Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-08-23
DENVER'S FIRE HORROR.
Hotel Gumry, Full Of Guests, Goes
Down With a Crash.
FULLY FIFTEEN THOUGHT
TO BE DEAD.

right. The fronts Of many build
ings in the vicinity we're nearly
wrecked.
Gen. Charles A lams of MAnitou,
COL, occupied Room IL in the rear
of the hot~l and over the boilers,
the section in which the havoc OF
the explOslOn was hardest.
Ex.Siate AuditorLouiS Schwan-
beck was early at The scene OF the
disaster and inquired eagerly for
MIR. Adams. Ii it is tue that MIR.
Adams was in his room he Is I'M
doubte dly among the dead.
A. l. BlaEe of Florence, Co., was
sleeping in the room directly over
the boiler and he is also placed
among tue dead.
Myron E Haw'cy, clerk n the
freight department or the Union
Pacific Railway Office, rOOmed III
the rear end and had been III the
house for a long time. lie had
gone to bed early and is
counted am Ong the lost.
James Murphy, a contractor,
was regular bOarder and ais 9
roomer in the destroyed portion
He was in his room and also must
be among the dead.
At 1888 five injured persons
had been taken out OF the ruins
They were all inmates of the the
upper story and sank down with
the floors, escaping more tor
tunately than those below.
The cause of the explosion is un-
certain, but it is supposed that the
battery of boilers in tie hotel base
ment must have exploded. The
sound of the explosion was heard
throughout the city, awakening
people a mile from the scene.
At ~ 80 the ruins were b1rning
fiercely and the fremen were oblig'
ed to retreat from the work oil
rescue.
Every engine in the city was
pouring streams of water into the
mass, but the flames could not be
gotten under control before many
of the injured had been burned to
death.
AS their chances of escape les
sened. the cries of the imprisoned
people increased heartrendlpg
shriUks rising from every portion
of tue great mass of wreckage
During the height of the excite
ment a team ran away on Eigh
teenth street, stampeding the great
crowd of spectators. A number
ofpeople were more or less injured
by beng tramp'ed upon and fall
ing in the broken glass, whl'i
covered the streets and sidewalks
in every direction.
Electric light wires dangling
from broken peles in the alley ad
ded to the peril of fremen. ON
horse was killed by coming In con
t,ct with a live wire. Two injured
women had been almost extracted
from the ruins when the fl 'mes
approached so close that the rescu
ers had to abandon them. Th'
bodies of three men we're also to b.
seen in the back part of the build
Ing, but could not be reached.
100 the flames still keep thu
firemen back from the work o
rescue, except just at the line o
the alley wall. OF those plnionet
beneath the debris, only two were
thought to be alive, both mel
from the fifth story, who were still
living on their beds. Both wer'
covered with several feet OF debri
about their heads. Almost m
progress was being made TOWARD
releasing them, as the smoke
was binding The flames we're only
kept back from their bodies By
half a dozen streams Of water.
In the wrecked building there
was a tier of five or SIX rooms ex
tending across the rear of The
building facing the alley, one each
Of the three upper floors. All OF
these rooms are believed to hav,
been occupied, as people residing
10 rooms across the alley observed
lights bnrning IN every window
during the evening.