The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1892-02-09
FIERCE AND FATAL.
Flames Destroy the Hotel Royal, at
New York, and Many Persons
Perish.
Nine Bodies Taken from the Ruins and
Four Others Are i'm Sight-Many
Missing.
The Whole Structure In Flames Fif.
teen Minutes After the Fire Was
Discovered.

NEW 1OtAh e cD. y. IA ulSthSbcI pssA ga
leling in horror and probably exceeding
in loss of life the terrible occurrence in
Park Place, the remembrance of which
is fresh in the public mind. occurred in
this city early Sunday. The Hotel
Royal at Fourtieth street and Sixth
avenue was burned to the ground and
large number of people were burned
to death, many suffocated by smoke
and others crushed to death in the
ruins. Il is known that there were 1875
guests at the time the fire broke ont.
There was also some fifty-five employees
OF the house. OF these SIX have been
found dead, six are in the hospitals and
dxty-three have been reported alive,
sither by themselves or friends.
1t was a few minutes after 3 q. m.
when the flames were first discovered.
They Never Had Better Fuel.
Tho building was composed of several
old structures, all amalgamated into
the Hotel Royal years ago. So far as
can be learned the flames kindled in the
shaft Of the elevator of the basement at
about the middle of the building. A
janitor was at work in the basement at
the time and was suddenly frightened
by the flashing of flames. He rushed
to the street and notified the policeman
on the Sixth avenue corner who sent in
an alarm while the janitor rushed back
into the building to arouse the sleeping
guests.
In fifteen minutes the whole of the
six story structure was ablaze. Flames
shot out at every window in the front
of the house and people in the street
could see persons rushing frantically to
and fro on every floor of the burning
building. One, two, thres alarms Were
sent out in rapid succession, and the
streets and avenues were soon filed with
fire engines and trucks. Other alarms
brought ambulances from every hospi-
tai in the city. People leaped out of
the windows to the sidewalks and were
gathered up unconscious, burned,
manned and mangled, by the fireman
and carried to places of safety. The
most heoric Efforts of the fireman were
impotent against the devouring element
and the whole middle portion of the city
was brilliantly
IDumin ated by the Trem endous Fire.
The windows were filled with the peo-
pie in their night clothing, making pit
eous and heartrending appeals to the
people below for help while behind them
was great sea Of flames. Indeed,
these unfortunate beings seemed to be
actually in the fire.
The fire had spent it's fury at 5:15, for
there was practically nothing combusti-
BILE left in the shell. Then the scene
surveyed by the firemen, police and the
crowd of citizens was one of complete
and sorrowful wreck. Ambulances
had carried away the injured and those
who had escaped unhurt had gone to
the hotels or to the homes of friends.
All that remained was a smoking,
blackened mound of debris, that rose to
a height of twenty-five feet. And un-
der the debris what would the men, set
to work Immediately to clear away the
wreck,
What Would They Find There9
This question stayed with the crowd
and all day long there had been
throng of people in Bryant Park opposite
the ruins and around all the approaches
to the demolished hotel, watching while
one hundred able Eremen labored in the
smoking heap, anxious, yet fearful of
what each upturned heap might bring
forth. 1t was at ii o'clock that the
first body was found. 1t was
horrible sight to behold, burned, black
ened and bruised. 1t was hurried away
to the morgue, where after much diff
Guilty it was Unidentified as the body of
Harry G. Levy, a member of the firm
of Strauss 81 Freeman, TOT Broadway.
five others were found during the day,
none Of whom have yet been identified.