The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-01-11
NINE PEOPLE PERISH.
The West Hotel, Minneapolis, Greatly
Damaged by Conflagration on
"Wednesday Morning.
Details of Catastrophe as Near as
Can Be Ascertained This
Thursday Morning.

Gue WeSG uOGel. MluueGpOllS, was
burning and that many lives were be-
ing sacrificed. The particulars of the
fire, so far as ascertainable up to the
time of going to press are as follows:
The greatest hotel disaster in the
history of Minneapolis, attended the
partial destruction by fire of the mag
nifcent West hotel, Fifth street and
Hennepin avenue, between the hours
of $50 and 1920 yesterday morning.
For the number of lives lost the
terrible Tribune fire, famed in the
annals of Minneapolis horrors, was
rivalled by the West hotel holocaust.
Death in spectacular form held
crowd of thousands of persons in
thrall of fear. Daring iremen crawled
into smoke filled rooms and drew
from the beds or from the floor near
windows, senseless bodies of men and
women, some of whom we're dead,
others of whom died later.
The Minneapolis fire, department
lost one of it's number, but made one
of the finest stops and the most daring
rescues of smoke and fame-bound
persons that the records of Mime
apolis fires will ever contain.
The flames, starting in the basement,
rushed up to the fourth floor through
an elevator shaft. Here the flames
fires on the fourth, fifth, sixth and
seventh floors.
While the tiremen were fighting the
flames hand to hand, other fremen,
working outside, were rescuing those
they could reach in the windows.
Whenever one of the fremen on the
lower floors could find chance to
rush to the floor above, he took his
life in his hands and made the dash
up the burning stairways.
In this way more than one person
standing at the window of his room,
facing death, either by smoke or by
jumping had his fears Gained by some
brave blue coat who coolly dashed
into the room and fixed a scaling lad
der to the window sill.
At least twenty-five hopeless ones
were thus rescued being carried down
the ladders.
Some of the most prominent citizens
in Minneapolis were in the hotel at the
time of the fire.
Mr.. and Mrs. F. A. Chamberlain
were rescued by fremen. Mrs. W. S.
Mott was carried down ladder. Judge
Atwater was rescued by his male nurse
who was taking care of him in the
hotel
Night Clerk G. L. Dickinson was the
first to discover the blaze. He turned
in fire alarm and then ran to the
upper floors to alarm the guests The
halls filled SO rapidly with smoke that
he was unable to proceed to the
seventh floor.
When the fire department arrived,
the windows of the seventh floor rooms
were frames for pictures of human ter
ror. At almost every window per-
son stood, in night garb, begging the
crowds. below for help. The smoke
which rushed from the windows began
to hide the terrified prisoners of the
flames. While preparations were be-
ing made to quench the flames, lad
ders were shot up as far as they could
reach. Beyond these, fremen, who
dashed up the rounds, used scaling
ladders. The first horror occurred at
TO, twenty minutes after the fire had
started. Capt. John A. Berwin of
Station A, had thrown a scaling lad
der up to a seventh story window,
where young woman was wildly
pleading for help. The crowds below
could see that she was nearly suffo-
Gated by the smoke which rushed
through the window past her. The
crowd gave cheer as the brave fire.
man reached the woman and took her
into his arms. They began to de-
scend the frail scaling ladder slowly.
They had nearly reached the top
round of the big ladder below them,
when the woman began to kick and
scream. The fireman struggled to
hold his place on the ladder but
failed. The woman threw herself
from his arms into ledge. The fire.
man tried to keep his poise. For half
a second he swayed. Then his body
leaned far out. The crowd watched,
horror bound, as the fireman fell.
He was dashed to death on the Fifth
street pavement. The woman was
Mrs. Emeline Barlow. AS she fell on
the ledge Chief Kehoe and Fireman
Jerry Sullivan, who were standing on
the ledge steadying a ladder, caught