The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-03-22

BUTTE (Nont), March 21.-The Hale
House, a large three-story brick build
ing on East Broadway, used as lodg
! ing and clearinghouse by miners in
the employ of the Anaconda company,
was entirely destroyed by fire which
broke out shortly after 3 o'clock this
morning. So far as known two men
are dead from injuries received from
jumping from windows, another is dy-
ing, and twenty are missing while a
search of the ruins may disclose the
fact that many transient dodgers lost
their lives also. The casualties were as
! follows:
| Dead: Matt Doyle, aged 10, miner al
the Mountain Con-, jumped from third
story window, turned over in the air
and struck on his head; Frank Rohe-
! dy, aged 40, lately from Portland, Or,
jumped from third-story window.
Dying: Hugh Boyle aged 80 miner
at Anaconda mine, started to lower
himself from third-story by means OF
{ improvised rope, which parted fifty feet
from the ground.
Injured: Pat Gilligan, went down
with the third floor, badly burned;
John T. Carter badly burned and cut
/ by glass; J. J. Conroy burned on hands
and fractured bones of one foot by
leaping to ground; Barney Reynolds,
fracture of right leg; Mike Judge, right
arm broken He had rescued Patrick
Boyle, who was hanging by a section
| of improvised rope that had broken
from the weight of Hugh Boyle. He
and three companions made another
rope. The others got down safely, but
the rope broke with Judge. John r.
win, burned about the neck and face
and cut by glass.
There were go men and women in
the building when the fire broke our.
OF these it is believed that about 200
escaped without injury.
The fire started in the bakery-house
in the center of the building. and had
! a good start before being discovered.
The blaze was first discovered by Billy
White Jake Yuch and Jack Dooley-
They summoned the Waterman and
rushed to the upper portion of the
building, shouting that the house was
on fire.
By this time the fire had broken
through the first floor, and smoke filed
the Railways Dooley and his compan-
ions realized that there was no time
to lose, and they began kicking in the
doors of the rooms. The men thought
fully awakened the women help first.
The alarm had been turned in, and
the department responded promptly.
When the firemen arrived men in their
underclothes and others half dressed
were clambering down the fire escapes
in the rear. Others and the servant
girls with them were at windows in the
front of the building frantically calling
for help. They were cut off from the
rear of the building by the dense smoke.
The ladders were run up, but not before
many of the frightened people had
male help, were gotten out by the fire
men. On the side of the building many
had made ropes out of their bed clothes
and sought to escape in that way. Some
of them succeeded, but in other cases
the ropes broke, and the men dropped
many feet to the ground.
AS fast as the inmates were rescued
or jumped those injured were placed
in vehicles and carried to the different
hospitals Those uninjured or only
slightly hurt betool1 themselves TO the
houses of neighbors and friends. IN
order to secure some clothing. No one
saved anything but what he or she had
on at the time OF the fire. This made it
impossible to obtain a full list of many
who were slightly hurt. The night was
bitterly cold, the thermometer register
ing > degrees below zero.
AS long as there appeared any chance
OF people being in the building the fire
men gave their attention mostly to saw
ing human life. It was only after there
was no further chance to do this that
they began work on the fire in earnest.
The fire had gained such Roadway that
two hours after it began the walls had
; fallen.
; 1t is possible some Of the missing men
: may turn up yet. Early in the day the
list of the supposed dead ran up as high
as fifty. This was because many of The
men who escaped did not show up foI
: work at the mines. Little by little. how
ever, the list decreased as men re-
ported, until twenty known dodgers
, were accounted for. It is possible, how
ever, that a number of transient ROOM
ers. who are not well known, may be
dead in the ruins. Only an examina-
ton VIII settle that point, and that can.
not be made until the ruins cool off.
The Hale House belonged to the Ana
cCnda Company. 1t was built in 1895 al