The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-03-22
DEATH TN THE RUINS
Fire in a Wholesale House
Brings Death to the Brave
Fighters of the Flames.
Ten Firemen Taken Out Dead
and Thirteen Receive
Serious Injuries.

lEDIANAPOlIs, SpeciaI.-What at first
seemed an insignificant FIRE in Bowen.
Merrill & Cos. book store to-day resulted
in a catastrophe in which at least ten men
were killed and a dozen wounded, some of
whom will die. The building occupied by
the book company was a four-story and base
ment, marble front building, facing Wash
ington street just west of Meridian. The
fire started shortlybefore 3 o'clock near the
furnace in the subbasement. The fire
department., when it arrived, seemed at
a loss to locate the fire, and began pouring
water into the building at the front when
the seat of the trouble was in the rear. For
two hours the fight had continued in this
way until a majority of the spectators had
left under the impression that the fire was
out. About $50, however, there was a ter
rible crash and the entire building, except
the front wall, fell inward. At the, time q
number OF firemen, va1iously estimated at
eight to twenty, were on the roof OF the
building, and were buried in the debris,
which was piled forty feet high within
the walls of the burned building.
Imm ately the work of rescuing the ,liv-
ing and extricating the dead was begun by
at least five hundred volunteers, who, in
addition to the uninjured firemen and men,
bers Of the police, formed a strong corps of
workers. At times their ears would be
greeted by the groans of the wounded UNI
derneath the ruins and then the work
would be pushed with renewed vigor. At
IL o'clock ten firemen were known to be
dead. Their names are:
George Faulkner. Ulysses Glazier, George
Glenn, al Huffman, Espy Stormer. Richard
Lowrie, Charles jenkins, andrew Cherry, super
intendent of fire alarm system; Thomas S. Burk-
hardt and Thomas A. Black.
ert, fireman; Thomas Barrett, fireman; A.C.
Mercer. captain fire department., Samuel w.
Neal, pipeman; Webb Robinson, pipeman,
nns9', de; " Henry Wood Rfps 'pipeman, badly
hurt; Ebenezer Leech, pipeman, cut and
bruised; Tom Talentyre, foreman Engine No. 2,
William Heinsley,- piipeman, badly hurt; John
Burkhart. pipeman, badly hurt about head.
PATHETIC SCENES. p
At that hour the workmen digging the
mass of brick, iron and mortar were trying
to extricate a maj whose face, bloody and
bruised, appears just above the debris. He
is supposed to be Daniel Jones, a pipeman.
His feet are caught by a huge iron girder,
and he is being literally piled with slim
ulants to keep him alive. Underneath him
is another man who is supposedt to be dead.
The scenes at the fire headquarters
tonight have been only exceeded in
pathetic interest by those at the homes
of the dead fremen. Old men, fathers of
the younger men who lost their lives; wives,
mothers and children of the dead and liy-
ing have crowded into the room, seeking
information of their loved ones and, get
ting none, have rushed to the scene of the
c.. .~l ~, k1,o;p fvo,,}so oroao1ot hoxyo ,,odo
doubly arduous the work of those endeav-
oring to get at those imprisoned beneath
the ruins. The first ambulances to leave
the scene of the fire carried the re-
mains of the first four men taken from
beneath the fallen floors. They were fol
lowed by an %impromptu procession of cal-
riages, wagons and pedestrians, and pro-
ceeded first to the undertaking establish
mnents, and then to the homes of the de-
ceased, where. in two instances, their COM
ing gave the first intimation 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 a half which the
fire was burning there had been -
SCARCELY A FLAME VISIBLE
to the spectators in the streets and alleys,
though the volume of smoke had been so
QcnSe as 10 uCtcIly OOStIuCI Tile plSlOH.
About S o'clock the first entrance to the
building. was made by the fremen, who
had previously been held back by the dense
smoke issuing from within. Then ladders
were raised from the front and rear
Of the building and the building lit
orally swarmed with firemen. The crowds
in the. street began. to disperse
and everybody considered the fire practi-s
cally extinguished when there was q sud-
den. crash and. the whole building except
the Washington street front fell in with a
crash, Firemen were on each of the three
floors and the roof and they were, of%course;
seem that the building had been INSULT
GENTLY, tied to those on either side of it
and that the flames ate q hole in the Gen.
ter letting the whole cave in. A
fund has already been started for the relic
of the injured firemen and the families o
those who are dead which has already
reached the total of $1,000. Mayor Sulli-
van has issued q proclamation calling for
subscriptions. The coroner has been in
~yestigating and will hold an inquest to-
Bowen. Merrill & Co. carried
q stock valued ct $125,00O, on which
there was an insurance Of $4,000.
The building was owned by Silas T. Bowen,
and the loss on that will be $50, O00. H. P.
WATSON, dry goods, suffered q loss of $1O,-
600 by smoke and water, and Byran & Sui.
livan, dry goods, half that amount. Several
smaller stocks are badly damaged. Bowen,
Merrill 81 Co.. ave secured q new location,
and will reopen for business IN q few days.
Col. Sam Merrill, Of the firm, is the newly
appointed consul general at Calcutta, and
was to have left for his post tomorrow.
ENGLISH LABOR TROUBLES.