The record-union., 1896-05-19
At Least Six People Known to Have
Lost Their Lives.
Fire Breaks Out in a Coal Mine at
Midlothian, Virginia-Fifteen to
Twenty Men in Pit Six Hundred
Feet Deep, With But Little Chance
of Escaping Suffocation.

WASHINGTON, May 1S.-Fire swept
away a whole block of commercial
buildings opposite the Smithsonian In
stitution, soon after s o'clock this
evening. The lives Of at least three fire
men We're crushed out by falling walls.
The loss viii exceed 100000
The buildings covering the block adj
joining the Center Market constitute
practically the entire commission and
wholesale produce business of Wash
ingtOn, and while not of great value,
their contents burned so fiercely that
great portion of the residents from
all parts of the city were attracted to
the scene Of the conflagratiOn.
From Z to o'clock the district was
visited by one of the most terrific
thunder-Storms in years, and 1T Is
thought lightning travelling on tele-
graph wires entered a Postal Tele-
graph sub station and started the
flames, which rapidly spread through
the highly inflammable materials in the
stores fronting on Louisiana avenue,
Ninth, Tenth and D streets.
In a few minutes, under general Or
ders, the entire fire department COM
menced its efforts to check the fires
spread, but exploding barrels of kero-
sene and gasoline drove them off and
led them to direct their energies to pre-
venting the flames from crossing the
streets to neighboring squares.
While the firemen of No. s engine
were working a hose through one of the
old buildings the roof fell without
warning, burying them in the ruins.
Alarming reports at once spread that
a dozen men were killed. The wrecked
building at once began burning fiercely,
and any attempt at rescue was beyond
question. Not until an hour later had
the flames sufficiently subsidized at this
point for the firemen to begin clearing
away the debris. Then three men, Joe
Nullhall, - Donaldson and - Ken
nedy, still alive but scorched and
crushed beyond all hope of recovery,
were taken out and removed to the
Providence Hospital.
At midnight the firemen came upon
another body. Others are still believed
to be in the ruins, and are being
searched for.
The buildings on the D-street side
which were entirely destroyed, were oc-
cupied by Edward Adams, commission
merchant; Taylor Wade, dealer in but
ter and eggs; Frederick Fisher, J. A
Davis & Son, W. S. Anderson, two
stores; Brown Bros, w. o. Shreves
Mathewson & Co., and VIM. Semmes.
John Crowley, who keeps a small res
taurant midway of the block, lost
everything, and barely rescued his
family alive.
Later information is to the effect that
firemen Giles and Griffen are dead and
that firemen Mullhall McElroy, Keep
pier and Kennedy are dangerously and
| perhaps fatally injured. Four others
are known to be in the ruins, and sew
eral others are missing, and search is
| being continued late into the night for
| them.
This fire is one of the worst calarni-
ties that has ever visited Washington,
| and is the only one Of its kind since the
notorious Knox fire of about two years
ago. The buildings that were burned
were comparatively of small value,
though quite a whole block Of them
were swept out of existence.
| The full extent Of the calamities that
| attended the conflagration was not
| known until late hour, and the neigh
! borhood surrounding the scene was
| thronged up to a long time after mid
night by excited and sympathizing
groups Of citizens, many of whom were
| friends and neghbors Of the unfortu-
mates burned.
Four horses and equippages were also
| burned. 1t is impossible to get an &C
curate list of the individual losses to-
| night.