envel-
oped her and she fell back into the building
and perished. Seven or eight men and chill
dren jumped from the upper stories on to a
shed 10 the re OF he hotel.