Mower County transcript., 1902-12-17
DEATH IN FlRETRAP
FOURTEEN MEN PERISH BY SUI
FocATIoN IN A CHICAGO H.
! HOTEL FIRE.

Night Clerk Tries to Arouse Guests,
but the Smoke Was So Dense and
Increasing in Volume So Rapidly
He Was Compelled to Desist- st-Fire.
| men Save Many Persons by Garry.
ing Them Down Ladders.
Chicago, Dec 5.-Fourteen men
met death by suffocation during the
morning at q fire which occurred at
o'clock in the Lincoln hotel, 176
| Madison street. Thirteen of those
| who lost their lives were stifled while
lying in their beds. One was taken
from the building before life was ex-
tinct, but died in the ambulance on the
way to the nearest hospital.
Coroner Traeger, after inspecting
the building, united with Fire Chief
Musham in declaring that the building
was veritable fre-trap and should
never have been used for hotel pur-
poses. Chief Musham declared that
there were sucn wide cracks in the
floor that the smoke poured through
the building in clouds, rendering es-
cape extremely difficult. There were
no fire escapes on the front of the
building, although one was in process
of construction. The scaffolding was
up and from it dangled several ropes
down which a number of people slid
to the pavement after all escape by
no foi ho hann or,f 1ff
The dead are:
l. G. YOCUM, Davenport, Ia.
SAMUEL YOCUM, Davenport, Ia.
A. B. COON, Maringo, Ill.
F. l.. EWING, Marietta, o.
B. F. BOSWELL, Chicago
r. v. SLOCUM, Waconda, III.
H.. K. WOODS, Lebanon, Ind.
EDWARD TONER, Milwaukee,
F. w. COREY, Bucyrus, 0.
WARD LOWREY, Sschlerville, Wis.
NJ. NJ HARDY, Janesville, Wis.
C. P. COWAN, st. Louis.
GEORGE D, GRAVES. Chicago
UNIDENTIFIED MAN.
The hotel was four stories in height
and contained an unusual number of
rooms for a hotel of it's size. After
the fire Chief Musham of the fire de-
partment declared that they were the
smallest rooms he had ever seen in
any building. Had there been fewer
partitions, he declared, the chances
of life for those sleeping on the up
per floors OF the hotel would have been
greatly increased.
Many Saved by the Firemen.
F. A. Smith, proprietor of the hotel,
declared that there were as nearly as
he could judge without his books, 125
people in the hotel 1t was in fact
filed to it's utmost capacity and
many applicants for rooms were
turned away the previous night with
the information that they could not be
accommodated. Night Clerk e. c.
C. Weber discovered the smoke pour
ing through the halls shortly before 6
o'clock and did his best to alarm the
guests. but the smoke was SO dense
and increased in volume SO rapidly
that he was unable to arouse all OF
them, and was compelled to grope his
way to the street to avoid suffocation.
The guests came pouring down the one
stairway of the building in all stages
of undress, and several leaped from
the windows Of the second story to the
sidewalk below, and escaped without
serious injury. A number of the men,
turned back by the smoke in the hall
way, which prevented them from find
ing the stairs, swung down on the
ropes placed in the front of the build
ing by the workmen who were erecting
the fire escape. The firemen. who ar
rived with great promptitude, saved
many lives by carrying people down
the ladders from the windows. The
smoke on the inside of the building
was so thick and so pungent that the
firemen were unable to do more than
to take the people from the windows.
Those who were not able to reach
the windows in few minutes after the
fire broke out we're suffocated. A
portion of the third and second floors
were burned, and the blaze was extin-
guished within forty minutes after the
first alarm. AS soon as the smoke
permitted the firemen to live inside the
building careful search was made of
all the rooms, with the result that thir-
teen men were found to have been
stifed before they were able to leave
their BEDS All Of the dead had rooms
on the third and fourth floors.
OF the people injured it was neces-
sary to take only three to the hospital
The others, suffering from slight cuts
and bruises or from the inhalation Of
smoke, were cared for at neighboring
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