The herald., 1898-03-17

and dislodged signs and streams of
water were directed on the buildings on
both sides of the street that far away
in order to prevent them from catching
fire. Several minor blazes did occur.
The f1ercest fire was In the rear of the
Conover Company. where were located
big dry goods stores. Thirty-flve min
utes after the fire broke out the floors
had all fallen and a moment or two later
the wall fell. Shortly after the front
wall bulged outward and fell. the tracks
of the Union Elevated loop being COM
pletely covered with debris and block
ing the whole elevated system. Nearly
two hundred feet of the loop will have
to be rebuilt.
A HEROIC WOMAN
Miss Kate Carney, forewoman of the
National Music Company, on the fourth
floor of the Emerson building. is thought
to have been burned to death after he
roically helping to save many lives OF
her fellow employees. When it was
first learned the building was on fire, the
forty or more girls employed by the Ma
tional Music Company rushed to the
elevators and stairway. Miss Carney
tried to stop the rush, but was unable to
cope with the panic-stricken girls, and
| while some rushed down the stairways,
large number beat at the elevator
cage and screamed for help. The ele-
vator was ascending and the conductor
stopped at the fourth floor. In an in
stant it was filled with the frightened
girls. Miss Carney remained on the
floor to see that all the girls escaped
and as the last one entered the car Miss
Carney started to follow. There was
such a crowd In the elevator that Miss
Carney could not get in and the elevator
descended without her. 1t is thought
she was too late to escape. and over
come by smoke, which was pouring into
the place, fell to the floor and was
burned to death. The heat was so in
tense and the smoke so thick that the
elevator man feared to return for Miss
Carney.
| Josie Baxa and Annie Baxa. sisters,
living at 56S West Nineteenth street. and
employed by the National Music Com
pany, leaped from the second floor to
| the street. Josie's right ankle was
broken and her sister was severely
| bruised.
A FEARFUL PANIC
The fire seemed to spring from three
| floors at one time.
| The occupants of the fourth floor of
the Emerson building fled to the rear of
the building. On the fifth floor and the
sixth floor those in the front of the build
| ing saw the smoke and flames at the
| same time. There was no time for in
| quiry. The dense smoke rushed through
| the rooms and drove the employees of the
| various establishments down the stair
way. There was but one winding stair
way leading from the top floor to the
bottom and but one elevator. In the en-
lploy of Sweet, Wallach & Co.were twenty
| eight men and women. There were a
dozen or more in the employ of the Pres
| byterian Board of Publications on the
| fifth floor. There was frightened rush
| Of people to the elevator at the first
call of fire. The elevator boy was on the
fourth floor when the alarm was given.
From the National Music Company and
the office of Alfred Bierlic, on the fourth
floor, half dozen employees were taken
down to the first floor The boy returned
at once to the upper floors and his ele-
vator was loaded again. He did not
dare to make third trip for the smoke
was pouring down the shaft.
| Men and women without hats or coats
ran down the stairway and into the
| street. The first intimation people on the
street had of the fire was the appearance
of the fleeing employees. At the same
time dense mass of smoke poured out
Of the front windows of the fifth floors.
| Miss Carney was true heroine. AL
though at the outset she had an oppor-
tunity to escape with the other women
she said she felt it her duty to stay and
help the escape of the girls over whom
she had charge. Her voice could be
heard above the shrieks of the panic
stricken girls, urging them to preserve
order and reassuring them again and
again.
Several people made an attempt tc
run up the narrow stairway, but were
turned back at the second floor by the
downward rush of the smoke. There
apparently were not over thirty people
who made their escape by the elevators
and stairway. The building blazed SC
fiercely that the escaping employees
began looking for each other in the
crowd that gathered quickly at the
I scene. A number of the people on the
upper floors made their escape from the
rear by the fire escapes, but that egress
| WIS cut OIL III a lew moments Dy tne
flames. Then the spectators were hor-
rifled to see the body of man whirling
downward from the cloud of smoke and
flames at the upper floor. The body
struck the pavement and life was ex-
tinct when ready hands ran to pick iIr
the unfortunate, who was recognized at
once as Cashier Binns, of Sweet Wal
| ZACH & Co. A moment later two other
| forms were seen at the window of the
north side of the Wabash end of the
building. and, within a second of each
other they came whirling down.
| Several women standing in group on
the opposite side of the street, watching
! the leaping forms of the two men, with
blanched faces, said they saw the face of
woman at the window for an instant,
when the wind swept away the smoke.
In the next instnat, and, with rush and
roar that could be heard for block, the
entire top of the building, from the third
story up. burst out in a sheet of flame.
How the firemen working in the rear
of the building escaped death, is mys-
terry. In spite of the repeated warnings
given them by their Chief, they re-
mained at their post, apparently fas-
cinated by the slowly bulging wall, until
/ tot