The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-05-11
DEATH IN A FIRE.
One Man Dead and Ten Hurt at
Chicago.
Fire Started by an Explosion in
a Saloon.
ESCAPE WAS CUT OFF.
Inmates Jumped from Windows
to the Ground.
ESCAPE WAS CUT OFF.

CHICAGO, May IA FIRE in which
one man is known to have lost his life
and ten others were injured, four of
them proba bly, in fatal manner, oc-
Cured in a rooming house at 10 Sher-
man street at lis this morning. The
building is three-story brick concern,
standing directly across Sherman street
from the north end of the board of
trade building. The first floor was &C.
cupied as saloon by H Happel and
floors above were used as a cheap
hotel and rooming house by August
Michael The fire was started by an
explosion in Happels saloon and inside
of minute the whole lower front por-
ton of the building was a mass of
flames. The inmates never had the
slightest chance of escape, for the
only door by which entrance was had
to the hotel was in front and close to
the saloon door. The flames blocked
that means of escape at once.
Michael and he's wife occupied the
upper portion of the third floor and
they were at the windows calling for
help in a frantic manner when the
first fremen arrived. Unfortunately
this was not truck, and thinking his
chance of life would be gone in an
other minute if he fingered in the
building, Michael sprang from the
third story to the pavement below.
His left arm was broken and he
sustained internal injuries. A sec
ond after Michael hit the sidewalk
and before the fremen had lifted
him, another form sprang from the
third story and came down on the
pavement with crash. It was man
and he was alive, but unconscious,
when carried to the hospital. Mrs.
Michael stuck to her window and was
carried down by the firemen, as was
her little girl. who remained with her.
She was badly cut about the limbs by
broken glass, but was not badly hurt.
The fire was quickly extinguished
and the fremen plunged into the house
in search of more victims. One dead
man was found in a front room and two
others badly burned. and nearly suffo-
Gated. In another room was found an
other daughter of Michael, and in the
other rooms and in the Railways five
other men. One of them was said to
be dying when placed in the ambu-
lance.
LOSS OF LIFE BY AN EXPLOSION.
TRINIDAD, COL, May IA terrible
morning at o'clock in the mine of
the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., at
Sopris, which resulted in the instant
death of four persons and the injury of
two others. The positions of all the
bodies when found showed that the
men were at work when the explosion
occurred. They were lying across the
track near the car which they had been
using, and evidently met their fate
while unwarned of any danger. They
were all badly burned and blackened
from the explosion. 1t is thought that
the fire originated in the accumula-
ton of coal gas, and ignited from a
miners lamp, as none of the mines in
this region has ever been troubled
with gas, and the ventilation of the
mine is good. Had the explosion oc-
Cured during the daytime when the
men were all at work, the results
would have been frightful, as ordi-
narily there are from 200 to 300 men
employed in the mines.