Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-03-22
CUT OFF BY THE FIRE.
Seven Women in a Building at
Omaha Drop Forty Feet
to the Ground.
TWO OF THEM INSTANTLY KILLED,
Four Others Will Probably Die and None
of Score Penned in by Flames Escaped
Severe Injury-Fearful Scenes for the
OnIookers-Fire Escape That Was For
gotten in the Panic-Finds in the Wind
sor Hotel Ruins.

Omaha. Neb., March 22.-Compara-
lively Insignificant in material destruc-
tion, but terrible in its harvest of death
and suffering was a fire that partially
destroyed the Patterson block at Sew
enteenth and Douglas streets yester-
day 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 laceTdted flesh.
Those killed are Mrs. Thomas Tay-
lor and Mrs. Anna SchameL Injured
Mrs. c. +. Brosius. face and hands
burned; Mrs. 4. King. face badly
burned; Mrs. a. l.. Samuelson. face and
hands severely burned. wrists broken;
May Samuelson, five years old, burned
on hands and face: Mrs. q. D. Wilson.
face. hands and shoulders burned: Mrs.
}. c. Holt, face and hands burned:
Marguerite Holt, hards burned. injured
internally. may die: Mrs. Mary Hop
kins, face and head badly burned; Mrs.
Mary sullivan. hands and face severely
burned: Mrs. w. \. Rex. hands and
face severely burned: Mrs. Ed. Schiner.
face. body and hands burned. bad cut
on head, will probably die; Mrs. French.
Mrs \. A. Smith. face and hands bad
" burned, injuries probably fatal: Mrs.
=. +. 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
old. face and hands burned: Fireman
William Guider suffocated and fen
ably die; Lieutenant James Adams. in
jured about hips by falling down stairs.
Seven Take "A Forty-Foor Drop.
A group of happy women. busy with
the affairs of the secret orders with
which they were affiliated. was in
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 severly injured in their desperate
dash down the single pair of stairs tina
led To safety. The blaze started just
after ; p m. from q gasoline stove eN-
plosiun in a room in the rear of the
third floor Of the building. and next to
the elevator shaft. 1t was not
discovered until it had spread TO
the adjoining apartments and the en-
fame. About twenty members of the
women's lodge Of Maccabees were at
tending a committee meeting in the
waiting room in the front OF the mid
die of the building on the same floor.
Told To Fly for Their Lives.
They We're unconscious of danger un-
til 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. These
nearest the door fled through the
with hands and faces burned and blist-
cred. The rest faced a solid wall of
flame. There was a fire escape at the
south front of the building, but none
os them seems to have thought of it,
They rushed panic-stricken to the win
dows through which the smoke was
already pouring in suffocating puffs
The fire was scarcely a foot behind
them. 1t caught their clothing and
scorched their faces with increasing
intensity.
Horrible Sight For Spectators.
In another instant the spectators. at
by the clouds of smoke. were
Mortified 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 ap-
parently lifeless heap until carried into
the office OF a physician across the
street. Most of them We're bleeding
from severe cuts and bruises. and all
We're burned until their torn and black
ened skin hung in shreds.