Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1904-04-21
ONE KILLED, SEVERAL INJURED
MANY WHO HAD JUST UNDER
GONE OPERATIONS At
TEMPT TO FLEE.
MANY FATALITIES MAY RESULT
PATIENTS IN CRITICAL CONOi-
TON FROM EXCITEMENT
AND EXPOSURE.

Indianapolis, April 10. - While the
city fire department, reinforced by
companies from the suburbs, was be-
ing taxed to it's utmost fighting a fire
at the Occidental hotel yesterday
morning an alarm was turned in from
st. Vincent's hospital. When the
first fire company arrived one life
had been lost and several persons had
been seriously injured in the panic
that followed.
For a time it seemed that the
flames, which started in a pile of rugs
under the east stairway, would find
their way to the upper floors. result
ing in a frightful holocaust. AT every
window on the third INT fourth floors
were crowded the panic stricken men
and women,
Screaming for Help
to those below, who were for more
than twenty minutes prevented from
entering the building by the dense
smoke.
The panic that ragged OF the third
and fourth floors continued until long
after the fire had been quenched. Pa
tients who had just undergone surgi-
cal operations rushed from their
beds to the windows and attempted to-
throw themselves to the ground.
Harriet Leahy, an old empioye OF
the hospital, leaped from a window on
the fourth floor and when picked up
was dead. In the rea men and women
were making
Ropes of Bedding,
by which they escaped to the ground
below. Katherine Beach, less for
tunate than the rest, lost her hold and
fell from the third floor and is now i'm
a critical condition from internal in
juries sustained.
AS an unusual number OF surgical
operations we're performed in the hos
pital on Saturday, many of the pa
tients, carried from their beds by the
~rescuers, are in a critical condition,
and the physicians in charge fear
that many fatalities may result.
Henry Nichols, who underwent an
operation for appendicitis a few hours
before the outbreak Of the fire,
jumped from his bed and ran down
four flights of stairs into the street.
His condition is critical.
Patient Does Heroic Work.
James Dawson, an emaciated pa
tent. worked heroically among the
panic-stricken men and women on the
third floor. One after anotner ne
pulled away from the those
who were preparing to jump TO the
street below, and piloted them
through the smoke to places of safety
On the first floor. After saving TWEEN
ty-seven nurses and patients from
possible injury in this manner ne iost
consciousness and was carried into
the male ward, where medical atten-
ton was given him. For a time II
was thought he could not undergo the
terrible strain to which he had been
subjected.
Owing to the fireproof construction
the actual loss to the building will not
exceed 1000.
That there was not greater loss or
life is due to the prompt and efficient
action of the firemen and attendants
Retail District Threatened.
Fire. which for almost two hours
threatened to destroy the principal re-
tail district. was discovered at an
early hour yesterday morning In the
Occidental hotel. Every fire com
pany in the city, as well as those from
the outlying suburbs, were summoned
The house was filed with guests and
a panic was narrowly averted. There
were many narrow escapes from the
flames and suffocation, the inmates
being compelled to leave the building
clad only in their night robes.
The hotel is valued at $l00,OO0 n
is Quilted. The loss Is estimated st
$3.50 The loss to business houses
on the ground floor is estimated at
Sal, 900; fully insured.