The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-29
A DISAs issOUS FIRE
The White stone Building In ST. Louis
Burned-Narrow Escape of Eight Lady
Clerks One Person Killed - The Loss
Nearly 81 100000

ST. Louis, October PA lighted
cigarette dropped by a thoughtless
clerk is supposed to have caused the
fire which this Afternoon practically
gutted the White Stone building at
the corner of Seventh and Chestnut
streets, occupied by the general offices
of the Wabash railroad.
At 1:25 o'clock, just after the clerks
had returned from their noon recess,
and were beginning work, a policeman
standing on the corner below noticed
a small tongue of flame shoot out from
a window in the Fifth story Of the
building, which was used as a storage
attic. Instantly puff of dense black
smoke followed and the officer rush d
into the building shouting the alarm
Instantly there was a confused rush
for every means of exit. Fortunately
the stairwaYs were wide, the building
in former years having been used for
the public school library and the
polytechnic institute
The attic was stored with old papers
and documents, and within five min
utes was a roaring furnace. The
whole floor seemed to suddenly burst
into flame in every part. During all
this excitement seven young women
employed in one of the inner mailing
rooms on the fourth floor had not
been ntified and were still wrkng, un-
conscious of their peril. When they
did discover their situation, they
found to their horror that it was i'm
posi- ible to reach the stairs, the
stairway was burning fiercely. They
appeared at the window and a horror
went up from the streets.
THE fire escape" shouted the
crowd, and the young women cOmpre-
hending, disappeared and a moment
later climbed out on the iron platform
of the escape. They hesitated. but
advancing flames gave them deter
minatiOn and they started on their
descent reaching the street in safety
as a laundering cheer went up.
With the first alarm, the real estate
agents, who coupled the lower floor,
began removing their books and pa
pers. Everything that could be gotten
out was taken across the street to
the new Wright building.
Fire Chief Swingley sent in a gen.
eral alarm, but owing to the narrow
street and the net work of wires, it
required fifteen minutes to hoist and
train the stand pipes. By this time,
| the two top floors of the building
were doomed and it was apparent
| that the entire building must go. An
| order was given to cut the electric
wires. Dense thrOngS blocked every
| thoroughfare. Without warning, the
wires were clipped and in an instant
| the throngs were madly falling back
as flashes of blue and yellow lightning
| spluttered from the ends Of the deadly
| wires that came failing to the ground.
Nobody was injured, but a wire struck
a fire horse, killing it in its tracks.
| At 80 O'Clock the roof fell with a crash
| sending burning embers into the air
| which fell on adjoining buildings and
started fires, but prompt measures pre-
| vented further confiagration.
| A. r. Field a clerk, was carrying
| some books from the first floor when
the crash came. Flying debris struck
| him on the head, tearing lit open down
| to the eyes and nose.
| At 2:30 o'clock the fire, though still
burning fiercely, was practically under
| control, and at O'Clock, with the ex-
| ception Of patches of burning .embers
had been extinguished. An officer Of
the Wabash Company estimates their
loss at $5O0,00 Statements place the
| valuation of the building at 100000
| The Wabash company had occupied
new quarters before the fire was under
| troll