Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1893-03-11
AN AWFUL HOLOCAUST
Large Number of Lives
Are Sacrificed.
BODIES ARE IN THE RUINS.
Particulars Of the Disastrous Fire
Which Visited the Hub.

yesterday afternoon by another great
confagration. At least five persons are
known to have lost their lives, a scor,
were seriously injured and about a, 900,
200 worth Of property destroyed.
! The fire started in the Ames building on
Lincoln street, crossed the thoroughfare,
worked it's way south to the rear of the
United States hotel, aud west to the
building occupied by Brown, Durrell &
Co. at the corner of Kingston and Essex
streets.
This In q list Of the dead: Leonidas
H. Redpath Of the Redpath Manufactur-
Ing company, SO Lincoln street; Fred
Meadowcraft, young man, who resided
in Cambridge. Three dead persons were
taken from the emergency hospital, but
these cannot be traced.
Many OF the injured will die.
Search among the ruins was actively be-
gun this morning, as 1t is certain that
many bodies are buried IN the debris
Owing to the excitement, however, 1t will
be difficult to obtain q list of those who
were employed In the doomed buildings.
1t 10 thought that the death list will
reach 90
The Ames building in which the fire
originated was occupied by a large mum.
ber OF firms, those occupying the largest
space being Horace Partridge & Co. and
the Woonsocket Rubber company. The
Lariat Manufacturing company was on
the floor Of Partridge & Co., and there
seems to be
A Difference of Opinion
In which Of those stores the fire started.
The stock In the building was very in.
hammable, and when the flames got the
least headway they swept with tremendous
fury throughout the entire building.
The employees had no time to think of
saving any of their apparel. With great
haste they made for the street. Some of
them were unable to reach the street, and
persisted in the flames. The number of
those who lost their lives Is impossible Of
computation. A great many of the EN-
ployes lived in the suburbs, and even those
who are now supposed to be missing might
have gone directly to their homes IL they
made their escape
Terrible scenes were witnessed by the
spectators who were early at the fire. The
frantic occupants of the buildings, who
were unable to make their escape by the
usual means
Jumped Into the Streets.
Some were killed In this way, and many
suffered severe injuries
II was impossible to confirm half the
stories that were told of the dead and in
5ured. Some saw women climb down the
telegraph poles. and others aver that they
saw one woman let herself down on the
wires, dropping from one line to another,
until she descended so far that she could
drop to the street with safety. On reach
ing the street she is said to have walked off
without stopping to make any talk about
her achievement.
The first alarm Of the fire went into the
house Of engine company ION East street,
about 300 yards from the building, by a
private signal. This was at 4:23 o'clock.
When rolled up to the hydrant at the
corner OF Lincoln and Essex streets there
were two columns of smoke pouring from
the building, one from the north side near
the end nearest to the Brown, Durrell a.
Co. structure, and the other on the east
side on the end toward the Boston and
Albany depot
II didn't take much over u minute for
the trained firemen to have a stream Of
water to direct, but the question was where
70 direct IL.
In the brief time necessary to attach the
suction pipe the lines Of smoke had become
tongues Of flame, and in place of two out
pourings
There Were . Dozen or More.
10 was hard to tell where the fire was
coming from. 1t appeared to be from the
basement, so the first line Of hose was
turned down there. The men on the pipe
went down into the cellar, to turn the
water In the direction IL would do the most
good. They met a current Of flame and
smoke which for the time almost overcame
them. There wasn't a hot air explosion,
as some of the eyewitnesses supposed, but
a current Of dense flames which forced
them from their positions.
When the company first got there the
paptives In that furnace had not had time
20 reach the windows; they came while the
men with that pipe were making the peril
pus descent to the first basement. The
fact that the hose wagons of the depart
ment carry lifesaving nets was godsend.
Terrible as the loss Of life will probably
prove to be. il can be counted to the credit
pr the long, wide strips Of canvas cloth,
handled by men who had been trained to
their use In the department drill school,
that the list of fatalities Is not at least %
per cent greater.
| The fire got to the point In the upper
stories where the people who had time TO
reach the windows must drop. IL didn't
make much difference where they dropped;
they couldn't stay where they were any
longer.
And the life saving nets, a. the strips of
canvas are termed, provided . place to
drop into, which would not prove so disas-
trous to limb and body as the slush covered
brick sidewalks would have done. So the
hremen held the nets, and the people
dropped and were saved. Il takes consid-
srsble space to tell about these things, but
the time consumed while they were hap
psning could
Best Re Reckoned by Seconds.
One by one the people jumped. They
got TO the windows as rapidly - they
could, but the flames moved faster than
they did, and IL happened that the fremen
looked mp In two or three minutes and saw
that no more Of the people were coming
down. The sudden descent had been
stopped.
In place Of the frightened faces, the win
dows were filed with the roaring Tongues
Of flame, and those who had not Jumped
nrst were forever locked In the embrace OF
thoss yellow waves Of fire that poured re
lsntleasly from the structure, some reach
inc SbaxyaS across the street. 10 the other