The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-18
HOTEL GUESTS DIE IN FLAMES
Confined from page y

and beclzoned to the spectators tina.
shey were about to lean. The men col
lected on the sidewalks ready to rendet
any assistance they could, and in tn,
nednume some of the women left tn,
wlndow-sills and dropped to the street
III most instances the efforts to catcf
them and break their awful fan wert
tihaValling, for they struck the side
Walk, and, in most cases. broken limb.
We're the result. AS soon as the fire.
men could get their scaling ladders into
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 rescue were witnessed
by the throTlg in the streets
at the corner of Forty seventh street
and Fifth avenue, directly across from
the hotel, is the bone of Miss Helen
Could, and at her direction many of the
inquired were carried there and We're
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 assist
ance be sent. Ambulances forced their
way through the crowds 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.
lFRIGHTFUL LEAPS.
Several occupants of the hotel ap-
peared at the windows of the sixth and
seventh stories, and even on the roof,
ana leaped to the streets from those
points. Very few of them escaped
either instant death or injuries which
resulted in their death in a. short time
later
In the meantime the entire building
was being enveloped in flames, which
shot out from every window, and
formed a picture which struck terror to
ali those who We're witnessing it.
Within forty or fortyfive minutes aft
ter the fire first broke out the walls on
the Fifth avenue side showed every in
dication OF. falling. and presently, with
an awful crash, they struck the asphalt
covering of the street in front OF the
hotel, and caused the hundreds of peo-
pie who were standing there TO scatter
in every direction. This fall weakened
the walls on the Firty sixth and Forty
seventh street sides, and they followed
a moment later When the walls fell
the brick and mortar and twisted grid
ers and corrugated 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 i'm
peded for several days.
The northeast wing of the hotel con-
tinued to burn for a half hour after
the walls of the other part of the build
ing fell. FGremen continued to play
streams upon the flames and also upon
all the adjoining buildings, including
Miss Gould's residence, which Seemed in
imminent danger Of catching fire. but
before they could reach any of them.
THRILLING SCENES.
There were many thrilling scenes in
the hotel during the early stages of the
fire. A hallboy discovered the flames
while he was passing along the fourth |
floor, Immediately over the rooms occu-
pied by President McKinley's brother, !
Abner Mckinley, and his family. The |
boy pulled a 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 ave |
nue. end of the building, and the lad /
when he got to the floor above the |
main hall, ran into the American dining
room and gave the alarm to the guests
there Only few persons were in the
dining room at the time and they es-
capped.
When the boy reached the main floor,
Warren F. Leland, proprietor of the ho-
tel. was in the rear of the long hall, and
the boy shouted to him that the build
ing was on fire. On Mr.. Le9anC's in
the clerks tried to save all
the books and papers, and the boy then
rushed down the basement stairway
and alarmed the women who were at
work in the laundry. 1t is believed that
all of them escaped.
A DARING RESCUE.
One of the most daring rescueS eff
fected by the f1renen occurred ON the
fifth floor on the Fifth avenue front.
An elderly woman was seen at a, VIM
dow. and two fremen succeeded in
the window Immediately I'M
1eTneath- One of them climbed to the
coping of the window on which he was
standing and then swung the woman
,lear of the window and landed her
safely in the arms of his companion, !
who. with the assistance of several
1ther fireanen, passed her down to the
street.
The first horror occurred just fifteen
minutes after the fire broke out. A
handsome woman appeared at the win
low of a room on the fourth floor. She
leld out her arms TO the crowd below. l
Then she raised her hands as if in sup :
1lication and in q moment climbed to l
he window and leaped. She turned I
lbout like a top and struck the iron l
-ailing in front of the hotel. Her body c
seemed to be impaled there, but it fell 1
IF and into the areaway. She was 5
lead. The woman was identified as /
Irs. Amelia Paddock OF Irvington,
:. Y.
One of the most thrilling scenes of
he fire-at a time when the building 4
l, Of f1a,,
he heroic rescue of several women
rom the upper stories. One had been
arried down from the fifth story. Mrs Z
|. II. Fullmer of Pittsburg, then ap- L
cared with her maid at the window of =
he fourth story. 1t seemed a.p age be y
ore the ladder was lowered. Firemen t;
an up and with great difficulty n
rought down Mrs. Fullmer and her II
laid. Just as she was gotten out of V
be window, a nliddle-aged woman ap- i
cared at a window just north of that N
1 which the ladder was placed. The fl
oman, fearing she would not be res h
led, prepared to jump. She was warn W
d TO keep back and became panic in
tricken and stepped back into the 81
ense smoke. Another ladder man, h
aeing the desperate situation Of the h,
oman, seized g, scaling ladder and
ent up story after story through the | F
linding smoke. He climbed to the fr
lping Just as the woman reappeared. T
atching her by the waist and holding Il
ghtly to the building he crept slowly 81
4 the coping and passed the fainting cf
oman to another fireman who had III
raced himself to receive her. There hC
as a dreadful suspense as the fireman
-ew the woman toward him and finally of
ad her safely on the ladder. A tremen- d.
ous cheer went up from the crowd.
Fireman John Hanna, OF the fireboat pr
ephar Mills, rushed through the smoke W,