Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-02-11
Second Greatest Fire in
History of the Southern
City.
LARGE NUMBER INJURED
Extent of Horror Not Appreciated Un.
til After Firemen Had punched
the Flames-In Neighborhood of
Forty People Were in the Place.

| st. Louis, Feb 1O.-The worst loss
Iof life from fire ever recorded in st.
Louis with one exception, occurred
yesterday morning in the destruction
! of the Empire apartments 2700-O2
olive street, for which an alarm was
sounded at $40 o'clock yesterday
morning, followed by a second twenty
minutes later, though the blaze had
evidently started long before the first
alarm was sent in In causing a loss
estimated at $4,000 the fire snutfed
out eleven lives, most OF the victims
being found. after the flames were
quenched, in their rooms, in their beds
even, suffocated by the smoke The
| loss of life was the greatest in the his
/ tory of the city, from such cause,
/ with the single exception OF the great
Southern hotel fire. The scene of the
1 fire was the Empire hotel run as
bachelor apartments. though known
up to a year or SO ago as one of the
worst OF the questionable resorts of
| the city.
The Dead.
! The dead are:
| MORRIS VAIL, senior member of
/ firm Vail, Clark & Cowen manufacture
ers of fine cut-giass, formerly at Chi
cago, body burned to a crisp.
TOBE DAVIS. suffocated.
JOHN C. LEUDERS, father of Dep
iuty City Marshal Leo Leuders, skull
fractured in jumping from third-story
window
GEORGE THOMPSON. switchman
Terminal yards, burned.
SARAH HARRIS, colored chamber
maid, burned.
! r. F. WOODLEY. employee Hanil-
1 HOMETOWN Shoe company, burned
! j. A. NJ MULLEN, carpenter, burned.
S. 7. COREY, telegraph operator,
Merchants Terminal association.
! VANCE MARLIN, civil engineer In
4 dianapolis, md burned.
A. J. ALLEN, Sedalia, Mo-, stone
mason. burned.
UNKNOWN MAN, died at City hos
4 pital from burns.
! Injured.
/ The more seriously injured:
Harry Cline, medical student, of Ma
lrion, H.. hands badly burned and an
kle sprained; taken to city hospital.
4 Walter Johnson, employe Hamilton
/ Brown Shoe company hands burned.
both legs broken, and injured inter.
inally; taken to city hospital.
Henry Robinson colored. night por-
ter badly burned; taken TO city hos.
pital and thence to his home.
George Lane. medical student, Of
Rich Hill, Mo- ankle sprainel in
jumping from seeond-story window.
/ Sturgeon, dental student, back
Il
window.
Harry Thompson, medical student
Nashville, H.. ankle sprained in jump.
ling from second-story window.
J. ]. Lally. manager Empire hotel,
back badly sprained while escaping
from building.
Con Ryan, burned about face.
Discovered by ?asserby.
; The fire, so horrible in its results,
! seems not to have been discovered by
the inmates of the house. but by pas
sersby. and it was left to young man
J living in the neighborhood, Sidney
Manheimer, to jump into his clothes,
!. from sound sleep. and rush to an
alarm box The officer on the beat
was at the Jefferson and Washington
avenue corner at the time the fire
. borke out and was not aware of the
situation until the alarm had already
been given. The peculiar manner in
which the fire burned had much to do
: with the disastrous results. reaching
; up TO the third floor and then suddenly
spreading out in such manner as to
: snuff out the lives of the victims al
most without warning. Some jumped.
!, two to almost immediate death and
y one to frightful injury. The rest were
: burned or suffocated. One died Of
: burns at the city hospital. Others suf-
7Ifered minor hurts.
Real Extent Not Appreciated.
!, The real extent of the horrible loss
! of life was not appreciated until after
! the firemen had quenched the flames
+ and had begun the search of the wreck
= for the victims. Then body after body
was found with sickering frequency,
> some partially dressed, some burned,
some suffocated and some so injured
!, as to make Identification from facial
characteristics almost if not quite i'm
possible. 1t was o'clock in the morn
ing before the last body was found and
taken to the morgue. There had been,
S according to the attaches, some thirty
FIVE roomers in the place, and twenty
v rooms in the structure being nearly
. doubly occupied. Those who escaped
). death or injury it was impossible to
:. round up in such manner as to deter
mine the identities by elimination, and