The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-03-18
CENTS. HAVEN CONN. MARCH


ance, and many cases of heroic rescu
were witnessed by the throng in tn
street. At the corner of 47th street anC
Fifth avenue, directly across from tn
hotel, is the home of Miss Helen Gould
and at her direction many of the injured
were carried there and were treated by
physicians and nurses whom she ha(
sent for. In the meantime the chief o,
police had telephoned to every hosplta
in the city asking that assistance b'
sent to the sufferers. Ambulances fore
ed their way through the crowds as
quickly as possible and the injured peo-
pie who had made the frightful leaps
from the hotel windows were placed II
them and removed to hospitals. Sever
al occupants of the hotel appeared at
the windows of the sixth and seventh
stories, and even on the roof, and made
their leaps to the streets from those
points. Very few of them escaped eth
er instant death or injuries which re-
suited in their death a short time later,
In the meantime the entire building
was being enveloped in flames, which
shot out from every window and form
ed picture which struck horror to all
those who were witnessing it. Within
| forty or fifty minutes after the fire
broke out the walls on the Fifth avenue
side showed every indication of falling,
and presently with an awful crash they
struck the asphalt covering of the street
! in front of the hotel and caused the
hundreds of people who were standing
there to scatter in every direction. This
weakened the walls on the 46th and 47th
street sides and they followed a moment
later When the walls fell the bricks
and mortar and twisted girders and corr
rugated iron filled the streets on three
sides of the hotel
The first horror occurred just fifteen
minutes after the fire broke out A
handsome woman appeared at the WIN
dow Of a room on the fourth floor. She
held out her arms to the crowd below.
Then she raised her hands as If in
supplication, and in a moment climbed
to the window and leaped. She turned
about like a top and struck the iron
railing in front of the hotel. Her
body seemed to be impaled there, but
it fell off and into the areaway. She
was dead. The woman was identified
N. v.
One of the most thrilling scenes Of
the fire, at a time when the building
was a seething caldron of flame, was
the heroic rescue of several women
from the upper stories, One had been
carried down from the fifth story. Mrs
A. H. Fuller of Pittsburg, Pa, then ap-
peared with her maid at fourth story
window. A fireman ran up the ladder
and with great difficulty brought down
Mrs. Fuller and her maid. Just as she
was gotten out of the window middle
aged woman appeared at window just
north of that at which the ladder was
placed. The woman, fearing that she
would not be rescued prepared to jump.
she was warned to keep back and be-
came panic stricken, and stepped back
into the dense smoke that was pouring
from the window. 1t seemed as though
she had jumped into the flames below
in despair A hook and ladder man,
seeing the desperation of the woman,
seized a scaling ladder and went up
story after story Through binding
smoke. He climbed to the coping just
as the woman reappeared. The fireman
seized her by the waist and holding
her tightly to the wall of the building,
clipped little by little on the coping
and passed the fainting woman to
another fireman, who had braced him
self to receive her. There was a dread
full suspense as the fireman drew the
woman toward him and finally had her
safely on the ladder. A tremendous
cheer went up from the crowd
The first ambulance call was turned
in to Bellevue and within few minutes
half dozen hurry calls were sent in,
taking out the entire force of ambu-
lances and most Of the house staff. The
returned in an incredibly
short time, the driver urging his horse
at full speed and the animal white with
foam. Mrs. c. Simmons was carried to
one of the wards, where her injuries,
of serious burns about the
face and breast, were dressed
Hardly had this ambulance been TAX
en- out of the way when another drew
up to the gates. 1t was in the lead of
a racing caravan of ambulances, the
like of which is seldom seen. The sec .
md ambulance contained Mrs. James S.
Kirk, seventy-five years old, the widow
Of the founder Of the big Chicago soap
Seated with the driver
vas young girl, who frantically urged
lm on. Mrs. Kirk was carried to a
ward, where she died within few min
ties, just as her daughter reached the
hospital, whittier she had come in a
,ab.
In the wake of the ambulances came
dozen cabs and coaches containing
,ersons less seriously injured. The news
# the disaster had spread about the
treets and through the hospital wards,
nd the excitement was intense. Scores
# people came to Bellevue to inquire
or injured or missing friends Every
,vailable e1nploye of the great institu-
ion and all the surgeons who could be
ecured were drafted into service to
lind up the wounds of the injured.
Iany of those who We're brought as pa
tents to the hospital showed remarka-
lie fortitude amidst their intense suf-
ering. A pretty woman insisted on s
aving the surgeon attend a fellow suf-
arer before he finished ON her own frac- |
ured leg "
The doorsteps and iron fences in front !
f the houses on the opposite side Of the {
treet from the hotel We're wrecked by
na fallinp walls and fine amount Of \