Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-02-10
DEATH-DEALING FIRE
Eight Killed and Over a Score
Injured at Pittsburg.
PROPERTY Loss OVER $l,500,O0O
Many Firemen Among the Killed
and Wounded.
AW Elm SPRING seen E
AW Elm SPIRING seen

PITTSBURG, Pa, February 1O.-But
eight bodies have been recovered instead
of fourteen, as reported. Four persons are
missing, and the firemen believe a number
of others are still under the ruins. The
dead. as identified, are:
Lieutenant OF Police Berry, John Dwyer,
William Scott, jr., Stanley Sipe, George
Loveiess, William A. Wallrobenstein, Jo-
siah Hanna, William Smith.
The missing are: Nathaniel Green, Thos.
Lynch, John Scott, Edward Barry.
The Injured.
Robert Rosamond, single, aged forty
years, lieutenant of engine company No. 2
right foot crushed; leg amputated below the
knee at Homeopathic Hospital; he was
also bruised about the body. Owen K.
Fielder, aged eighteen, compound fracture
of the right leg. George Douglass thirty
five years, of Bellevue, unconscious; it is
thought he received internal injuries. owen
Aullehan, married, thirty years, lacerated
scalp. VIM. Fleming, thirty-two years,
single, confusion of body and scalp wound.
Joseph Headley, aged ffty-tve years.
bruised about body and head. Kit Wilson,
thirty-siX years, OF Paducah, KY, received
injuries about the head; not fatal. Robert
Dobson, thirty-Iive years, badly injured
about the head and body.
Capt. j. a. A. Brow Il, superintendent of
tlit DiIedu Oh DuliullS lHSpectlOn, rlSnt leg
cut and bruised; Peter Malone, aged TWEEN
ty-nine years, slightly injured about legs,
Davis Stewart aged ntty-two badly cut
by falling bricks; " liiam Desmuke, aged
thirty three years, injured about head and
shoulders; ChaS. Wilson, struck by falling
bricks and seriously hurt; Peter Malone
leg broken; Police Officer Rodgers, cut and
bruised and injured internally; Mrs. Mary
Desmuke, aged thlrty-thTee, cut about head
and arms and hurt internally; Chas. Simon
cInnati, badly cut OH head by brick; Geo.
hing, engineer, NO. engine company,
scalp wound and bruises; John Hunter
stCker, No. { engine company, bruised and
DCtn ankles Spralned.
List OF the Missing.
Nathaniel Green, accountant, Dalmyer
building, supposed to be in the ruins; Thos
Lynch, iceman in employ Of Chautauqua
Company, supposed to be in the ruins on
18th street; Edward Barry, Waterman of
the storage building. 1t is believed at least
ten more bodies in the ruins, which are
still too hot TO be removed The property
loss will reach $l,5UO,OO0, and may exceed
that amount The estimated losses are
Union Storage Company, S15,GOO; Hoevel-
ers storage warehouse and contents $780,,
600; Chautauqua Lake Ice Company, S1JO,-
900; small Penn avenue houses, S2o,tsU; to-
tai, 81 $4,000.
The insurance on the property destroyed
aggregates 81 ,2J0UU0.
Ii was just % o clock last evening when
smoke was seen issuing from the fourth
floor of the Union Storage Company S
building, on Pike street near 18th.
The building was six stories in height,
and occupied almost the entire block be-
tween 18th and 18th streets and Pike street
and Mulberry alley.
The first floor front was occupied as Of
fees of the Chautauqua Lake Ice Com
pany and local office of the Union Stor-
age Company. The second floor front con-
tanned the stables of the Chautauqua, and
in the 18th street end they had their ice
making plant, which occupied the three
first floors. This was filled with valuable
ice-making machinery and other property
of the Chautauqua company. The balance
of the building was occupied by the stor-
age company.
Immediately upon the discovery of the
fire an alarm was sent in and was respond
ed to promptly, but owing to the construc-
ton of the building it was practically i'm
possible to fight the fire from without,
while the volume of smoke inside the par
ticular division in which the fire occurred
made it impossible to fight it from within.
The only openings in the three fire walls
dividing the great building were closed by
heavy iron doors, and these were locked.
Odds Against the Firemen.
For three hours the firemen worked,
scarcely knowing what they We're doing.
their attacks.
The smoke that found its way out of the
building filled Mulberry alley 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 Roadway, but to
no avail.
Finally at II o'clock the flames burst out
through the roof and shot upward a hun
irAI in OH 1nly iyOr, hat a~t
of the city as light as day.
This was the first note of alarm that
started the flight of residents from theil
homes on Pike, 18th and 18th streets. Wo-
men and children started forth barefooteG
and in their night clothes, followed by theil
husbands, bearing what little they coulC
carry in their arms of their household eff
fects. 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 fire engines, which were
everywhere, came the more powerful noise
of the first explosion. The din of falling
walls foretold destruction and death il
thunderous tones. Those within the fire
lines were seen to fall in all directions
Those outside the lines were not withou
the reach of danger. The great puff of all
created by the explosion seemed to make
everything sway and shake. Those mo-
knocked down by the first awful bias
started to run and were knocked down by
the reactionary waves of air as the fallnt
walls created vacuum that seemed t
draw in everything.
1t was on the Mulberry alley side where
the least danger was anticipated the great
est volume of smoke and preliminary out
| bursts of flame having come out of tn,
| Pike street side, that the force of the ex
ploson was the most severe, and there tn,
greatest number of fatalities took place
Adjacent Buildings Crushed.
The falling walls crushed in the rear q
buildings having froEts on Pennsylva nia
avenue. The side OF the Hoeveler building
on Pike street was also crushed in and al
entry made for the flames. At the 1911
street end of the warehouse the most ter
| rtble effect of the explosion was manifest
| The entire front was piled into the street
| Explosion followed explosion for abou
| half an hour between II and l O'clock
| That entire front was piled into the street