The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-01-09
DIRE RESULTS OF
ROCHEST[R'S FIRE
Twenty-Eight Dead Bodies at
the MOrgue.
GWENTY-SIX CHILDREN
Natural Gas Exploded in the Orphan
Asylum Boiler Room.
MANY LITTLE ONES SLOWLY suFfocA1ED
Heroic Work Done by the Flremen and Orphan
Asylum Attendants in the Rescue Of
Helpless inmates From The
Burning Building.
Burning Building.
lBy he Associated Pregs.l

Rochester. n. Y, Jan. S.-Twenty-
dead bodies lie at the morgue and twelve
others more or less seriously injured lie
at the different hospitals in the city to-
night as result of the terrible holocaust,
which occurred early this morning at the
Rochester Orphan Asylum. OF the dead,
twenty-six we're children ranging in age
from two to fourteen years, while the
remaining two were adults. The fire,
which was discovered at 1:10 a. m. and
was doubtless caused by an explosion of
natural gas in the boiler room, adjoining
the west wing of the asylum spread so
rapidly that many of the 100 inmates of
the institution were overcome by the
flames and smoke almost without warning.
A corrected and revised list of the dead
follows
Arthur Kelly, Gladys Hill, Gertrude
Toner, Bertha Hall, Viola Stuck, Lillian
Stone, Mildred Slocum, Mary Alexander,
Helen Hamilton, Hazel Murray, Minnie
Tiffany, Myrtle Patterson, Isabel Marth
age, Gertrude McCaw Marion McCaw,
Loere Owen, Charlie Berham, Rhea Con-
well, Bertha Potter, Mildred Wright,
(colored); Minnie Skinner, Mary Kane,
Cora Potter, Charlotte Bryant, Beachnell
Carey, Evangeline Carey, Mrs. Mary Cor
don, the cook of the Asylum; Mrs.
Martha ellis, nurse.
In all the long and dismal records of
fatal fires in Rochester none can be found
which can equal this one in its general
horrors, in the pathetic scenes in which
so many lives we're blotted out; in the
gallant sacrifice of lives of the attendants,
in whose charge the children were and
in the sad scenes at the hospitals and
morGue.
That so many children were saved from
the west wing of the building seems little
short of miraculous, and when the ruins
were visited today people marvelled that
the death roll was not even larger. The
scene following almost Immediately upon
the discovery of the fire and the ac-
companying explosions was one that turn
ed the stoutest hearts sick. The windows
of the west wing were filled with the
terrified faces of the tiny waits. Working
like men possessed the firemen struggled
to release them. The rooms of the dorm
itory we're filled with smoke of the fire
and the little ones were being slowly
suffocated.
Most of those rescued were lowered to
the ground by means of a ladder from
the second and third stories.
The ambulances from every hospital in
the city reached the scene almost as soon
as the fire alarm was turned in, but they
proved totally inadequate in providing for
those rescued. Many injured and dead
were removed to the houses in the i'm
mediate neiobborhood
There were awful scenes around the
asylum at this time. Most of those res
cued from the building were unconscious
from the effects of smoke. 1t soon be-
came apparent that the building was
doomed. general alarm was sent in and
the FIRE department was soon on the
scene The fire was stubbornly fought
from every available point. but it was
over an hour after it's discovery before it
was under control