Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-10-25
City. Kan. who estimates his loss at

Clty, Kan, WnO estimates his loss a(
 460, ,000.
 Several persons were more or less
 severely burned while some were in-
 jured by jumping from the upper
 floors of the building. Arthur Child CTS. q policeman, was knocked from
 an ambulance by a wire and run
 over. His condition is serious.
 An unknown babe was fatally hurt
 by being dropped from the second
 floor to q policeman who failed to catch 1t.
 The chamber of commerce building was situated at Park and Central streets, in the Riverview district of Kansas City, and was erected '14 years ago at cost of $S5,00O to be used as board of trade. The city grew away from 1t, however, and 1t was never used for its original pur- pose, but for many years had been occupied as an apartment house. The structure was four stories in height, with deep basement. It was built of brick and stone.
 1t contained one hundred rooms, al- most all of which were, as far as can be learned, occupied by families or individual laboring men or railway employees at the time of the fire. The ground floor was occupied by several business concerns. The fire broke out on the ground floor from some un- known cause at 12:30 o'clock. It was some time before the firemen reached the scene.
 When the firemen arrived the en- tire building was in flames. So quickly did the flames spread that few minutes after the fire was dis covered all means of escape by the of the building elevated railway tracks hemmed 1t in. Then another obstacle arose. The firemen did not have sufficient ladders and many of these they had were too short to reach the upper stories. A stifiing smoke filled the building and some of the occupants probably were never able to leave their rooms.
 The tiremen found men hanging from window sills OH the upper floors and frantic women with babies in their arms and children clinging to them leaning far out from the win dows, unable to find any means of escape and yet taking advantage of the little fresh air which the win dows 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 car
 out by the flremen. But many were able to escape down the ladders without assistance. After getting ev cry one they could find out of tho sec Ond and third floors, the tiremen 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 fire men on the ladders and then jumped down themselves. Some of the more excitable ones jumped to the ground and were either killed or badly in- jured. Some whom the firemen tried to catch fell the entire distance to the John Lynch seized the baby of John Sparks and jumped with 1t and with the child fell in the burning debris below.
 The fire interrupted street car traf- ic on the elevated road and motor man whose car stood just opposite the burning building said he saw five or six persons in the upper floor strug- yling frantically to escape and he Is certain all of them succumbed to the smoke and toppled over into the ruins.