The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-26


mas morning fire on East Thirty third
street, destroyed property valued at
nearly s1,000,000 and rendered 100 peo-
pie homeless.
Four buildings, including Sohmer's
piano warehouse and the New York
Polytechnic hospital were. destroyed. The
destroyed buildings also include a
large 5-story brick tenement ut 30. 2o9
East Thirty third street and a large
5-story brick factory building.
The piano warehouse occupied a
fourth of the block and the Polytechnic
was 4-story building with front of
80 feet on East Thirtythird street. The
fire began at 1907 o'clock on the second
floor of Pinares snuff factory, at 221
East Thirty-fourth street. When the
fire engines arrived on the scene. the
fire had already communicated at the
piano factory adjoining on the east.
Several large streams of water were
poured into the burning building, but
without apparent effect, and third and
fourth alarms for engines were sent in.
The police, under Sergeant Pagan,
aroused the sleeping tenants of the
building on the west of the burning
factory.
WAS A PANIC.
There was panic when the tenants
found smoke pouring into their rooms
and in the excitement and demoraliza-
ton which followed several of the ten
ants escaped narrowly with their lives.
With the aid of the police, IS families.
consisting of IS people, We're dragged
and carried from the building. Sturdy
policemen carrying small children in
their arms were cheered by the large
crowd as they brought them down the
stairs and out on the street. Several
girls, only partially dressed, opened
the windows of their rooms on the fifth
floor and stepped on the fire escape in
front of the building. One cf them
was about to jump to the street when
policeman who had entered the room
dragged her back and carried Ter to
the street. AT O'Clock, the piano
warehouse, owned by Sebastian Sohmer
was on fire from cellar to roof. Fiji
teen minutes later. the roof fell in.
The fire had by that time assumed
such enormous proportions that the
hospital in the rear of the warehouse,
and fronting on Thirty-fourth street,
was in imminent danger. There were
So patients in the building, AMI when
they were advised of the blaze there
was another panic. Patients whose
condition had been very serious, leaped
from their beds and ran towards the
stairs. The nurses and employees Of
the hospital assured them that there
was no danger, and the panic was
temporarily quelled. One by one the
patients were carried from the building
until all of them had been removed.
Hastily improvised stretchers bore the
patients to a nearby hotel where they
were placed in beds.
OVERCOME BY SMOKE.
John Gill, an attendant in the hos
pital, was overcome by the effects Of
the smoke. He was carried to. the
hotel, where he recovered short time
afterwards. The flames communicated
at the roof of the hospital at $780, and
i'll several minutes the upper floor was
belching forth huge waves of smoke
and fire. The firemen inside the build
ing were ordered to leave the structure,
and several lines of hose poured water
on it from the elevated railroad tracks
on Thirty-fourth street.
The tenement house at 209, from
which the tenants had been rescued by
the policemen, had been considered
safe by the firemen until $50, when a
strong wind blew the flames over it.
In short time, the roof caught the
heat of the factory fire and ten minutes
afterWard the interior was ablaze.
Several streams of water had no APP
parent effect, and in a short time the
roof fell in with deafening roar. The
front wall of the fifth floor caught
short time afterward and then the
firemen turned their attention to the
tenement adjoining on the west. The
roof Of the building at No. 221 fell in
at S:45, and carried with it to the
ground the four floors. The piano
warehouse wall, which was almost
solid and nearly 200 feet long and 60
feet high, collapsed shortly afterward.
A part of it fell on the roof of the
hotel at 223 and damaged the building
to a great extent. The firemen poured
several streams of water on the hotel,
but the fire started in the rear of the
top floor shortly after the wall fell in
upon it. The fire in the factory ware
house and tenement was under control
at 10 O'Clock, but only after everything
in them had been destroyed. Nothing
remained of the three buildings ex-
cept parts of the outer walls and a
blazing mass of lumber and woodwork
in the interiors. The building in which
the fire started was occupied on the
first, second and third floors by ]. F.
Kaldenburg, manufacturer of pipes
and smokers materials. The loss is
about $4,000.
Pinares' snuff factory occupied a part
of the second floor and the fourth and
fifth floor of the building. The loss
to the snuff mandatory will not be
less than $4,000 The loss to the build
ing will amount to nearly $500, 900,
partly covered by insurance.
A TOTAL. LOSS.
The Sohmer piano warehouse is to-
tai loss. The loss to Sohmer in stock
and machinery will reach 100000 or
$500, 900, and the loss on the building
100000. The tenement at 209 East
Thirty third street was damaged to
the extent Of $4,000. The damage done
to furniture and personal property of
the tenants is several thousand dol
lars.
The damage done to the Polytechnic
hospital will amount to at least $4,000.
There were 80 children among the pa
TENTS, and all of them were carried
out in the arms of firemen.
The fire in all the buildings was I'M
der control at II o'clock. Besides rem
dering homeless 100 people. the fire
has thrown out of work nearly 500 en-
pIoyees of the factories and the hos
pital.
The New York Polytechnic is pri-
vate institution. 1t was organized as
a medical college and hospital about Is
years ago.