The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-10-31
BURNED TO DEATH.
sixteen Persons Perish in Hotel
Fire at seattle.

ItISOllE-leu men. llTtt women ana three
children-were burned to death in the
West-st hotel early this morning.
Thirteen bodies have been identified.
They are:
MRS. oTTERMAN Of California. aged
sixty.
ANDREW oTTERMAN. her son. aged
MRS. J. W. HUFFMAN. wife of a
well known farmer of Fall City. Wash.
MRS J. II. HANCOCK Of Rolfe, Ia,
and her three children. two girls aged six
and two years, and boy aged four.
JOHN F. ANDERSON, aged twenty
eight
r. BALLMAN.
G. GRAIN, n Iaborer.
ANGUS MCDONALD.
c. WILSON
NJ. McSORLEx.
The bodies of four men. one woman, one
child are unidentified. being too badly
burned The hotel occupied the upper
floor of a two-story corrugated iron
building that covers a quarter of block
of ground at Columbia and West-sts., one
block from the Northern Pacific depot
and near the business center of the city.
The building was Il mere shell Of wood
covered with iron There were several
exits, but they were narrow. The hotel
being near the railroad depot and a cheap
house was much patronized by country
people.
The fire was undoubtedly caused by the
explosion of a lamp IN the kitchen. Be
fore any warning could be given the
flames spread through the house. The
corrugated iron sheeung kept the flames
hid until nearly the whole interior was a
furnace. Ii was not until the flames were
| seen in the windows that an alarm was
turned in. When the firemen arrived the
fire did not present an alarming aspect
nd ,yN1n az th.A ttrinIqrrTe
cued with ladders. Three men jumped.
but escaped with severe bruises and some
broken bones. The firemen played water
through the windows and were reinforced
by the ireboat.
At PAS a. m. the fire was under control
and the firemen were able TO enter the
shell Of iron. At the head Of the stairs
at the West-st. entrance they found the
body OF a man pinned 10 the floor by the
ruins of a bed. Continuing the search
the fremen discovered corpse after corpse
until at o'clock they had counted
fifteen.
Subsequently another was discovered.
Most of the bodies We're left where they
lay until daylight in hope the proprietor
might identify them by locating the room
on the register. for every one but two
were charred beyond recognition. One
poor fellow was caught in the rush Of the
cOnhagration near the top Of the West-st.
stairs and sank down overcome with the
smoke. The fremen fought to keep the
fire from his body, but were driven back.
In one of the Railways a body, charred
and without a bit of clothing was found.
| A little farther on in the same passage
was another body, evidently that of a
woman. face upward and hands stretched
as If fighting for her life and appealing
for assistance which never came There
was little left Of he woman's form, for
part of the body was charred and the
burned bones lay around her.
In another nall was the body of an
aged woman fe3rfully cOntorted face
upward and presenting the appearance
| OF one who had cied in the most horrible
agony.
The sadest sigat az all was found in an
| inside room off a hail leading TO West-st.
There calmly lying in a charred and
! blackened bed WAS an entire family. The
| father lay on one side, the wife next to
| him and a little burned and blackened
arm, the flesh Illing in shreds from it,
the small finge eelutehed. showed that
| a little child ws among the victims. In
an adjoining room was a still more hOr-
rible sight. In corner of a small inside
room two chaIred and naked skeletons
met the gaze OF ne lockers. The clothing
was burned from each and the first, that
| of man with blackened stumps of
arms. seemed 10 be nghting an impend-
| ing danger. Immediately beyond him, also
| upright and Clutc9ing her waist was the
| skeleton Of a woman. Startled, they had
| risen from their bed, the smoke and flames
| had rushed on them and before they had
realized their awful danger they We're
overcome and met the most horrible of
| deaths.
In a p1rtioi Of the hotel where the
flames did n0tl destroy the woodwork the
| bodies Of two lore were found. . lie man
was completed kdTessed and the Jther was
| in his night othes. They Were suffo-
Gated. In the corner Of a. room where the
upper parts o. the walls are burned away
| is an unburned spot ol the floor, and on
\ both the corner wall. In a place against
| the wall sal A wife dead. her arms around
| her dead husband who sat before her on
| the floor. his eyes burned out and her
| hands burned off
| All the bodies were taken to the morgue
this morning boxes Of canvas sacks.
| AS the rigor of death had long before set
| i'm it was almost impossible TO straighten
| out the distorted limbs Of some of the
dead.
| The arrangements OF the halls Of the
! hotel made such a labyrinth that in the
| daytime one unfamiliar with the place
would have had difficulty in finding his
way about and as the halls We're filed
/ with smoke there was little chance OF
any Of the unfortunates 20 make their
way out before being suffocated.