The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-02-05
BLOTTEO OUT.
Six Brave Firemen Killed in a
Blazing Building
At BOstOn-Their Bodies Taken
From the Ruins.

I Boston, Feb. 5.-The bodies of six fire
/ men, among them that of District Chief
/ Egan, have just been taken from the
ruins of the Bent building, which took
fire at o'clock this morning. Dead:
John F. Egan, district chief.
James Victory, captain Engine compa-
MES IS and SO.
George Gotwald, lieutenant engine com
pany No. 80.
Patrick II. Disken, hoseman.
John H. NIulhern, fireman.
W. J. Walsh, hoseman.
Four other firemen were buried in the
ruins, but they escaped with more OF less
serious injuries. They are:
Joseph Mccarthy, captain engine Z.
Thomas f. Conway, hOseman.
T. J. Doherty, hoseman.
Edward, Shea, hoseman.
The building burned was a five story
structure on NIerrimac street occupied by
C. w. Bent & Co., manufacturers of beds,
bedding. etc.
The fire is supposed to have started
in the rear of the fourth story. The
firemen had entered a window and were
at work on the fourth floor when the
roof collapsed, tearing away the top
floor and the one on which the -hremen
were engaged, burying them beneath
the wreck.
The alarm was sounded at 1858 a. m.
The building was filed with the most
inflammable materials. 1t was Joined
on the east by a three story tenement,
on the west was separated by a narrow
alley from a similar structure while in
the rear of the tenement houses on
South Margin street is a narrow light
well.
So quickly did the flames spread to
the fourth and fifth stories that within
a few minutes the three upper stories
rear and the third story front were a
seething furnace of flames, and there
was no prospect that the firemen would
be able to save anything above the sec
Ond story.
The fight was made at the start by
the stairWays, but soon the fremen
were driven back by hot air explosions
and Su1OcatlnS smoke, and were
obliged to fight from the other side
Two ladders were raised on the front
as were also some of the extension lad
derS, while streams were carried from
South Margin street tenements from
the back windows of which floods were
poured into the fiery furnace.
The fire was nearly under control at
the time of the accident.
The men of engine No. were on the
fourth floor and engines 50 and 80 on the
second when the rear section of the
roof collapsed carrying down portions
and burying the fremen beneath a
great mass of debris. A hasty canvass
of the members of the department
showed that ten men were missing.
The first man to be taken out was
Edward Shay, who was found about 40
feet from the front of the building on
the extreme westerly enu, pinned be
tween the timber about midway be
tween the first and second floors, haV-
ing fallen from the fifth floor AS he
was taken out he said to those who
were removing him: Don't bother
about me; get the other fellows that
are in there
Captain Garrity was found within a
few feet of Shay, pinned under some
heavy timbers and was brought out in
a semi-cOnsciOus condition. Tom Con-
roy was pinned under some timbers
which held his legs in such a manner
that timbers had to be sawed through
before he could be released. Next. Phil
Doherty of engine NO. was taken out.
He was apparently the worst injured of
the lot. His left leg was utterly use
less.
Lieutenant Mccarthy of Protective I,
was struck in the leg by falling bricks
when the floors fell.