Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-03-18

licemen and firemen. AS soon as the
flames were discovered shooting from
the windows that part of the ST. Pat
rick's Day procession which was near
the building came to halt and in
few minutes the parade was disbanded,
for the police came rushing towards
the fire from every direction and as far
as they were able, drove the people
from the streets.
One alarm after another was turned
in, and the first of the fire engines
were not long in appearing upon the
scene. The engines caused a wild
scramble among the paraders and spec
tators as they rushed along the streets
and fell into position for service.
In addition to the regular guests OF
the hotel,
THE WINDOWS WERE CROWDED,
by a large number of spectators, resi-
dents of this city who had congregatea
there to witness the parade.
people in the lower floor of the hotel,
those who had easy access to the street
and the bar, commenced to pour out
of the building in great numbers, but
it very soon became apparent that
great majority of the occupants of the
hotel were either panic-stricken or I'M
able to make their way to the ground
floor.
Windows were thrown open on every
side of the building, and guests, mostly
women, an all stages of terror, made
their appearance and uttered frantic
appeals for assistance to the crowd be-
low AS the flames gathered about
them they became more and more ter
ror-stricken and presently some OF
them stood upon the narrow window
stills and beckoned to the spectators
that they were about to leap.
The men collected upon the side
walks ready to render any assistance
they could, and in the meantime some
of the women left the window sills
and dropped to the street. 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 re-
suit.
AS soon as the firemen could get
their scaling ladders in position, they
climbed the sides of the building and
entered at every window where there
was an unfortunate guest appealing
for assistance, and many cases of heroic
re.cue 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 at her direction many OF
the injured 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
assistance be sent.
Ambulances forced their way through
the crowd as quickly as possible, and
the injured people who had
MADE THE FRIGHTFUL LEAPS
from the hotel windows were placed
in them and removed to the hospitals.
Several occupants of the hotel appear
ed at the windows of the sixth and
seventh stories and even on the root,
and leaped to the street 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 which
shot out from every window and form
ed a picture which struck terror to all
those who were witnessing it.
Within forty or forty-ive minutes
after the fire first broke out the walls
on the Fifth avenue side showed every
lUUlCdtlOH VI ldillHo anu PiSoOhSiJ'
with an awful crash, they struck the
asphalt covering of the street in front
of the hotel and caused the hundreds
of people who were standing there to
scatter in every direction.
This fall weakened the walls on the
Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh street
sides and they followed a moment later.
When the walls fell the bricks and
mortar and twisted girders and CORFU
gated 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 from the hotel were
wrecked by the falling walls and the
amount of debris piled in the streets
was so great that travel will be imped-
ed for several days.
The northeast wing of the hotel con-
tinued to burn for half hour after the
walls of the other part of the building
fell Firemen continued to play
streams upon the flames and also upon
all the adjoining buildings, including