The San Francisco call., 1898-01-26
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 SPOKANE, Jan. 25-Eight lives lost. families broken, a mother crazed by the loss of her two daughters and a property loss of over a quarter of mil- lion dollars-that is the result of last nights fire in the Great Eastern block.
 The list of dead so far known fol- lows: Miss AliceWilson, aged 1S Miss Maud Wilson, her sister, aged 5; Mrs. Rose Smith, tight-rope artist, known as Greba, aged 20; Mrs. H. B. Davies of Nebraska City, Nebr-, aged 72; w. B. Gordon, mining engineer; Mrs Cora Peters and two daughters, Ethel and Alma, aged and '. Mrs Peters was erroneously reported to-day as Mrs. Gordon. Gordon sacrificed his life try- ing to save her and her children, and 1t was in their rooms that he met his death.
 To-day the local Board of Fire In- surance Agents compiled an estimate of the property lost, fixing it at s225, 900. The insurance was S133,S25. The loss is generally believed to be far in ex- cess of the estimate, for the building cost $25O,OOO only nine years ago.
 Mrs. J. K. Wilson, whose home was formerly at Tekoa, lost both of her daughters. She has become insane over the loss. and is being cared for at the Protestant Sanitarium.
 Mrs. H. B. Davies, who was killed by falling to the pavement from the fifth floor, fell in attempting to follow her son-in-law down an electric cable Her hands slipped on the icy strands and she fell headlong. She retained consciousness until she died two hours later. She had recently been visiting her daughter, Dr. Emma J. Pronger, who saved herself by leaping from the fifth floor and catching a ladder a floor below. Mrs. Davies leaves two sons, Rev. F. G. Davies of the First Baptist | Church of Ottumwa, Iowa, and Sam uel T. Davies of Nebraska City, Nebr. i Her body will be shipped to the latter place for interment.
 ! Mrs. Smith, the tight-rope walker. i had an inside room on the fifth floor She was recovering from an attack of ! pleurisy. Her screams were heard l but no one could save her, because of ! the intense smoke.
 ! Mrs. Cora Peters hailed from Wicks. Mont, and had relatives at Marshall ! Junction, this State. She was some times known as Mrs. w. B. Gordon. although another lady who lives a few blocks up the street Is generally ac- credited with the name. Gordon was not in the building when the fire started He rushed upstairs when the halls were filling with smoke and tried to get Mrs Gordon and children out of their fifth floor rooms. The boy is supposed to have escaped by the back stairs and is said to have sprained his ankle doing so. Gordon was cut off by smoke.
 John H. Peet, from the avenue, saw Gordon's face at the window and tried to have ladders elevated to him, but the ladders fouled the electric wires and produced a short circuit. Then the peo- ple began to swarm down the ladders i from the fourth floor, jumping out to catch them Presently Gordon was seen to fall back, evidently overcome by smoke. and flames played where his face had been. He was a mining man. formerly superintendent of a smelter at Wicks. Mont, and later of the smell ter at Pilot Bay, B. c. He was re- garded highly among mining men. The local mining men will bury him when the remains are recovered.
 All the loss of life occurred on the | fifth floor. When the fire started in the ! basement the flames ate their way 1 through the first floor before being dis covered, then shot up the elevator and air shaft to the roof, filling the upper corridors with dense smoke This caused a panic among the people. Sto- ries of hearbreadth escapes on all the floors are numerous.
 On the second, third and fourth floors there was no panic. City Con- troller George Liebes. William Gaston, N. B. Buckler and others directed the 1 escapes and saved many lives by quiet ] ing the women and covering delicate | women, who were making frantic efforts to get out, clad in only night clothes. although the temperature was close to zero.