The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-02-28
PARK AVENUE HOTEL, NEW YORK
CITY, DESTROYED BY
Esal.a. FIRE.
SIX BODIES RECOVERED
Estimated That There Are Twenty
More Still in the Corridors of the
Hotel-BIaze Started in the Seventy
first Regiment Armory-A Thousand
Pounds of Powder in the Cellar
Blew Out the Walls.

New York, Feb. 22.-Fire that broke
put early in the morning in the armory
of the Seventy-first regiment, N. Y.
N. G., at Park avenue, Thirty-third and
Thirty-fourth streets, spread to the
Park Avenue hotel, and at least 20 or
rs lives were lost, while the damage
Is roughly estimated at over $4,000
900. One woman, guest of the hotel.
jumped from the fifth story and is
believed to be fatally injured.
The Park Avenue hotel will, it is
believed, be a total loss. The armory,
magnificent granite structure, and
one of the finest in the city, was de-
stroyed.
1t is certain that a number of lives
have been lost, Chief Croker making
an estimate of 20 dead now in the
ruins of the hotel. Six bodies have
been taken out and one of these was
Identified as that of Colonel Alex Piper,
| q. S. A, of Louisville, KY.
Admiral Miller, U. S. A. (retired)
was fatally shocked. UP to o'clock
q. m. no list of dead or injured was
obtainable.
The armory occupied an entire block
and was occupied also by the Second
battery and the First signal corps.
The fire was discovered bursting
from a window of the armory on the
Thirty-fourth street side, and by the
time the firemen arrived the flames
had completely enveloped the building
and appeared through the roof. Short
ly after, the cartridges and ammuni-
ton exploded.
/ Shortly after 2 o'clock 1000 pounds
of powder in the cellar exploded and
the walls of the building were thrown
outward.
| By this time the people living in the
neighborhood had been driven from
their homes by the heat, and were
sheltered in the car barns near by.
Many narrow escapes were witnessed
and heroic work was done by firemen
and spectators.
Panic Among the Guests.
The guests of the Park Avenue hotel.
numbering about 600, were aroused
quickly as possible, but not without
panic among the women and children.
The firemen poured II streams upon
the side of the hotel nearest the arm
DRY, but in spite of this the third floor
caught fire, and the flames eating
along the walls of the hotel, spread
to the roof.
| A little after o'clock the four up
per floors of the hotel were mass OF
flames, and the fire was spreading
rapidly down through the structure
It was then apparent that the hotel
was doomed.
Notwithstanding the fact that eve
rybody in the hotel had ample time
to get out a number of women were
carried down the ladders by firemen
until it was thought everybody had
been taken out.
Two bodies were found on the fifth
floor by the f1remen and two more in
other parts of the building. It is fear
ed several other bodies will be found
In other parts of the building.
Two men, whose names have moi
been learned, attempted to escape
from the Park Avenue hotel by goins
to the roof. Both of them jumped
from the roof later, and one was in
stantly killed. The other was fatal
ly injured.
At o'clock Chief Croker, who hat
been inside the building, said that h,
believed a large number Of dead were
inside In the halls and corridors.