The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-03-22
Flames Break Out in One Of the
Principal Blocks Of the City,
Cutting the Avenue Of Escape OF From
Occupants of the Building.
Two Women Lose Their Lives,
While a Number of People Are
Suffering From Broken Limbs,
and Burned and Lacerated
Flesh.

III IIldltIIdl QeSl uClio'A,
but appalling in its harvest of death
and suffering, was a fire that partially
destroyed the Patterson block at Seven
teenth and Douglass streets this after
noon Two, of the victims have already
passed away, one more is not expected
to live, and about twenty others are
suffering from broken limbs and burned
and lacerated flesh.
The dead: Mrs. Thomas Taylor, Mrs.
Anna Schamel.
Injured: Mrs. c. E. Brosius, face and
hands burned; Mrs A. King, face badly
burned; Mrs. A L. Sanuelson face and
hands severely burned, both wrists
broken; May Samuelson, years old,
burned on hands and face; Mrs. G. D.
Wilson, face, hands and shoulders
burned; Mrs. J. c. Holt, face and hands
burned; Marguerite Holt, hands burned,
injured internally, may die; Mrs. Mary
Hopkins, face and head badly burned;
Mrs. Mary Sullivan, hands and face Sc
yerely burned; Mrs. W. a. Reade, face
and hands severely burned; Mrs Ed.
Sinner, face, body and hands burned,
bad cut on head, will probably die;
Mrs. French, South Omaha, face
burned; Mrs. A. A Smith, face and
hands badly burned. injured probably
fatally; Mrs. c. E. Allen, face and
hands burned, cut by glass; Mrs.
Thomas Thornton, face and hands
burned severely; Walter Scott, face and
hands severely burned; unknown man,
badly burned on hands and face; Steve
Williams, 5 years old, face and hands
burned; Fireman William Guider, suf-
located and fell from ladder, internal
injuries, will probbaly die; Lieutenant
James Adams, injured about hips by
falling down stairs.
A group of happy women, busy with
the affairs of the secret orders with
which they were affiliated, were in
moment brought face to face with
death. Sixty seconds later seven OF
them lay burned and bleeding on the
pavement, to which they had dropped
thirty feet below, and the others were
rescued after they had been more or
less severely injured in their desperate
dash down the single pair of stairs that
led to safety.
The blaze started just after ) o'clock
from a gasoline stove explosion in a
room in the rear of the third floor of
the building and next to the elevator
3 shaft. It was not discovered until IT
. had spread to the adjoining apart
ments and the entire floor was filed
with smoke and fame. About twenty
j., members of the women's lodge of Mac
cabees were attending a committee
4 meeting in the waiting-room in the
front of the building on the same floor.
They were unconscious of danger until
a janitor threw open the door and told
them to get out before the flames cut
them off. The warning came too late.
Ti1e FIRE swept through the door ana
down the single stairway. Those near
I, lind in
smoke and reached the street with
hands and face burned and blistered
The rest faced a solid mass of flame
There was a fire escape at the south
front of the building. but not one of
them seemed to have thought OF IT,
They rushed panic-stricken to the Win
dows through. which the smoke was
already pouring in suffocating volumes.
The fire was scarcely a foot behlnd
them 1t caught their clothing, and
scorched their faces with increasing IN
tensity.
In another instant the spectators. at
tracted by the clouds of smoke, were
Mortified to see one after another spring
from the open windows and fall heavily
to the pavement Not one arose. Ihey
lay in an inert and apparently lffeiess
heap until carried into the office OF a
physician across the street. Most Oh
them were bleeding from severe cuts
and bruises. and all were burned until
their torn and blackened skin hung IN
shreds.
In a few minutes all except Mrs. ray
Tor recovered consciousness, and physl-
clans and nurses, hastily summoned
did all that was possible to relieve their
sufferings. AS fast as hasty dressings
could be applied the victims We're taken
to the Clarkson Hospital by the ampu-
dances The body of Mrs. Taylor was
taken to the Morgue, and others whose
injuries were less severe We're treated
at a neighhoring drug store and at the
offices of downtown physicians.
Aside from the fatalities and the in
inries to persons. the fire was not
sarioue one. Few of the losers are
able RI place an exact estimate on their
1ossas hut the total will not exceed
exc 600 The loss on the building is less
+han half that sum- and aside from that
+be heaviest losers are the proprietors
of the Boston Store, who had large
surplus stock in the basement or the
block,
The loss of the various secret societies
that occupy the halls on the second ana
third floors is largely by Waler anu
smoke and is difficult to estimate ,>
The building is insured up TO the oo
ner cent. clause. and most of the otner
losses are largely covered by insurance
TRAGEDY AT CHICAGO.