Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-17

IVY \
The Falling Wall.
amount of property, some of which belonged
TO other people. was stored in the way of
carpets. mattresses and things of that sort
" hich were to be cleaned repaired. The
two upper floors were used in the manufac-
ture of folding beds cots and other kinds of
furniture 1t would be hard to find a build
ing stored with better material for a fire to
feed upon
From every window flames and smoke
we're belching forth. and the heat was so in
tense that for awhile there was no need for
the police to establish fire lines, as ii was
almost impossible to get close to the build
ing.
Two Men Disappear.
Just before the east wall of the Stumph
building fell Thomas Heany. the stonecut-
ter. and Engineer Martin of No. Com
pany, saw two men appear at the front
door of Hall and Cammaca's furniture
store. They closed the door and disap-
peared and only a few seconds later the
heavy wall fell and covered the building.
II the men had not gone out the back way
they were surely killed and there was no
way to rescue them The fact that they
had been seen there was soon known
through the crowd and many a prayer
went up for them. But later it was stated
mat all the employees had escaped from
the building and IL is certain that these
two men went out the back way.
The First Engine on the Ground.
No. was the first engine on the ground
and 1t arrived before it had sufficient steam
to throw the stream to the necessa "
height. All the time the fire was rushing
upward through the floors. 1t had three
ways of ascent. One was by the stairway
on the east side, one by the elevator shaft
at the northeast corner of the building The
third route was directly through the floors.
The fire ate upward at an unusually rapid
pace because the structure was but a mine
of infiammable material. Stacks of feathe 5
were slowed away on the first floor and the
heat from the floor above soon ignited
these.
This sent forth binding masses of smoke
tnat MD the entire building, and through
the dark envelope pillars of flame leaped up
and out far across Massachusetts avenue
and K street.
The stream of No. 8 was playing limpidly
as yet. ana the entire interior of the build
ing, from the ground floor to the roof five
stories in all, was a seething furnace
Every noor and every inch of every floor
was on fire.
Rumors were being shouted back and
forth by the spectators that men and wo-
men were still in the burning building.
Four Men I'm Peril.
lusty cry went UP from the hundreds
OF people assembled on the K street side
or the factory as the figures of two men
were caught sight of through the smoke
and fame. A third man was clamboring
along the cornice at the fourth story, and
holding on to the projecting bricks with
MS myers. BY the peculiar construction Of
the factory he reached the third story and
dropped to the roof of the one-story black
smith shop on the northeast corner
he was picked up and Immediately re-
novel to the Emergency Hospital.
Several men had broken into the furni-
X nd
Ing a mattress up to four men on the roof
OF the smitIy. These men were Officer
Brown of No. 2, Arthur Brakhagen, Edwin
Burke and a colored man. whose name
could not be ascertained. These men held
the mattress at the corners and waist
high The man on the roof to jump first
was a helvy-set fellow, and he shot down.
ward feet foremost, and struck the heavy
hair mattress ard cut completely through
1t. hitting the roof of the smithy with con
siderable force.
Still the rescuers hell on. The second
man was lighter, and, as column OF
smoke separated the victim and rescuers
the former missed fis aim and did not
strike the buffet squarely. He struck one
of the men who held the bed on the leg and
injured him severely.
Two or Three Bodies in the Building
At O'Clock Chief Paris said that the fire
was completely under control ard that II
had been reported to him that the bodies OF
two or three persons were in the building
He said that it would take a long time to
get them out.
The Falling of the Walls.
So rapidly did the building burn that with
in less than twelve minute. of the time the
alarm was turned in almost the entire west
wall fell outward with terrible crash. 1t
was magnificent spectacle, but it came
near costing the lives of a number of fire
second building and who had an almost
miraculous escape. for the wall Just missed
them The adjoining two-story building was
occupied as factory for the Woodruff file
Roller and the walls from the burning
building carried this down as though it had
been made Of cardboard. There was abso-
Iutely nothing left OF this nor of the adj
Joining building
AT III" o'clock the east wall fell out in
Just the same way. Next to the Stumph
factory WAS the marble and granite yard
OF George L. Benner. with a small build
ing used as office and workshop. In the
rear OF tals, go Il street. was the black
smith shop. Both OF these were wiped out
OF existence by the falling walls which
fell to the ground as though there were no
buildings there to interfere with them.
The monuments and other pieces of cut
stone were broken all to pieces. Every
thing up 10 the west wall of the Homeo-
paths DisDensary vas cleared out COM
pletely, and a more thorough wreck it
would be hard to imagine.
"A number of heavy beams that ran no. tn
ana south were about all that was left i'll
side by twenty minutes after H. and when
these dropped they forced out the cracked
and ruined walls. 50 thaC there was nothing
left standing within the hour
Nine buildings Wrecked
Nine buildings were either totally de-
strOye1 CT badly wrecked, and one of the
Damaged structures viii have to be torn
down. On Massachusetts avenue six build
ings were destroyed or damaged. These were
the buildings of the Woodruff File Holder
Company. the Stumph building, the sheds II
the marble ysr1, Hall * Cammack's furni-
ture store. the Homeopathic Dispensary
and LOWenthalS furniture store. ON X
. street II where the rear of the Strmph
and Woodruff buildir Gs extend, ]. W. Pal
mer'S oyster house. Offenstein's horseshoe
inS establishment and the headquarters OF