Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-03-23
An APPALLING HOTEL FIRE.
The Windsor in New York
Destroyed and Many
Lives Lost.
LARGE LIST OF MISSING.
Flames Eat UP the Well Known
Hosiery as If II Were
So Much Straw.


New York. March lS.-The Windsor
Hotel, one of the best-known and most
popular of New York's older hotels.
was destroyed yesterday afternoon by
a fire in which fourteen persons are
known to have lost their lives. The
property loss is about S1,000,00O.
About fifty persons were injured,
either by being burned or by jumping
from the windows of the hotel. many
of them seriously and some of them
fatally, while at Il late hour last night
about sixty persons. including guests
and employees of the hotel and police
men, were 'unaccounted for. 1t is
thought that some of them were bur-
led in the ruins and that their bodies
will be found when thorough search
is possible.
The fire was probably the most ca
lamitous hotel blaze New York has
ever known. 1t is thought to have
been started from Il window curtain
taking fire from lighted match that
was thrown from Il second-stOry win
dow. The St Patrick's procession was
passing the hotel when the fire start
ed, and many of the guests were
watching it from the windows. The
fire spread through the corridors with
the speed of the wind and within
twenty minutes the entire building
seemed wrapped in flames.
Several of the dead We're killed by
jumping from the windows. Panic
seemed to reign inside the hotel from
the first. The firemen saved many
lives by their heroic deeds. but they
were powerless to control the flames.
New York. March 19.-As the details
of the great fire which destroyed the
Windsor Hotel in which so many lives
were lost. OH Friday afternoon, begin
to smooth themselves into one connect
I'd story the more disastrous does the
terrible affair become. 1t is possible
to arrive mt the conclusion that at
least seventeen men and women are
known TO have lost their lives either
by being burned or by jumping from
the burning building into the street be-
low The number of those who We're
believed to have been within the walls
Of the hotel when the fire started, but
who have not yet been accounted for,
has been somewhat increased, but the
list is considerably changed, as some
of those who had escaped but had not
reported their safety found time and
occasion to do so.
1t is not thought that when the ruins
,an be searched thoroughly many bod
les will be discovered 1t is impossi
BILE. however. for anything like a
search to be made among the ruins,
for they have not sufficiently cooled
1t is therefore probable that not for
several days will the exact extent Of
the loss of life be known. force
Of laborers began to work on part Of
the ruins. but did not accomplish
much. Little else is talked of any
where and little else is read in the
newspapers The awfulncss of the
sudden fate that overlook so many
persons in broad daylight gave rise to
much speculation as to what would
have happened had the fire broke out
in the middle of the night. From this
point the public Imagination turned to
what would be likely to happen in
certain other hotels that are no better
prepared to cope with sudden out
breaks of fire than was the Windsor
Hotel. AS near as can be ascertained
at this time. the Windsor Hotel was
provided with all precautions against
| fire. and all the fire escapes that the
| law demanded But the fact remains
that the fire could scarcely have
burned with more rapjdity had the
building been constructed with an eye
| TO making one grand bonfire out of it.
Commissioner Thomas J. Brady. of the
Department of Buildings. said that the
hotel was Il fire trap in the sense that
every hotel hospital. theatre or build
lng of a similar public character erect
I'd in accordance with the building
laws that prevailed before 1892 was a
| fire trap. Il place of certain peril in
| time of fire.
c. w. Squires. the cashier OF the
Windsor. when seen at the Hotel Man
haitian, where he is now staying, said:
There were many persons in the ho-
| tel when the fire started who were not
guests, but l cannot say whether any
Of them were lost. All the afternoon
persons had been coming into the Office
and asking permission to go upstairs
so that they might view the parade.
Most of them were women, and all
those who appeared to be respecta-
BILE were told that they might do so.
[ do not know how many outsiders
were in the hotel, but the number was
large.
"Most of the persons who had come
in to view the parade stationed them
selves at windows on the parlor floor,
and lot of them went out on the roof
Of the entrance to the front. These
persons had every chance to escape,
and most likely did so. as they were
not far from the stairway and close
to the ground. but some of them may
have perished. IF any of them went
up further than the parlor floor. how
ever, they were caught there by the
flames. Then. too, Il number of the
guests had visitors in their rooms and
If any of these persons peris, ell it may
be several days before the fact be.
comes known"
Mrs. Nellie Thomas, the assistant
housekeeper had an almost miracu.
lous escape from death. She was al
work on the sixth floor when the fire
broke out. She ran to the stairs and
found escape shut off. She then wen,
to the elevator shaft and was met by
flames pouring up from below. Then