The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-22
Hundreds of Girls Dragged From
Blazing Structures by
Policemen.
FALLING OF THE HIGH WALLS.
Chicagos Latest Confagration Resulted
in Damages of Half Million
Dollars.

CHICAGO, Ill, Nov. N.-A ire which
caused a loss of $500, 900 and imperiled the
lives OF 1000 persons, mostly young women,
broke out at o'clock this afternoon on the
third floor OF Charles Emerich 81 Co.'s
feather and down goods factory, 175 to 1S1
Canal street The contagration was at
tended by scenes of intense excitement,
and score of firemen narrowly escaped
during the progress of the fire by falling
walls.
When the flames were raging most furi-
ously, in spite of the best efforts of twenty
engines and small army of firemen, fire.
brands were carried by the wind to adjoin-
ing buildings and it looked as if many
more would have to go. The seven-story
building extending from 175 Canal street
south to the corner of Jackson street, the
nine-story brick building adjoining on the
north and the great part of the four-story
brick building in the same direction were
entirely destroyed. The buildings occu-
pied nearly the whole of the block on the
west side of Canal street, between Adams
and Jackson streets. The seven and nine
story buildings were owned by Warren
Springer, and the owner of the four-story
structure, which is one-third saved, is
William ]. Wilson. The buildings were
amply insured.
The following firms were burned out ::
Shober & Carqueville, photographers, who
occupied m ost of the Excelsior building at
the corner of Jackson street; George E.
Lloyd & Co., electrotype and stereotype
machinery manufacturers; George Z.
Lloyd & Co., Cleveland and Victor bicycles;
Charles Emmerich & Co., feathers and
down goods; Schnadig Bros. & Co., ladies'
shoes; Abner's shirt-waist factory; Glib
sons gas-fixture factory; Chambers, brick
machinery manufacturers; Russell Piano
Company, Banner shirt waist factory,
Epworth pi2no and organ factory, Heus-
ner Bakery Company; Samuel Lyon, mill
supplies; George F. Blake, steam-pump
works; Knowles steam-pump works;
Derby Cycle Company; Strouss. Eisen-
drath & Dron, manufacturers of mattresses
and quilts.
The following were damaged by falling
walls and water: Miller, Hendricks & Co.,
So West Jackson street, packers of beef and
pork; Hayward e. Windsor Company,
confectioners, 161 Canal street. The losses
to the foregoing firms are estimated at
$3.50, COO, and the building losses at $500
The fire started from an explosion of
chemicals used in cleaning feathers, and
the rapidity with which the flames spread
from the Emmerich factory, where 200
girls and women are employed, created a
panic in that building. The frightened
employees on the upper floors rushed for
the elevators, which were small and few,
and the stairways were soon jammed with
terror-stricken and fainting females.
Cool-headed men and police officers sum-
moned by the fire alarms in quick success
sion came to the rescue and prevented
fire horror. Officers stood guard at the
elevators and stairways to prevent more
than safe number of women using those
means of exit.
The excitement was as great among the
200 female employees of the Banner Waist
Company, whose factory adjoined the
Emmerich factory. Only thin par
tition divided the Springer buildings,
which were practically one, and in
an alarmingly short time flames had
extended up and down and through
the walls to the buildings on each side.
The police and fremen had hard task to
get all the young women in safety to the
street. many having to be carried out or
else driven out, because they wanted to
save their small personal property, while
there was not time for all to get their
cloaks and hats. So far as the police
learned all who were in the buildings es-
capped without serious injury, although
many were bruised and scratched.
In the early stage of the fire an engine
company and the chemical engine men
were sent to the sixth floor of the nine
story building in the rear to fight the fur
ther spread of the flames to the north.
The smoke from the burning feathers
made a dense, suffocating cloud for the
fremen to work in, and they saw when
too late that the fire had broken out in
front of them and cut of their escape in
that direction by the ladder.
Shouts of warning were sent to them
from the chief and his marshals. The i'm
periled men forsook their apparatus and
struck out in the binding smoke for the
stairway. The hose was the only thing to
guide them safely, and they half fell, half
climebd down to the street. Several of the
men had their hands and faces badly cut
and bruised, and their appearance on the
street was hailed with delight by the thou
sands of spectators.
The falling of the towering walls on all
four sides was a thrilling and dangerous
incident of the blaze. Without any warn
ing, three stories of the smaller building
on the Canal-street side came crashing to
the street. Firemen and officers who were
standing or working in front rushed from
under the mass of tumbllng bricks until
the building on the opposite side of the
street stopped them, and they barely es-
capete being struck. The same scene was
witnessed on the Jackson-street side when
the three top stories came topping across
the street without warning.
When part of the west wall of the Excel
slor building fell it made a big hole in the
tWo-story brick building of the MillerHen-
bricks Packing Company. When the fire