The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1893-07-22
OVER A SCORE OF HUMAN
LIVES Are LOST
BIG BUILDING ON FIRE.
MEN CAUGHT LIKE RATS IN A
TRAP.
fifty Thousand People Crowd About to
Witness the Horrible sight-No Help
for the Doomed Men-Acts of Heroic
bravery.


lent as q result of which ct least
twenty men are dead and twice as
many more fearfully injured. The
immense cold stor. &c bu lding near
the administration building caught
Ere and proved a yer table death trap.
ON = funeral pyre nearly 200 feet
above the earth a score of men fought
Tor life. They had climbed up to a
rallied ledge and were get ing ready to
throw water on the fire which danced
about the cap of the dome over their
heads The tower to which they chung
was a fiimsy uplift of woold built
around a smokestack and covered with
deceptive shell of staff.
as they watched the smudge of blaze
over their heads the treacherous fire
crept underneath them. Then $4,000
people, watching that slender steeple
outlined against the clear sky, saw
! puffs of smoke away beneath the shelf
on which the fremen stood. More
than puffs of smolte-leaping arms of
flame. A mutfied report was heard as
the hungry fire caught tie frame work
| of kindling. Between these men and
the broad roof of the building was a
girdle of growing blaze which rushed
out of the popping windows like jets
| from giant burner
They were shut off.
! Then came sights which burn into
the memory-as frightful a spectacle
as ever mortal eyes witnessed. Through
the veil of smoke the desperate men
| were seen to scamper back and forth
on their prison ledge as if they were
so many rats in burning cage.
One came sliding down through the
furnace n S1u Lima nf hose
| Then dark bodies were seen whirling
| through the air. The arms were out
stretched and the garments were blaz-
ing. A rope dangled down from the
high ledge. Men with flames bit 'ng
their very faces fought to reach the
rope. Some had fallen over to the
roof, eighty feet below. One had
leaped away out, his body lur n ;ng
| forward as he shot downward. A man
| was seen to start downward on the
rope through the boiling red mass.
The rope snapped. His b dy turned
over and over as it fell From thou
sands of watching sufferers went mp a
groan, thousands of groans joined into
)ne, and then there came shrieks as
women tainted. For the building
which had started to burn stood at the
south OF the grounds. just west from
The central court OF honor, and the
multitude saw it all, i hey saw the
| Bremen leap out through the c.rcling
| Games to sure death below. They
! saw the high tower, wrapped in
| fiameg, tremble and fall, with doomed
men still clinging to that crumbling
ledge under the dome. ! hey saw the
bodies tumble into the great vat of
| Game.
The whole building seemed to catch
fire at once
Men came tumbling over the ledge
of the roof. Smoking bodies of dead
men and dying men were broup hit
down on lender ladders, and the hys.
terical thousands pounding against
the guard lines, cheered in frenzy
There were acts of heroism OF which
the world may never know. Ambu-
lances came. Bolies, the smell of
which made the nostrils sick, were
hurried away. All the stretchers were
smeared with blood. The firemen,
mad ened by the fate of their com
radcs, fought in a reckless spirit OF
revenge. Soldiers and guards of q
half dozen nations held back the in
sane crowds. AS the hospital fiji ed up
the building burned. II may never be
known how many victims lay in its
fiery depths.
When the fire had its quiet bagin-
ming the grounds seemed lying under
the calm of an off day. The rafting
and ringing of the engines drew the
fist clusters out at the end of the
trar sportation building and al ross the
broad court to the south. Then the
buildings began to empty themselves
TIE court of honor suddenly thi:kened
- Il 81 4. II
roa dway became, filed all at once. Tn
expected streams of people poured
around each corner: Many of the peo-
pie remained at distance, wat hing
with Indifferent interest In fat,
most of those who had been wander
ing about the grounds enjoying the
afternoon sunlight and breezes paid
but little attention Eat first to the Jet
of flame which danced over
the head of the storage tower.
Fire alarms are infrequent on the
Fair grounds; and this fire seemed
then too high and remote and small
TO be threatening. 1t looked like the
flame that comes from the chimney of
rolling-mill. The crowd did not be-
gin to C ect until the fremen could
be seen running about on the fiat roof
of the tower and clam boring up lad
der placed against the upper cupola.
The ladders did not reach more than a
third Of the way toward the top of the
cupola and there was a moments evil
dent hesitation in the tactics. A long
hose was being pulled up with rop
on the south of the tower. Some of
the men were working at this and
others were trying to mount nearer
the flames, which by this time had be-
gun to descend.
At this time the situation did not
look particularly dangerous. The
flames we're still above the men, who,
it seemed, would have ample time to
rcurry down IL the fire reache their
station. In the reAt fifteen seconds
the men los: every hope ofgetting to
the gre unG alive. sharp mil of
smoke, fol, wed by thick, rolling
fumes. came from the windows be-
meath them. The tower crackl d into
dame like huge box OF matches ig.
nited at once. The men on top caught
a m "a , rn,.1 tran ran xpi1 llu orAnnI