The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1902-02-27
decided to devote all of their efforts to
the rescue of its occupants.
Victims Meet Terrible Deaths.

the rescue of its occupants.
Victims Meet Terrible Deaths.
Men and women appeared at the
windows of the Park avenue side OF
the hotel and called for help. Mrs.
Charlotte Bennett and her husband,
Harold, of Alabama, stood on q ledge
on the Fifth floor, just above the portl-
co over the main entrance to the no
sel. Mrs. Bennett was terror stricken
and screamed again and again for
tome one to rescue her. Her husband
Erasped her, and from the crowd OF
thousands gathered in the streets
there were shouted warnings not TO
Jump. When it was seen that she
was determined to jump, the fremen
gathered in circle and stretched out
their arms. With final desperate eff
fort Mrs. Bennett wrenched herselI
tree from her husbands grasp, and,
with piercing scream, flung hersen
into the arms of the waiting fremen
ave stories below. When she jumped
from the ledge ON which SIC and her
husband had stood, the flames were
licking out Of the window behind her
and around her form. Inside the room
was all in flames. Mrs. Bennett struck
In the arms of the firemen. Her
weight caused them to sag and the
woman struck the pavement. She was
terribly burned about the body. She
was carried into the hotel by fireman
and later was taken to Bellevue hos
pital where she died. Her husband,
when Mrs. Bennett jumped, fell back
into the room. He was not seen after
t. y h,rr, Cd
or suffocated to death.
Colonel Charles I. Burdett of Con-
necticut met death in terrible man.
|ner. His body, with the skull split
open, was found lying in the court
yard within the hotel. He had fallen
at least six stories.
Father Smith, fire chaplain, found
Bishop Ludden of Syracuse in a room
On the seventh floor of the hotel and
helped him to the street. Bishop Lud-
den told the firemen then that there
were number of priests In the hotel,
including Monsignor Kenney, also of
Syracuse. Father Smith returned into
the building, fought his way through
the smoke and up the stairs, and con-
Quoted the priests down the stairway
to safety.
Building Cost $4,000, 900.
The Park Avenue hotel was built by
A. T. Stewart, who spent $3,000,000 on
Its construction and furnishings. It
occupied the entire front of the block
on Park avenue from Thirty-second
to Thirty-third streets and with a
depth of half a block.
Fire Chief Croker said the difficulty
in fighting the hotel fire came from
the fact that there was no stand pipes
nor hose apparatus in the hotel. He
said:
"Had there been proper fire appli-
ances in the hotel the fire could have
been put out by the guests of the ho-
tel themselves. An investigation prov
ed that there was not even bucket
of water nor single line of hose or a
single stand pipe in the Park Avenue
hotel
when the fire was discovered in
the Park Avenue hotel and an alarm
sounded, ordered the hotel cleared.
"At this time the majority of the en-
ployes of the hotel were outside on the
sidewalk. Most of them did not even
know that the hotel was afire.
"a hurried investigation showed
that the fire in the basement was max
Ing wonderful Roadway. The elevator
shaft acted as great flue and the
flames leaped up it to the higher floors,
where it broke out into the main por-
ton of the hotel"