Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1903-02-21
IN SETTLING FIRE
GUESTS MET DEATH
Terrible Holocaust In Hotel
In Iowa.
is BURNED; SCORES INJURED.
Fire at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Consumes
the Clifton Hotel and Claims a Long
List of Victims-Many Are Injured
by jumping From Windows.

Des Moines, Feb. 2G.-Fifteen or
twenty persons burned to death and
twice that number were seriously in
jured in the fire that destroyed the
Clifton hotel at Cedar Rapids at a.
m. There were 120 guests in the ho-
tel when the fire broke out and most
of the dead are buried in the debris.
Owing to the destruction of the hotel
register, the names of the missing had
not been obtained up to 8 o'clock this
morning.
List of Casualties.
The fatally injured;
L. c. Burnett, Nebraska City, badly
burned
Gina Curens, head waitress, jumped
from the third story.
The seriously injured:
Coductor Strickland, of the North
western, Clinton, Iowa, jumped from
second story window; leg broken, in
jured internally.
F. G. Cuttin, Center Point, Iowa,
hands and arm burned.
H. w. Bremen, Lyons, injured inter
nally.
F. r. Moore, Chicago, leg torn.
J. N. Winner, Waterloo, face burn
ed.
J. E. Anderson, Chicago
A. S. Morrow, Boone, bruised.
F. M. Gardiner, Woodburn, head cut,
back injured
w. F. Taylor, Davenport, head cut,
elbow fractured, hips injured, badly
burned
DR.. Groves, Cedar Rapids, very seri.
ously burned.
G. M. Larsen, Oelwein, bruised and
lungs burned
l.. o. Vernon, Della, hands and face
cut and bruised
C. ]. DAILY, Clinton, H., slightly in
jured.
c. F. Halves, Decorah, Iowa, back
hurt
Ed Lampton, Monticello, head burn.
ed.
George Taggart, St Paul. hands and
face cut
John w. Lloyds, Des Moines, badly
bruised.
How Fire Started.
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 bell boy and had al
ready gained considerable headway. BY
the time the night clerk had been mott.
aed and the work of sounding the
alarm had begun, escape was cut off
from the ground floor Instantly
there were several faces at every win.
dow of guests clad only in their night
robes, wild, calling for help. The
facilities of the fire department were
meager, and each moments delay in.
creased the panic that had already pre-.
vailed. One after another the human
forms were seen to hurl themselves
from the windows and dash against
the pavement
A Sickenlng Sight.
Limbs were broken and the writh.
Ing mass of humanity rapidly accu
mulated constituted sickening sight
hoSc WIZ Juup6u 1TOm Llo Illru
story windows had little hope of sur
viving the frightful leap, but few hes.
itated as the flames came nearer and
nearer. Miss Nellie Currans was the
last to leave the burning structure and
sustained terrible burns before she
sprang from the window on which she
had sought refuge
Outside the work Of rescue was car.
ried forward rapidly A vast crowd
of people attracted by the flames
wildly sought information concerning
friends in the burning structure. The
hotel was a seething furnace and II
was impossible to attempt to rescue
by entering the building The in,
jured were conveyed to adjoining bus.
mess houses that had been converted
into impromptu hospitals.
The fire department confined its f.
forts to preventing the spread of the
flames. Several times the National
hotel caught fire, but the fire there was
extinguished.
The state Young Mems Christian as,
sociation convention was in progress
In Cedar Rapids at the time. and a
district Knights of Pythias convention.
Delegates to these conventions -consti