Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1906-10-26
CAUGHT IN A FIRE TRAP
It's Believed Thirty Persons We're
Burned 10 Death.
HUNDREDS IN The BIG BU|lUIHG
Women and Children Thrown to
Fircmcn-Ladders too Short to
Reach Up to the Top Floor-Many
Persons nIured-Flames Spread.
(1y Associated Press.l

'hc runs oi tho Chamber of Com.
mcr2e Building, destroyed by fire.
tciay, there are anywhere from half
a dozen 10 thirty bodies according
to estimates given out by nremen.
The actual loss of life will not be
known untl thorough search OF
the ruins can be made, probably not
then, rs scme Of the iiremcn assert
mat Il num.f.' OF bodies must have
been burned to ashes.
Many Persons Badly Hurt.
Or the injured. % W.. b, moro or
less seriously Aurt. w.. o. three ul
these at least will die.
The known dead:
j. +. BRANAHAN.
Infant child of Mr.. ana Mrs. John
A.. Sparks.
JOHN LYNCH, lost his life trying
- save the Sparks baby.
ID. X. YOUNG, Il laborer
The missing:
Charles Cariin, engineer, who was
II with typhoid fever.
Mrs. L, M. Brigham ana her two
children.
Patrick Mcclure.
George Mullen, invalid. aged GO
years.
Mr.. ana Mrs. Ed. Wiuslow and two
young daughters.
Mrs. Eliza Harris, q widow.
Financial Loss 100000.
The total financial damage Is esti.
mated at 100000.
or this amount, 100000 was on the
building, which was owned by w. a.
N,,fl III
for $4,000.
Built of Brick and Stone.
The Chamber OF Commerce build.
Ing was situated at Park and Cen
trail streets In the Riverview district
The structure WAS -four stories IN
height, with deep basement and
faced tle two streets. 1t was built
of brick ana stone alone.
1t contained one hundred rooms al
most all of them were, as far as cai,
be learned, occupied by families or
individual laboring men, or railway
employees at the time the fire started.
The ground floor was occupied by
W. a. Lovelaces barber shop
Edward Il. Summers drug store;
Central Avenue Gas Fixture
Company; Mrs. Belle Wagner's res
taurant, the Smith Overall Laundry
and The Labor Record.
Fire Spread Rapidly.
The fire broke out on the grounu
floor from some unknown cause.
When the fircmcn arrived tho entire
building was inilames. So quickly
did The flames spread that within a
few minutes after the fire was dis
covered all means of escape by the
stairways was shut off.
On two sides OF the building tho
elevated railway tracks hcmmed it
In. and made still harder the work
of the firemcn.
The fircmen did not have sufficient
were too short to reach the upper
stories. a sitting smoke filled the
building.
Ladders Too Short. n
The firemen quickly ran thcir lad.
ders up, but they did not reach above
the third floor. Many persons wcrc,
on the floor above. The firemen
first devoted themselves to the PEG
pie IN the second and third stories
and did not then heed the screams
of the persons.
Many of the persons in the interior
of the building were already over
come by the dense smoke, and had
to be carried out by firemen.
Persons Pitched to Safety.
After getting everyone they could
find out of the second and third
floors, the firemon turned their at
tention to the persons above. AS the
ladders did not reach above the third
floor, the men on the fourth floor
literally pitched their wives and chill
dren down to the firemen on The lad.
ticrs, and then jumped down them
selves, Some of the more cxciablc
ones jumped TO The gro.md ana were
either killed or badly injured.
The fire interrupted traffic nm the
elevated road and motornan.