The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-02-22

filling with smoke and for time drop
ped their hose and hurried through ev-
cry portion of the building in search of
guests who might have become over
come by smoke. Their search was re-
warded, for on early every floor and
in the Railways scores OF persons were
found who had been overcome before
they could reach the open air.
INSTANT DEATH.
Hospital records show that 26 persons
We're taken to the New York and Belle
vue institutions. Nearly double that
number were injured in their panic
stricken endeavorS to escape and were
scores taken from the windows of the
third fourth and fifth floors, many
were slightly burned and were hysteri-
cal from shock. OF the dead three We're
women. Death in each instance was
caused by burns or suffocation, with
one exception. One man jumped from
the fifth story window to the inner
court. His skull was crushed and death
was instantaneous.
When the fire started in the armory
scores of guests in the Park Avenue
were awakened by the clang of the
engines and rushed to the hotel win
dows. 1t was about 45 minutes after
flames were discovered in the ar1nory
before they spread to the hotel, but IN
spite of this many guests We're in their
rooms dressed in their night Clothes
and some of them were in bed. The
fremen, as soon as they learned that
the hotel was in danger, decided to de-
vote all their efforts to the Rescue of its
occupants. Men and women appeared
at the windows of the Park avenue
side of the hotel and called for help.
DEATH OF THE BENEFITS.
Mrs. Charlotte Bennett and her huS-
band, of Alabama, stood on a ledge on
the fifth floor just over the portico of
the main entrance to the hotel. Mrs
Bennett was terror-stricken and
screamed again and again for some one
to rescue her. Her husband grasped
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 firemen gathered in a circle
and stretched out their arms. With a
final desperate effort Mrs. Bennett
wrenched herself free from her hus-
scream flung herself into the arms of the
waiting firenen five stories below.
When she jumped from the ledge on
which she and her husband had stood
the flames were licking out of the win
dow behind her and around her form.
The inside of 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 hospital, where she
died. Her husband, when Mrs. Ben
nett jumped, fell back into the room.
He was not seen afterward and it is
believed he was burned or suffocated
to death.
DIED IN TERRIBLE MANNER.
Colonel Charles 1. Burdette of Con-
necticut met death in a terrible manner.
His body. with the skull split open, was
found lying in the court yard within
the hotel. He had fallen at least six
stories Colonel Burdette had a room on
the eighth floor of the hotel When the
alarm of fire reached him, his escape
was cut off. His room faced the court
in the center of the hotel Apparently
he had dragged the mattress from his
bed and dropped it to the roof of an ex-
tension over the hotel dining room sew
eral stories below. Then by knotting
the sheets together he made a rope and
secured it to the window. When his
preparations were completed-they must
have been finished in a few moments
he lowered himself on the improvised
rope and then dropped. His design was
to land on the mattress and thus have
the frightful fall broken. He miscalcu-
lated the distance, went beyond the ex-
tension and was killed.
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 f1remen then that there
were a number of priests in the hotel
including MOnSignOre Kenny, also of
Syracuse. Fireman Smith returned into
the building, fought his way through the
smoke and up the stairs and conducted
the priests down the stairway to safety
The fremen in searching the hotel
found the body of a Mrs. McManus. an
elderly lady. 1t was found near the ell
evator shaft and was so badly burned
as to be almost unrecOg-niZable. Charles
q. O'Connor and Fred S. Hoby died of
their injuries in the hospital to which
they were taken. Their deaths and the
finding of Mrs. McManus' body increaS-
ed the number of known dead to II One
of the bodies awaiting identification
was recognized by Henry Newman of
this city as that of his niece Miss Esther
% N1,f h. I,11
to New York to buy goods tor her en-
pIOyerS in that city.
Rear Admiral Joseph N. Miller, Gre
tired) who was reported mortally hurt
in the fire was not hurt at all. He was
found by a reporter at 10 o'clock this
morning and said he was in his usual
health.
Mrs. Reed. wife of the hotel proprietor
boring residence. Later a search was
made for her and when she could not be
found there were fears that she had
perished- She was not hurt.
ORIGIN A MYSTERY.
How the fire started in the hotel is a
mystery. Many of the police and fire
officials declare that in their opinion the
blaze in the hotel was entirely independ-
only a coincidence that the two fires oc-
CURED so near together.
1t was established, with fair degree
of certainty today that the fire at the
Park Avenue hotel originated at the
base of the north elevator shaft. From
this point, it crept up to the fifth and
sixth floors and spread in every direc-
ton, completely burning out the upper
floors.
Police Captain Delaney said that when
he was notified that the hotel was afire
there was no thought of the structure
being endangered from the Armory
blaze.
The Park Avenue hotel was built by
A. T. Stewart, who spent So, 600 900 on its
construction and furnishings. The
building occupies the entire front of the
block on Park avenue from Thirty
second to Thirty-third streets, with a
depth of half a block. 1t is seven
stories in height and encloses on four
sides a court containing 14,000 square
feet of space. At the time of it's con-
struction it was the largest hotel in
the country with the exception of the