Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-03-23
Estimates of the Loss of Life
Range from Is to 20.
THIRTY OR FORTY INJURED.
All Avenues of Escape Were Quickly
Cut OFF and Panic-Stricken Guests
Leaped from the Windows and Were
Killed.
THE DEAD:


Leland, Helen, daughter of Warren
Leland, jumped from window.
Paddock. Mrs. Amelia, Irvington, \.
y.
Kirk, Nancy Ann( Mrs. James S.
kirk, Chicago.
Pierce. Mrs. NJ, Macon, Ga.
Grandy. Miss Lascelles, Elizabeth
City, n. c.
Gibson, Mrs. Addie, aged 35.
Goodman. Eleanor Louise, aged II.
Connolly, John, hotel employe.
Two unknown women.
Unknown man seen to jump from
roof at rear of hotel, body not recoy-
cred.
Unknown child, thrown from window
by mother, body not recovered.
Unknown woman, mother of the
child, jumped from window, body not
recovered.
New York, March 1S.--Flames which
originated from the igniting of a lace
curtain bursted forth from the sec
ond floor of the Windsor hotel at
| FOrty-seventh street and Fifth avenue
shortly after o'clock Friday after
noon. just as the St. Patrick's day pa
rade was passing the building and in a
few minutes leaped up to the roof and
enveloped the entire front of the hotel.
Ten minutes later the flames were
roaring through the interior of the
| hotel, and all escape by means of
| stairways and elevators was cut off.
| There was the widest scene of ex-
citement within and without. Hun
dreds of guests and employees were in
| the hotel when the fire broke out, and
| for many of them escape with safety
was impossible.
Probably from / 3 to 90 lives were lost
| within half an hour and 30 to 40 per
sons were injured in jumping from
windows and in rushing through the
roaring flames in the corridors and on
| the stairways. Many who were in
| iured dide later at nearby residences
| and hospitals and others who made
wild leaps to the stone sidewalk were
so badly injured that they are hover
| ing between life and death. 1t may
be "a hours before the complete list
| of fatalities becomes known and it will
be longer than that before it can be
ascertained definitely how many
charred bodies are in the mass of
masonry that marks the spot where
! the hotel stood.
The flames could not be checked and
in two hours from the time the fire
| broke out the entire structure was in
! ruins and the streets on three sides of
| the building were filled with debris,
while the streams of water poured
upon the ruins had no other effect than
to fill the air with clouds of scading
steam. making it impossible for any
one to approach near enough to search
for the bodies of those who perished.
The fire was the most spectacular
that could be imagined. When it broke
| out Fifth avenue was crowded with
| people watching the St. Patrick's day
parade and every window in the front
of the hotel facing Fifth avenue was
filled with spectators. An unusually
large number of people Were on the
streets. fact which interferred not a
| little with the movements of the fire
men and police. As soon as the flames
were discovered shooting from the win
dows that part of the St. Patrick's day
procession which was near the build
| ing came to a halt and in a few min
utes the parade was disbanded.
people on the lower floors of the hotel,
| those who had easy access to the street
and the stairway commenced 10 pour
out of the building in great numbers
but il soon became apparent that
great majority of the occupants of the
| hotel were either panic-stricken or
unable to make their way to the
| ground floor. Windows were thrown
! . Il. IL 1
guests, mostly women, in all stages
of terror. made their appearance and
uttered frantic appeals for assistance.
| As the flames gathered about them
! they became more and more terror
stricken and presently some of them
stood upon the narrow window-sills
and beckoned to the spectators that
they were about to leap.
Men collected upon the sidewalks
ready TO render any assistance they
| could and in the meantime some of the
women dropped to the street. In
most cases the efforts to catch them
| and break their fall We're unavailing,
! for they struck the sidewalk and in
most cases broken limbs We're the re-
| suit. As soon as the tiremen could
get their scaling ladders into position
| they climbed the sides of the building
! and entered at every window where
there was a guest appealing for as
sistance and many cases of heroic res
| cue were witnessed.
AT the corner of Forty-scventh
street and Fifth avenue, directly across
| from the hotel, is the home of Helen
| Gould, and at her direction many of
the injured were carried there and
were treated by physicians whom she
had sent for. In the meantime the
chief of police had telephoned to every
hospital in the city, asking that assist
ance be sent. Ambulances forced their
way through the crowd and the in
| iured people who had leaped from the