The San Francisco call., 1898-03-17
LOADED BY
 FLAMES TO
 FATAL LEAPS Great Loss of Life Att tends a Fire in
 Chicago. Occupants of a Burning Building Jump to Their
 Death. Others Perish Before They Can Reach the Doors or Windows. LONG LIST OF MISSING. HsroisYa of Fireman and a Brave Woman in Rescuing the
 Inperiled.
LONG LIST OF MISSING.
Hsrois,,a of Fireman and Brave Woman in Rescuing the
 Inperiled.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

CHICAGO. March 16.-It required just twenty minutes this afternoon for one of the most savage fires Chicago has seen since the famous cold storage warehouse fire on the Worlds Fair grounds in 1893, to take from five to fifteen lives, main thirty people and reduce a six-story brick building to nile of blazing timbers, red hot bricks and twisted iron. The number of dead Is still in doubt, and probably will not be definitely known until the debris Of the building is sufficiently cooled to ad- init of a search being made for the bodies that are undoubtedly in the ruins. This will be days hence at least Three men are known to be dead. They are:
 SAMUEL A. CLARK, bookkeeper for the Olmstead Scientific Company.
 MILES A. SMITH, salesman for the Olmstead Scientific Company.
 EDWARD BINZ, cashier for Sweet, Wallach Co.
 The list of missing includes over a score of names.
 The building was six stories high, had a frontage of fifty-eight feet on Wa  feet to an alley. It was of what is known as mill construction, and had two elevator shafts, one in front, one in the rear, and reaching from the third story to the roof was light Shaft which gave the flames every chance, and it was because of this shaft that the fire spread with such awful rapid ity The building was occupied by number of concerns, some of them em- ploying large numbers of people. It is estimated that 400 people were at work when the fire was discovered.
 The origin of the fire, which was fol- lowed by an explosion, is in doubt, but the weight of evidence seems to be that the explosion was in the lower part Of the building, for the flames shot up the light shaft at once.
 The elevator in the front or the building was deliberate affair. in good order, but not calculated to make much speed in such an emergency as con- fl Jnted it to-day. Gleason made one trip to the seventh floor, carried down a load of women, and although the smoke was rolling through the building in dense clouds he started up again. At the fourth floor he stopped to take on a crowd of girls from the rooms of the National Music Company, being assist ed in his work by Miss Katharine Car ney. the forewoman. A man attempted to force his way into the elevator, put Gleason showed him back into the nall that the women might have the nrst chance The man never came out
 At the rear St. John did equally good work, but was not able to make more than one trip, as the nre swept through that part of the building be- fore it attacked the front. In less than ten minutes after the expioslon all escape of the inmates by the stars o-5 elevators was cut off
 Many of those who could not reach the fire escape made their way to the front windows, and it was out Of these that Clark, Smith and Binz hurled themselves to death.
 One fireman distinguished himself by a darin- rescue. He was up on a ladder close to the building when he heard a cry ringing out above the roar of the flames. He steadied himself on the ladder and peered into the dense smoke. Just then gust of wind cleared the scene. The fireman saw a man in a willow of the fifth floor carving an inanimatc form. That the rescuer was about to throw the un- conscious human being into the street in the vain hope of saving the man . from a death by roasting was evident
 The fire was roaring so that no voice could be heard. Putting up his hands as signal to wait until he got ready,
  tbe ladder. and reached out his arms fer the rescuer to drop the unconscious nan to him. With a shock that nearly knocked the heroic fireman from his po- sition 1pon the ladder. the body of the man struck the fire-fghter. But it did not get away from him. He held the unconscious man through all the swaying and swinging of the ladder. Hastily descending, the fireman turned his unconscious burden over to the po- lice and returned to his post. The man who had saved the unconscious work man had disappeared.
 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.
 CT did all could" said she "to get the girls into the elevator. and then when I started to get in myself there was no room for me. I did not think there was such great danger at the time but in a few minutes, after the elevator had gone down, I saw the flames were spreading so rapidly that I must run for my life. I hurried to a window. which was near the fire es- cane climbed through it and came down to the ground. A man at the bottom of the escape was holding a ladder. and he helped me and a number of others to get out. I had not a min ute to spare as the flames burned my face and hair when I left the building, and it was so hot that the rungs on the fire escape scorched my hands. All of my girls got away alive, although one or two are bruised up a little."