Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1900-07-27
'W0MENltAP IOIHERDEAIB.
four Are Killed at a Chicago
Fire.
NO FIRE ESCAPES PROVIDED
Victims Find Thems elves In y veritable
TraP-Smoke and Flame Drive Them
from Upper Windows-Mrs. McLaugh-
Inns Thrilling Fall. "-.

Inns thrilling Fall.
Chicago, July 27-Four women were
killed and eleven persons injured, the
result OF fire at 125 Dearborn street
The dead: Mrs, Ellen Mclaughlin, As
years old, 9O4 Armitage avenue, EN-.
ploye of Cobb Shirt company; Isabella
koehler, II years old, 2S4 Burline
street, employe Of the Windsor com
pany; May Koehler, 16 years old, 2S4
Burling street, employe of the Wind
sor company; Grace Petersen, Ii
years old, 467 Wells street, employee of
the Windsor company. The injured:
Albert Phelps, foreman for the Wind
sor company, face and arms badly
burned; Myer Landsman, jeweler, face
scratched; Marion Groat, employee OF
the windsor company, badly slnged;
Adam Linck, 40 Pearson street, over
come by smoke; Eta Munsell, 800
webster avenue, employed by the Cobb
ohlrt company on the fourth floor,
burned about face and hands while es-
Gaping downstairs with her sister;
Harry Thompson, burned about head
ana race, hair and eyebrows singed
employed by Windsor Shirt and Collar
company on the third floor; ]. E. Kir-
n.y. sla Robey street, employee of Ma
son & Co., cut about face and body and
left arm burned; William Whitehead
shirt cutter, face cut by falling glass;
Albert Kennedy, 291O Cottage Grove
avenue, right hand badly burned;
Catherine Brannigan, 1913 w. lzta
street, head cut and hair singed.
Caused by an Explosion.
The muft1ed roar of an explosion.
followed by showers of falling glass
and clouds Of yellow smoke from the
upper floors of the building arrested
the currents of humanity in the thor
oughfares below till the intersection Of
Dearborn and Madison streets was
congested with people looking I'D at
the windows, where blanched-faced
women, caught in death-trap by sud-
den tlre, looked in vain for rescue and
shrleked for help while the cracking
flames swept out above their heads.
There We're no fire escapes. A moment
after the first explosion the roar of
names drowned the voices of the wom-
en- at the windows, who, with the des-
peration of despair, crept upon the
Lodges that crossed the front of the
building at each floor. Facing the
street and clinging by finger-nails to
the bare walls behind them a dozen
girls, employees Of the Windsor collar
factory, edged their way along the
narrow ledge toward the adjoining
building at the north, where q bay
window, open and within a step Of the
ledge, promised safety to those who
might reach it.
In Perilous Quest Of Safety.
Men followed the adventurous girls
A stout woman with gray hair, tremb-
ing and weeping, joined the creeping
1rleze upon the smoke-covered ledge.
An excited man followed her. Inch by
inch they neared the window of Isaac
Lichtstern, the breathless crowd below
watching them in helpless ecstasies
TIL more than twenty disappeared in
safety. Then the gray-haired woman
shrieked till her voice was heard above
the clang Of the firegongs and the hiss
OF steam engines. Within a yard Of
the window where William Turnquist,
a tailor, stood ready to seize her, she
lost her footing, grabbed wildly at the
walls and fell to the stone sidewalk
fifty feet below. Thousands of men
groaned as they turned their eyes away
from the sight, while others watched
the man who had followed the woman
along the ledge as he leaped to safety
as she might have done. Policemen
and flremen rushed to the rescue. but
the woman was dead when they lifted
her crushed body from the sidewalk.
Girls Fall to Their Death.
At the rear of the burning building
scenes more terrible. but with few
spectators to witness them, were en-
acted. Within five minutes after the
hrst explosion three girls with cloth
Ing blazing, fell in helpless heaps into
Inc narrow court at the rear of the
structure.
Property Loss Only $4,000.
The financial damage by fire and
water to the building and stocks will
not exceed $14,500, with insurance ag-
gregating $1,000. Chiaf Suon;o aid
not regard it as a dangerous blaze at
any time. The absence of fire escapes
at the rear of the building is directly
responsible for at least two of the
1eaths in the 6 by 10 area at that end
Of the structure.