The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-17

from him. He held the unconscious
man through all the swaying and
swinging of the ladder. Hastily de-
scending, the fireman turned his I'M
conscious burden over to the police and
returned to his post. The man VINO
had saved the unconscious workman
had disappeared. He had a chance TO
escape had he been brave enough to
/ dash through the smoke and flame. But
if he did not Immediately follow the
fireman who bore away the man he had
picked up on the fifth floor his
charred remains will be found in the
ruins when the search for the dead is
made.
W. a. Olmstead, president of the Ohm
stead Scientific company, ran to the
rear of the seventh floor of the build
ing, 215 Wabash avenue, and has not
been seen since. 1t is thought he has
been buried in the ruins.
TERRIBLE SCENE.
The scene upon the down town
streets rivalled anything seen at a fire
in Chicago for years. The great flames
which shot from the center of the burn
ing structure rose to such a height
in the air that they could be observed
three blocks in either direction down
Wabash avenue. Black volumes of
smoke rolled upward and spread over
the surrounding street, alarming the
crowd.
Busiress in every direction was aban-
doned and the vast throngs made a
rush for the scene.
SHE WAS SAVED.
Katherine Carney, the forewoman of
the National Music company, who was
thought to have been burned to death,
left the building by means of the fire
escape.
Il did all could" she said. ''to get
the girls into the elevator and then,
when l started to get in myself, there
was no room for me. | did not think
there was such great danger at the
time, but in a few minutes, after the
elevator had gone down, 1 saw the
flames were spreading so rapidly that 1
must run for my life. 1 just hurried
to a window which was near the fire
escape, climbed through it and come
down to the ground. a man at the
bottom of the escape was holding a
ladder and he helped me and a num-
Der of others to get out. 1 had not
minute to spare, as the flames burned
by face and hair when L left the build
ing and it was so hot that the rungs
of the fire escape scorched my hands.
All of my girls got away alive, although
one or two are bruised up a little"
LOSSES.
The building was owned by Fred K.
Ayers, of Lowell, Mass. It was worth
about $4,000 and is said to DE partially
insured. Insurance men at the fire
stated that the loss on contents would
be in the neighborhood of $3.50. 600.
The elevated railway tracks, which
pass the building, were badly dam
aged, and there will be a loss OF s1O,O coo
or $4,000 from the breaking of plate
glass in the stores on the opposite side
of Wabash avenue.
MELANCHOLY DOUBTS.
People acquainted with the interior
of the building doubt
that ali of the employees of the fifth
and sixth floors escaped. While there
is a stairway leading from the sixth
to the fifth floor, similar to those on
the other floors, the passageWay to the
next stairway is often barred by
a wire gate. The wire partition and
gates Were erected to protect the prop
erty Of the Presbyterian board of pub
location from thieves who might use
the stairway. None of those who es-
capped knew of any others who had
made their escape by the stairway from
the sixth floor through the fifth. It is
supposed that they tried the stairway
and found themselves closed in by the |
wire partition on the fifth floor and |
were beaten back by the flames from |
making their way through the board |
rooms to the top of the next stairway. !