The herald., 1895-08-19
A Denver Hotel, Loaded With
Guests ExpIodes
MANY BURIED IN THE RUINS
The Battery of Boilers in the Basement
Blows Up
Ruins Burning FierceIy With People Perishilg
in Full Vicw-A Scene of Horror
Without Parallel
Associated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
DENVER, August 19.-The Gumry
hotel. No. 1925 to 1877 Lawrence street.
was wrecked by terrific explosion at 12:10
a. m., the entire rear half OF the building,
a tive-story brick. and stone structure,
going down with a crash. The hotel was
crowded with guests and many of them
must have been killed, as well as the en-
tire force of hotel employees, who were
sleeping in that portion of the hotel at the
time. On both sides of Lawrence street
from Seventeenth to Eighteenth streets
and on Lawrence street directly back of
the Gumry, the plate glass windows of
the business houses were blown in and
mum Der of persons were injured by falling
glass. The fronts of many buildings in
the vicinity were badly wrecked. The
hotel for 100 feet along the alley and ex-
tending for seventy-fve feet toward the
front is merely mass Of debris. Brick
and plaster are piled in heap twenty
feet high. and from this mass of wreck
ago can be heard the means uf the in
jured and dying.
At 1885 five injured people had been
taken out. They were all inmates of the
upper story and sank down with the
doors, escaping more fortunately than
those below, who are still buried in the
ruins.
The firemen are working like beavers,
digging into the debris, but are making
little progress. The remaining portion Of
the building from which the guests are
being removed by Ladders as fast as possi-
BILE, is expected to fall any moment and
precautions to avert further loss of life
adds to the difficulty in reaching the
dead and injured.
By some estimates forty people we're in
the portion of the hotel destroyed, nearly
all of whom must be dead. 1t will be
morning before correct list can be OBJ
taiued.
The cause of the explosion is uncertain,
but it is supposed tnat the battery OF
boilers in the hotel basement must have
exploded.
The second explosion was heard
throughout the city, awakening people
in bed mile from the scene. A cloud of
dust was thrown thousand feet i nto the
air, and as there is not breath of air
stirring. it still hangs in the air like a
huge column. Minute atoms of powdered
prick and M mortar are descending like
gentle snow many blocks away.
AT 80 the ruins are burning ferce!y
and the firemen have been obliged to re-
treat from the work of rescue. Every en-
gine In the city is pouring streams of
water into the seething mass, but the
flames cannot possibly lie gotten under
control before many of the injured have
been cremateu. AS their chances of es-
cape lessen. the cries of the imprisoned
,v1n eli M hiI,p
shrieks rising from every portion of the
great mass Of wreckage. Fears are now
entertained that che front portion of the
building, which seems to oe tottering,
will fall and bury the firemen at their
work.
hose team ran away on Eighteenth street
stampeding the great crowd of spectators.
A number cf people were more or less
injured by being trampled upon and by
falling on the broken glass which covers
the streets end sidewalks in every direc-
ton.
Electric wires dangling from broken
poles in the alley added fresh peril TO the
tiremen. One horse was killed by COM
ing in contact with live wire.
Two injured men had been almost ex-
tracted from the ruins when the flames
approached so close that the rescueis had
to abandon them for their own safety.
Dun SbItto beiNC INV pSSu oiSLScts uit
completing the work commenced by the
explosion.
The bodies of three women are also to
be seen in the back part of the building,
but they cannot be reached.
At 1 80 the flames are still keeling the
iremon back from the work of rescue.
except Just at the line of the alley wall.
OF those pnioned beneath the debris
only two are now thought to be alive.
both men from the fifth floor. who are
still lying on their beds. Both are GOV.
cred several feet deep except about their
heads and can hardly survive another
half hour. Almost no progress is being
made at releasing them. as the smoke is
binding. The flames are only kept back
from their bodies by half dozen streams
OF ater.
Thas far six persons have been taken
from the ruins, all badly injured. In adj
dition four were severely cut by glass fall
ing into the street.
A piece of cornice of the Cheesman
block, at Seventeenth and Lamer
streets, fully block from the hotel, was
torn out and fell into the street, narrowly
missing several passers by. The frag-
ment weighed at least a ton. In the
wreck of the hotel there was tier of five
or six rooms extending across she rear of
the building. facing the alley, on each of
the three upper floors. All OF these rooms
are believed to have been occupied. as
people residing in rooms directly across
the alley observed lights burning in
every window during the evening.
Among the dead are Peter Gumry and
r. c. Greiner, the two prcprietors of the
hotel, the day clerk ana the night clerk,
none of whom have been found.
Immediately after the explosion occur
red young baby was heard wailing i'll
the corner Of room, which had nearly
fallen away. Its parents had been car.
yied down to death with the first crash.
Soon after the little ones cries became
weaker, and later, when the flames shot
up into the skeleton OF the building, they
became entirely silenced.
:; The fircnen made a brave effort to save
woman caught in the debris at tho
north corner OF the hotel, but we're forced
to abandon the attempt. The spot where
she lay is now the hottest part of the fire.
n one of the six people thus lar taken
ouu are conscious. and identification IS
impossible. The force of the explosion
carried away large portion of the rear
OF the building next adjoining the Gumry
and occupied by A. Liliyblade, wholesale
and retail furniture. The wall of the
Gumry on tho side toward Eighteenth
street crushed stable and a small frame
house, but no one was njared.
The Gumry hotel was fve-story brick