The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-02-20
FIRE HORROR AT
CEDAR RAPIDS
Ten or Dozen Bodies in the Ruins
Of the Clifton Hotez, Burned
This Morning.
Guests, Thrown Into a Panic, Hurl
Themselves From the Windows
Of Upper Stories.
Names of all the Missing Undeter,
mined-Long List of the Sc
riously Injured.

mined-Long List of the Sc
riously Injured.
cedar Rapids, Iowa, Feb. 20.-Fifte IN
or twenty persons were burned to death
and twice that number seriously injured
in the fire that destroyed the Clifton no.
tel at o'clock this morning.
Ihere were 120 guests in the hotel when
the IRE broke out and most of the dead
are buried in the debris.
o"ins to the destruction of the hotel
register, the names of the missing had not
been obtained up to o'clock this morn
ing.
The Fatally Injured.
L. e. Burnett Nebraska City, badly burned.
= Sett1e Burns head waitress, Jumped from the
third story.
The Seriously Injured.
,t Dr 5: G. Grove, Cedar Rapids; terribly burned
WINE hanging to fire escape; probably fatal.
r. e. Strickland, Clinton Iowa; jumped from
third.sto window; leg broken and injured in
ternal1y; probably fatal
Celia Williams. waitress; badly burned
y. r. Hamburg, Leroy, MIMI; limbs badly
burned.
o. J. Lamb, Cedar Point. iowa; seriously
burned.
G. F. Kaessner, Walker, Iowa; face and hands
burned.
c. A. Roseman, Independence, Iowa, legs and
arms sprained by jumping from top floor. Struck
wires and landed in snowbank.
+. A. Chase, hands injured.
Linda Williams, waitress; face badly burned;
leg injured.
Lizzie Kelly. waitress burned.
Emma Smith, waitress.
&c. Outing Center Point; left arm sprained;
hands burned. -.
H. W. Bremen, Lyons. Iowa.
p. E. Strickland, conductor the Chicago &
North Western, Of Clinton, Iowa; left ankle
broken and internally injured.
f. r. Moore, Chicago.
! Beatrice Netolcky, Shueyville. Iowa.
J. W. Winniger, Waterloo; face burned and
wrist sprained.
! J. E. Anderson. Chicago; back strained.
a. S. Farrow. Boone Iowa.
T. G. Gardiner, Woodburn, Iowa.
ID. F. Taylor, Davenport, Iowa; head injured
and elbow fractured; hip injured and burned
about body.
DR.. ". A. Grove, dentist, Cedar Rapids,
! burned about body.
| Louis Thompson, Cedar Rapids; badly burned.
| A. NJ. Larsen, Oelwein; foot injured and lungs
| hurt.
c. W. Roberts, Cedar Rapids
| L. O. Vernon Delta, Iowa; cut and right side
injured.
| May Reel. waitress, badly bnrned.
n. P. Hoover, Tama Iowa.
l. 7. J. Seally, Canton. III.
j. A. FLAIR, Davenport.
G. L. Benedict body burned.
G.sP. HAYES. DEBORAH, Iowa.
T. F. O. Redmond. mail clerk Tama Iowa. s. -
! n. o. Telnpleton, Monticello, Iowa.
George Taggart. st. Paul
James Lewis, c6fored porter.
r. N. Gardner, Woodburn, Iowa.
| d. S. Taylor, Davenport.
| J. M. Dunbar, Monticello.
| John ". Lewis, Ottumwa; bruised.
| Started In the Basement.
The fire originated in the basement.
| presumably from an electric wire Night
Clerk Wilson was on the third floor at
the time The flames were discovered by
a bell boy and had then gained much
! Roadway.
| BY the time the night clerk had been
notified and the work Of sounding the
alarm had begun escape was cut on from
! the ground floor Instantly there were
several faces at every window OF guests
clad only in their night robes wildly CALI
! ing for help.
| HurI Themselves From Windows.
/ The facilities Of the fire department.
were meagre and each moments delay IN
| creased the panic that already prevailed.
One after another the human forms were
| seen to hurl themselves from the windows
and dash against the pavement below.
Limbs were broken and the writing mass
of humanity that rapidly accumulated
made sickening sight.
| Those who jumped from the third-story
windows had little hope Of surviving the
i frightful leap, but few hesitated as the
flames came nearer and nearer.
4 Miss Burns Last to Leave.
/ Miss Nettie Burns was the last to leave
the burning structure and she had sus-
i tained terrible burns before she sprang
d from the window Sill when she hao sought
II for refuge.
i Outside the work Of rescue was carried
forward rapidly. A vast crowd was at
tracted by the flames and wildly sought IN
!, formation concerning friends in the burn
ing structure.
i, The hotel was a seething furnace and it
was impossible to rescue by entering the
| building.
!, The injured were conveyed to adjoining
business houses that had been converted
into impromptu hospitals. 1t was early
apparent that Burnett and Miss Burns.
! could not recover. while the recovery OF
several others was doubtful.
The fire department confined its efforts
to preventing the spread OF the flames.
Several times the National hotel caught
fire, but the blaze there was extinguislled.
Convention Delegates Injured.
| The state Y. NJ. c. A. convention was in
progress at the time and district
knights of Pythias convention. Delegates
, to these conventions constituted most of
the injured and missing.
At $50 o'clock this morning 1t was
: stated that there must be ten or twenty
In the debris, rs large number OF per-
: sons had been seen to fall back from the
windows into the flames.
) The proprietors Of the hotel also esti-
mate there must be close to this number
unaccounted for. The work of Identified
ton of the missing was, however, neces-
sarily difficult.
DEATH Loss REDUCED TO TEN
All Other Guests Seem to Have Been Ae-
counted For.