The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1895-01-05
A SUDDEN ALARM.

NJ - f W
Guests-Some of Them BADLY. and One
Fatally injured by jumping from the
Burning Strueture-Details OF the Cat
astrophe.
ALBANY, y. V, Dec. 3l.-The Della
van house proper was gntted by hre
last night There were 100 guests IN
the house. All escaped, although two
women and one man, who jumped
from the ~third-story windows into the
street on the S~teuben-street side, were
badly injured. They were:
Mrs. +. Foolxes. wife of the agent of
the National Cash Register Co., of this
city, formerly of Dayton, o.
benjamin HeilmGn and his wife, of
Brooklyn, who were on their wedding
tour.
Mr.. Fookes was badly burned, but
will recover. His wife was internally
injured, and will die. Mr.. Heilman
wa badly burned about the chest and
internally injured. He will probably
die soon. His wife vas badly burned
about the face, her nose was split open
and she was cut on the ankle. She
will recover. The injured were taken.
to the city hospital.
The speakership fight was on in its
intensity when the cry of fire rang
through the corridors of the hotel at
s:44 o'clock. The headquarters of the
candidates were on the first floor over
the Hobbies, otherwise the large crowds
which filled the corridors and rooms
would not nave SO luckily escaped.
The fire started in the basement on
the Broadway side, directly under the
elevator shaft, and spread with the ra-
pidity of lightning. No n had time
to save anything above the main floor,
and before the affrighted guests and
politicians had emerged upon the
streets the flames had broken through
the roof.
The elevator shaft was adjacent to.
the Broadway stairway, and the
flames u off the egress of the guests
in the northern end of the hotel in
which nearly two-thirds of the guests.
were located. Those who were not
able to get past the elevator shaft, so
as to pass down the main stairway on
Steuben street, We're without hope of
escape for some minutes until their
way was directed to the servants
stairway in the north section of the
structure.
1t was some time after the alarm.
sounded before the department re-
sponded. Meanwhile every effort
was made to save those in the upper
stories.
L. A. Manchester, the postmaster of
the assembly, came down n rope on the
Broadway side from a fourth-story
window. and escaped with no injury
except to his hands. E.. w. Arnold, of
Rochester, also reached terra firma in
this manner
Edmund Walsh, a porter, who as he
heard the cry of fire, vent through
the house alarming the guests, found
his escape cut off on reaching the up
per stories. He succeeded in getting
out on the roof of the center annex
and with Edwin Murphy. another en-
ploye, was rescued with the aid of
ladders. Walsh's hair was singed and
his hands and arms were badly burned.
He was taken to the hospital.
A man and his wife, who were on the
same roof would not let each other be
saved until the firemen carried them
down'the ladder. The man vas afraid
to venture down. and to add to this
his wife did not want to be left alone
for a minute.
Mrs. Zeb, of Hillsdale, Columbia
county, who only last week was re-
moved from the hospital here to the
hotel, was carried out by ex-Congress-
man ii. c. Burleigh, of Whitehall;
Judge c. b. Mclaughlin, of Port
Henry, and Deputy Constitutional CON-
vention Compiler McGonigal. wrapped
in his great coat.
Mrs. Moore was sick in bed, and had
to be carried out.
Mrs. Fookes jumped from the fourth
floor, striking on the roof of the bal
cOny on the main floor and rolling off
onto the sidewalk. n fall of fully sixty
feet.
Mr.. Heilman jumped from a window
on the same floor, but jumped clear of
the balcony, falling on a snow bank.
Mrs. Heilman also jumped, but struck
the balcony, and likewise rolled off
into the street below. All three came
down, it seemed, almost together.
Mrs. Heilman's fall was broken some
"AAhS SbiAhih Oh thC ICduo anu
shoulders of three men who were pass
ing.
Mr.. Fookes availed himself of the
rope fire escape in his room, and low
cred himself down as far as the cornice
OF the window below his floor. There
he showed his noble fortitude in being
able to stand for a period of some ten
minutes before aladder could be run up
to him. He descended it alone. The
spectators in the street below him were
no doubt responsible for his not jump
ing. They feared such an act minute
by minute as the time rolled slowly by,
but they ~reassuringly kept calling to
him that a ladder was coming.
d.. p. Brockway, of New York city,
was cut on the arm in forcing the win
dow of his room. He was rescued from
the third story with the aid of a lad
der.
Assemblyman Keck, of Johnstown.
went through the second and third
floors notifying the guests of. their
danger. He helped twenty people to an
exit, and had a very narrow escape him
self.
~Assemblyman Fish, Louis e. Payne