The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-03-18
HOTEL FIRE HORROR


Continued from First Page.
fortunate guest appealing for assistance
and many cases of heroic rescue were
witnessed 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 al her direction many of the
injured were carried there and We're treat
ed 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 assistance be sent.
Ambulances forced their way through the
crowds as quickly as possible, and the
injured people who had made the fright
full leaps from the hotel windows were
placed In them and conveyed 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
short time later.
AN AWFUL PICTURE
In the meantime the entire building
was being enveloped in flames, which
shot out from every window and, formed
picture which struck terror to all those
who were Witnessing 1t. Within forty or
forty-iive minutes after the fire first
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 hum
dreds of people who were standing there
TO scatter in every direction. This fall
weakened the walls on the Firty-sixth
and Forty-seventh streets Sides and they
followed moment later
W hen the walls fell the brick and NOR
tar and twisted Orders and corrugated
iron filed the streets on three sides Of
the hotel. The door steps 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 street was so great
that travel Will be impeded for several
days.
The east wing of the hotel continued to
burn after the walls of the other part of
the building fell. for half an hour. The
hremen kept a constant stream on the
flames, and also on the adjoining build
which seemed in imminent danger of
catching fire, but the flames We're brought
under control before they could reach
any of them
THRILLING SCENES
There were many thrilling scenes in the
hotel during the early stages of the fire.
\ hall boy discovered the flames while
he was passing along the fourth floor.
Immediately over the rooms occupied by
President McKinleys brother, Abner Nc
kinley, and his family. The boy pulled
d chain attached to the fire alarm but
the chain broke and then he cried out an
alarm of fire and ran to the floor below.
The blaze was then licking up everything
on the Fifth avenue end of the building.
and the lad, when he got to the floor
above the main hall, ran into the Amer
lean dining room and gave the alarm to
the guests there Only a few persons
We're in the dining room at that time
and they escaped
When the boy reached the main floor
Warren F. Leland the proprietor of the
hotel, was in the long hall and the bow
shouted to him that the building was on
fire. On Mr.. Leland's instructions the
pers and the boy then rushed down the
basement stairway and alarmed tba
women who were at work in the laundry
1t is believed that all of them escanad
One of the most daring rescues effect
ed by the tiremen occurred on the fifth
floor of the Fifth avenue front An old
efly woman was seen at a window and
Two nremen succeeded In reaching the
window Immediately underneath One of
them climbed to the coping of the win
oom on which she was standing and
then swung the woman clear of the win
COW and landed her safely In the arms
OF his companion who, with the assist
ance OF several other firemen passed her
down to the street
INITIAL HORROR
The first horror occurred lust ffteen
minutes after the fire broke ont
handsome women appeared at the WIN
COW of a room on the fourth floor. She
heId out her arms to the crowd below.
linen she raised her hands as if In sun
pllcauon. and then, in a moment climbed
to the window and leaped She turned
about like a top and struck the iron rail-
ing in 'front.' of the hotel. Her body SEEM
ed to be impaled there but it fell off and
into the area way. She was dead The
woman was identified as Mrs. Amelia
Paddock, of Irvington, N Y
One Of the most thrilling scenes of tho
fire, at a time when the building was
seething cauldron Of fame was the heroic
rescue OF several women from the upper
stories One had been carried down from
the nth story. Mrs. A H Fuller. of
Ilt5sburg then appeared with her maid
at a window of the fourth story. II
seemed an age before the ladder was
lowered. Flremen ran up and with great
dlfflculty brought down Mrs Fuller and
her maid Just as she was gotten ont
OF The window middle-aged woman an
Peafed at a window just north of that
at which the ladder was nIaced w.
woman, fearing she would not he res
cued' prepared to jump. She was warn
ed TO Keep back and became panic
stricken and stepped back into the dense
smoke A hook and ladder man. seeing
the desperate situation of the woman,
ELeeJiup- IBi!as