Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-11-23
LEAP TO DEATH.
Terrified Girls Jump from Blaz-
ing Chicago Building.
Walls Also Fall and Five Firemen Are
Buried in the Ruins.
One Rescued and Will Survive Others KiIlt d
Their Remains Recovered.

| /. -
2II Van Buren, street.
The fire originated on the fifth floor and
the occupants, including men, women and
chlldren. became panic-strcken and made
dash Tor the stairs, the elevators and
windows.
| Inc IRE spread rapidly and inside of IL
minutes the inner portion of the building
was seething furnace The flames then
Jumped the alley and ignited the large
SeVen-story building facing on Franklin
street, numbered 276 and 27S. and oc-
cupied by Stern IL Bliss, manufacturers
of boys clothing; Henry Newman & Co.
clothlerS supplies; the National Drug Co.
and other concerns.
Five fremen were carried through a
floor and buried under tons of wrcckare
from the five floors above. -Four of the
men lie dead and the fifth is not seriously
injured. One girl fell from window and
received injuries from which she died. A
dozen men, women and girls We're hurt or
overcome by the smoke and many were
rescued from imminent death
The dead are: Patrick J. ODonnell
lieutenant of engine company No. >:
Thomas j. Prendergast, pipcman; Martin
Sherrick, pipeman; John Downs, pipe
man; Kate Langraf, employed in Stern &
Cos. garter factory.
All the dead and injured fircmen were
members of engine company No 2 Their
captain, Lewis Fiene, escaped the plunge
to death by hanging to "A sill Of window
on the second floor, until rescued by fire
men on "A ladder.
The owners of the burned building are
Kuhn, Nathan & Fischer, clothing firm.
whose factory and warehouse lis at Van
Buren, and Franklin streets, opposite the
scene OF death and destruction.
The fire started at 9.15, on the fourth
floor of the seven-story building, in the
garter factory of Stern q Co. where many
girls were at work. They ran screaming
and fainting from fright to the windows
on the Van Buren, street side of the build
ing.
All was excitement and confusion, and
the rapidly increasing crowd of spectators
stood gazing upward at what seemed the
imI ending doom of scores of working
girls. Engines, hose carts and ladders
came to the rescue with brave fremen,
who in twinkling had scrambled up the
fire escapes are put the extension ladders
in position to bring the panic-stricken
people 10 tne ground.
The frantic girls were determined to
hurl themselves to the stone tagging but
were partly restrained by the shouts of
the citizens on the street and the quick
work Of the firemen. One small extension
ladder was run up under where the girls
were standing. A fireman mounted. but
when his feet touched the rungs of the
second section, slipped back to his original
position, bringing the top four or five feet
below the sill of the fourth story window.
Nellie Turner and Kitty Langraf made
a wild attempt to lower themselves so
that they could reach the top rung Of the
ladder. In doing this they slipped and
fell headlong to the pavement Captain
Hermanson tried to grasp the dress of
Kitty Landgraf as her body flew past
him, but he failed and she struck the
sidewalk.
few seconds later the spot upon
which Miss Landgraf's body had struck
was covered by the unconscious form of
Nellie Turner. She was saved from death
by being momentarily held by three fire
men in her descent. Three other girls
who had more presence Of mind succeeded
in reaching the ladder by dropping from
the window sill.
The flames had now taken possession Of
the four upper stories At window stood
Olga Keller and Harry O'Neill, hemmed
in three sides by flames and smoke. The
girl stood on the narrow window ledge.
holding to the sash with one hand She
was almost suffocated by the smoke, but
had braced herself as if to leap to the
pavement
Don't jump, climb down to me,
shouted Capt. Hermanson, from the upper
part of the ladder, but the frantic girl did
not hear. She was seen to drop. Her
body came within reaching distance of
the captain. He seized one of her ankles
as she turned in the air. and the act
almost threw him from the swaying
ladder. Before he was forced to loose his
hold or be carried down himself. two fire
men below him seized the girl and carried
her down the ladder amid the plaudits of
thousands.
O'Neill, who had been helping the girls
to escape, was the last one to be rescued.
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 ladder and he fell into a |
net which had been placed in position. A
broken arm and leg constituted his in |
iuries.
Ernest Stein of Stein Go. says there |
Vas plenty of time for all his employees to |
reach the street by the stairways and ele- |
vators. The ianitor of the building spoke |
to the 80 girls employed in the room of |
Stern & Bieres, telling them to accom-
pany him down the main stairway, and |
many did so. Those who rushed to the |
windows Jared badly. The janitor thinks |
the fire was incendiary, and accuses one |
Bue, while the other occupants Of the |
building say the fire originated in little |
room on the third floor, used in making |
papier mache forms.
Shortly after /, when the flames were
practically extinguished, the fremen of |
engine company No. were ordered to the |
fourth floor in the rear to put out any in
cipient blaze. much of the contents in |
that part of the building being only /
watersoaked Nobody imagined there was |
any danger from falling floors.
fVho mar, bod IN ION tha hose e.