The Irish standard., 1893-07-15
BIZ A n +, 3, N p ERISH.
Awful Results ola Fire on the
y S Worlds Fair Grounds

A. TALE OF HORROR.

I'll S. Z 4
CHICAGO, July II. The worlds. fair
received a baptism Of fire and blood
Monday afternoon, the Cold-Storage
building proving funeral pyre for
thirteen firemen and four Columbian
guards. twenty-four persons receiving
serious injuries. R. A. Drummond,
Boilermaker Bernard Murphy and
Henry Ceduldid are missing and are
supposed to have been burned to death.
The fire broke out IN the tall Chin
ney, the defective condition Of which
caused the insurance men to can
Gel the risks on the building one month
ago. While trying TO fight a blaze 80
1eet above them the fremen were
wrapped in flames that burst out with
out warning 20 feet below. Every man
jumped: some into pit of fire, others
onto the roof, from which, manned and
bruised, they were taken to the hos
pitfalls.
THE DEAD.
The following We're killed:
William Denning truck company No. g.
Philip e. Breen, truck company No. 8; Capt
James Garvey, engine company No. I; John H
Freeman lieutenant engine company No. /;
James Fitzpatrick, 81 years old, captain engine
company No. 2, compound fracture OF arm,
crushed shoulder, burns and internal injuries
died at Emergency hospital at o'clock:
John Mcbride 5727 Sherman street, compound
fracture OF the right leg and burns on
frrns, head and body, died at the Emergency
hospital at s O'clock, John Cahill, truck COM
pany No. g. Burton i. Page captain truck
company No g. Lieut.. Moulter, truck company
No. IS, died in the Emergency hospital; Charles
Purvis, lieutenant OF engine company NO 4;
John A. Smith, driver engine company No. 2:
Columbian Guard Pohr and three other guards
names not yet determined.
FLAMES FIRST SEEN.
Just exactly how the fire started will
probably never be known, but the
flames first appeared on the top
of the wooden cupolis which sur
mounted the smokestack. The stack,
1911 feet high, was built of steel or iron
pipe incased in wood. It was just a
trifling blaze at first, but the little
tongues of flame, famed by a stiff
breeze from the northeast, circled
around and around, gradually eating
their way downward until the
wooden pillars were on fire. BY
this time the fremen had reached
the main ROOF Of the build
ing, and under orders from Act
ing Chief Murphy commenced to climb
to the first platform, 10 feet from the
roof. They assembled by means of wood
en- cleats nailed to the side of the
tower, taking no ladders with them and
but three or four coils of rope.
AN EMBRACE OF DEATH.
All this time the flames were slowly
consuming the crown of the tower, and
pieces of blazing wood dropping down
inside and between the stack and it's
covering of pine started the flames
which soon wrapped the men in an en-
brace of death. Ten minutes had
elapsed before even a thought
of danger struck the firemen,
but little puff of white
smoke that came from near their feet
told them that they were standing
on dangerous ground. The men on the
roof began to feel heat that did not
come from above, and simultaneously
with their shouts of warning came a
cry of horror from the crowd. The
eyes of $4,000 people caught sight
of a tongue of flame breaking
out just below the platform on
which the fremen were standing,
still pulling up the hose. Instantane-
ously from between every pillar and
seemingly from ont the very walls