St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-22
MEN ROASTED TO DEATH.
SEVEN BODIES TAKEN FBOM THE
RUINS or A HOTEL.
HOLOCAUST NEAR BEAVER, PA.
Ihirty-Five Boarders Appear at
the Windows Of the House
Yelling for Heip-Many Leaped
Through Sheets OF Flames
The Victims Laborers, and the
Hotel Cheap Structure.

/
The Victims Laborers, and the
Hotel a Cheap Structure.
BEAVER, Pa, Nov. 81. "A disastrous
ire occurred at Merrill station. on the
Cleveland & Pittsburg road. at $3.50 this
morning, resulting in the total destruc-
ton of three-stOry hotel owned by the
proprietors. Bradley & Keener, who
boarded many of the men employed on
the new dam. The fire was discovered
: at sliding door between the hall and q
room used by Mr.. Ray as store and
postoffice. At $40 the structure fell.
There were thirty-tive boarders sleeping
on the second and third floors, many of
whom jumped from the windows and
were badly cut, bruised and burned.
After the census of the boarders could
be taken it was found the following
were missing: Jerry Wrenn, boss stone
mason. aged sixty. and son Daniel. aged
tWenty-three, of Pittsburg John Kelly,
laborer. of Woods Run, aged forty;
Robert Stanley. engineer, aged thirty
i've, of New Brighton; James Hughes,
OF CHARTERS, aged thirty-three, engineer;
BarneyW llker, stone mason, of E street,
Allegheny. Henry Wilker, son of Bar
ney Wllker, is badly burned, and James
VIM. of Beaver Falls, sustained a
fractured shoulder by jumping from the
third story window. He was taken to
Mercy hospital. James Sheer, of Sc
Wickley, was badly burned about the
face and hands. The proprietors. Frank
j. Bradley and Robert P. Kenny were
formerly dispatchers in the Pittsburg
office of the Pittsburg & Lake Erie
road, but built the hotel shortly after
the new dam was started, and have run
it ever since. The building cost $4,000,
and is insured in the Continental of
New York for S1,SOO. Five bodies
have been taken from the ruins, but
are SO badly charred that they can
not be identified. Search is being made
for the missing body. supposed to be
James Hughes, formerly an engineer
on the Pittsburg & Lake Erie road.
At 1880 the bodies of James Hughes.
the missing engineer. ana James p.
Miller, laborer of Allegheny City,
were recovered from the ruins. Both
bodies were burned to a crisp. This
makes seven bodies recovered.
A strong suspicion of lncendiarism ex-
lists, founded upon the fact that Night
Waterman McGaffic and the employee at
the dam who aWoke had passed up and
down the stairway where the fire started
within ten minutes of its discovery, and
no smoke or odOr of burning wood was
detected at that time. An eyewitness
to the fire says the scene was awful.
When the fire started the only exit was
cut Off, and the men on the third and
second floors woke from sound sleep
and. bewildered by the dense smoke
rushed through the rooms yelling for
help, many appearing at the windows
begging for assistance. Some leaped
from windows while others climbed out
and dropped to the ground through
sheets of flame pouring from the lower
windows. Some OF the victims, whose
charred bodies now lie side by side
along the railway track, were seen at
the windows. but they soon disap-
peared, evidently overcome by smoke.
Jerry Wrenn, one of the victims, had
reached the outside of the building, but
missing his son Dan, returned to get
him. He was sUffocated in the attempt
and persisted.