The Saint Paul globe., 1899-03-22
PANIC-STRICKEN WOMEN IN OMA-
HA FACE A WALL OF BLIND
ING FLAME
PATTERSON BLOCK DESTROYED
1T WAS CROWDED WITH WOMEN
BUSY WITH AFFAIRS OF THE
MACCABEES
FACE TO FACE WITH DEATH

cred Until They Had Spread 10
Adjoining Apartments-EIev
Shaft Roared Like a Furnace
Escape Through Binding Smoke.
OMAHA, Nep., March q Comparative
ly insignificant in material destruction,
but appalling in its harvest Of death and
suffering was a fire that partially de-
stroyed the Patterson block at Seven
teenth and Douglas streets this afternoon
Two of the victims have already passed
away, one more Is not expected to live
and about twenty others are suffering
from broken limbs and burned and lac
Grated flesh.
The killed:
MRS. THOMAS TAYLOR. =
MRS. ANNA SCHAMEL.
The injured:
Mrs. c. F. Brosius, face and hands
burned.
Mrs A King, face badly burned.
Mrs. A. L. Samuelson, face and hands
severely burned, both wrists broken.
May samuelson, five years, burned on
hands and face.
Mrs. G. D. Wilson, face, hands and
shoulders burned.
Mrs. ]. c. Holt, face and hands burned.
Marguerite Holt hands burned, in
tured internally, may die.
Mrs. Mary Hopkins. face and head bad
"a burned.
Mrs. Mary Sullivan, hands and face Sc
Mrs. w. A. Rex, hands and face Sc
vereiy burned.
Mrs. Ed Schiner, 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. E. Allen, face and hands
burned, cut by glass.
Mrs. Thomas Thornton, face and hands
burned severely.
Walter Scott, hands and face severely
burned.
Unknown man, badly burned on hands
and face.
Steve Williams, five years, face and
hands burned.
Fireman William Gauder suffocated
and fell from ladder; internal injuries:
will probably die.
Lieut.. James Adams, injured about hips
by falling down stairs.
MIRTH I'd MOURNING
A group of happy women, busy with the
affairs of the secret orders with which
they were affiliated. were in a moment
brought face to face with death. Sixty
seconds later seven of them lay burned
and bleeding on the pavements, to which
they had dropped, forty feet below, 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 after 8 o'clock from
q gasoline stove explosion in a room in
the rear of the third floor of the build
ing, and next to the elevator shaft. 1t
was not discovered until it had spread to
the adjoining apartments, and the entire
floor was filled with smoke and flame.
About twenty members of the womens
lodge of Maccabees were attending a
meeting in the waiting room in the front
of the middle of the building on the same
floor. They were unconscious of danger
until 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 fed through the binding smoke
and reached the street with hands and
a solid wall of flame.
LEAP OR BURN.
There was a fire escape at the south
front of the building but none of them
seemed to have thought of 1t. They rush
ed panic-stricken to the windows through
which the smoke was already pouring In
suffocating puffs. The fire was scarcely
u, foot behind them. 1t caught their
clothing and scorched their faces with
increasing intensity. In another instant
the spectators, attracted by the clouds
of smoke, were Mortified to see one after
another springing from the open windows
and falling heavily to the pavement Not
one arose. They lay inert and apparent
ly lifeless 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 except Mrs. Taylor
recovered consciousness, and physicians
and nurses hastily summoned did all that
was possible to relieve their sufferings.
AS fast as hasty dressings could be ap-
piled the victims were taken to the
Clarkson hospital by the ambulances. The
body of Mrs. Taylor was taken to the
morgue, and others whose injuries were
drug stores and at the offices of down.
town physicians.
MONEY LOSS SLIGHT.
Aside from the fatalities and the IN
juries to persons the fire was not a
serious one. Few of the losers are able
to place an eaxct estimate on their losses,
but the total will not exceed $50, 900. The
loss on the building is less than half
that sum and aside from that the
heaviest losers are the proprietors Of the
Boston store, who had a 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. One lodge of the
A. o. U. W., two lodges of Redmen, two
lodges of the degree of honor, four lodges
of Maccabees and several others lost
regalia and various articles of furniture.
The building is insured up to the 80 per
cent clause and most of the other losses
are largely covered by insurance.
At midnight the injured are doing a.