The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-05

men met death by suffocation y
this morning in a fire which =
= occurred at 8 o'clock in the Lincoln y
= hotel. 176 Madison street. Thirteen y
\ of those who lost their lives were =
= stihed while lying in their beds. =
= one victim was taken from the Z
= building before life was extinct, 4
= but died in the ambulance on the =
= way to the nearest hospital. Z
Coroner Traeger, after inspecting the
building, united with Fire Chief Mu-
sham in declaring that the building was
a veritable trap, and never should have
been used for hotel purposes. Chief
Musham declared that there were such
wide cracks in the floors that the smoke
poured through the building in clouds,
rendering escape extremely difficult for
those on the upper floors.
There was no fire escape on the front
of the building. although one was in
process of construction. The scaffOld-
ing was up and from it dangled several
ropes, down which number of people
slid to the pavement after all escape by
the stairway had been cut off.
The Dead.
I. o. Yocum. fire insurance agent,
prominent in Davenport, Ia.
Samuel YOcum, his son.
A. d. Coon, lawyer, Marengo, Ills.
+. L. Ewing. mail clerk, Marietta, o.
IL. f. Boswell, Chicago.
T. V. SlOcum, machine dealer, Wau-
conda, Ills.
n. K. Woods, Lebanon, Ind.
Edward Toner, printer. Milwaukee.
5. w. Corey, railway postal clerk,
Bucyrus, O.
Ward Lowe. railroad postal clerk.
Sechlerville. Wis.
NJ. NJ. Hardy, travelling salesman,
Janesville, wis.
{. P. Cowan, collector on the Wabash
railroad, st. Louis.
George B. Graves, compositor, Chi
cago.
Unidentified man. five feet eight
inches tail, 165 pounds, thin brown hair
and nIustache.
Injured.
The following were injured:
]. S. Allison, Richiand Center, Wis.
cut about head.
Edward. Davenport, Chicago; in
jured internally by jumping from
fourth story to roof of adjoining build
ing.
w. G. Thomas, Cedar Rapids, Ia;
badly cut and bruised.
William NJ. Snyder, Loom City, Ia;
bruised by falling downstairs.
Mrs. June Sheppard, Chicago; back
strained, arms and hands cut and
bruised.
Robert c. Hamilton. Lebanon, Ind;
hands cut.
Cliff Ward, Battle Creek, Mich; cut
about head and hands lacerated
F. G. Baker, Nashville, Mich; feet
burned.
Irwin westerland. Chicago; feet
burned.
Olof Oldorf. Chicago; hands LAGER
ated.
Veritable Death Trap.
The hotel was four stories in height
and contained an unusual number of
rooms for a hotel of its size. After the
IRE Chief Musham of the fire depart
ment declared that they were the small
est rooms he had ever seen in any
building. Had there been fewer parti-
tions. he declared, the chances of life
for those sleeping on the upper floors
of the hotel would have been greatly
increased.
F.. a. Smith, proprietor of the hotel,
declared that there were, as nearly as
he could judge without his books. about
125 people in~the hotel. 1t was. in fact,
filled to its utmost capacity, and many
applicants for rooms were turned away
last night with the information that
they could not be. accommodated.
NlBuL OlGEk weber discovered the
smoke pouring through the halls short
~ before 6 o'clock, and did his best to
alarm the guest, but the smoke was so
dense and increased in volume so rap
idly that he was able to arouse only "A
small number, and was then compelled
to grope his way to the street to avoid
suffOcatiOn.
The guests came down the one stair
way of the building in al stages of
undress. and several leaped from the
windows of the second story to the
Sidewalk below and escaped without
serious injury.
Firemen Saved Many Lives.
The f1remen, who arrived with great
promptitude, saved many lives by car
rying people down ladders from the
windows. The smoke on the inside of
the building was so thick and so pun
gent that the firemen were unable to
do more than to take the people out of
the windows. Those who were not able
TO reach the windows in a few minutes
after the fire broke out were suffocated.
The fire itself amounted to very little.
A portion of the third and second floors
was burned, and the blaze was extin-
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