The Wichita daily eagle., 1896-01-22
FIVE MEN BURIED
FALLING ROOF IMPRISONS FIREMEN
DEEP N RUINS.

fire In a Four-story Building in st. Louis.
Mo-, Eats its Way Up From Floor to
Floor to the Roof, Which Falls, Clean
ing Out the Entire Shell and Precipi-
tating the Blazing Debris Upon Five
Firemen BtIow-Au supposed to be
Dead But One, Who is Rescued and
Will Recover.
st. Louis, Jan. Pas a result OF
fire in the building at AS Broadway to-
night five firemen are buried in the
ruins and one is dead at Mercy hospit-
II. Four Of the men in the ruins are
thought 10 be dead, as nothing can be
seen or heard Of them, while the fifth,
Rhinehart Miller, OF Salvage corps No.
l, can be heard and it is hoped 10 rescue
him alive. Owney Hines, foreman Of
truck No. c, who was taken from the
burning building soon after the fire
started badly suffocated and cut, died
while being taken to Mercy hospital in
an ambulance. The dead are
OWNEY HINES, foreman truck No. 6
CAPTAIN GLANVILLE, Of Salvage
corps No. ,.
JAMES RHODY. of Salvage corps
No. 2.
MILTON CURLEY, Of Salvage corps
No. 2.
CAPTAIN sTAUNToN of Chemical
No. l.
The total loss caused by fire and wa
ter is estimated at 5000, 900. fully insur-
ed Aloe & Co, place their loss at
about s150,000 and it is thought the loss
of the building will amount to $50 900.
Several thousand dollars damage was
done to the stock Of Jordan & Co, a
cutlery firm at All Broadway.
The fire broke out at 1880 o'clock to-
night in the basement of the four-story
building at 415 Broadway, occupied by
Aloe & Co, dealers in optical, surgical
and electric instruments. The fire
worked its way up to the roof and soon
broke through, threa tening adjoining
buildings. All the fire companies in the
business portion of the city were soon
on the scene and the flames were finally
got under control and partially subdued
when the top floor caved in and fell
through to the first floor, pinning down
four firemen, who were at work there.
The men were covered by broken beams
flooring, show cases and a large quanti-
ty CT the stock, which was set ablaze
again in the crush.Al the firemen avail
able were put to work to rescue their
fellowfiremen and several streams were
turned on the burning heap, from
which could be heard the cries for help.
Finally all the voices but one were still
ed. Whether the flames had reached the
other three and ended their agonies is
not known.
The men who were entombed belonged
TO Salvage corps No. . and Chemical
No. l. Captain Blanville, Rhinehart
Miller and James Rhody belonged to
the Salvage corps and Milon Curlyto
the Chemical company Early during
the progress of the fire, Owney Hines of
Truck No. 6, was rescued from the Sec
ond floor, badly cut by flying glass and
suffocated by smoke.
The total loss by fire and water is es-
timated at about 5000, 900 on stock and
building. One quarter of this is on the
building, which is owned by Charles
Mcclure. The property is fully in
Sured.
The firemen worked necessarily to
rescue their entombed comrades, but
were unable to reach them up to
o'clock, when it was thought that four
of the men were surely dead, as moth
ing could be seen or heard of them. The
fifth, Rhinehart Miller, a member of
Salvage corps No. ?, who is pinned
down on top of a shelf, can be heard
by his comrades, but they cannot reach
him yet. The firemen are making eff
forts to keep the flames from reaching
their buried comrades and are pouring
great quantities of water on the ruins.
George Rucker, a member of Chemical
company No. 1, was caught, but was
afterwards rescued by Charles Bradley
Of Salvage corps No. I, and other mem
bers of the company.
The men who We're killed were all in
the rear OF the store near the alley on
the first and second floors when the
crash came. The cause of the crash
was the construction of the building. On
every floor above the first, for the pur-
pose of lighting the interior, large sky
lights led to the roof. The glass and
castings Of the skylights broke under
the heat and fell, carrying the flooring
in the rear of the store with it. The
men being at work underneath were
caught and owing TO the mass of debris
the firemen cannot get at them.
At 1:30 "wednesday the firemen sue
ceeded in rescueing Rhinehart Miller,
who was taken to St. Johns hospital.
His left arm was broken and his body
badly bruised, but he is not fatally in
jured. The firemen are now working
at the pile of debris with the prospect
of soon getting out the bodies of the
missing men, who are undoubtedly dead