San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-08-19
DENVER'S CALAMITY.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS OF THE
GREAT HOTEL WRECK.
Terrible Loss of Life Will be Added
to the Financial Crash-Guests
Crushed, Then Burned In
the Ruins.

DENVER, COL, August l9.-The
Gumry Hotel, 1925 to 1913 Law.
renee street, was wrecked by a ter
rible explosion at u 10 a. m. The
rear half Of the building, a five-
story brick and stone structure,
went down with a crash. The hotel
twas crowded with guests and
many OF them must have been
killed as we'll as the entire force of
hotel employees who were sleeping
in the portion Of the building that
fell. On both sides of Lawrence
from Seventeenth to Eighteenth
streets, directly back of the Gumry,
the plate glass windows Of the
business houses were blown in and
number Of pedestrians were in.
jured by falling glass. The fronts
Of many buildings in the vicinity
were badly wrecked. The hotel
structure for 100 feet along the alley
and extending seventy-five feet
toward the front is a mass OF debris.
Brick and plaster are piled in
heaps twenty feet high and from
this mass OF wreckage can be heard
the means Of injured and dying.
At 2 40 a. IN. twenty-four have
been accounted for, six being prob
ably fatally injured and the rest
less seriously. Shortly before the
explosion occurred, the night clerk
was heard to remark that seventy
guests were in the house. The list
of servants will not exceed ten,
making possible death list Of 56.
Night Clerk Irwin Is among the
survivors, though badly injured.
He states that there were 67 rooms
In the hotel, Of which 80 were occu-
pied, some of them by three people.
In the rear portion which Is COM
pletely destroyed were l6 rooms,
all of them occupied. The fire is
still burning, though only smoul-
dering. In the last two hours, only
one of the men imprisoned in the
debris has been rescued. The dam.
age to the hotel will amount to
from $4,000 to $4,000.
At s. q. m. today fire engines
were still pouring water upon the
burning ruins Of the Gumry hotel.
Buried in the ruins are many
guests and employees, whose bodies
are wholly or partly cremated. 1t
is impossible as yet to give list Of
dead or even to approximate the
number. Out of forty or more
people who were certainly in the
hotel when the explosion &C.
Cured, a score got out safe
ly. Three were rescued with
more or less serious injuries and
others are unquestionably lying
dead beneath the mass OF bricks,
shattered beams and twisted iron
at the rear of the ruined building.
The death list will include the
owner of the hotel, Peter Gumry,
manager Robert G. Greiner, and
his wife, who acted as day clerk.
They are known to have been in the
rear of the building and could not
possibly have escaped. Before the
fire added to the horror of explo-
sion, the firemen were appealed to
piteously by men and women and
babes, whose lives were being
crushed out in the ruins. Then the
fire broke out and that ended it.
A. E. Irwin, night clerk, who
with the barkeeper, VIM. Rubbe,
had a miraculous escape, went over
the register for the last few days
this morning and endeavored to
call to mind the occupants OF the
different rooms. He says there
were between so and 90 people
registered and sixteen were occupy
ing back rooms, where 1t was more
difficult to escape. How many OF
them were saved is impossible to
state, but it is known several who
were In the back portion managed
to escape in some manner. Gen.
Charles Adams, Manitou, COL; AL.
Blake, Florence, COL; Myron +.
Hawley, clerk OF the Union Pacific
railway, and James Murphy, con-
tractor, all Of whom had rooms In
the rear portion Of the hotel,
are believed to de dead. Others
who had rooms in the hotel
and who have not been &C
counted for are as follows:
M. E. Letx, F. French, and Bert f.
Larsh, Central City; w. j. Carson,
Pueblo; Calkins (no initials), Mr..
and Mrs. Burgess and two others,
names unknown; Edwards, Boul-
der; Herman Lueders, Mrs. Wolfe
and daughter, A. w. Roberts and
wife, Colorado Springs; f. F. Nc.
Closkey, Canyon City; three cham!
Der maids and one bell boy.
The force of the explosion was so