The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1894-11-03
Sixteen Guests in Seattle Hotel
Lost Their Lives.
THE BUILDING WAS A FIRETRAP
The Fire Is Thought 30 Have Origin
ated From the Explosion of
Lamp la the Kitchen.

10 men, three women and three child.
ren-were burned to death in the West
Street hotel early this morning. Thir-
teen bodies have been identified. They
are:
Mrs. Otterman, of California, aged
so; Andrew OttermaD. her son, aged
IS; Mrs. ]. w. Huffman, wife of we'll
known farmer of Fall City, Wash.
Mrs. ]. III. Hancher, of Rolfe, Iowa,
and her three children; John f. An
derson, aged %; F. Ballman; G. Gtahn,
a laborer; Angus Mcdonald, c. Will
son, M. McSorley.
The Hotel Fire Trar.
The West Street house occupied the
upper floor of a two-story corrugated
iron building that covers "a quarter of
block of ground at Columbia and
West streets, one block from the North
ern Pacific depot. and near the bGsi-
ness center of the city. The building
was q mere shell of wood, covered with
iron. There were several exits to the
street, but they were narrow. The fire
was undoubtedly caused by the explo-
sion of lamp in the kitchen. The
corrugated iron sheeting kept the
flames hid until nearly the whole in-
terror was furnace. The thin parti-
tons were of resinous pine, covered
with cheese-cloth, and burned furi-
ousIy.
It was not until the flames were seen
burning in the windows by people in
the street that the alarm of fire was
turned In. When the firemen arrived
the fire did not present an alarming as
pect. People at the windows were
rescued with ladders and boards, some
escaping with hardly any clothes. ID.
b. Glass, Edward Havelin and Q. b.
johnson jumped to the ground and
were injured so badly that they were
taken to the hospital. All Will recover.
The crowd In the street then supposed
all the dodgers had escaped. The fire.
men played water through the win
dows and were reinforced by the fire.
boat. the building being only short
distance from the water front.
Uncovered the Bodies.
at 2:45 a. M. the fire was under con-
troll and the firemen were able to enter
the shell of iron. At the stairs they
found the body of man. pinned TO the
floor by the ruins of bed. He had
apparently just heard the alarm and
was dressing when overcome by smoke
and suffocated, for the only clothing
he had on was his trousers and boots.
The body was terribly burned. Con-
tinuing their search the firemen dis
covered corpse after corpse, until at
o'clock they had counted Is. Subse.
qaently another was found. Most of
the bodies were lett where they lay
until daylight In the hope that the
proprietor might identify them by
locating the room on the register,
for all the bodies except two were
charred beyond possibility of recogni-
ton.
In one of the Railways a body,
charred black and without vestige of
clothing, was found. A little further
on in the same passageway was anoth-
er body, evidently that of a woman,
with face upward and hands out
stretched as II fighting for her life.
There was little left of the woman's
form; part OF the body was charred
and burned bones lay around II. In
another hall or passageway was an
other body, evidently that of an agod
woman. Her body was fearGully con-
torted, the burned arms and hands
were uplifted, and in one blaekened
hand was handful of hair, as If she
in her agony had clutched il in despair
when the fire came upon her.
The saddest sight of All.
The saddest sight of all was found in
an inside room, of the passageway
which led TO West street. There,
calmly lying in the charred and black
ened bed, was evidently an entire FAM
ily. The father lay on one side, the
wife next to him and a little burned
and blackened arm, the flesh falling in
shreds from it, the small fingers
clulched, showed that little child
was among the victims.
In an adjoining room was still more
horrible sight. In corner of a small
inside room two charred and naked
skeletons met the gaze. The flesh was
burned from each and the first, that of
a man, with blackened slumps of
arms, seemed to he fighting impending
danger Immediately beyond HIM,
also bolt upright and clutching his
waist, was a skeleton of a woman.
Startled, they had risen from their
couch, the smoke and flames had
rushed in upon them and before thew
had realized their awful danger they
were overpowered and met a most hor-
rlble death.