The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1906-10-26
UNKNOWN NUMBER DIE
TENEMENT BUILDING AT KANSAS
CITY, KAN, BURNS, sURYlNG
MANY IN THE RUINS.
SCORES ARE SAVED BY FIREnEH
OCCUPANTS OF UPPER FLOOR
COMPELLED TO JUMP INTO
ARMS OF REscUERS.

of the Chamber of Commerce building
in Kansas City, Kan, destroyed by
fire early in the day, there are any
where from half dozen to thirty bod
les, according to estimates given out
by firemen who had worked at the
scene all night. On the other hand
Assistant Fire Chief Lind insisted that
the dead would not reach over six. In
addition fifty persons were injured,
several of whom will die. The actual
loss of life will not be known until a
thorough search of the ruins can be
made, probably not then, as some of
the firsmen assert that many bodies
must have been burned to ashes. The
building, used as a tenement house
and containing 100 rooms, held as near
as can be learned between 200 and 800
persons at the time the fire broke out.
Most of these composed families,
many others were transients, whose
names are unknown. 1t was the GUS
tom for many of the transients, who
came mostly from the nearby railroad
yards, not to register and thus all
trace Of them is lost for the time be-
ing. Only a thorough search of the
ruins that may take days and an exact
accounting of the missing will finally
reveal the extent of the catastrophe.
The fire broke out on the ground
floor from some unknown cause at
1890 a. M Isolated as it was the
burning building was difficult of access
and 1t was some time before the fire
department reached the scene. Sew
eral companies were at fire in an
other part of the city
When the firemen arrived the en-
tire building was in flames. So quick
ly did the flames spread that within
a few minutes after the fire was dis
covered all means of escape by the
stairways for the scores of occupants
was shut off. On two sides of the
building the elevated railway tracks
hemmed it IN and made still harder
the work of the firemen. Then an
other obstacle arose. The firemen did
not have sufficient ladders and many
of those they had were too short to
reach the upper stories. A sitting
smoke filled the building, evidently
coming from the burning stocks of
merchandise on the floor below, and
some of the occupants probably were
never able to leave their rooms.
Upper Floor Occupants Cut Off.
When the firemen arrived they saw
men hanging from windowsills on the
upper floors and frantic women with
babies in their arms and children
clinging to them leaning far out from
the windows unable to find any means
Of escape and yet taking advantage of
the little fresh air which the windows
afforded. The firemen quickly ran
their ladders up, but they did not
reach above the third floor. Many
persons were on the floor above. The
firemen first devoted themselves to
the people on the second and third
floors and did not then heed the
screams Of the people above. Many
Of the persons in the interior of the
building were already overcome by
the dense smoke and had to be carried
out by the firemen. But many were
able to escape down the ladders with
out assistance. After getting every
one they could find out of the second
and third floors the firemen turned
their attention to the people above.
AS the ladders did not reach above
the third floor the men on the fourth
floor literally pitched their wives and
children down to the firemen on the
ladders and then jumped down them
selves. Some of the more excitable
ones jumped to the ground and were
either killed or badly injured Some
whom the firemen tried to catch fell
the entire distance to the ground.
Only the south side walls of the
building remain standing. The interior
construction was entirely of wood and
the stores on the ground floor and the
rooms on the upper floors contained
much inflammable material. The en-
tire contents were destroyed. Long
after the floors had fallen in, piling up
household goods in one mass, gas from
IN open main that entered the build
Ing continued to burn, reducing to
ashes nearly everything within it's
reach.