Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-10-28

big warehouse Of the ChautGuqua Lake
Ice Company this afternoon caused the
destruction Of S7oe, 900 and serious in
jury to eight persons.
Several of the injured, 1t is feared,
will die. A score or more Of others
sustained slight cuts and bruises or
were trampIed by the mob surrounding
the burning buildings. Those seriously
hurt are:
Z. j. Heilinan, married, dropped from
the third floor; hands and face terribly
burned. His injuries are considered
fatal.
Martin Griffith, married; dangerously
burned.
Edward Specs, body and head badly
burned; may not recover.
William Cox, single; dangerously
burned about face and body.
William Smith, painfully burned; will
recover.
These men were all rescued from the
burning building by the firemen.
Lieutenant Frank McCann, OF Engine
Company No. Z, struck by falling bricks
and left leg fractured.
William Wisman, struck by falling
tlmbers and skull fractured; dangerous.
John Reische, boy, badly hurt by fall
ing timbers.
START OF THE FIRE.
1t was just twenty minutes after one
o'clock when a number Of the employees
on the third floor OF the Chautauqua
Lake Ice CompanY's building were
startled by loud report and almost in
an instant the large room was abSze.
The men quickly gave the alarm and
then started for the stairs, but the
flames had already cut of 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 sills and
hang by their hands until the fire de-
partment arrived. The flames burst
ing 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 10 the |
seven-story building Of the PittsburR |
Storage Company adjoining, and both |
structures two hundred feet long and !
one hundred feet deep were burning |
fercely. Two more districts were then
summoned and in twenty minutes water !
was pouring on the flames from nearly |
q score Of engines.
AT TWO O'CLOCK
it looked as though the whole block |
from. Twelfth TO Thirteenth streets
and fromDPike street 10 Penn Avenue
was doomed,.an the residents we're no.
tilted TO move out To add TO the eK-
citement It was discovered that large
tank Of ammonia was located 10 the
cellar Of the Ice Company's building,
and the police, fearing an explosion,
quickly ordered the occupants OF the
houses on Twelfth street 10 also va
cate. All the houses in the neigh
borhood are q cheap class OF tenements
and are nearly crowded TO sufocatIon
with Polish Jews aud Slavs. When
they Were told 10 move out panic In
descrioable started among them. House
hold goods, store goods, children and
everything that could be carried away
was rushed TO place Of safety.
At $3.50 the walls on Mulberry alley
side fell in with crash and few min
utes later the eastern wall came down.
The debris buried long row OF tsne-
ments, and 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 iu. Not one Of the families had
chance TO save any Of their goods and i
all their furniture was destroyed. The |
ruins took fire Immediately, and for a
while the entire tenement district OF
Penn avenue was threatened with de- |
struction. By hard work the frenen |
succeeded in drowning out these flames
and the FIRE was confined to the build |
inps Of the Storage and Ice Companies. !
II was dark. however before the fire |
was completely under control and all |
danger over.
AMONG BUSINESS MEN
who had goods stored 10 the building
were P. Duff & Sons, produce mer-
chants; William Keech, household
goods; Edmundson & Perrine, furni-
ture dealers; Demmler Bros, hardware
dealers, and Thomas Pollars, liquor
dealer.
The latter had several hundred bar
rels Of whisky consumed in the FIRE.
On Penn avenue the falling walls, FIRE
and water damaged 10 . large degree
the following places:
W. n. Leshy's saloon, RosWig's China
store. WaIlrabenstein's milk depot and
T. w. u. Hieber'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 buildings
fell the great mob Of people made