The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-24
n1a TIRE IN sAN rRANo1sco.

V N'NNfN tHl9 HUI llAll6 lAiS l'SNAN"AAA AAShNN caught fire and it has been entirely de- stroyed. There were eight hundred peo- pie, guests and employees, in the hotel when the fire broke out, and a number of these people are thouiht to have lost their lives. A. J. White Is one of the victims, but before he gave up his life he saved the lives of three women. The fire is said to have started in the kitch- en, located in the basement on the Ellis street side, It worked it's way up through the fiue to the sixth floor and before the alarm was sent in the fire had gained great headway. The first alarm was followed by others in rapid succession until five calls had been sent in summoning every piece of apparatus at the command of the department. Thousands of people were attracted by the succession of alarms and the glare from the burning building, and before the police stretched ropes almost block aded Marget, Eddy, Powell and Ellis streets,
 For years the Baldwin has been re- garded by the fire department as the most dangerous fire-trap in San Fran cisco. Built of wood, six stories high, with narrow and tortuous, railways, 1t is wonder that half of the people in the hotel this morning escaped. They were slow to wake Many were dazed and supplied by smoke when the police, | the flremen and the hotel employees, hurrying through the railways, kicked open doors and notified the people of | their danger. When they managed to | reach the windows and fire escapes there were no ladders. Many started to jump to the street, but were warned not to do so by the crowds below. Then the firemen got up their ladders and commenced rescuing many in this man. ner.
 1 In the interior of the hotel an explo- sion in the theater caused that portion of the building to cave in. This eXplo- sion also extinguished the electric lights l throughout the building. There were many people in the upper halls and corridors at that time, and firemen and policemen were trying to lead them 10 the Market and the Powell street Win- | dows
 The entire top of the hotel was blaz- ing mass Those in the street below could see through the rifts in the smoke along the cornices forms of men and women crouching and clinging to the l woodwork, which was already begin ming to shoulder. Streams from thirty engines were being pured upon the blazing building from every point of vantage, but without any apparent ef- feet. Explosion followed explosion. The roof of the building collapsed, taking with it back into the building number of those who had been clinsing for life to the attic gables.
 The death of White was most dra- matic. Three women appeared on the cornice of the fifth floor on the Market street side of the hotel The firemen could not reach them with ladders and they stood helpless, screaming with ter TOT. Suddenly White came out of a window carrying small rope. With this he lowered the women into the arms of the flremen who were waiting at the windows of the next floor. Then he started down the rope hand over hand Half way down the rope parted and the man who had just saved three
 lives was dashed to the pavement one
 hundred feet below.
 At 9:10 a. m. the Market street side seemed to be crumbling. An alarm was
 sounded and the crowds scattered. A
 few moments later a stream was turn
 ed on the chimney. The fall of the
 chimney caused the remaining portion
 of the fifth floor to give way and it
 came down with a crash. The entire
 front and center of the hotel wall set tied and the f1remen working at the en-
 zines stationed opposite the west wing
 deserted their position, expecting the
 mass to fall in their direction, but the walls sagged only two or three feet ant
 remained stationary.
 The Baldwin theater was completely demolished by the falling of the fiftf floor. The entire effects of the "Secre
 Service" company, which was filling al
 engagement at that theater, were de
 stroyed. The scenery and stage set
 tings were very valuable. A great dea
 of jewelry and money belonging to tht
 members of the company was lost. II addition the contracts were burned. Int
 wall on the south side appears to bt : strong, but the west wall, which ap pears to be very weak leans toward tht
 interior of the ruins.
 The Columbia theater and places O ! business opposite the Baldwin were
 damaged by water to the extent of s15 900. E. J. Baldwin, owner. of the hotel is prostrated and unable to tell mucl about his affairs. He says he will no be able to estimate his loss for severa : days. He carried S100,000 insurance, bu cannot remember in what company. H W. Lake, manager of the hotel, barrel, managed to get out with his wife ant child. He says there were 302 guest in the hotel.
 } Lucky Baldwin had a narrow es
 cape from perishing in his own hotel
 Amid all the din he slept peacefully un
 til his room was broken into and he wa
 dragged from his bed.
 H. I. Kowalski, well known attor
 ney, was also dragged unconscious iron his bed He will recover.
 One of the most thrilling incidents o the fire was the rescue of A. H. Chris tie by Fireman Keough. For a fey minutes Christie ran to and fro on tn cornice of the fifth floor, seeking il vain for some way to escape the rapid ) ly approaching flames. Fireman
 Keough, after many efforts, managed t
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