Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-08-19
HORROR At DENVER
Death Visits Firty.Six People
in Their Sleep.
HOTEL WRECKED BY AN EXPLOSION
Fire Takes Possession of the Ruins
and Roasts the Living Vic
tins to Death.

Two Women Snatched from the Rescuers
by the Fire-Fiend at tho Moment of
Rescue-whole Building Blown to Pieces
and the siumberiug Victims Buried in
tho Dsbris. Dead and Mang;ed-But
Twenfy-four Rescued Alive, Six Of Whom
Are Probably Fatally wounded--Fright-
fui Scenes Witnessed by the elpless
Rescuers and On-LooIsers.
DENVER, Aug. l9-The Gumry hotel,
172j to 1913 Lawrence street. was wrecked
by terrific explosion at 12:l a. IN. The
rear half Of the building five.story
brick and stone structure, went down
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 employees, who were sleeping in the
portion of the biilding which fell. On
both sides of Lawrence from Seventeenth
to Eighteenth streets, and on Larimer,
directly back OF the Gumry, the plato.
glass windows of the business houses
were blown in and a number Of pedestri.
ons wc.o injured by falling glass.
Ruin of tho Hotel Com plete.
The hotel structure for 100 feet alon g
tho alley and extending seventy five feet
toward the front was u mass of debris
Brick and plaster wcre piled in heaps
twenty feet high, and from this mass Of
wreckag. could be heard the moans Of
the injured and dying At 1885 five in.
jured persons had been taken out. They
were all inmates OF the upper story and
sank down with the floors, escaping more
fortunately than those below, who were
buried in the ruins. The f1remen worked
like beavers digging into tn, debris, but
made slow progress. The remaining por-
tion OF the building, from which the
guests wero removed by ladders rs fast
as possible, is expected to fall ut anytime.
ment.
Scene OF indispensable Horror.
The cause of the explosion is uncertain,
but it is supposed that the battery OF boil
crs in the hotel basement must have ex.
ploded. The sound Of the explosion was
heard throughout tho city, awakening
people In bed n mile from the soenc. AT
12:5) the ruins were burning fercely and
the flremcn were Obliged to retreat from
the work of rescue. Every engine in the
city poured streams into the mass but
the flames could not be possibly gotten
under control before many Of the injured
had been oremated. AS their chances of
escape lessencd the cries OF the imprisoned
people increased; heartrcnding shrieks
roso from every portion Of the great mass
Of wreckagc.
Two Women Roasted to Death.
Two injured women had been almost
extricatcd from the ruins when the flames
approached SO close that the rescuers had
To abandon them for their own safety.
Both voices were soon silcnced fro com.
pleting tho work commenced by the ex.
plosiou. The bodies of three women were
also to be seen in the back part of the
building, but could not be reached At
1:30 the flames were still keeping tho
firemcn back from tho work of rescue. cy.
cept just mt tho line of the alley wall. or
those pinioncd beneath under the debris
only two were thought To be alive, both
men from the fifth story who We're still
lying on their beds. Both were covered
with several feet of debris about their
heads and could not survive another half
hour
Flames Kept Buck by Water.
Almost no progress was being made at
releasing them. as the smoke was blind
ing. Tho flames were only kept back
from their bodies by half dGz n streams
OF water. At that time six others of the
inmates Of the house had been taken from
tho ruins. all badly injured. In the
wrecked building there was n tier o: 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
nre believed to have been occupied. as
people residing in rooms across the alloy
observed lights burning in every window
during the evening.