Huntsville gazette., 1893-07-15
l SETTLING FURNACE.
A Scene Of Unprecedented Horror
at the Worlds Fair.
Over Score of Lives Ii st and Many Men
Injured by the Burning of the Cold
Storage Building Within
the Grounds.
Brave Ffremen, Caught In a Trap Far
Above the Reach of Assistance,
Compelled to Plunge to Death
Through Seas of Flame.

CHICAGO, July 10.-Death has never
done such swift and CHASTITY work at a
flre IN this city since the dark days of
October, 1871, as that which turned
the Worlds fair grounds into scene of
mourning this afternoon. The horror
of the spectacle will forever remain as
hideous nightmare in the minds of
| many men and women who gazed upon
it. 1t was intensified by the dizzy
height from which the victims were
seen to fall into a vast furnace of blaz-
| ing timber and other inflammable ma
terial. Deeds of heroism were done by
| the tremen who perished and those
who live to grieve over their lost COM
rades. The Colum bian guards were
not lacking in bravery and devotion to
| duty in the hour of danger and even in
| the face of death.
| There is mourning within the White
| City tonight, for the blackened rem
| nants of humanity full of life but yes
terday are lying beneath the water
soaked wreck or stretched out in the
morgue outside the gates The loss Of
property will probably amount to $780,
900, but no one except those who have
suffered financially is thinking of the
money loss.
| The sun was shining it's brightest
from blue sky at 1870 o'clock this af-
ternoon, and the plea easure-seeking peo-
| pie passed under the shadow of the
| cold storage warehouse. Suddenly a
,f ho Ia
book publisher, saw tongue of flame
escaping from the cupola, or observa-
tory, which is the topmost section of
| the warehouse. From the ground to
| that first fame there were $50 feet of
! space. The boy gave the alarm, and
in a few minutes the heroes of the fire
| stations at the Casino and the Terminal
| depot came dashing along with hose
cart, engine and hook and ladder,
many alas that never returned alive
The altitude of the blazing tower
| and its isolation from the roof made
the work of the firemen hazardous and
| slow from the start. Before the men
| got to work several painters, electric
light men and others employed in the
| building ascended by the elevators to
| the main roof and afterward climbed
| up the spiral staircase which was built
around the great death trap of a
smokestack until they reached the bal
cony underneath the burning cupola.
They found the fire had gone too far
to be smothered by the chemicals at
hand. They waited for the firemen to
join them, thinking they could be of
help.
Capt. Hardness of the guards or
dered Sergt. Douglass to take eight
men up to the blazing tower and aid
the firemen. The sergeant gave his
superior officer one look, such one as
the officers Of the light brigade at Bala
klava may have given the commanding
general when he gave the order to
charge in the midst of roaring Russian
cannon. But the sergeant went, and
eight guards followed to do their duty.
By strange chance all are alive to-
night and mourn the loss of brave COM
rades.
Not so with the fremen. They went
out on the roof and hauled up the hose
with ropes to the first story of the
tower on the south side Of the ware
house. Others rushed up the spiral
stairway to the landing next the blaz-
ing top and lowered ropes on three
sides to the men below to attach the
hose. Until this time the fire resem-
bled the flaming mouth of small
blast furnace, and at distance there
seemed to be no danger. The expert
enced eye OF Chief Murphy, in COM
mand Of the Worlds fair fire depart
ment, failed to suspect any danger to
his men when he ordered them to go
to the tower below the blaze. But, he
sent nearly all of them to death, the
horror and agony of which no human
tongue or pen can describe. Those
few moments of realization that the
flames surrounded them above and be-
low followed by their last act in life
must have been as an eternity of hell
to every one.
A sixteen-foot ladder was placed
from the first section of the tower
to the landing where the men were,
but no one thought of placing big
ladder from the main roof to the tower
so as to connect with the small one at
the main roof. The men were at work
on the east and south sides. All this
time the flames were burning through
the larger section of the tower. The
first intima ton of danger came to the
victims when the smoke appeared un-
der them, and as the wind blew it into
their faces they retreated around the
landing to the nerth side of the tower
with the exception of one man,
painter. who slid down the hose, which
had been brought up to the south side
of the tower. 1t may be that more
would have taken this apparently sure
means of escape had it not been for the
smoke which enveloped therf- 1t
seemed as if the victims changed posi-
ton because they feared the flames
would soon follow the smoke which
they saw.
Death quickly came to put an END 70