The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-11-23
'ERISHED AT THEIR POST
rIVE FTREMEN WERE BURIED
 UNDER TONS OF WRECKAGE.

;aptain of One Company Escaped Death
 ny Hanging to Window Sill Great
 Work Done on the Extension Ladders-
 List of the Dead and Injured s Chicago, Nov. 22.-A fire, disastrous Eo life and property, swept through the Dry Goods and Woolen Exchange building this morning. Five firemen
 were carried through the floor and bur-
 led under tons of wreckage from the
 i've floors above. Four of the men lie slead but the fifth was not seriously in sured. One girl fell from a window and
 received injuries from which she died,
 A dozen other men, women and girls
 were hurt or overcome by smoke, and
 many were rescued from death. The
 property loss at 215 and 217 Van Buren Es Estreet, and 276-27S Franklin street, and s contents, is estimated at $4O,O0O
 The dead are: Patrick J. O'Dinnell,
 lieutenant of engine No. 2; Thomas J. Prendergast, ,pipeman; Martin Sherrick, Apipeman; John Downs, pipeman; Kate Landgraft, employed in Stern & Co.'S garter factory.
 Among the injured are Daniel Me Nally, pipeman sprained leg and bruls- ses; Olga Keller, leg and arm injured; Harry O'Neil arm broken and back in Iiured; Nellie Turner fell from the fourth Story window, seriously hurt; John Bruanheimer, badly injured by falling From fourth story while assisting girls
 o escape.
 # The others who were injured were girls and spectators who saved them, all being overcome by smoke, but they soon recovered after medical treatment. All the dead and injured firemen were members of engine No 2. Their cap sstain, Lewis FIene, escaped the plunge Hto death only by hanging to the sill #of a window on the second floor until rescued by flremen on a ladder. # The owners of the burned building are Kuhn, Nathan & Fisher, the cloth Ming firm whose factory and ware HShouse is at Van Buren and Franklin street, opposite the scene of death and destruction.
 N The fire started at 915 on the fourth ISfor of the seven story building, fh the garter factory of Stern & Co.,, where Eemany girls were at work They ran screaming and fatnting from fright to 8tfe windows on the Van Buren street @side. All was excitement and confus- Zion, and the rapidly increasing crowd saof spectators stood gazing upward at swhat seemed the impending doom of scores.
 Engines, hose carts and ladders came sfto the rescue with brave men, who in "a twinkling had scrambled up the fire 8escapes of put the extension ladders in Ssposition to bring the panic stricken #people to the ground. The frantic girls Awere determined to hurl themselves to 1.-the stone Tagging, but were partly re- strained by the shouts of the citizens Non the street and the quick work of the Shfremen. One small extension ladder 3Sawas run up under where the girls were sSs tanding in fear of death.
 N A fireman mounted but when his Meet touched the rungs of the second ssection slipped back to its original posi- ftion, bringing its top four feet below aAthe sill of the fourth story window.
 Nellie Turner and Kittie Landgraft amade a wild attempt to lower them Sselves so that they coud touch the Sstop rung of the ladder In doing this kthey slipped and fell headlong to the pavement.
 Captain Hermanson tried to grasp the edress of Kittie Landgraft as her body Efew past him, but he failed and she estruck the sidewalk with a sickening 8sound in sight of thousands. A few #seconds later the spot upon which Miss IALandgraft's body had struck was cov- tered by the unconscious form of Nellie sTurner. She was saved from death, Ahowever by being momentarily held by three firemen in her descent. Three I other girls, who had more presence of mind, succeeded in reaching the ladder z by dropping from the window sill The 2 flames had now taken possession of the four upper stories At a window stood Olga Keller and Harry O'Neil hemmed in on three sides by flame and smoke. < The girl stood on the narrow window Hedge holding to the sash with one hand.
 She was almost suffocated by smoke ! and had braced herself as if to leap.
 Don't jump, climb down to me-" shouted Captain Hermanson from his perch on the upper part of the ladder, but the frantic girl did not hear his voice. She was seen to drop, but for tunately her body came within reach ing distance of the captain. He seized one of her ankles as she turned in the air and the act almost threw him from the sway ladder Before he was forced to loosen his hold two firemen below him seized the girl and carried her down the ladder amid the plaudits of thous- ands.
 O'Neil, who had been helping the girl to escape, was the last one to be res cued. When he tried to crawl from the window to the ladder he slipped and fell, but his fall was broken by the grasping hands of firemen on the lad der and he fell into a net which had just been placed in position A broken arm and leg constituted his injuries
 Ernest Stern of Stern & Co. says there was plenty of time for all his employees to reach the street by the stairways and elevators. The janitor of the building spoke to the thirty girls employed in the room of Stern x Biers. telling them
 h n AL