The record-union., 1895-08-19
BURSTING OF A BOILER CAUSES A
GREAT CALAMITY.
The Proprietor OF the House and Els
Wife and at Least Two Guests
known to Have Perished In the
Flames Which Followed, while
Several Others are Among the
Missing and a Number Injured.

demoIish ed by an explosion of the boiler
in the engine room shortly after Il o. clock
this Monday morning.
The rear portion of the building. five
story brick, fell shortly after the explo-
sion. The front wall is expected 20 go
down at any instant, and this keeps the
firemen from prosecuting the search for
bodies in that part of the structure. The
hotel was we'll filled with guests. The
help OF the hotel, who sleep in the top
story of the rear portion OF the building,
are thought to be those missing.
Window glass in all the buildings near
the hotel were smashed to atoms, and in
many cases the buildings were badly
shaken up. At 12:45 A. NJ. five persons
had been taken out. They were guests.
They were not seriously injured as the
floors sank, and were apparently not
wreck ed by the force of the explosion.
All the fire department and the police
were at once summoned to the scene, and
calls for reserves and ambulances fol-
lowed in a short time. Two women were
taken out about l o'clock. They were
seriously injured. and it is thought that
several suffered from broken bones. The
bodies ofseveral more can be seen among
the debris in the rear of the building.
The rescuers are making all possible
haste to reach them.
The sound of the explosion was heard
throughout the city, awakening people
in bed mile from the scene. A cloud of
dust was thrown a thousand feet in the
air, and as there was not breath OF air
- tlo OH l. q hIlCrn
column.
The ruins caught fire. burning fiercely
and compelling the tiremen to retreat
from the work of rescue. Every engine
in the city turned streams into the mass
but the flames could not possibly be
gotten under control before many of the
Injured bad been cremated. AS the
chances of escape lessened, the cries of
the imprisoned people increased. heart
rending shrieks issuing from every por-
ton OF the great mass OF wreckage. Fears
were entertained that the front portion Of
the building, which seemed to be totter-
ing, would fall and bury the firemen at
their work.
During the hight of the excitement
horse and team ran away on Eighteenth
street, stamping the great crowd of spec
tators. A number of people were more
or less injured by being trampled on and
falling in the broken glass, which covers
the streets and sidewalks in every direc-
ton. Electric light wires, dangling from
broken poles in the alley. added fresh
peril 10 the firemen.
Two injured women had been almost
trio tod bor q q mn .
approached 30 close that the rescuers
had to abandon them for their own safety.
Both voices were soon silenced. the fire
completing the work commenced by the
explosion. The bodies OF three women
could be seen in the back part of the
building, but could not be reached.
The Gumry is five-story brick build
ing, located on Lawrence street. between
Sixteenth and Seventeenth streets. Twen-
ty-two guests registered tonight at the
hotel Their names follow: Mrs. O. II.
Knight of Lake City. the two sons Of Mrs.
knight; j. l.. Kirk of Omaha, Budd
Buron of Colorado Springs, Mrs. c. Will
Jams of Boulder, Miss Jennie Howard Of
Boston, j. G.. Brown of Omaha. w. c..
McI<ain of Huron, kas; Mrs. McLain
of Huron, Kas.; Horny Sloan and wife of
huron, Kas.; George Burle of Colorado
Springs: +. French of Central City, Colo;
b. J. Parson Of Pueblo, NJ. Letson Of
Denver and E. I. McClosky Of Cripple
Creek. only fifteen people who are
known to have been in the building at the
time of the accident are accounted for al
this hour.
This will leave fifteen who are snp-
posed to be dead.
Mrs. McLain and family arrived at a
late hour tonight from Huron, Kas.
They occupied front rooms. MIR. Nc
Lain thinks there were about sixty guests
in the house. This. with the help en-
ployed on the premises, will make
seyenty-five persons in the building at
the time of the explosion.
The dead body of Mrs. TRAINER has
been taken from the ruins.
Mrs. Greiner, wife of the Assistant
Superintendent of the State Capitol. with
her husband, are in the ruins. The fire.
men saw her appealing to them from the
back of truss that pinioned her to the
floor of the icehouse, whence she had
tried to escape.
Q
is given up for lost, and his wife is also
missing.
At o'clock the fire got away from the
department, and made rapid Roadway
with chances of consuming the entire
block. Every engine in the city was
summoned. and Chief Pierce gave re-
luctant order for firemen to cease attempts
at life saving where the rescue appeared
impossible, and all men were ordered to
fight the flames. The entire building
was abiaze. and there is no way of ascer-
tanning the loss Of human life until the
flames are extinguished.
By the explosion everything in the
shape of record was destroyed, and there
will be no means of realizing the extent
of fatalities even after the building has
been razed to the ground, for the bone
are In the center of furnace that will
reduce them to calcined mass. and de-
stroy all trace of identity.
Among the dead, beside Peter Gumry
and r. c. Greiner, the proprietors of the
hotel, are the day clerk and the night
clerk, none of whom have been found.
After the explosion occurred boy was
heard wailing in the corner of room
which had nearly fallen away. His pa
rents had gone down with the first crash.
Afterward the little ones cries became