Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-03-23
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE
Boston is Again the Scene of a
Most Destructive Confa-
grafton.
Many Lives Supposed to Have
Been LOst---The Loss Fully
S4,5cO,O0O.

Aiiuoy, anu OeloIc III was placed
under control, three hours later. il
a burned over more than a square,
reducing to ashes several magnificent
new buildings, recently completed on
the territory burned over three and a
half years ago. I~tconsumcd property
valued by a conservative estimate at
S4,5OO,OOo and was attended by scenes
of panic and distress never before
cquailed there. 1t destroyed several,
perhaps many, human lives and man
gledor manned atleast thirty persons,
some Of whom will die Of their iniur-
les.
The fire broke out in the toy de-
partment of Horace Partridge & Co..
who occupied the fifth and sixth
floors of the seyen-story building on
the corner Of Essex and Lincoln
streets, and owned by +. L. Ames.
The cause is at present unknown, but
the story is described by those near
est it as resembling the bursting of a
large t~lrecracker. The flames spread
with incredible rapidity, and in a
very few moments the entire interior
Of the building was burning.
There were many people employed
at work at the time, and the other
floors of the buildings were sprinkled
with human beings. The usual
avenues Of escape were at once cut off
and then became a scramble for life
which sickened the behOlders. The
panic-stricken inmates fled to the
windows and roof, some escaping by
sliding down telegraph poles and 9TH
ers by leapiDg into blankets. Several
jumped to the pavement from six or
eight stories and we're terribly man
gled, and others, how many cannot
now be told, fell back into the flames
or were overcome by the dense black
smoke which suffOcated all who did
not speedily escape.
The entire fire department of the
city was speedily on the scene, and
the departments from Summerville.
Cambridge, Newton and BrOcton ar
rived later by train, and aid was re-
quested to be in readiness from even
more distant cities, but fortunately
further help was not needed. Vast
crowds Of people began at once to
flock to the scene, and as a matter Of
preCautiOn Governor Russell ordered
out two companies of militia.
The fire spread rapidly and despite
the efforts of the entire fire system of
Suffolk county it was not controlled
until the whole square was leveled
and also five buildings ON other streets.
The following victims of the fire
were taken to the hospital dead: An
unknown man, aged about %, sup
posed to be Fred Meadowcraft; Ro-
bert j. Resteaux, aged %, a ladder
man; a girl too badly burned to be
identified; Leonidas III. Redpath, a
merchant.
Many others were doubtless injured,
but III is impossible to procure their
names. David Geddis, who assisted
in removing the people who jumped
from the burning building, told of a
girl jumping from the third story
window, striking a telegraph wire
which cut her throat. In another
instance he held a blanket into which
a number Of women jumped, all of
whom were more or less seriously in
jured. In a third place he saw some
thirty people jump from windows in
the rear Of Essex street. The life
nets broke their fall, but all were I'M
conscious when taken out of the net,
and most of them were undoubtedly
injured. He says the windows
OF the third floor from
which they jumped was a struggling
mass of people, and thinks many fell
back into the flames.
1t would be impossible to narrate
all the exciting scenes attending the
1 COulldRi dOlOus IiOcCIldu " SOuuOi, III
relating the story Of the fire, said he
went to the second story Of the Ames
building and found struggling men
and women trying to throw them
selves out of the windows. He beat
them back, and opening the window
took them out m at a time, drop
ping them into the net below. He
succeeded in dropping thirty, and
says there were at least as many
more who never came out Of the
building alive.
The manager of the Lariat Manu-
featuring company says sixof his en-
ployes are missing. The widest kind
of stories are in circulation regarding
the loss Of life and the general extent
Of the disaster. Great confusion and
excitement prevails, however, and it
is impossible to get authentic details
yet.