Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1892-02-18
victims of a Fire Trap.

Victims of a Fire Trap.
A fire began in the Hotel Royal, in
New York, at the northeast corner OF
Fortieth street and Sixth avenue, at
O'Clock the other morning, and caused
the loss of many lives. IL swept
through the building like lightning.
The guests had no warning of their dan
ger until awakened by the cracking of
the flames and by the suffocating smoke.
They rushed to the halls and were
driven back by the fire that even then
was buring through the walls and doors
of their rooms. They ran TO the win
dows. There was but one stationary
fire escape. Not all the rooms were
furnished with the rope escapes
that the law requires. Because of
almost criminal slOwness in sending out
the alarm there we're no firemen with
ladders to aid the frightened people when
they came to the windows. Numbers
leaped out. Five were killed instantly
outside the walls. Dozens were hurt
There were 165 OF IT'S persons ia the
hotel when the fire started. Not" all
their names are known, because thief
stole the register when the fire first
broke out. But even the register would
not tell the story, for many of the tran
sient guests at the hotel were of the kind
who register under aliases.
The list of dead is not complete, nor
will 1t be for some time. The walls fell
in, and the bodies of those burned are
under the debris 1t may be that the
dead will not number more than twenty.
They may number twice as many. The
list of missing autographed numbers
forty. a large proportion of these per-
Al. l.l Cafa
never be publicly accounted for. With
five corpses in the morgue, eighteen per-
sons recorded as injured, forty as miss
ing or inquired for, and flftytwo as
known to be safe, there are fifty persons
still of whom nothing has been heard of
one way or another, il there were 165
persons in the house. II is probable
that nearly all of these fifty escaped.
The flames seemed to break out of the
whole roof atonce and III ,ir glare lighted
the street like day. There were one or
two frantic persons at every window in
the house. They held out their hands
appealingly. They ltaned out and over
the sills, ,,clutching at the air. Here and
there was a cool q ne, prot ably dozen
in the lot. They knew enough to use
the rope fire-escapes that were In the
rooms and clambered cut and slid down
them. Here and there a man or woman
leap d upon window sill and stood q
moment and then sprang wildly off.
Two men dived head first from the third
floor on the fortieth street side. One fell
fat on the pavement and was plckt up
with every bone in his body apparently
broken. The other struck sidewise on
n,S -, hoGd 40 Ind and that was smashed and
crushed ShapeleSS. IMU I~-,.ol
from one window on the third floor on the
same side. They had stood a moment
clasped in each others arms. They
jumped still clasped together. They
fell apart, one dead, one unconscious on
the pavement. From the same window
leaped two men. One shrieked wildly
as he cut through the air. He did not
move after he fell, and he was dragged
away dead. His companion landed on
his feet and sank down and fell over.
He writhed about on the pavement just
a moment. Then he leaped to his feet
and dashed off across Fortieth street.
He was not seen again. Probably his
name or his alias is in the list of
missing.
The fate of those who fell could be
seen by those who clung to their places
in the windows, and made some of them
hesitate to follow. Some who leaped
escaped unhurt. Some of them turned
and shouted to the others to hold their
places and not to jump. The excited
crowd In the streets shouted Jump"
and Hold onl" in turn.
The ladders reached only to the third
floor at first. One that touched the
fourth floor was put up finally, and Dlen
and women were carried dOwn that.
But there was no help for the unfortun-
ates ON the fifth floor Little could be
seen of them from the street.
The smoke that came from the lower
floor seemed to rise to the top and hang
there like great cloud. Dec sionally
a gust of wind would clear it away for
a moment, and forms could be seen
hanging from the windows. The people
there screamed to the firemen, but their
cries were notheard. In the excitement
on the other floors every one seemed to
forget that there was floor not reached
by the ladders. Once, when the smoke
cleared away, a woman was seen to dive
headfOremost out of "a window on the top
floor. Her companion, a man seized her
skirts. They held a moment, and then
slipped from her. She fell on the
balcony. The man climbed out of the
window, hung from the sill, and then
dropped. A rope escape was hanging
from the window under him, and he man
aged TO seize that and checked the force
of his fall. He landed on the balcony
beside the womans body. Picking her
up, he climbed on the ladder and was
coming down with it. A policeman took
the body from him. He leaped then
himself from the ladder and dashed
across the street. He was w. l.. Har-
mon. He was nearly suffocated, but was
otherwise unhurt. This couple were the
last that got out of the building. There
were no more faces at the windows. In
deed, It was not possible that any one
could be in the building and be alive.
The whole house was mass of flames.
The building was a fire-trap, Chief
Bonner said. The lightning rapidity
with which the flames ate up the inte-
rior, and the readiness with which the
walls fell down go to prove the state
ment. The New York Building Bureau
was stricken dumb by the disaster.