The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-22
BIG FIRE IN BUTTE, MONT.
FEARS THAT SEVERAL MESSING
 PERSONS HAZE PERISHED.

The Hale House Completely Gutted-Two
 Hundred and Fifty Men and Women in
 the Building When Fire Breaks Out--
 Two Men Die of Injuries-Loss will Reach $1OO,o0O.
 Butte, Mont, March 21.-The Hale house, large three-story brick build- ing on East Broadway used as a Iodg- ing and boarding house by miners in the employ of the Anaconda company. was entirely destroyed by fire this morning. So far as known two men are dead from injuries received, an other is dying and twenty are missing. while a search of the ruins may dis close the fact that many transient lodgers also lost their lives. There were 250 men and women in the build- ing when the fro broke out. Of these it is believed about one hundred escap- ed without injury. The fire started in the back of the building and had a good start before it was discovered.
 LAAC pACAC " dS 41lSI SGEll Uy I1llly. White, Jake Yuch and Jack Dooley. They summoned the watchman 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 filled the railways. Dooley and his companions began kicking in the doors of the rooms. The men awaken ed the women first. In the meantime an alarm had been turned in and tho department responded promptly. When the firemen arrived, men in their un-; derclothing and others half dressed were clambering down the fire escapes8 in the rear. The servant girls and oth-8 CTS 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 be- fore many of the frightened people had jumped
 All the female help were gotten out by the firemen. On the side of the building many had made ropes of theira bed clothing 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 or carried to the hospitals. Those injured slightly or uninjured went to the houses of neigh bors or friends in order to secure cloth- ing. Nothing was saved
 It is impossible to obtain a full list of many who were slightly hurt. The night was bitterly cold, the thermonl eter' registering five below zero. AS long as there appeared any chance of any one being in the building the fre-s men devoted their time to rescue. It is possible that some of the missing men may turn up Early in the day the list of the supposed dead ran as high as fifty This was because many of the men who escaped did not report for work at the mines. Little by little the list decreased as men reported, un-s til at least twenty unknown lodgerS were accounted for. It Is said, how ever, that a number of transient room CTS who are not well known may be dead in the ruins. Only an exan1ina- tion will settle this point and this cam not be made until the ruins cool off. The Hale house belonged to the Ana-a conda company. With the furniture and belongings of the lodgers, the loss will reach $100,000.