The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-02-07
Insurance on Building.
Ldhaurn Finance Camnanv-Ruildin

A fire which ragged fercely for eight
many spectacular features completely
Quilted the Vendome hotel, % Fourth
street S. this morning. The total loss
on building will be $4,000; on contents
as much or more. Guests fed or were
carried from the burning building with
but little clothing and none Of their per-
sonal effects. and suffered intensely from
exposure to the cold. The firemen have
not had a more difficult fire to fight in
| many years. All of the apparatus in the
city was called out on five separate
alarms, but much Of it was rendered use
less because of the cold, one water tower
| in Fourth street, Directly in front Of the
hotel, being frozen fast beneath a mound
of solid ice. Several firemen were in
| jured.
Started in Bowling, Alley.
! 1t was shortly before o'clock when the
| fire was discovered in the basement of
| the hotel, occupied by Spears bowling
alley. It's origin is not known, but the
blaze is believed to have been caused by
spontaneous combustion. With remark
third stories, the communication evidently
being through closed partitions. The
! sleepers were aroused by the night clerk
| and firemen, who arrived early. Already
! all of the rooms in the building were
| filling with dense, suffocating and inn
| penetrable smoke, and the guests, hurry
| ing into their clothes, CROPPED hopelessiyA
about the halls trying to find egress
| Some of them, familiar with the construc-
| ton Of the hotel, were able to make
| their way down the dark stairs unaided
! Others were found by the tiremen, be-
/! wildered and excited, shouting for help,
/ but being unable to help themselves AS
| many of these as could be reached were
| guided or carried down the stairs.
On up stairs, In the fourth and fifth
stories, the situation was more battling.
Smoke was rolling up through the area
/ way and elevator shaft, and was most
sitting Before many of those on these
floors were able to get down the stairs,
/ this means of escape was cut off by the
80
and women hurried about in every direc-
ton, trying to find way out. Realizing
that the stairway could no longer be used,
4 some of the men started down the fire
escapes in the rear. Then some person
/ suggested the skylight, and through it
and through two windows in the attic
clambered twenty or more men and
4 women. This seemed their only means
of escape from the suffocating and sick
building. They thought not Of the pre-
dicament they might find themselves in
on the roof. but that was a secondary
consideration. Their immediate thought
was to escape suffocation.
I, Guests Helped to Safety.
In the meantime the hrenen had hur-
ried into the building and were assisting
safety. They were forced to return, un-
able to breathe in the smoke, even
through their guards. The truck COM
panies hoisted their ladders to the fourth
and fifth stories both in the front and in
the rear. No sooner were these in place
than they were covered with ice from the
water that was thrown on them from the
hose and torrent MOBILES in the streets be-
low. Over the ice-covered rungs the
fremen climbed and, stopping at the top
only long enough to break out the win
dows, leaped into the rooms. By this
time most of the guests had found their
way out, either down the stairway or out
4 onto the roof.
Truckmen from No. I, in the front.
5. found Mr.. and Mrs. w. w. Brown OF
Armenia, N. D., in their room. over
come by smoke. They were only par
q TALLY dressed showing that they had been
i aroused late. It being impossible to take