Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1903-02-26

Greatest Fire
c,n,y Of Pike Building Explosion of L'quosS
p r,,r,e, Up Though Roof Of Slr-S'o'y Stone
pol3ro Which Was Totally Destroyed Other
.u,,s Mich Damaged Many Nono10 Escapes.

clothes. Agin, Richardson and Carrot
son proceeded through the building,
giving the alarm to all until they had
TO be helped out themselves capt
Genlen, head of detective bureau, VINO
was asleep on the third lloor was
awakened and escaped in his night
clothes. He lost all the records OF MS
office. Nothing was saved from the up
per floors. Mayor Fleischman was
present at the scene of the IRE.
AS there are over 400 different losers,
II Is impossible at present TO estimate
The total loss. The fire was stu burn
ing at o'clock, with little prospects
of control In the territory bound by
Vine. Walnut, Fourth and Baker
streets. and the loss was then estimated
at over three millions. John Keenan,,
nightwatchman of the American Book
company, was caught by falling walls
and fatally injured.
The escape Of win Jones, the well
known Cincinnati actor, just before the
roof Of the burning building fell, and
his rescue. half dead from the top OF
the building, was a thrilling one. Jones
presence Of mind, which led him 10
throw his cuff into the street below and
thus make his whereabouts known,
saved his life. When the firs broke out
Jones was asleep in the studio of an
artist friend on the fourth floor.
Awakening suddenly he was blinded
and suffocated by the smoke. outside
In the great air shaft the flames were
shooting up How he made his way he
does not know, but by sume instinct he
81. 10
Upon reaching the roof he fell over
something and was stunned, When he
recovered the flames were shooting
through the roof. He crawled to the
edge, but the fremen in the street did
not notice him He shouted himself
hoarse. He took his cuff and wrote on
t.
81 am on roof, nearly dead from gas,
Jones"
He threw II to the ground and a re-
porter picked II up and located the fig.
ure of a man standing outlined In the
sparks. Jones crept along the edge OF
the rear of the building, and there
waited for the fremen who placed
ladder across the alley from the phone
exchange building. Jones was carried
down and taken to the hospital.
The eight girls in the telephone ex-
change building, across the alley from
the burning Pike building, were badly
frightened, as the clouds Of smoke
rolled about ten building, The ex-
change rooms are on the top floor OF
a siy-story building. For two hours
they pluckly stuck to their posts. When
the flames were blazingi IN their win
dows they We're ordered out by the fire.
men Later, however they returned to
their calls, and when the large day
force of girls came on duty they fear
lessly went TO the sixth floor for duty
although the fire ragged all around them.
The Pike theater building was totally
destroyed by fire In 1856 and II narrow
" escaped total destruction on March
80 1902. when there was a Sunday matt
nee in progress. but no lives were lost
In any Of the fires.
The scenery and costumes used 10y the
Pike Stock company during the season
which closed last Saturday night. val
ued at $4,000, were stored In the opera
house,
The loss Of the Henrietta Crossman
which has been at the Pike
this week. Is over double that OF the
Stock company, The Season Good build
ing, adjoining, slX-story structure,
was occupied by the Baltimore & Ohio
railroad on the first floor,
and by numerous other tenants, in
Guiding Richter & Philipps, wholesale !
Jewellers. The loss OF Richter & |
Is very large. Among the los
ers are Artists John Ward Dunsmore, |
Rena de Camp. Elizabeth c. Eckstein |
and G. A. Murer. whose studios We're
lost with many valuable pictures