St. Paul daily globe., 1893-10-28
PITTSBURG'S BIG BLAZE.
OVER HALF A MILLION DOLLARS s3F
PROPERTY DESTROYED.
EIGHT PERSONS INJURED.
Pittsburg Storage Company ana
Chautauqua Ice Company Burn
to the Ground Tenement
Houses Occupied by Twenty
Families Crushed Beneath
Falling Walls.

Houses Occupied by Twenty
Families Crushed Beneath
Falling Walls.
PITTsBURG. Oct. 27.-The explosion
of a barrel of whisky in the big ware
house of the Chautauqua Lake Ice
company this afternoon caused the de-
structiOn of over half million dollars.
worth of property and serious injury to
eight persons. Several of the injured,
it is feared, will die. A score or more
of others sustained slight cuts and
bruises, or were trampled on by the
mob surrounding the burning buildings.
Those seriously hurt were: L. j. He'll
man, married, dropped from the third
floor to the ground; hands and face
terribly burned; his injuries are con-
sidered fatal. Martin Griffith, married,
dangerously burned. Edward Specs.
body and head badly burned; may not
recover. William Cox, single, danger
ously burned about face and body. Will
lam Smith. badly burned; may recover.
These men were all rescued from the
burning building by the firemen. Lieut..
Z; struck by falling brick and left leg
fractured. William Wisman, struck by
falling timbers and skull fractured:
dangerously injured. John Relsche,
boy, badly hurt by falling timbers.
1t was just twenty minutes after
O'Clock when a number of the EN-
plOyes OH the third floor of the Chau-
tauqua Lake Ice eompany'S building
were startled by loud report, and al
most in an Instant the large room was
ablaze. The men quickly gave the
alarm, and then started for the stairs,
but the flames had already cut off their
retreat, and the only means of exit left
them were the windows, fifty feet from
the ground. By this time the heat was
so intense that they were forced to
creep out upon the window siIls and
hang by their hands until the fire de-
partment arrived. The flames bursting
from the windows burned their hands
and faces, but they hung there until the
men of Truck E got ladders and brought
them down.
When the fire was discovered an
alarm was sent in, and when the First
district reached the scene the flames
were rapidly eating their way through
the great seven-story building of the
Chautauqua company. A second alarm
brought out two more districts. but the
fire by this time had spread to the sea~n-
story building of the Pittsburg Storage
company adjoining, and both structures,
200 feet long ana 100 feet deep, were
burning fiercely. Two more districts
were then summoned, and in twenty
minutes water was pouring on the flames
from nearly score of engines, AT 2
O'Clock it looked as though the whole
block from Twelfth street 10 Thirteenth
aud from Pike to Penn avenue was
doomed, and the residents were notified
to move out. To add 20 the excitement
il was discovered that a large tank of
ammonia was located in the cellar
of the ice company's building, and the
police, fearing an explosion, quickly
ordered the occupants of the
houses on the Twelfth street to also
vacate All the houses in the neighbor-
hood are the cheap class of tenements,
and are crowded nearly to Suffocation
with Polish Jews and SIavs. When
they were told to move out, panic
indescribable started among them.
Household goods, store goods, children
and everything that could be carried
away were rushed to place of safety.
AT 2:30 the walls of the Mulberry
alley side fell in with crash, and few
minutes later the eastern wall came
down The debris buried long row of
tenementS in the alley and a three-story
brick dwelling on Thirteenth street.
The tenements were occupied by twenty
families, but fortunately they had been
deserted some time before the walls fell
in. Not one of the families had chance
to save any of their goods, and all their
furniture was destroyed. The runs
took fire Immediately. and for a while
tba fnnnnnpf hisfriot Of DE-,
avenue was threatened with destruc-
ton. By hard work, the tiremen sue
ceeded i'll drowning out these flames,
and the fire was confined to the build
ingS of the storage and ice companies.
1t was dark, however, before the fire
was completely under control and all
danger over.
Among the business men who had
goods stored in the buildings were IL.
Duff & Sons, produce merchants; Will
lam Keech, household goods; Edmund
son & Perrine, furniture dealers
Demmler Bros, hardware dealers, and
Thomas Pollard. liquor dealer. The
latter had several hundred barrels of
whisky consumed in the fire. On Penn
avenue the falling walls, fire and water
damaged TO large degree the follow
ing places: w. Ii. Leahy's saloon,
Rosswig'S china store, Wallrabenstein's
milk depot and L. w. d. Heiber's drug
store.
Hoeveler's storage warehouse, on the
north side of Pike street, was on fire
several times, but the flames were eX-
tinguished.
When the walls of the big building
fell the great mob OF people made a
rush to get out of danger. MANY men
trlpped and fell and were trampled I'M
der foot. Several received painful but
not dangerous bruises. Sheets of iron
were cast from the burning building by
the fury of the flames and hurled into
the crowds. Scores of people received
slight injuries, which were either
dressed in the neighboring drug stores,
or the people made their way home
without assistance. ~.
During the progress OF the cOnflagra-
tion the excitement was intense. The
streets in the vicinity were packed with
people, and thriving business was
done by pick-pockets and sneak thieves.
A number of thieves were arrested and
locked up.
On account of the varied interests and
large number of people involved, def
mite statement concerning the loss and
insurance is impossible at this time.
Reliable sources place the total losses
db lIUul SOUU,UUU u S|UU,UUU, Win an III
surance of about S1,000,OOO.
Later - At midnight the loss was
placed at s7oO,OOO. Of this $500, 900 was
sustained by the Chautauqua Lake. Ice
company and S500,000 by the PittsbuFg
Storage company. President Scott, of
the latter concern, stated that nearly
every firm doing business in the down.
town district OF Pittsburg had goods
stored IN their warehouse, and the
losses would range from $1,000 to s1O,-
600. Every newspaper in the city. had:
type and fixtures stored in the building
Several firms from other cities were
also losers by the fire, among them the
Parry Manufacturing Company OF In.
dianapolis and the Cleveland Spring
Bed Company of Cleveland. The loss
of the former is placed at $4,000 and
the latter at $1,000. A list of the insur-
ance companies involved was not o6-,
taiuable tonight, as the books of the
firms are locked in their vaults. The,
injured are doing well. and hopes are
tas, Gov, l,nfr