The age-herald., 1899-03-22

Omana, NeD., March N.-Comparatfvely insignificant in material destruction, but appalling in it's harvest of death and suf- fering was fire that partially destroyed the Patterson block at Seventeenth and Douglass streets this afternoon. Two of its 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. Killed:
 Mrs. Thomas Taylor.
 Mrs. Anna Schamel.
 Injured:
 Mrs. C.. E. Brosius, face and hands burned; Mrs. A. King, face badly burned; Mrs. A. L. Samuelson, face and hands. se- verely burned, both wrists broken; May Samuelson, five years old, burned on hands and face; Mrs. c. 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, hands and head badly burned; Mrs. Mary Sullivan, hands and face severely burned; Mrs. ". A. Rex, hands and face severely burned; Mrs Ed Schner, face, body and hands burned, bad cut on head, will probably die; Mrs. French, South Omaha, face and hands burned; Mrs. A. A. Smith, face and hands badly burned, injuries probably fatal; Mrs. C. A. Allen, face and hands burned, cut by glass: Mrs. Thomas Thornton, face and hands burned badly; Walter Scott hands and face severely burned; unknown man badly burned hands and face; Steve Williams, Wyoming, face and hands burn ed; Fireman William Guider suffocated and fell from ladder, internal injuries, will probably de Lieutenant James Adams, n- jured about hips by falling down stairs.
 Face to Faeo With Death
 A group of happy women, busy with the affairs of secret orders with which they were affiliated, were in moment brought face to, face with death. Sixty seconds la- ter seven of them lay burned and bleeding on the pavements to which they had dropped forty feet beow 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 building and next to the eleva- tor shaft. It was not discovered until 1t had spread to the adjoining apartments and the entire floor was filled with smoke and flame. About twenty members of the Wo- menis Lodge of Maccabees were attending a committee meeting in the waiting room in front of the middle building on the same floor. They were unconscious of danger, when a janitor threw open, the door and told them to get out before the flames cut them off. The warning came too late. The fire swept through the door and down the single stairway. Those nearest the door fled through the blnding smoke and reach ed the streets with hands and faces burned h 1s.+A flame. There was a fire escape at the south front of the building, but not one of them seems to have thought of It. They rushed panic-stricken to the windows through which the smoke was already pouring in suffocating puffs. The fire was scarcely foot behind them. It caught their clothing and scorched their faces with increasing intensity.
 Sprang From Open Windows
 In another instant, the spectators at tracted by the clouds of smoke, were hor- rified to see one after another spring from the open windows and fall heavily to the pavement. Not one arose. They. lay in an. inert and apparently lifeless heap until carried into the office of a physician across the street. Most of them were bleeding from severe cuts and bruises and all were burned until their torn and blackened skin hung in shreds. In few minutes all ex- cept Mrs. Taylor recovered consciousness, and physicians and surgeons hastily sum- moned did all that was possible to relieve their sufferings As fast as nasty dress ings could be applied the victims were taken to the Clarkson hospital by the an,- balances. The body of Mrs. Taylor was taken to the morgue, and others whose in- juries were less severe were treated at neighboring drug stores and at the offices of downtown physicians.
 d. -,s,t s)y ,r 15ooOO
 Aside from the fatalities and injuries to persons, the fire was not serious one. Few of the losers are able to place an exact amount on their losses, but the total will not exceed $50.000. The loss on the build ing is less than half that sum, and aside from that the heaviest losers are proprie- tors of the Boston store, who had large surplus stock in the basement of the block. The loss of the various secret societies that occupy the halls on the second and third floors Is largely by water and smoke and is difficult to estimate.
 The building is insured up to the 80 per cent. clause, and most of the other losses are largely covered by insurance.