The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-10-17
M0NTREAL'S DEAD FIREMEN
THREE PERISH AND TWELVE ARE INJURED AT THEIR POST OF DUTY.

One of the Fiercest Fires Ever Experienced in the City-Firemen Enter Windows Into Furnaces of FIame-A Floor Falls Entrapping Sixteen of Them-work of | Rescue Carried Heroically Forward. Montreal, Oct. 17.--Montreal witness ed the most disastrous fire this after
 noon it has had il Pr long time. AS result of it three bremen are dead and
 a dozen wounded. The fire broke out at
 1:S0 o'clock in the premises of Gilmore Brothers & Co.,. No. 31 St. Peter street, in the wholesale house district. Gill
 mour & Co. are importers of chemicals,
 and to a stock of these goods the rap i'd spread of the fire is attributed. Be- | fore the fire apparatus reached the
 scene the flames from the fourth story | of the building were reaching far over
 into the center of the street.
 The building, which was four story stone structure, was completely envel- oped in flames before the department
 got to work. The chemicals on the top | floor burned with the fury of furnace and after several streams had been brought into play the fire continued with unabated fierceness. Clouds of dense black smoke followed the flames | as the streams began to take effect
 The flames spread to Goldstein's cigar factory and then smoke was seen com ing out of the windows of Kearney Brothers tea warehouse and the estab- lishment of the Johnson Fluid Beef company. The arrival of the water tower was greeted with applause by the enormous crowd and no time was lost in getting 1t to work.
 A few moments later flames burst out
 of a window under the ladder upon which half dozen firemen were stand ing. They did not finch, however, and another cheer went up as they dropped
 a step on the ladder and thrust them selves almost into the flames, with the hose still in their hands. Meanwhile another detachment was busily engag- ed inside with axes breaking out win dows to let out smoke and destroying
 the woodwork and inflammable mate rial. No sooner did the flames appear to be under control in one place than they would break out with redoubled fury in some other.
 For the first twenty minutes the fire ragged on, explosion after explosion oc
 curing in the Gilmour building. The fire was not under control until o'clock T. l o.JO jp1n the floor of the upper flat in the Gilmour & Co.'S building gave way without | warning and fell with a great crash. Sixteen men were supposed to be in the
 place, and as the smoke cleared shrieks
 could be heard. At first the firemen were unable to get inside. Finally the rescuers got to work and one after another took out the injured and the dead Two of the dead bodies were not reached until 10 o'clock tonight. The killed are: Fireman Harry King, of No. 1; Fireman Carpenter, No (;
 Fireman Laporte, of No 16 station.
 Seriously injured: Captain Guthrie, Captain Merlin, Bremen Benoit, Broucheau, Charpentier, Reynolds and Bennett.
 The most seriously injured was flre- man David Bennett of No 15, who was badly hurt internally. Tonight he was resting easily.
 All the other men who were only slightly injured were released from the hospital and sent to their homes. All of the killed were married men with families. Laporte represented Mon- treal at the International Firemen's tournament in London, Eng, last sum- mer.
 The loss will reach $150,000. The buildings are all owned by the Grey Nuns and are insured.