The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1899-03-16
DIE In HOTEL FIRE.
GUESTS ARE CAUGHT IN A
DEATH TRAP.
Nearly n Score EiIled-Windsor Hotel
in New York Is Completely Con-
sumed Wild Scenes of Excitement
Cause of the Holocaust.

Nauee OF the HOlOCaust.
The Windsor Hotel in New York caught
FIRE in some unknown way at $40 O'Clock
Friday afternoon. Within an hour the
building was glowing shell of shattered
walls. Fifteen persons were dead as the
result. Forty three, variously injured,
were at the hospitals The bodies of many
more were buried in the smolderng ruins.
From the roof and windows. from the
hre escapes and cornices. frenzied men
and women threw themselves to the pave
ment five. six. coven stories below. Be
wildered guests within the roaring fur
| mace were carried down to death by fall
ing walls. and all the while $4,000 human
beings watched the tragedy.
Massed into solid lines mon and women
filed side streets. avenues and doorsteps.
there to watch the parade of the day, but
fated to witness the most grewsome fire
New York has ever known
The roll of dead is long. Private homes
around the place of sacrifice became field
neutrality-suspicious. mansions. including
| the Jay Gould home, were made tempo
| rary morgues.
John Foy. a waiter employed at the
Windsor Hotel. in statement made after
the fire to Coroner Bausch declared that
| the hotel was burned through the gross
carelessness of guest. The waiter was
in corridor of the second floor. walking
toward 41th street. when he saw man
near the end of the corridor strike n
match to light his cigar. The man threw
the match to the floor and walked on with
out waiting to see that 1t had gone out.
Foy noticed the action, and he also no
ticed that the match was still blazing
when it left the mans hand. When the
waiter reached the spot the lace curtains
were ablaze. He tried to extihguish the
hame, but it was quickly up the curtain
and caught the woodwork. The carpet
caught fire, and the walls seemed to burn
like finder. Foy gave the alarm and ran
down stairs and out of the building to
reach a fircbox
An hour after the fire started the ruin
was complete. At ten minutes after 3
o'clock the head of the parade reached
46th street and Fifth avenue. opposite the
Windsor. An instant later policeman
saw tiny blaze and a puff of smoke in
bow window in the drawing room on the
second floor. on the 46th street side. He
turned in an alarm. Before he could re-
turn to the hotel the drawing room was
sheet of flames. The room had been
crowded with guests watching the parade.
When the curtain ignited-for that is said
to have been the start of the fre-instant
panic came over all. Men and women
fed to the stairways and the flames leaped
after them. Up the stairs and elevators
sped the guests-up air and light shafts
raced the flames.
In an incredibly short time the whole
building was enveloped in dull, roaring
tongues of fire and heavy sitting smoke.
II seems as if the fire must have been
burning under the floor and in the walls.
for on no other hypothesis can the sud
denness of its spreading be accounted for.
The width of the corridors made it easy
to run. and the guests filed them in their
rush for the streets. The elevators. al
though they were run until ahame,
brought comparatively few down in safe
ty. The road out of the death trap was
down the splendid marble stairs. And
down these stairs poured terrified pro-
cessiOn.
Meanwhile through the tangled mob
outside the fire engines had forced their
way. 1t was after the first wild rush that
swept so many to safety down the broad
staircase that the most awful events of
the great fire occurred. All of the wom-
en- had not sprung from their rooms with
the first alarm. Some had stopped TO
dress. some to gather their most precious
10
Then, too. there were sick persons in the
house. bedritden men and women When
these belated ones got into the corridors
they were for the most part bounded by
walls of fire.
Up the great central we'll roared the
8ames. Right at the stairways. the logi-
cal and accustomed avenues to the streets,
were the terrible sentries. curling and
swirling with threats to all who dared to
pass that dread picket line. Then these
belated guests took to the fire escapes.
throwing open windows and reaching
their arms out to the sea of people who
groaned below.
Many of those who came to the win
dOws We're saved at last by daring firemen
and citizens. But the fire was too swift.
the time too short. While the firemep
were helping some to safety. others felt
The touch of the red hand upon them from
behind. and threw themselves from the
windows. The firemen displayed the ut
most heroism and daring in saving life at
the most imminent risk.
The Windsor was the resort and dwell
ing place of rich people. and there NAV
have been half a million dollars worth of
jewels alone lost by the women who lived
there. Among the dead are the wives of
millionaires. as well as the maids, who
we're shut off in the top story. Abner Nc
kinley. brother of the President of the
United States. with his wife and daugh-
ter, Miss Mabel Mckinley. occupied n
suite of rooms on the ground door of the
hotel
Among the dead are Mrs. Warren L4-
land. wife of the Windsor's proprietor
and her daughter. Miss Helen Leland. and
Mrs. James $. Kirk, widow of the million
aire soap manufacturer of Chicago.
The loss on the hotel is estimated af
about $1.O00.0OO. Several adjoining build
ngs were damaged considerably, but tho
loss on these is comparatively small. All
the papers and books of the hotel are be-
ieved to have been saved. The building
was owned by the Elbridge T. Gerry es-
tate. There We're 750 inmates when the
6re broke out
Telegraphic Brevitfes.
BY the breaking of log booms in the
Kentucky river. as the result of the floods