The herald., 1898-03-17
Wipes Out a High Chicago
Building
MANY LIVES ARE LOST
BUT THE NUMBER Is STILL
UNCERTAIN
SCORES OF PEOPLE MANNED
The Known Dead Met Their Fate by
Jumping to the Pavement.
Heroic Rescues
Associated Press Special Wire

| 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 faii
grounds in 1885, to take anywhere from
five to fifteen lives, main thirty people
and reduce a six-story brick building
to a pile of blazing timbers, red hot
rocks 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
admit 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 of the
Olmstead Scientific company.
Miles A. Smith, salesman for the Ohm
stead Scientific company.
Edward Bonz, cashier for Sweet, Wal
ZACH & Co.
The missing, of whom nothing could
whom are without question burned in
the wreck of the building, are:
I The building was six stories high, had
and extended back 100 feet to an alley.
1t was of what is known as mill con-
struction, and had two elevator shafts,
one in front and 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 rapidity.
I.
Der of concerns, some of them employ
ing large numbers of people. 1t is es-
timated that four hundred people were
at work in the building when the fire was
discovered. The origin of the fire. which
followed 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.
A WILD PANIC
The sound of the explosion threw the
inmates of the building into a panic,
and on several floors wild stampede
began for the stairways and elevators.
To add to the panic, the men in charge
of the elevators ran their cars up to the
top of the building, shouting Fire." at
every floor. When they reached the top
both elevators took on a load of fright
ened women and started for the bottom.
The front elevator was in charge of
Harry Gleason, a boy, and the rear one
was handled by William st. John, a
young man. Both of these kept their
heads, showed much GOODNESS and brav-
cry, and were instrumental in saving
many lives. The elevator in the front of
the building was a deliberate affair, in
good order, but not calculated to make
much speed in such an emergency as
confronted it today. 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 assisted
in his work by Miss Katherine Carney,
the forewoman. A man attempted to
force his way into the elevator, but
Gleason showed him back into the hall
that the women might have the first
chance. The man never came out.
After reaching the bottom of the shaft