Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-12-20


pther was directed from the ground to the
upper floor of the Southwick block. These
efforts, aided by tho fall of the northern
wall, stopped the spread of the flames
farther east.
ORIGIN OF FIRE
The fire is supposed to have started
from ashes placed In A barrel on one of
the paHzas at the rear Of the hotel build
ing. There were three tiers of piazzas
extending along the eastern side of that
part of the building facing st. Paul street.
When first seen by Brown tho flames were
in the vicinity of the second story and
they prob ably originated on the first floor
piazza. A. w. Tabor, meat inspector for
this district occupied room q, the win
dow of which is the fourth one from
tho front opening on The second piazza.
We stated that when he was awakened
the flames were lcauing mp outside of the
window of number q, which is one room
in front of 81 The fire could not have
started from the boiler, because 1t was
in the basement of tho northwestern part
of the building. Ashes thrown into n
barrel on tho first piazza the night be
fore seem TO have been the cause of the
fire.
SAVING FURNITURE.
BY daring work. a. W. Lamora was able
to save nearly the entire furnishings OF
his barber shop. which was on the ground
floor at the northwest corner of the
building. About an hour after the alarm
was runE. and while the flames were
rising high on the floors above,
Lamora broke In his door and
nj !, '',D 1,cl- o. Got
chairs, mirrors, and other furnishings
The Western Tn'on employees hustled
their desks, mileagcs and other valuable
property ont Of tho Southwick block as
soon ms tho water hogan to leak through
from the roof The occupants of the up
per floors Of this block, Miss Nelly Welsh
and William Cameron, were also able to
save some OF their furniture
WOMAN IN BURNING BUILDING
Soon after the start of the fire it was
rumored that Mrs Conrad had not been
rescued. Her husband, Frank H. Coon
rescued.
CARRIED HER DOWN ONE STORY.
Ben jamin rrosser a travelling man of
Tconderoea. n. y, stated that he car
ried Mrs. Conrad from the third floor
down to the second and that she escaped
from him and went back The woman
was hyst erical and Prosser had to use
force to get her from her room.
With hcr body under one arm and some
Of his clothes under the other he sue
ceeded with difficulty in dragging hey
down one flight of stairs. Then he
dropped some Of hts clothes and, while
he stooped to pick them UP, the woman
struggled free from him and started back
up the stairs. envoloped in smoke, and
saying that sho was going after hel
| clothes.
MAY HAVE GONE AFTER MONEY.
| When he learned of Mr.. Prosser's story
Mr.. Coonrad stated that there was {
purse containing $500 in his wifes room
and that she may have gone back afte
that. She was naturally of 4 nervous anC
eEc!table temperament and probably dc
not realize the danger she risked by re
turning up stairs.
SEARCHING IN THE RUINS.
Not hearing anything from the los
woman steps were taken in the after
noon to search for her body in the ruins
There was nothing left of what had beer
the hotel but heaps of smoudering brick
and charred tir.bers, with portions of th'
wall still standing.
With a horse AMI chain parts Of thes,
were pulled down and heavy timber
were drawn out Of the way. Nine of thu
city employees dug among the bricks a
the spot where the steirway was locate
In search for the remains of the nl!ssint
woman. Policed and roped back out o
harms way, hundreds OF people watche'
with intense interest; while Mr.. CoOnra'
stood on the edge of the ruins, silent.
watching the search for some trace o
his wife.
But 1t was useless. The work was KEEP
UP until dark but no sign Of the missing
woman had been found.
Mrs. Coonrad's mad~u name was Cor
Pitcher. She was 36 years old and a ma
tive of Richmondville, n. Y. and mar
ried Mr., Coonrad in this city two year
, ago, Mr., Coonrad has been in the en-
ploy Of the express company for abou
% years They have no children.
VOLUNTEER RESCUE WORK.
The firomen found plenty of helpers i
their work, Almost with the arrival Of tn
fire apparatus, NJ. d. Mcmahon and Nose
Murray arrived on the scene. ReEardin
his work the latter said;
II was familiar with the lay of tn
rooms as l worked IN tho hotel waitn
E on Table when a boy. Among the frs
} things | thought OF doing was to shu
l OF the gas so that there would be n
l explosions from that source. &c. in CON
: pany with Wallace Holmes, a gas fittel
j went through the cellar and severed a
$ the connections and took out the meter
I Then ! went up to the third floor an
/ brought out two women. one of whom
q thought was Mrs. Conrad. Then | wer
4 back to the third floor The smoke wa
! very thick. but l went through all III
6 rooms TO see that no one was in then
i | found that the rooms were all empt!
e Then ] came out and placed rubbt
r blankets on the pool tables in Mccarthy
e establishment and aided the work
e other ways"
o LADDER TRUCK INEFFICIENT.
G In a statement by NJ. d. McNIahon, II
l. inefficiency of the present hook and lac
n der truck was clearly shown.
e II was early on the scene he sal
0 when the hook and ladder truck a
!, rived we hoisted ladder from the roa
I But we did not the wires that wei
y in the way and we had to take the ladd'
down again. Then we placed the foot
the ladder on the sidewalk and raise
ho. bnI had tba of