The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-08-16
DEATH CAME
IN ALL FORMS
SOME BURNED OR sUFFoCATED
OTHERS DROWNED.
EIGHTEEN ARE RESCUED
More Dead Than Alive from Fire in
Water Works Crib Two
Miles from Shore.

drowned, three, n possibly tour,
were suffocated and several injured
as the hesult of a fire which destroyed
a temporary water works crib, two
miles off the Cleveland harbor, early
today. The dead so far as known:
ARTHUR HAsTY, drowned, body
recovered.
MARK SNYDER, drowned.
ARTHUR HARTINGS, burned.
PLUMMER JONES, s%uffocated.
JOHN MARTIN, drowned.
JOHN KOWOLSKY, drowned.
Four unidentified men, burned.
The injured so far as known: John
Leese, probably a broken back, fatal:
o. Braddock. burned about hands and
face; Charles Smith, overcome by gas
in tunnel. Davd Kelly. rescuer. over
come by gas. ?
Still imprisoned in the tunnel: Vic
tor Kaufman, Canton, probably dead.
John Enging, probably dead. Adam
Keet, probably dead.
Twenty-six men obeyed the order
OF Manager G. C. Van Dusen when the
flames broke out, and took refuge in
the water or floating pieces of wreck
age. Four of them lost their hold upon
their frail floats and sank beneath the
waves Just as help reached their com
rades.
The crew of the tug ]. R. Sprankle
heard the fire whistle blown from the
crib and raced to the scene from the
harbor. She picked up IS survivors
who had drifted to the west Of the
crib on their floats of boards and
wreckage.
Van Dusen and three of his men
were hanging in the water from a two
inch line suspended from the crib.
Just as the line was burning away
above the mems hands a yawl boat
from the barge Wilhelm, manned by
two men dashed into the veil of heat
and smoke that enveloped the crib
and rescued the four men on the rope
at the risk of the boatmen's lives.
The men picked up in the water
were brought to the city on the tug
Sprankle. They were naked, exhaust
ed and badly burned. Many of them
were cut by falling timbers.
The crib is a total loss. 1t was a
frame building 200 by so feet, sides
sheathed with iron. 1t contained val
liable machinery. 1t is now a charred,
shapeless mass of wreckage and
mingled with blackened timbers are
blackened rusty and twisted pieces
and plates Of iron and steel.
The crib and machinery were the
property of Smaller & Schninglau.
contractors. Their loss will exceed
5000, 900.
Mayor Johnson expressed great in
dignation today when he learned that
no boat or life preservers were pro-
vided as a safety easur by the CON
tractors at the crib. He declared that
the case would receive the closest in
vestigation, and that those found
guilty of criminal negligence in the
matter would be prosecuted to the
full extent of the law.
Late this afternoon Plummer Jones
of Warren, Ohio, al employee Of the
tunnel contractors, and one of the par
ty of rescuers who descended into the
shaft to look for the missing men,
was overcome by gas and expired
within a few minutes. His body lies
in the tunnel Is feet from the bottom
of the shaft and is covered with
water. The life line attached to the
body became fouled and could not be
pulled out. David Kelly, another
member of the rescuing party was
overcome by gas and is in a precari-
GUS condition.
Fire and harbor tugs with ~rescuing
parties on board statred for the crib
soon after the flames broke out, but
when they arrived the structure was
49, PR.
q seething mass of flames and all hope
OF saving it was abandoned.
Men could be distinguished swim
ming and floating in the water shout
ing for help. Others were clinging
to ropes which they had hitched or
tied to rafters but flames were burn
ing ropes away. while men We're stark
naked, and one by n were falling
into thesIake
The tugs circled around the burning
crib, picking up men from the water
and In the meantime playing heavy
streams upon the flames. After an
hours hard work. the names were
1ininlohed arQakh q that the nEemen