Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-03-18
A CHICAGO HOLOCAUST.
16 People Perished and 30 Were
Manned.

Three Men Jumped from the Upper Sto-
rIes and Were Killed InstantIy---Fire
was Started by an Explosion.
Chicago had on Wednesday its m ost saw
age fire since the cold storage warehouse
was burned at the Worlds Fair in 1898,
and in 70 minutes time 10 lives had been
destroyed, 3G people maimed, and a six
story brick building reduced to a mass of
blazing timbers, red-hot bricks and twist
ed iron.
The building had frontage on Wabash
avenue. II was of what is known as mill
construction, had two elevator shafts, one
in front and one in the rear, and reaching
from the third story to the roof was light
shaft, and it was because of this shaft that
the fire spread with such rapidity. 1t is
estimated that 400 persons were at work
in the building
The origin of the fire is unknown. BY
some it is said to have been caused by an
explosion of collodion in the wallpaper
warerooms of Alfred Peats on the third
floor, and by others TO have been the result
of an explosion among some Photographic
chemicals in the Photographic supply
house of Sweet Wallach & Co. on the
sixth floor. Employees of both concerns
deny that there was any explosion.
The sound of the explosion threw the
inmates of the building into panic, and
on several floors wild stampede for the
starways and elevators began.
Harry Gleason and VIM. st. John, the
young men in charge of the elevators,
saved many lives by keeping cool and run
ming the elevators until the supports were
burned away.
There remained only the windows and
. l.,r rf,
ture not over Is inches from side to side.
This was speedily filled with a string of
people, some on one side, some on the 9TH
er. AS they scrambled down in frantic
haste, they trod upon one another's fingers,
! bumped into one another and progress was
| slow and difficult for them all
Many Of those who could not reach the
| fre-escape made their way to the front
windows. Clark, book keeper for the Olm-
! stead Scientific company, remained to put
| the books in the safe. He might have es-
| capped had he run when the alarm was first
| given, He was seen at window on the
sixth floor. The fire was close upon him,
the floors and walls behind him were crash
! ing down, and it was certain death to re-
main where he was. There was no posi-
blity Of help, and he took his only chance.
| Three seconds later he was dead on the
pavement below.
Miles A. Smith, a salesman for the Ohm
stead Scientific company, also leaped from
a window in the sixth story. He hesitat-
Ell some time before taking the leap, but
like Clark understood that it was his only
hope. He was instantly killed, his body
being horribly mangled. Edward Binz,
the cashier of Sweet, Wallach Il Co. on
the sixth floor, fell victim to his desire
to save others and to protect his books
from harm. Upon hearing the alarm he
ran to the rear OF the store - warn the
employees to run for their lives. He then
rushed back to his desk, gathered his
books and jammed them into the vault.
Then he started for the stairway, but the
flames were ahead of him aud he turned
back. There was nothing but the window
and to this he went. He clambered upon
the sill and stood there in view of the
crowd below.
They watched him in silent horror as
he stood there deliberating. The building
was a roaring mass of flames and Binz' s
face and hands were badly burned before
he jumped. His form shot downward
through a cloud of flame and smoke, and
in the drawing of a breath he was killed.