The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1896-10-24
A DISASTROUS FIRE.
The Worst that Has Visited Mon
treal in Many Years.
~Fhree Firemen Instantly Killed and Sew.
eral Others Seriously Iniured-Forty
Streams of Water Have No Apparent
Eject Upon the Fierce flames.

MONTREAL, Can, Oct. Z. THE most
disastrous fire in this city for a long
time occurred yesterday afternoon,
having its beginning in the building
at Thirty-first and Peter streets, occu-
pied by Gilmore s. Co, importers of
chemicals. As a result three tiremen
are dead and a dozen more or less seri-
ously injured. The dead are:
Firman Charpentier, of station No. !.
Fireman King. station No. 6.
Fireman Laporte, of station No. T..
The injured are: Capt. Guthrie, of
station No. /; Capt. NORM, OF No. 8;
Firemen Benoit and Reynolds, of No.
B; Gordon, of No. 5, and Mirault and
Caerst, of No. IL.
II is not yet possible to verify the
report that l6 men were in the loft
that went down, and possibly another
day will be reached before the all miss
ing are definitely accounted for.
The fire is attributed to the combus-
tible nature of the stock handled in
in the building, and, once under way,
the blaze spread with amazing rapid
ty. Before the first apparatus had
re2ched the scene and hose could be
laid the flames from the fourth story
of the building were reaching far out
into the center of the street.
The building is a fHur-storv stone
structure, and was completely envel-
oped in fire before the department be-
gan effective work. The chemicals on
tile top floor burned with the fury of
a furnace, and even after 40 streams
had been brought into play, continued
TO blaze with undated tierceness.
Clouds of dense smoke followed the
flames as the stream began to take eff
feet, Inc the men on the extension
ladder were for a large portion of the
tim enveloped 10 huge clouds of
smoke.
The flames spread to Goldstein's ci-
gar factory, and then smoke was seen
coming out of the windows of Kear-
ney Bros tea warehouse and the
building occupied by Johnston's Fluid
Beef Extract Co.
The arrival of the water tower was
greeted with cheers by the enormous
crowd of onlookers, and no time was
lost in getting it to work.
n few moments later flames burst
from a window Immediately under a
ladder on which half a dozen firemen
were standing, thrusting the nose
nozzles here and there. They did not
finch, however, and another great
cheer vent up as they dropped a step
on the ladder, placing themselves al
most in the flames with the nose still
in hand. Meanwhile another detach-
ment was busiIy engaged inside with
1Xes breaking out windows to let out
smoke. No sooner did the flames APP
pear to be under control in one place
than they would break out with re-
doubled fury in another.
The fire was gotten under control
by four o'clock, but was not entirely
subdued.
AT 2:30 o'clock the floor of the upper
loft in the Gilmore building gave way
without warning and fell with a great
crash. Sixteen men in all are said to
have been in the place at the time, and
us the smoke cleared for a moment
shrieks could be heard.
NJ ALoS Il1C uICLlCH "CIc uudDlc "
get inside, but finally the rescuers
made Roadway, and the first victim
reached was Gordon, of No. ) station.
He was wedged down and apparently
dead, but when taken to the open air
he revived somewhat, and was quickly
placed in an ambulance and removed
to a hospital. Next came Fireman Be-
mott, OF No. . station, who was not re-
suscitated before being taken away in
She patrol wagon. Charpentier was
Che third rescued, and he was suffer-
ing internally. Capt. Guthrie of No.
K station was also found in an neon
scious condition. He was taken to a
HospitaL.
A fireman named Mirault, of engine
No. IL was rescued, but his face was
SO badly crushed hat at first his iden-
4ity could not be established. Edmund
Laporte was taken from the ruins
dead.
Another unidentified man was taken
60 the general hospital unconscious.
He proved to be Benoit, of No. 3.
Saul Carrest, of No. II. was removed
TO Notre Dame hospital. Capt. Nor
in was rescued badly hurt. George
Mirault, of No. II, was also taken to
Notre Dame hospital.
The bodies of Fireman King and
Ch~arpentier were recovered shortly
after ten o'clock last night. The men
were buried beneath many tons of de-
6ris and it took several hours to get at
them. Both men had evidently been
killed instantly.
The most seriously hurt was Fire
man David Benoit, of No. 3, badly
injured internally.
At the general hospital last night
Bennett was reported resting easily.
All the other men, who were only
slightly hurt, were released from the
hospital and sem to their homes.
All of The killed were married men
with families. Laporte, who was re-
garded as one of the best men on the
brigade. represented Montreal at the
International tournament in London
last summer.
The loss will reach $4,000. The
buildings are all owned by the Grey
Nuns, and are insured.