Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-08-22

Denver, Aug. 20.-The Gumry hotel,
Nos. 1725 to 1873 Lawrence street, was
wrecked by a terrific explosion at
1910 this morning. The rear half OF
the building, a five story brick and
stone structure, went dc wn with a
crash. The hotel was crowded with
guests, and many of them must have
been killed, as well as the entire force
of hotel help, who were sleeping in the
portion of the hotel which fell. On
both sides of Lawrence street from
18th to Is tin streets, and on Laramie
street, directly back of the hotel, the
plate glass windows of he business
houses were blown in and a number of
pedestrians were injured by falling
glass. The fronts of many buildings
in the neighborhood were badly de-
molisbed.
The hotel structure for 100 feet
along and extending 70 feet toward
the front is a mass of debris. Brick
and plaster are piled in heaps 70 feet
high, and from this mass of wreckage
can be heard the a of the injured
and dying.
AT 1928 five injured persons have
been taken out. They were all in
mates of the upper story, and sank
down with the floors, escaping mue
fortunately than those below, who are
still buried In the ruins. BY some es-
Inmates forty people were in the por-
ton of the hotel destroyed, nearly all
of whom must be dead. The of
the explosion is uncertain is uncertain,
but it is supposed that the battery OF
boilers In the hotel basement must
have exploded. The sound was heard
kIrDxNrIn., fhA aff.v Al nyn on / rnnnflA
4 mile from the scene
At II 30 a. IN. the ruins are burning
fiercely, and the firemen have been
obliged to retreat from the work of
rescue. Every engine in the city is
pouring streams of water into the
mass, but the flames cannot be posi-
bly, gotten under control before many
of the injured have been cremated. AS
their chances of escape lessen, the
cries of the imprisoned people are in
creasing, h~eartrending Shrieks arising
from every portion Of the great mass
CT wreckage.
During the height of the excitement
q horse and team ran away on 18th
street, stampeding the great crowd of
spectators. A number Of people were
more or less injured by being tram
pied on and falling in the broken glass
which owe the streets and sidewalks
in every direction.
Electric light wires dangling from
broken poles in the alley add fresh
peril to the firemen. One horse was
killed by coming in contact with a
live wire. Two injured women had
been almost eXtricated from the ruins
when the flames approached so close
that the reScuers had to abandon them
&A..s IN.x $500, go D~Al ,rlsaa- Inr No
now been silenced. fire completing the
work commenced by the explosion.
The bodies of three women are also to
be seen in the back part of the build
Ing, but canno be rescued.
OF those pinioned beneath under the
debris, only two are thought to be yet
alive, both men from the fifth story,
who are still lying on their beds. Both
are covered with several feet of debris
about their heads, and can hardly sur
vive another half hour. Almost no
progress is being made at releasing
them. as the smoke is binding. The
flames are only kept back from their
bodies by half a dozen streams Of
water.
Thus far six of the persons in the
house have been taken fTo:a .hc ruins,
all badly injured. In addition. four
were severely cut by plate glass fall
Ing into the street. In the wrecked
building there was a tier of five or
six rooms extending across the rear Of
the building, facing the alley, on each
of the three upper floors. All Of these
rooms are believed to have been oc-
cupied, as people residing in oom
across the alley observed the lights
burning in every window during the
evening.
Among the dead are Peter Gumry
and X. 9. Grenier, the proprietors of
the hotel, the day clerk and the night
clerk, zone of whom have been found.
Immediately after the explosion oc-
Cured a boy was heard wailiug in the
corner Of a room which had nearly
all fallen away. Its parents had gone
down with h first crash. Afterward
the little ones cries became weaker
and weaker, and when the flames shot
up into the skeleton of the building 1t
became silenced. The firemen made a
brave effort to save a woman caught
In the debris of the north corner of
the hotel, but were forced to abandon
the attempt. The spot where she lay
is now the hottest part of the fire.
None of the six persons thus far taken
out are conscious and Identification is
Impossible.
Thus far only Is people who are
known to have been in tie building at
the time of the explosion are account.
ed for. This leaves sixty supposed to
be dead. Henry Sloan and wife OF
Huron, Kan, and w. G.. Mccain, the
cashier of the Huron State bank, ar.
rived at the hotel last night from Man,
ttou, and occupied front and south
rnnnS Thny u ap.nnn tbnan fa1n,
down by ladders, and are all more OF
less injured. McClain states that he
thinks there are sixty guests in the
hotel, which, with the employees, would
bring the number of people I'm the
building at the time of the disaster
up to Is.
1t does not appear that any baking
wrbAr.