The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-23
WAS OUT IN AN HOUR.
Much Damage Done by Axes OF
the Firemen.
Started from an Explosion in
an X Ray Laboratory.

Chicago, Jan. 23.-Fire broke out this
afternoon in the Masonic temple, a 20
story skyscraper, one square east of the
Iroquois theater. Owing to the fact
that upwards of 1000 people occupy the
offices and stores in the giant structure,
the fire caused much excitement
The series of elevators surrounding
| the rOtunda in the center of the build
ing continued to sun while the smoke
and flames issued from the windows in
the fifth story where the fire originated.
The people were removed from the up
per floors as rapidly, as possible.
Great crowds of spectators quickly
surrounded the temple being drawn
from the fashionable shopping district
of State street and adjoining thorough
fares. The sight OF the majestic struc-
ture through the clouds of smoke was
one long to be remembered.
Firemen were summoned by an
alarm automatically sent in from the
rooms in which the fire began. The
firemen quickly made connection with
the stationary stand pipe in the buil&-
ing. Immediately tons of water food
ed the floors where the smoke and
blaze were thickest. The danger was
increased by the suspected presence of
quantity of chemicals which occu-
pants declared were stored near the
place where the flames originated.
RUSH FOR EXIT.
Occupants of the building warned by
|
rose through the many storied rotunda
and penetrated every corridor, lost
no time in making efforts for safe exit.
Guards were stationed at each elevator
landing on every floor and the panic
stricken people were hurried from the
| building.
The origin of the fire was in an ex-
plosion of chemicals in a doctors office
on the fifth floor. The explosion was a
sufficient notice of danger to the occu-
pants of the floors Immediately above
and below, but was unheard by hum
dreds of other persons in the vast struc-
ture who received their warning When
suddenly confronted with walls OF
dense smoke. Flames followed the ex-
plosion and quickly spread to the floors
above Men and women rushed W1ld-
Iy for the stairs and elevators so rap,
id1v did the immense SkyScraper NIL
with smoke that the firemen found IT
almost impossible to work within the
walls
In a short time the fire was raging
on three floors containing many chem
icaI establishments and doctors Offices
Further explosions were momentar1ly
feared AS at the Iroquois catastrophe
Fire Marshal Musham was personally
on hand and he quickly warned his
men of the danger.
WOMEN FAINT
Shortly after the arrival OF the en-
| gines a ladder was raised at the SOUTH
west corner of the building and fire
man assembled to the fifth floor where
the fire was burning. In the height OF
the excitement the crowds in the street
saw a man clad in heavy overcoat
step from the fire escape of the four
! teenth floor and began to descend.
Within the building the elevator men,
| by running their machines without
ceasing helped to still the panic
| stricken occupants. From the top floor
down the carriers were iammed with
! passengers and a number of women
tainted in the cars
The flames appeared first in the suite
4 of r. Friedlander & Co, manufacturers
/ of X-ray apparatus, on the fifth floor.
/ The explosion which was the cause of
the fire occurred in $4,000 worth of
vacuum tubes which were stored in the
suite Smoke poured out of the rooms.
which occupied the entire southwest
/ corner of the skyScraDer- With almost
incredible swiftness every floor of the
temple above the fifth was filled with
dense smoke while the floors below
ments of police were quickly on hand,
aiding the firemen in the effort to con-
troll the fire and calm the people.
Armed with axes and picks, the fire
| men broke doors and windows. In the
rotunda, at the bottom of the elevator
well, persons leaving the elevators after
descending in hair breadth time from
the upper stories, were obliged to dodge
| heavy beams and fragments of stone
and plaster falling in the rotunda from
the fifth floor and breaking jagged holes
in the costly mosaic pavement.
Thousands of people on the streets
watching the fire were thrown into a
panic by an explosion which threw a
/ quantity of acid through the windows,
/ sending the smarting fluid rushing on
| the crowds below
SEVERAL. PERSONS INJURED.
| In the rush for safety an old man was
thrown down an areaway, being picked
up unconscious.
| The fire was out within an hour A
number of persons were injured r.
| Friedlander. in whose suite the fire
originated, was found unconscious on