The Chanute times., 1899-03-24
FIRE HORROR IN NEW YORK
Unknown Number of Lives Lost in
the Windsor Hotel.
FORTY INJURED, MANY FATALLY

New YORK, March 1s.-Flames
which originated from the igniting of
a lace curtain burst forth from the
second floor of the Windsor hotel at
Forty-seventh street and Fifth avenue,
shortly after o'clock yesterday after
noon, Just as the st. Patrick's day
parade was passing the building, and
in few seconds they had leaped up to
the roof and enveloped the entire
Fifth avenue and Forty-seventh street
fronts 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 the
building. Hundreds 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 ten to fifteen lives
were lost within a half hour, and thirty
or forty persons were injured in jump
ing from windows and in rushing
through the roaring flames in cor
ridors and on the stairways Many
who were injured died later in nearby
residences and at hospitals, and others
who made wild leaps to the stone side
walks were so badly injured that they
are still lowering between life and
death.
1t may be twenty-four hours or
more before the complete list of fatal
tiles becomes known, and it will be
longer than that before it can be as
certained definitely how many charred
bodies are in the mass of fallen ma
sonry that marks the spot where the
hotel stood.
The Dead.
Leland, Mrs. Elizabeth; wife of War
ren Leland, proprietor of the hotel;
burns on body; died at Flower hos
pital.
Leland, Helen, daughter of Warren
Leland, jumped from window; body
identified at East Fifty-frst street sta
tion.
Paddock, Mrs. Amelia, Irvington, N.
Y; jumped from window; body at
East Fifty-frst street station.
Kirk, Nancy Ann Mrs. James S
Kirl), Chicago; died at Bellevue.
Pierce, Mrs. NJ, Macon, Ga died at
10 East Forty-sixth street.
Grandy, Miss Lacellcs, Elizabeth
City, N. j.; body at East Fifty-frst
street station.
Gibson, Mrs. Addie, aged 55; died at
Murray Hill hotel.
Goodman, Eleanor Louise, aged II;
fractured skull, died at Bellevue.
Connolly John, hotel employe; burns
and internal injuries, died at Flower
hospital.
Unknown woman, middle aged;
jumped from window; died at Miss
Helen Gould's residence.
Unknown woman, body at East
Fifty-frst street station.
Unknown man, aged IS; seen to
jump from roof at rear of hotel; body
not recovered.
OuhIlOWu Cllllu, burOWu lTOm VIII
dow by mother; body not recovered
Unknown woman, mother of the
child; jumped from window; body not
recovered.
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 filed with debris
from fallen walls and chimneys, while
the streams of water being poured
other effect than to fill the air with
clouds of scaldirg steam, making it
impossible for anyone 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 filed with spectators.
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 injured were carried there
and were treated by physicians and
nurses whom she had sent for.
Several occupants of the hotel ap-
peared 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 in
iuries which resulted in their death in
a short time later.
The losses on the hotel is estimated
at $1,000, 900.