The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-07-01
THREE HUNDRED PEOPLE
ARE BURNED OR DROWNED
Fifteen Million Dollars Worth of Shipping and
Docks Destroyed al New York.
Dean OVertakeS Throngs Entrapped in the Settling Fur
naceS or Seeking Escape in the Water


VVU worth of property was DESTROYED
1VO 70 SOO lives were lost, many per
sons We're injured and at least / 5OG
lives were imperiled by a fire that
started among cotton bales under Pier
NO OF the North German Lloyd
Steamsnlp company in Hoboken, N. j.
at o'clock this afternoon.
In less than fifteen minutes the
names covered an area a quarter of a
mile long. extending outward from the
actual shore line to the bulkheads.
from 500 to 1000 feet away. and had
caught four great ocean liners and p
dozen or more smaller craft in its
grasp.
Stories in regard to the loss of life
are conflicting. Up to 2 o'clock twenty
nVe bodies had been recovered. but they
We're an so badly burned and black
eneu mat identification was impossible.
Deeds of Heroism.
There We're many deeds Of heroism.
One man in the hospital with burned
hands and face was rescued by another
man more severely burned than him
ser de said he was helpless in the wa
Ter when the other man threw an arm
about him. and buoyed him up. The
rescuer's face was fearfully burned and
MS arm was useless but he treaded wa
Ter and buoyed so skillfully that they
HOated down the river and a tug went
TO their rescue. The man who told the
story said he tainted after being saved
and did not know if his rescuer had al
so been takeT> out of the water.
some OF Those who went into the wa
ter and were rescued and but slightly
injured say that when others were
caught between the fire and water and
saw death coming. they went insane
Men babbled of home and friends dur
ing the few brief moments that they
and the others faced death
The fear of the furnace which lay
between them and the land bereft them
Of their senses.
There were acts of cowardice as we'll
as heroism. Men chung TO others and
refused 10 let go. even though the act
meant death to both. One Of the sur
Yivors was seized by another man. who
clung to him frantically and refused to
let 60.
The man, who was later saved. had to
beat his companion into insensibility
before he could loosen his hold and
plunge into the water.
Spectacle Is Appalling.
TIE ctorle was wonderful aud ap-
palling
River and bay were enveloped in a
pail o. black smoke through which
angry flames, bursting as from voIca-
noes, on the Jersey shore and in the
water itself, leaped like red sprites into
the sky.
The surface of the water as covered
with floating and blazing masses of
freight, thrown in haste from the
doomed vessels, all unnoticed in the
mad race to rescue more precious hui
man life threatened or being sacrificed
in the great ships. And through the
pail of smoke great crimson sun en-
larged 10 thrice its size by the haze
glared as il slowly sunk in the west.
In that smoke, beneath the turbid wa
tiers, scores of lives had been lost or
were then in their last desperate
struggles against death.
Enormous Throngs Look On.
The spectacle was witnessed by
Thousands and thousands from both
shores, and by other thousands who
crowded upon every ferry boat, every
excursion boat, upon every river craft
that could be secured for the purpose.
The crowd upon the banks Of the river
was almost as great as that which
formed to witness the triumphant re-
turn OF Admiral Dewey.
Looking up the river toward the
burning ship and piers, the scene was
wonderful and tragic one of gran
deuT. The ship Saale had been towed
down the river until she was lust off
Fort Liberty, where she had gathered
about her a ring Of fire boats and tugs
all fighting to save at least the hun of
the doom j steamer.
Flames still were leaping from her
port holes and rushing out of her
cabins.
At varying distances about the burn
ing ship lay coal and cotton barges. all
ablaze. each with one or more tugs
PLAYING streams Of water upon it. Some
OF these barges and lighters were load
ed with very inhammable stuff. and
the flames leaped high in the air, while
the heat was so terrific that it was
possible 10 use only the small hose of
the tug.
Along the Jersey shore small fires
were blazing. started by the wreckage
from the great steamships
The drifting steamships and barges
1oated. all a1ame. to the New York
shore and crashed against the piers
from Canal TO Murray streets.
People 'Twixt Fire and Water.
Their were hundreds of men on each
Of the destroyed steamships, and Jew
women Crowds of dock laborers and
employees of the companies were on all
the piers Men. women and children
the Darses and lighters, and when the
fire made its quick descent upon them.
escapt was cut off before they realized
their awful position. The people on
the pies jumped into the water TO save
themSeEes, and scores Of men huddled
under me piers C'inging to the sup
ports only 10 be suffOcated by the
flames or to drop back into the water
from exhaustion.
Men working in The holds Of the fire
steamships We're smut in by walls of
fame and 1t was impossible to reach
them.
II probably will never be known how
many men persisted in the ships. as the
flames were so fierce they would leave
but few, if any, rennants of the hui
man bodies.
Saale Is a CharneI House.
The greatest loss of life appears to
he on the Saale. Size carried 45O peo-
ple. and was TO have sailed for Boston
his afternoon. When the police boat
captain went ABOARD of her with his
rescue party ne saw bodies lying all
about the deck.
The snip bremen oarried a crew of
300, the Main Z5t' anc if as many lives
were lost on the Bremen and Main as
on the Saale. the number will be ap-
Daliins
Scores perlsI ae on The piers, and in
The burning Or smouldering remains
of canal boats, hghtels and barges are
scattered all the way down the river
and bav to Staten Island and Cover