The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-03-18


There were many thrilling scenes in
! the hotel during the early stages Of the
| fire AS soon as it broke out a hail
| boy discovered the flames while passing
! along the fourth floor. Immediately over
| the rooms occupied by President Nc
| kinley's brother, Abner Mckinley, and
| his family. The boy pulled a chain at
! tached 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 build
| ing, 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 a few
| persons were in the dining room, anl
they escaped. When the boy reached
! the main floor Warren F. Leland the
| proprietor of the hotel, was in the rear
| of the long hall, and the boy shouted
to him that the building was on fire.
| On MIR. Leland's instructions, 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 laun-
dry. 1t is believed that all OF them
| escaped.
One of the most daring rescues eff
fected by the fremen occurred on the
fifth floor of the Fifth avenue front.
| An elderly woman vas seen at a win
dow. and two firemen succeeded in
| reaching the window Immediately IN
derneath. One of them climbed to the
coping over the window on which he
was standing, and then stepped over
| to where the woman was waving her
hands despairingiy. He then swung
the woman clear Of the window and
landed her safely in the arms Of his
3d. communion Of
several other fremen, passed the wo-
man down to the street.
! the first horror occurred Just Is min
utes after the fire broke out A hand
3ome woman appeared at the window Of
& room on the fourth floor. She held out
her arms to the crowd below Then she
| raised her hands as if in duplication,
and in a moment climbed TO the win
dow and leaped. She turned about like
a top and struck the iron railing III
front OF the MOTEL Her body seemed 10
| De imDaled there, but 1t fell off and
into the areaW2y. She was dead. The
woman was identified as Mrs. Amelia
Paddock of Trvington, n. Y.
One Of the most thrilling scenes of the
fire at the time when the building was
a seething cauldron Of fame, was the
heroic rescue Of several women from
the upper stories. One had been carried
down from the fifth story.
Mrs. A. II. Fuller of Pittsburg then
appeared with her maid at the window
Of the fourth story. 1t seemed like an
age before the ladder was lowered
Firemen ran up, and with great diff
Guilty brought down Mrs. Fuller and her
maid. Just as she vas gotten out Of the
| window g. middle aged woman appeared
at window just north of that at which
the ladder was placed. The woman,
fearing she would not be rescued. pre
. n ha 70
back and became panic stricken and
stepped back into the dense smoke that
i was pouring from the window. It
seemed as though she had jumped into
the flames below in despair. A hook and
ladder man. seeing the desperation Of
the woman seized a scaling ladder ard
went up story after story through the
/. binding smoke He clinted TO the cop
ing just as the woman reappeared. The
fireman seized her by the waist and
holding her tightly TO the wall of the
building slipped little by little on the
coping and passed the fainting woman
to another fireman who had bracad
/ himself to receive her. There was
dreadful suspense as the fireman drew
the woman toward him and finally had
/ her safely on the ladder. A tremendous
cheer went up from the crowd
: Fireman John Hanna of the fire boat
ZODhar Mills, rushed through the smoke
! to the top floor and found Night Watch
2 man MacNichols half asnhvxiated
: Hanna lowered him bv means Of wfrG
= to the fire escape two stories below,
| and LET himself down tho eane -,
His hands were badly cut bv the win.
Then Hanna assisted the old man down
+ the fire escape.
b. Fireman William Kenney of Engine
81 COMPANY No. % rescued Ntrs pTsnr
. from the fourth floor of the botyl IN.
2 means Of a scaling ladder. His resrue
I was cheered BY an immense crowd A
l. crippled woman was found living on
/ the floor Of a room on the fouTfb noor
unable to move, and was carried in
safety to the street
Assemblyman John II. Naher ebar-
if Dunn and Police Commiseionet.s
Hess, Sexton and Abel. ali ASSISTED in