Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1902-03-01
CAUGHT IN DEATH TRAP
Nineteen People Perish in Fire in
Park Avenus Hotel.
MANY SCENES OF WILD TERROR

Guests Were Watching Fire Close BY,
When the Hotel Caught and Their
Escape Was Cut off--Wildest Kind
Of Panic Followed.
New York. Feb. 24.-Another was
added to New York's list of hotel fire
horrors Saturday morning. when 19
guests OF the big Park Avenue Hotel,
at Thirty-third street and Park ave
nue.. we're burned or suffocated to
death, score or more others were
injured. and property valued at $780,
600 destroyed. Among those whose
lives were sacrificed were several men
and women prominent In various
walks Of life. among them being Mrs.
Ellen Foster, better known as ''the
angel Of the Tombs."
Fifteen minutes before the flames
were discovered In the Park Avenue
Hotel fre broke out in the immense
granite armory of the Seventy-first
Regiment, N. G. N. Y, located dag
onalIy across Park avenue, at Thirty
third street, running through to Thir-
tyfourth. The blaze in the armory
was discovered by woman on the
third floor at the Thirty-third street
end Of the building.
The flames quickly spread through
out the structure. and It was but Eve
minutes after the FIRE was hrst seen
that the entire building was mass
or names. Ten minutes later the
roof fell with a terrific crash. Later
the Thirty-third street wall fell In.
The burning armory was separated
from the Park Avenue Hotel only by
{ the Width Of pssrk or F'oaFtis asenns
and the 500 or more guests within the
walls Of the hotel were naturally
aroused by the noise and excitement.
The Park Avenue Hotel was supposed
to be freproof, and il is said that
word was sent to all the guests that
there was no danger. At any rate the
windows looking toward the blazing
armory were filed with guests who
gazed with fascinated eyes upon the
spectacle afforded. Suddenly a shout
went up from the throngs on the street
that the hotel was on fire. The cry
reached the ears of the people inside,
and the widest kind OF a panic fol-
IuSnlnE
about IN their night clothes vainIy
seeking means of escape
Finding the elevator shaft a mass
OF flames and the main stairway cut
of, several Jumped from windows
and others perished amid the flame
and smoke. More than 500 patrons
were in the building at the time, and
all fed in haste to places of safety.
Those who occupied rooms below the
fifth floor were able to escape down
the stairways.
In their terror men and women
climbed out of the windows of their
rooms and tried to escape by crawling
along icy window lodges. Firemen
rescued nearly a score of them from
the front Of the building by the Pom
pier scaling ladders. Only one man
jumped, from the rear of the hotel. He
struck on an adjoining roof and his
brains were dashed out.
The Park Avenue Hotel became q
frightful death trap almost in the
twinkling of an eye. Almost instant
ly the two elevator shafts became
flaming chimneys from the ground to
the sixth floor. The halls filed with
killing smoke. Down in the Office,
where there had been no furry of un-
usual excitement up to this time, the
employees saw showers of sparks fill
the elevator shafts.
Even with the warning il was I'm
possible to convince scores of them
that every second of delay brought
death closer on their heels. Men and
women who were awakened insisted
on going back to. bed. Many OF those
who ran into the halls became bewiI-
dered and half suffocated, and bolted
back to the opened windows, through
which embers from the burning
armory entered in q fiery torrent.
Down the stairways poured stream
or half-clad, frenzied patrons, and
within ten minutes after the hotel
was known to be on fire the offices
and corridors of the ground floor were
filed with fugitives, many in their
night clothes, many Of them burned
and crying aloud in their agony.
Various opinions were given as to
the origin of the fire in the hotel. The
manager claims that it was of incen-
diary origin. Others hold to the
theory that the fire originated from
sparks from the burning armory
building, swept by the wind in the d.
rection of the hotel descending the
air shaft which was directly along
side the elevator. and ignited the de-
bris which was piled up in the base
ment near the elevator shaft. The
idea Of incendiary origin is secuted
by the guests of the hotel and by Fire
Chief Croker.