The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1899-03-23

broke ont the entire structure was in
ruins and the streets on three sides Of
the building were filed with debris
from fallen walls and Jchimneys while
the streams Of water being poured upon
the interior Of the ruins had no other
effect than to I'LL the air with clouds Of
scalding steam, making il impossible
for anyone to approach near enough to
search for the bodies of those who per-
ished. Soon after the first alarm was
given people in the lower floors Of the.
hotel, those who had easy access to the
street and stairway, commenced to pour
out of the building in great numbers,
but 1t soon became apparent that q
great majority Of the occupants of the
hotel were either panic stricken or un.'
able to make their way to the ground
floor. Windows were thrown up on
every side of the building and guests,
mostly women, in all stages Of terror,
made their appearance and uttered
aEna Frantic Appssls for Assistancs
20 the crowd below. As the flames
/ gathered about them they became more
and more terror stricken and presently
some Of them stood upon the narrow
window stills and bsckoned to the spec
tators that they were about to leap.
Mem collected upon the sidewalks ready
fto.rendsr sny assistance they could, and
in the zneantimei some Of the women
left the window stills and dropped to the
streets. In most instances the efforts.
to catch them and break their awful
fall were. unavailing, for they struck
the sidewalk and in most cases broken
limbs were the result. AS soon as the
fremen could get their scaling ladders
into position they climbed the sides of
the building and entered at every win
dow at which there was an unfortunate
guest appealing for assistance, and
many cases of heroic rescue were wit
messed by the throng in the streets. At
the corner of Forty-seventh street and
Fifth avenue, directly across from the
hotel, is the
Home Of Miss Helen Gould,
and at her direction many of the in
jured were carried there and were
treated by physicians and nurses 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 crowds as quickly as
possible and the injured people who had
made the frightful leaps from the hotel
windows were placed IN them and con-
veyed to hospitals. Several occupants
of the hotel appeared at the windows Of
the sixth and seventh stories and even
on the roof and leaped to the streets
from those points. Very few of them
escaped either instant death or injuries
which resulted in their death a short
time later.
In the meantime the entire building
was being enveloped in flames. Within
As minutes after the fire first broke out
the walls on the Fifth avenue side
Fell with an Awful Crash.
This fall weakened the walls on Forty.
sixth and Forty-seventh streets and
they followed moment later. When
the walls fell the brick and mortar and
twisted Orders and corrugated iron
filled the streets on three sides of the
hotel. The doorsteps and iron fences
in front of the houses on the opposite
side of the street were wrecked by the
falling of the walls and the amount of
debris piled on the streets was so great
that they will be impeded for several
days.
One of the most daring rescues effect
ed by the firemen occurred on the fifth
floor of the Fifth avenue front. An
al do, M
and two fireman succeeded in reaching
the window Immediately underneath.
One of them climbed to the coping of
the window on which she was standing
and then swung the woman clear of the
window and landed her safely in the
arms of his companion, who with the
assistance of several other firemen
passed her down to the street.
The loss on the hotel is estimated at
about $1,OO0,OOO. Several adjoining
buildings were damaged considerably,
but the loss on these is comparatively
small. All the papers and books Of the
hotel are believed to have been saved.
Says It Was Fire Trap.
Commissioner Scannell said that the
burning of the Windsor hotel was about
what he had expected. He declared
that it was one of the worst fire traps in
New York, and added:
"There are other hotels in this city as
bad as the Windsor, and unless the pro-
prietors put their places in the proper
condition for saving lives, ! will pub
lish list that have in my possession"