Arizona republican., 1902-02-23

ESTH SCHLESSINGER, 3S years
 old. Chicago; a buyer.
 JACOB SPAIN. 90 years old. Roches-
 ter. N. Y.
 JOHN G. WALKER, 30 years old. Co.,
 lumbia, Tenn.
 COL. ALEXANDER NJ. PIPER. U.
 :. A. retired. 70 years old. died in hotel.
 MRS. SALOME FOSTER, known as
 the 'Tombs angel
 Unindentified body of woman may be
 the wife of Rev. Willism s. Boardman,
 q patient in Bellevue hospital.
 The fire in the arnlory started on the
 third floor on the Thirty-third street side, in q tier or rooms occupied by
 different companies of the regiment.
 Within five minutes the whole struc-
 ture was beyond saving and ten min
 utes later the roof fell in with d terrific crash. No one was in the armory at
 the time except the janitor and his family. They escaped by go-
 ing through a scuttle hole in the roof and thence along the battlements
 to the Thirty-fourth street side to safety on the roofs of the houses on the east. This passage was attended by
 much danger owing to the icy condi-
 tion of the roof.
 Several hundred pounds of ammuni-
 ton stored in the tower of the armory
 were detonated in T serious manner. the explosions partially wrecling that DOT
 ton of the walls near which it was stored. This added terror and caused :L
 fear of greater explosions to those
 fighting the flames.
 Ii was almost o'clock when the flames were discovered in the Park Avenue hotel, directly across from the
 armory. Manager Reed of the hotel
 had been on the roof watching the fire in the armory. with guests of the hotel. He had descened to the first floor be-
 low the roof and was talking to guest when a burst of flame came up through the elevator shaft. Immediately he ordered the men to go through the hotel
 and give an alarm The lights almost immediately went out and the hotel
 corridors were in darkness. The flames
 leaped up through the elevator shaft
 and seemed to gather around the fifth
 and sixth floors, filling the halls with dense smoke and making exit by means
 of the stairways almost impossible. Manager Reed ran to the fourth floor and there entered the elevator. which was descending. He alighted at the
 first floor, and soon after the elevator
 was a wreck.
 Various opinions are given as to the origin of the fire in the hotel. Many i assert that it was Of incendiary origin. i Others hold that the fire originated from sparks from the burning armory building. swept by the wind in the di- rcctiun of the hotel, descending the ai- shaft directly alongside the elevator
 and igniting debris which was piled up
 in the basement near the elevator shaft The flames mounted rapidly and the fire extinguishers made little impress.
 sion. The guests on the fifth and sixth floors had been aroused and those who had not lost their heads started for the stairways- clad only in wraps and some with only sheets thrown over them. Scores of people were taken from the windows of the third fourth and fifth llCors of tine house by firemen and | police. Mrs. Charlotte Bennett jumped from the fifth floor. She was picked up and taken to Bellevue hospital Colonel Burdett fell six stories. His skull was l crushed. Col. Alexander NJ. Piper was burned to death near the elevator shatt Fire Commissioner Sturgis said he was at the scene of the armory fire until 2:2O a. and when he left there was fire in the Park Avenue hotel He said: "I believe the hotel fire to have been a separate and distinct fire and that it started in the elevator shaft. I was surprised to learn that ] there was no lire apparatus and no means of escape in the building. Had the building been nine stories in height we would have had Jurisdiction and the | building department would have com pelled the manager to have standpipPs ard other necessary fire apparatus. But this building, having only seven stories. escaped the law. It was supposed to be
 a thoroughly fire-proof building Fire Chief Croker said: ''I believe
 the fire in the hotel was separate and ! distinct from that which destroyed the
 armory. The fact that the hotel was practically fire-proOf is responsible for . the fact that greater conflagration 1 was aVcrtcd.'