Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1906-08-16
Blaze Starts Beneath Kitchen
Filling Servants Quarters
With Smoke and Endanger-
ing Many Lives. !
GUESTS ESCAPE
IN SCANTY ATTIRE
Flames Controlled After Stub
born Battle Beneath Floor.
Aside From Kitchen Hotel Is
Not Seriously Damaged.

The beautiful Alvarado hotel es-
capped destruction by the shadow of a
hair as the result of fire which
broke out at 2 o'clock this morning
beneath the floor of the kitchen.
spreading with such rapidlty beneath
the floor of the entire building that
every hall and room in the house was
filed with smoke almost before the
alarm had been turned in.
The usual score or more of train
men and railroad employees about the
Santa Fe station, prevented a sicken-
| ing disaster in the quarters over
the Kitchen and laundry occupied by
the ninety or more employees of the
hoteL They gave the alarm and
made rush to arouse the young
i women mattresses and other en-
iployes who have quarters over tho
laundry. Dense smoke was pouring
| through the corridors and into the
open windows and many of the wom-
! EN- were partially suffocated when
| help arrived. Most of the help made
their escape by the stairways but sew
eral of them made spectacular es-
| capes through the second and third
story windows.
Cook Gets Broken leg.
Louis Compeigne, n second cook.
awoke with his room filled with
smoke. Wild with fright he could
not wait for help, but jumped through
the second story window to tho
ground with nothing to break his fall
This was the most serious injury suf-
fered during the fire, although a Num-
| Der of people were made faint ana
| sick by the dense smoke. Pretty
| Mattresses came through the windows.
down ladders and ropes and down the
sitting stalrways clad in night robes
and nothing more. They did not
stop to save their effects the one
idea being to escape from the smoke
which threatened to be fatal to many
who were but half awake. Several OF
the girls had to be literally dragged
| from their rooms by men who had
no time to do 1t gently. The flames
did not reach the upstairs rooms In
T, any part of the house. however, and
the damage that Is done In that part
of the building will be by smoke
alone.
Guests Fare Little Better.
The guests. In the front end of the
hotel Jared little better than the wait
resses They were not awakened nv
til Is minutes after the blaze had been
discovered and by that time the
smoke had rolled through the halls
and under the floors until the air in
the very front rooms of the building
was deadly. Women hurried down
the stairs clad in night robes. one or
, two having had the presence Of mind
to bring light wrap or blanket None
of them stopped long enough to take
any Of their belongings. Men, bare
footed and dragging heavy trunks.
blocked the stairway and swore impo-
tently when they were unable to nave
their burdens. finally abandoning
them for breath Of clean air.
This was all at the beginning whom
attendants and hastily awakened
| guests alike were too excited to know
exactly what they were doing. A lit-
| tie later when the fremen had stopped
the rush Of smoke beneath the floors.
the atmosphere in the upstairs rooms
| cleared little and the guests either
removed their possessions or locked
their rooms, waiting on the verandas
| for the smoke TO clear so they could
return to their sadly shattered rest. In
| this as In the servants end Of the
building the upstairs rooms were nos
, damaged at all, save for what damage
| was done by the smoke.
Fire In Charcoal Bed.
/ The exact origin of the fire is myS-
terry. but the location of the most We
rious part OF II was soon discovered
| HiteF tne HTeHleH dTTlNtu. idFke IVA
! OF charcoal was stored In the cellar
! beneath the kitchen, and whether this
caught fire from the range, or from
some other source. II was seethlng
furnace when the firemen tore open
the floor and discovered IT, Tile
smoke was rolling from the charcoal
/ in great black clouds that settled like
I a blanket over the caves of the hotel.
rolled under the open woodwork II
the floors and poured through vensl-
lators, heating pipes and every other
opening into all parts of the building
Presently the ra2ge went down and
this added TO the confusion and the
already extreme difficulty in getting
at the seat OF the blaze. Holes we're
cut In tho floors and several streams
were turned In. The fight WAS golng
well when tho electric wires were cut
and the whole house was plunged in