The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1895-08-24
THE RUINS SOON IN FLAMES
Men. Women and Children Burned TO
Death Before the Eyes OF
Spectators.

ing, a fiVe-stOry brick and stone struct-
ure went down with a crash. The hotel |
was crowded WIN guests and many Of
them must have been killed, as well |
as the entire force of hotel employees, !
who were sleeping in that portion of !
the building at the time. On both sides |
of Lawrence street from Seventeenth |
to Eighteenth streets and on Lawrence |
street directly back of the Gumry |
house the plate glass windows of bust |
ness houses We're shattered and a num-
Der of pedestrians were injured by
falling glass. The fronts of many
buildings in the vicinity We're badly
wrecked. The hotel structure for 100
feet along the alley and extending for
20 feet toward the front is merely a
mass of debris Brick and plaster are
piled in a heap 20 feet high, and from
this mass of wreckage can be heard the
means of injured and dying. At :35
five injured people had been taken out.
They were all inmates of the upper
story and sank down with the floors,
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 possible, is expected to fall any mo-
ment and precautions TO avert further
loss of life adds to the difficulty in
reaching the dead and injured
The cause of the explosion is uncer-
tain, but it is supposed that the battery
of boilers in the hotel basement must
have exploded. The sound of the eX-
plosiOn was heard throughout the city,
awakening people in bed a mile from
the scene. A cloud of dust was thrown
a thousand feet into the air and as
there is not a breath of air stirring it
still hangs in the air like a huge col
umn. Minute atoms of powdered brick
and mortar are descending like gentle
snow many blocks away.
RUINS ON FIRE.
At12:5O the ruins are burning fiercely
and the firemen have been obliged to
retreat from the work of rescue. Every
engine in the city is pouring streams
of water into the seething mass, but
the flames cannot possibly be gotten
under control before many Of the in
jured have been cremated.
AS the chances Of escape lessen the
cries of the imprisoned people are in
creasing, heart-rending shrieks rising
from every portion of the great mass
of wreckage. Fears are now entertain
ed that the front portion of the building
which seems to be lettering, will fall
and bury the firemen at their work.
During the height of excitement, a hose
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 upon
and by falling in the broken glass
which covers the streets and sidewalks
in every direction. Electric light wires
dangling from broken poles in the alley
added fresh peril to the firemen. One
horse was killed by coming in contact
with a live wire.
MET A TERRIBLE FATE.
Two injured men mad almost been ex-
tricated from the ruins when the flames
approached so close that the rescuers
had to abandon them for their own
safety. Both voices have now been ST.
fenced, fire completing the work COM
menced by the explosion. The bodies
of three women are also to be seen in
the back part of the building, but can
not be reached.
At 1870 the flames are still keeping
the firemen back from the work of res
cue, except just at the line of the alley
wall OF those piniOned 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
covered several feet deep except about
their heads, and can hardly survive an.
other half hour. Almost no progress is
being made in relieving them, as the
smoke is binding. The flames are only
kept back from their bodies by half g
dozen streams of water. Thus far si2
persons have been taken from tn,
ruins, all badly injured.
In addition four were severely cut by
glass falling into the street. A piec,
of the cornice of the Cheesman block, a
Seventeenth and Larimore streets, fully
a block from the Gumry hotel, was tori
out and fell to the street, narrowl!
missing several passers-by. The frag
ment weighed at least a ton.
In the wrecked hotel there was a tie
of five or six rooms extending across
the rear of the building, facing the al
ley on each of the three upper floors
All of these rooms are believed to hav
been occupied, as people residing il
rooms directly across the alley oh
served lights burning in every windoy
during the evening.
BOTH PROPRIETOR DEAD.
Among the dead are Peter Gumr
and r. c. Greiner. the two proprietor
of the hotel, the day clerk and the nigh
clerk, none of whom have been found.
Immediately after the explosion oC
cured young baby was heard wailin
in the corner of a room which had neal
ly all fallen away. It's parents ha
been carried down to death with tn