The Washington bee., 1895-08-24
LARGE NUMBER OF VICTIMS STILL
BURIED IN THE RUINS
Firemen Obliged to Abandon tho WORK OF
Rescue Owing to the Intense Hsst-Ter-
rible Scenes Amid the Failing walls sno
housekeeping Guests Blown Into Kesf.
nity without Warning-Last struggles
.,a p,.-csnr Screams OF the Dying
Twelve Bodies Taken Out and AAny
Guests Missing.

Denver. Aug. 19.-The Gumry hotei
was wrecked BY the explosion at 1910 th4s
morning The rear half OF the pulo'
ing, a five-story brick and stone strue-
ture, went down with crash Inc mo-
tel was crowded with guests. On ooth
sides of Lawrence street, from Seven
teenth to Eighteenth streets, and on
Larimer street, directly back or the
,1umry. the plate glass windows or the
business houses were blown In ana
number of pedestrians were injured py
falling glass The fronts Of many build
ings in the vicinity were badly wrecked
The hotel structure, for 100 feet along
the alley and extending seventy-nVe
feet toward the front, is mass OF de-
bris. Brick and plaster were piled IN
heaps twenty feet high. and from TINS
mass of wreckage were heard the means
of the injured and dying. At 1885 1se
injured persons were taken out. Iney
were all inmates of the upper story ana
sank down with the floors, escaping
more fortunately than those below
The remaining portion of the building,
from which the guests were removed
by ladders as fast as possible, was ex-
pected to fall at any moment ana pre-
cautions to prevent further loss or life
added to the difficulty in reaching the
dead and injured. By some estimates
forty people were in the portion Of the
hotel destroyed, nearly all OF whom
must be dead. 1t is supposed that the
battery of boilers In the hotel basement
must have exploded. The sound of the
explosion was heard throughout the
city, awakening people in bed mile
from the scene. A cloud OF dust was
thrown thousand feet in the air.
At 1880 the ruins were still burning
fiercely and the firemen were obliged to
retreat from the work of rescue.
Every engine in the city poured
water into the mass, but the names
could not be gotten under control be-
fore many of the injured were Gre
mated.
During the height of the excitment a
team ran away ON Eighteenth street
stampeding the great crowd Of specta-
tors. A number of people were more
or less injured by being trampled on
and falling in the broken glass, which
covered the streets and sidewalks in
every direction. Electric light wires
dangled from broken poles in the alley
and added fresh peril to the firemen.
One horse was killed by coming in con-
tact with a live wire. Two injured wo-
men had almoS been eXtricated from
the ruins when the flames approached
so close that the rescuers had to aban-
don them, for their own safety. Both
voices were soon silenced, the fire COM
pleting the work commenced by the
explosion.
Up to two o'clock six other persons
in the house had been taken from the
ruins. all badly injured. In addition,
four were severely cut by glass falling
into the street A piece of the cornice
of the Cheesman block at Seventeenth
and Larimer streets, fully block from
the Gumry Hotel, was torn out and fell
to the street, narrowly missing several
passers-by. The fragment weighed at
least ton.
Among the dead are Peter Gumry and
- n tn. fHav rf,tr Of hnh hn-
tel, and the day clerk and the night
clerk, none of whom have been found.
Immediately after the explosion occur
red baby was heard waifing In the
corner Of a room which mad nearly fall
len away. Its parents had gone down
with the first crash. Afterwards the lit
tie ones cries became weaker and weak
er, and when the flames shot up into
the skeleton of the building they be-
came silenced. The firemene made a
brave effort to save a woman caught II
the debris of the north corner of the
hotel, but were forced to abandon the
attempt. The spot where she lay was
soon the hottest part of the fire.
The force Of the explosion carried
away a large portion of the rear of the
building adjoining the hotel and one oc
cupied by A. B. Wade, wholesale and
retail furniture. The wall of the Gumry
on the side toward Eighteenth street
crushed a stable and a small frame
house, but no one was injured.
The Gumry was a flve-Story brick
with stone front and was built about
six years ago. 1t was of the better kind
of second-claSs hotels, catering largely
to transient family patronage. Thus.
many ladies and children were among
the guests. The building was built as
the Eden Musee by the widow of Cen
eral Tom Thumb and was so occupied,
later being remodeled for use as hotel.
Gumry & Grenier have owned the hotel
for several years.
Mr.. Gumry was prominent contrac-
tor and had done much of the work
during the building of the State Cap
itol. MI. Grenier acted In the capacity