Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-25
FIRE DESTROYS
VAN NUYs HOTEL
SIX H0SEMEN GO DOWN WITH
FALLING FLOOR
Injured Men, Buried Beneath Tons Of
Debris, Are Rescued by Conn.,
rades From Position Of
Awful Peril
Continued from Psee onsI

Continued from Paae One.l
were saved These were piled up in
the street and later the guests came
out and sat down on the chairs and
watched the fire.
Police Search Rooms
Within fifteen minutes after the first
alarm had been turned In Chief of
Police Auble arrived. accompanied by
Capt. Broadhead. Although the fire was
squirting from every window and door
way. the officers donned olskins and
climbed in the building. From room to
room they went, searching for able
articles OF jewelry left by the mad
rush OF the guests. In one room n
wealthy travelling man had stored $1400
worth of Christmas presents for his
friends. He barely escaped with his
life and the Christmas presents were
all burned. Such was the case with
scores of others who were only too glad
10 escape with their lives without try
ing TO save anything.
After a search of several hours the
chief left the building. He had col
lected jewels valued at about $4,000, in
cluding q beautiful diamond solitaire
ring, six gold watches, dozen stick
pins, a necklace, a bracelet, three
purses and about a dozen silver-backed
toilet articles. All these were taken to
the station to be identified.
Immediately following the crush of
the floors when the building had par
tally cleared of the tottering supports,
many guests begged to be allowed to
go back to the building and rescue
some of their property from the water.
In company with an officer, one man
climbed a ladder TO the second floor.
avr esin NJ
on his face and went to the Broadway
hotel where he dealt out six pair of
socks to his sockless companions in
misfortune.
Another man approached an officer
and begged to be allowed to go back to
the building. 'I left my watch on the
bureau of my room," he said. "It is a
gold watch studded with diamonds and
my mother gave it to me- Capt.
Broadhead went up the ladder with the
man to his room, but few moments
later the guest returned, and with q
doleful look remarked that everything
in the room had been destroyed.
Sergeant Gets Present
sergt. Craig was one of the first Of
ficers at the fire. Shortly after his
arrival he went to the back of the build
ing to order the stretching of fire lines
along the alley. AS he was walking
along some one threw an umbrella out
of q window. The thing was brand
new and had Il beautiful gold and pearl
handle on it. A card wishing merry
Christmas to someone had been partly
tern off and the sergeant carried the
umbrella during the fire. 1t is now al
the police station.
Frank Bryson spent the night at the
hotel. In company with Gen. Wankow-
ski and others he had gone there to
spend the evening but found that he
was too late to catch the last car
Wankowski ran and caught the car,
and yesterday he related the following
story about Bryson: II guess Bryson
would have done little running last
night himself said Wankowski yes
terday, IF he had known what was in
store for him. The last thing he told
me was that he had a magnificent
opera coat in a suit case He said he
was going to give it to his wife for a
Christmas present, but this morning
after he escaped he told me that the
cloak had been burned to cinders"
Mrs. G. j. Cotton, wife of mining
man of Searchlight. was one of the
heavy losers. "I was awakened by the
shouts of the bell boys" said Mrs. Col
toH yeSleIudy DIS Sne looked toward Ine
ruins of the hotel. II ran to the hall
and there all was confusion and people
were running about as though scared
half to death. 1 had seized some of my
clothing as 1 ran and managed tc
partly dress downstairs, and then
went to the Broadway hotel and COM
pleted the operation. 1 guess my loss
is about $400 or more. OF course we
lost all our clothing and my husband
had taken several jewels which he haG
purchased for me for Christmas pres
ents and put them in a hand bag be-
meath the scarf on the dresser. We for.
got the things when We ran from the
room and when we returned a moment
later 10 get them the hand satchel haC
been rihed.