Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-02-27
Fire Broke Out in Park Avenue
Hotel While 71st. Armory
Was Burning.
GUESTS WERE NOT WARNED
Fireproof Building Only Partially
in the Darkness and Smoke
To be Investigated.

New York, Feb. 22-Sophia Beach, Ct
Years of age, Il guest of the Park Avenue
hotel, who was burned about the face and
body Saturday morning, died in Bellevue
hospital to-day, as the result of her In
juries This makes the nineteenth victim
All the other fire victims in the different
hospitals will probably recover. The R-V
William Boardman of Norwalk, Conn,
who is suffering from burns about the
face, hands and body, improved somewhat
to-day. The body of the unidentified wo-
man at the morgue was recognized to-day
as that of his wife Julia.
Coroner Goldenkranz will begin his Of
fetal inquiry into the loss OF life at the
hotel fire tomorrow. He has summoned
q large number of the guests.
The ruins of the Seventy-tirst Regiment
Armcry and tho scorched upper stories OF
the Park Avenue hotel were gazed at to-
day by thousands of people. A single fire
engine sent a stream of water on one spot
of the armory ruins where were stored
$1,000 rounds of cartridges and a small
quantity of powder The heat of the fire
did not explode this ammunition for it was
in Il sub-cellar packed in steel boxes.
SO great was the crowd that sought adj
mittancc to the hotel that police guards
were placed at the entrance. District At
torney jerome arrived at the hotel in the
morning. accompanied by half dozen OF
his county detectives, and Fire Chief
Croker They examined the burned por-
ton OF the hotel and talked with Mr..
Reed, the proprietor.
Lives were sacrificed. Chief Croker and
other officials say, because the hotel struc-
ture. which WAS said to be fireproof, was
without the ordinary methods of escape
which the law demands
There were no fire escapes, no fire hose,
not even a bucket of water Chief Croker
said.
OF the cause of the fire, there are var
ious conjectures. The proprietor declares
that il was the work OF an incendiary his
design being to rob the rooms of the pa
irons. That many of the rooms were
looted there is no doubt, but there is little
reason to believe that the fatal blaze was
the work of an incendiary.
Far from holding this view, the Of
ficials of the fire department say the fire
originated in the hotel itself. and that it
was not caused by burning brand from
the blazing Seventy first Regiment Armory
across the street, which might have been
waited by the strong wind to the roof of
the hotel AS proof of this. they point to
the fact that the blaze started at the bot
tom of the elevator shaft.
Most searching will be the investigation
to be made by the authorities. District At
torney jerome has already subpoenaed the
proprietor of the hotel to appear before
him; Coroner GoldenkranZ will also insti-
tute an inquiry and Fire Commissioner
Sturgis undoubtedly will endeavor to as
certain who is to blame.
All the patrons Of the hotel assert posi-
lively. and 1t is admitted, too, by the man
agement, that, although the fire in the
armory had been raging for an hour and
a half, no warning had been given that the
hotel was in any danger. Indeed. when
some of the nervous women inquired Of
the proprietor il they were in any peril.
he assured them to the contrary, saying
the hotel was perfectly safe.
1T is freproof," was the way he spoke
of it. There is much mystery as 10 the
origin of the fire which wrecked the
Seventy-first Regiment Armory. The gen.
eral supposition being. however. that a
cigarette carelessly thrown into some
waste paper started the fire.
TIL" fire IN the armory was first seen at
about 80 O'Clock in the morning and in a
remarkably short space of time that build
ing was attame from end to end. The fire.
men made their way through the streets
deep with slush as best they could, and did
all that was possible to coniine the fire to
the armory but after they had been al work
nearly an hour the discovery was made
that the Park Avenue Hotel was on fire.
The hotel was crowded with guests who
had come to attend the festivities to be
given in honor of Prince Henry. More than
500 persons were in the house.
The fire was confined principally to the
sixth floors near the elevator shaft. At
about the time the hotel was found to be
on fire the lights went out, and the CORR
doris were filled with smoke. The guests,
unable to find their way through the dark
ened Railways, jumped from windows or
ran directly into the flame. swept portions
Of the building, 1t is this fact which ac-
counts for the large loss OF life. although
the hotel was not destroyed.
The flames gained Roadway rapidly, and
the fire extinguishers made little impress
sion upon them. The guests OH the fifth
and sixth floors had been aroused, and
those who had not lost their heads start
ed for the stairways, clad only in wrappers
and soma with only sheets thrown over
them. Scores Of people were taken from the
windows Of the third, fourth and fifth
floors Of the house by flremen and by po-
lice, many of them being made hysterical
from fright.