The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-11

000 A complete list of the companies in
NolFed cannot be obtained at this time, and
the exact amount Will not be known until
there is a meeting of the underwriters.
The Onion Storage Company's building
was six stories high and occupied almost
the entire block between Twelfth. Thir-
teenth and Pike streets and Mulberry alley.
The first floor front occupied offices
ri the Chautauqua Lake Ice Company and
local Office of the Union Storage Com
pany. The second floor front contained the
stables of the Chautaqua Company, and in
the Twelfth street they had their ice-mak-
ing plant. which occupied the three first
doors. This was filed with valuable ice
making machinery and other property OF
the Chautauqua company. The remainder
Of the building was occupied by the storage
company.
COULD NOT OPEN DOORS.
Immediately upon the discovery of the
fire an alarm was sent in and was re-
sponded to promptly. but owing to the
construction of the building it was prac-
tically impossible to fight the fire from
without while the volume of smoke in
side the particular division in which the
fire occurred made it impossible to fight it
from behind. The only opening in the three
fire walls dividing the great buildings were
closed by heavy iron doors, and these were
locked. For three hours the firemen
worked, scarcely knowing what they were
doing The iron shutters were impregnabie
TO their attacks. The smoke that found its
way out OF the building filled Mulberry al
ley and Pike street, sitting the firemen and
rendering them practically sightless. 1t
would clear for moment or two, and they
would again maneuver to make some head
way but to no avail.
Finally, at IL o'clock, the flames burst
out through the roof and shot upward a
hundred feet in the air and making that
part of the city as light as day. This was
the hFst note of alarm that started the
flight of residents from their homes in Pike,
Thirteenth and Twelfth streets. Women
and children started forth barefooted and
husbands bearing what little they could
carry IN their arms of their household eff
feets., The police were. watchful,. and the
crowds were kept back by fire lines and
the fearful heat of the flames.
Suddenly, above the roar of the flames
and the putting Of the fire engines, which
We're everywhere, came the more powerful
noise Of an explosion. The din of falling
walls foretold destruction and death in
tnunderOuS tones. Those within the fire lines
We're seen to fall in all directions. Those
outside the lines were not without the reach
Of danger. The great puff of air created by
the explosion seemed to make everything
sway and shake. Those not knocked down
by the first awful blast started to run, and
We're Knocked down by, the reactionary
a vacuum that seemed TO draw in every
thing IT was on the Mulberry-alley side
where the least danger was anticipated
the greatest volume of smoke ard prelimi-
nary outbursts of flames having come out
of the Pike-street side-that the eorce of the
explosion was the most severe, and there
the greatest number of fatalities took place.
The falling walls crushed in the rear of
buildings which have fronts on Pennsyl-
vania avenue. The side of the Hoeveler
building, on Pike street. was also crushed
IN, andNan entry made for the flames. At
the Thirteenth-street end of the warehouse
the most terrible effect of the explosion was
manifest That entire front was piled into
the street Explosion followed explosion for
about half an hour between IL and
a cannon, burst through the walls in all d.
rections. Burned-out walls came topping
down, and firemen, policemen and specta-
tors were rendered almost powerless to act
bynthe sense of awe and terror which the
sceBe inspired.
NARROW ESCAPE OF FIREMEN.
The old brick houses along Penn avenue,
from Twelfth to Thirteenth streets, caught
from the rear and burned rapidly. Only
few streams could be used on the Penn-ave-
nue. fronts of these houses, and the crowd
was slowly driven off the opposite side of
the avenue to greater distances. A whole
company of firemen was throwing stream
into the great storage house from a narrow
courtyard in the rear of Penn avenue, from
which a much narrower alley led to the
street. About 1870 particularly heavy ex-
plosion occurred. and part of the heavy
wall cf the storage house toppled over on
the roofs of the houses; and into the court
yard. The firemen at work there escaped by
the narrowest chance.
In the meantime, the scene in Pike street
was an even more awe-inspiring one. the
instant following the first big explosion the
warehouses of Hoeveler & Co. caught fire.
and this was followed by the falling in of
the wallAo of the building of the Chautauqua
Lake Ice Company. Here the tiremen also
had narrow escapes. Through the Hoeveler
warehouse the flames swept like DUST
cloud before the wind The building, though
rev. was of ordinary construction, ana pre-
scented all that was needed in the way of
material for a fierce fire. Added to this
was the nature of Its contents, 600 barrels
of whisky. One after another of these par
rels exploded, throwing blazing beams ana
rafters masses of stone and brick into the
air and scattering the firemen, police and
From the blazing timbers, which were
hurled in every direction, the fire was COM
municated to the adjoining buildings. Nc
KaIlup & Co.'S grain and feed warehouse
on the corner of Pike street. caught in the
rear, and, despite the efforts of the fire
men, the flames worked their way into the
renter of the building and then mounted
Ivy the elevator shaft to the roof, through
which Il was soon pouring. The building
and grain. On the ground floor was stored
several hundred tons of anthracite coal. So
fierce was the fire that this was soon burn
ing, and under the draft influenced by the
heat was pouring out gaseous Fumes thai
spread through the building and almost
oyercame the firemen who were working
to keep back the flames.
Following the last explosion. in moment
1t seemed the flames leaped across the mar
row space that separated the great ware
house from the rear of the buildings facing
Penn avenue, and were most dangerous
around the building occupied by CT Clock
ner as a saloon, at No. 1247 In less than
five minutes this shell-like structure was
a blazing mass, and from each side the
flames rapidly ate their way into the tad
Joining buildings. The store occupied by
the Country Milk Company next caught.
and went uD like finder. Laudau's bargain
store at 1913. went next. and this was fol-
lowed by j. S. Wilson's barber shop at 1241.
No. 1881 great four-story building, occu-
pied by a grocery company, then caught
from the rear, and in less than five minutes
the entire structure was in flames and was
soon i'm ruins 1t was o'clock a. IN. before
the fire was under control
During the morning it was reported that
at least twenty thirty people had been
exaggeration. AS fast as the bodies of
those killed by the explosions and falling
WssAtS were recovered they We're taken to
the morgue. while the injured We're carried
to the Homeopathic Hospital. The scenes
at both places were narrowing. the dead
being badly mangled and burned while the
broken bones of some of the injured pro-
tins were buried under tons of debris. while
Others who were at an apparently safe dis
lance when the explosions occurred were
knocked down by flying bricks.
Late tonight the headless body of Will
liam McGounigle. assistant engineer of the
Chautauqua Ice Company, was taken from
the ruins and identified The body at the
norgue supposed to be John Scott has been
positively identified as that of the young
man.
Fire Loss at st. Louis